5.19.2011

ok. finally done. almost



I worked for weeks on the backyard. Shoveling and shoveling the same ton of dirt around. Finally! Three garden boxes built. Level ground. Plants in. Chicken coop gussied up for the little ladies. I exhausted but in better shape than I have been all winter. Next plan.....the area beside the patio that has become a collection of all outside things. The barbeque is going to be front and center and then we are going to get the outside firepit set up there too. Yee haw.

5.17.2011

Spring Updates




As you can tell, there isn't much time for blogging around here. I certainly don't know how anyone can have two full time working parents and have kids. We are busy and busy and busy. Summer break can't come soon enough to the Dody house. We are looking forward to camps and sleeping in and lounging together. I am going to teach Carson some cooking skills this summer. I don't know how I am going to do this because I don't really have any myself, but she can at least learn the basics.
School is busy for both kids and Carson continues to have exorbitant amounts of homework. Thank goodness for Yukie, the Japanese tutor, who comes once a week.
Sam's birthday is coming soon. It is hard for me to believe that he will be 6 years old!
I have been trying to get the back yard in some kind of order. After building the coop, the yard has been kind of a disaster. I have moved a ton (literally) of dirt and built some garden boxes. I want to get some yummy veggies planted and add another garden box. My goal is to get an asparagus patch going too. Here are some pictures of the coop and garden area so far. I took out the rose bush that is in the garden picture and am going to put another big garden box in it's place.

We are preparing for Shelby to move in. Shelby is my brother Steve's daughter. She is 21 and is coming to Portland to move in with the Aunties. We hope she finds lots of opportunities here. It is that kind of town! Who knows. Maybe she will open a "street cart" of some kind. A hair design cart just moved in up the street across from the Grilled Cheese Grill double decker bus!
We don't really have a vacation planned for the summer. The deal is......you don't leave Portland in the summer because it is so beautiful here then. I am hoping to plan a trip to Hawaii next fall during the rainy season.