A Third of the Way

 They say in baseball, a battering average of .333 is pretty good.  So today, I'm living by baseball standards.  In my last post, I had decided to start three paintings at once so that if I was feeling stuck on one, I could distract myself with a different one and I'm glad to say it worked.  My first choice ended up with a perspective problem that I just couldn't get comfortable with and so after playing around with the original plan then trying out a second idea, I finally had to just leave it alone and work on something else.  

The original dock view for this did not
 look great once it was on the canvas.

My second choice was a continuation of the Port of Ilwaco series and I was able to work on it from the original concept with only a couple of minor adjustments.  I enjoyed this one as it had a larger number of boats at dock, each with their own individual shape and color but the palette was similar enough I didn't have to go crazy with different colors.  I also spent more time on the reflections since they really made this a more interesting piece.  What I found challenging with this, and for any paintings that have multiple crafts in them, is that I tend to want to paint each boat separately even if they are in reality just a speck of color in the background.  There are times that I'll complete most of a hull or a wheelhouse (not in too much detail) just to paint over it with the layer of the boat in front of it.  I guess it helps me realize the context of the shapes and how they fit together in the background even if you don't actually see most of them.  The trawling arms and masts on this were also pretty interesting because there are several of them attached to boats in the background of which you don't see much of so making sure they were placed in right spots was a mental exercise.  

Unfortunately, at the end of the painting, I had to re-teach myself a lesson.  I like working with acrylics because of the speed at which they dry which usually means I can quickly move on another fore-layer without having to wait too long.  The downside is that you have to work speedily when blending large areas where you want color or fading consistency.  While I'm pretty comfortable with that, my impatience can still get the best of me which is when I made my big mistake.  I'd been working on this one for a good chunk of the day and I knew that I was done except to sign it and varnish it.  I signed it with my usual monogram using a mix of umber and cadmium red leftovers and added a bit of highlight and shade to make it pop and then...I didn't wait long enough.  I thought the monogram was dry enough so I put it down on a flat table, poured some varnish over it, and when my brush hit the lower left corner, there were brownish-red streaks going out into the ocean like a little floating garbage patch.  Stupid.  At that point, I figured it was just best to sleep on it so this morning I did quick paint over job and re-signed it but with a much more boring tone to teach myself a little humility and patience.  By the time I'm done writing this, it should be dry enough to retouch up the varnish but I'll give it another hour or so just in case.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the second in my Port of Ilwaco series.

Port of Ilwaco #2 - ver. MBM (More Boring Monogram)

One last thing before you go.  Like most artists, I presume, it's always more fun, productive, and creative when you're listening to music while you work.  The last few hours I spent working on this were fueled by Father John Misty (She Cleans Up), First Aid Kit (Stay Gold album), and topped off with a bit of DJ Shadow feat. Run the Jewels (Nobody Speak) just for fun.  The first two artists are pretty new to me and I just can't get She Cleans Up out of my head.  First Aid Kit just has such a beautiful sound that I can say I've really enjoyed their entire album but they can also pack a punch with a very direct message (You are the Problem Here [Expletives]) about sexual assault.

Keeping Commitments is Difficult

 After my last post, which was tragically overdue, I made a commitment in my little internal brain that I would post more often, create more art, do less non-constructive and self-harming things, and do more constructive and good-for-me-overall things.  Resolutions are stupid so these were not resolutions.  Also, apologies to anyone reading that does not think resolutions are stupid.  They are just stupid for me because I know who I am and I know that I am never 100% anything.  Unfortunately, my little internal brain (yes, I know that's redundant since we don't have external brains...yet!) doesn't like to keep commitments so I procrastinate by doing dumb impulsive things so I can avoid doing the things I committed to doing.  But this time I planned it out, hopefully a bit better.  After the last post, I went up to the attic and brought down three blank canvases and set them out on the floor by the easel to be the blank, staring eyes of ghosts reminding me that I should actually put these skills to use.  

Today I needed a little solace from the world around me and decided to actually keep one of those commitments.  After the realization that I had become 'stuck' on the last painting, I thought I would challenge myself but also provide some easy alternatives to particular painting problem and just start three paintings at once.  I know that this is nothing new for professional artists and I get it, sometimes your mind just has too many great ideas that are all jostling for the prime-time spot on your calendar and choosing one means sacrificing the others as they fade away and you lose the spark to bring them to life.  So, I threw down my own gauntlet this time and started three at once.  I know I'm going to regret this later but the kid's challenge to me made an impact and hopefully I will find the joy once again in practicing (but never perfecting) a bit of art.  As a bonus, I was happy with the skies on all three of these and that was even using the cheap-o titanium white paint!

Also, as a bonus, I realized there was another woodblock print that I had completed but didn't publish.  My hope is to make a series of 'Couve scenes of places that I find appealing.  This one is of the Vancouver Amtrak Station.  It's one of the original railroad stations from the turn of the century and reminds me perfectly of one of the station styles from the old PC game, Railroad Tycoon II (one of my absolute favs!).  Enjoy.

Life is Slippy

 I know that's not a proper word but it just may be the best way to describe how someone can forget to do something for more than four years.  Life is slippy.  A whole lot has happened since the last post including many more projects, adventures, tragedies, art explorations, and, unfortunately, aging in general.  So, I'll try to do this chronologically but I'll likely get a few things out of place here and there.

First, an update from the last post:  The basement living space is complete and the now-near-adult-age child and his friends have certainly been using it as I hoped.  The book shelves filled up quickly with a bunch of, you guessed it, books.  But in addition to that, we added a new turntable to music machine options and the collection of vinyl has grown, not to mention the collection of board games.

The Den

In addition to the extra living space, I also finished up a basement bathroom which is currently being used by the kid and his ilk but makes for a good second toilet when you really need it.  Much of the materials used were salvaged or repurposed.  Like the dartboard backing, I used a barrel full of corks to face the sink stand and even used some as tile spacers on the floor.  The tile for the floor and backsplash were all scraps from our own projects or rescued random pieces from Habitat for Humanity.  

The Reclamation Room (a.k.a. the bathroom)

The sink counter was made with scrap pallet wood and the shelves behind the door were made with leftover plywood from the other basement parts.  The sink and toilet were also rescued from Habitat.  As COVID was winding down and so was the major basement update, I turned to some smaller projects.

Junction Lake, GPNF

  A few years back, the family had gone to the Portland Japanese Gardens which was hosting an exhibit of block prints that was just amazing. Also around the same time, some friends and I went for an overnight backpacking trip in Gifford-Pinchot National Forest and we had a great time.  To commemorate that, I made a block print of the site where we had camped, a quiet little glade off the main trail that offered a great view of the trees and pond that we were close to.  I hadn't created any block prints in quite some time and this was my first attempt at a landscape.  It turned out better than I expected for a first try and I really enjoyed the experience.  So, when another friend asked me to be part of a guerilla art show (serious fun out of the back of a U-Haul!) and bring some pieces to sell, I put my block carving tools to use and made a few new prints for the show.  I even sold a few (although they were all to friends; thanks friends)!

A Triptych of Prints

Surprise, surprise, the theme was still water and boats.  Also around that time (mid 2023?) I had started another painting and this became the bane of the family room.  It was another seascape of the Ilwaco area and I had purchased a new tube of Titanium White but I went cheap and got the store brand thinking it would be good enough for mixing and lightening and that, my friends, is a mistake.  For some reason (I blame the paint) I just could not get it to blend the way I wanted it to for the sky and after several attempts to get it just right, I gave up and finished out the blocking for the background and then it stopped.  For weeks, then months, then years.  I took the easel down during the holidays and brought it back up to my work area.  Moved it to other rooms when we had big house parties and brought it back out of the closet when we cleaned up.  But for over a year and half, maybe even longer, I just couldn't make any attempts at it.  Finally, at the end  of 2024, I had put it back downstairs for the holidays as the house was rearranged and when I brought it back up after the new year, the kid, my scion of sarcasm and true inheritor of the subtle put-down, said, "What's the point?  It'll just sit there for another year."  That was it.  The gauntlet had been thrown down.  Could I let him be right about that?  And what was keeping me from finishing the damn thing anyway?  So I dusted off the paints (several tubes had dried out by then) and brushes, chose not to take the easy way out for a few evenings, and finally finished it.  

A Masterpiece of Procrastination

The funny thing about finishing a piece like this is that when I'm done (I can't speak for everyone) I feel a sense of euphoria and want to immediately start on new one.  I haven't done that yet though, instead, setting aside time to do this instead and give an update to the world.  Maybe that's good so I don't rush in and get stymied by the not-quite-right picture or paint.  Or maybe that's just another form of procrastination.  Probably both.

Basements in the Time of Corona

In the first picutre, I ordered full plywood sheets, 12", 8", 6", and 2" pieces.  Once I got home, I realized that I totally forgot to get the 8".  I took this pic as evidence of what I unloaded and Shurway was super nice about me picking up the remainder.  The second photo is the first bits of plywood up with Masonite lower backing for the cabinets, and a couple mid-walls to support shelving.

Ah, pandemic.  Should I be dragged into the abysmal pit of despair or discover a new wellspring of creativity by the isolation you've forced upon us?  Or, should I get to task to all those home improvements that have been growing on the list like ripe hops?  Well, I like hops and I like projects so you can guess what I've been busy doing.  

This post is a bit backwards chronologically since this is the latest of the works-in-progress but since they were the first photos available, I'll go with it.  I have to say dealing with the housebound nature that has been caused by COVID-19 has not been fun but it has been productive.  A bit of a throwback to when I needed to quickly make sure we had a room to house the Trusty Assistant once it was clear he (and we) thought it was time for his own space.  This has been Phase III 1/2 in the basement remodel.  Phase I being the bedroom, Phase I 1/2 being the cabinets to store all the random crap we do and don't need, and Phase II 1/2 being the toilet (to borrow the European meaning of the word and not "bathroom" which is fairly misleading when you think about it).  Phase III 1/2 is the family gathering place, the central library, the board game mecca, and, in preparation for the teen-years, the spill over area for friends to crash.  

Unfortunately, with the timing and nature of this project, creating this with a  recycled/ repurposed/ reinvented intention was going to be very difficult and time consuming and who's kidding themselves, no one wants to do that to themselves especially when you can't escape your own project once in a while.  While this first phase of Phase III 1/2 is pretty much just more shelving, it also included framing in some more walls with accompanying wiring and let's face it, the built-ins are really the main focus here so after this, the rest pretty passé. Well, the secret door will be fun but I'm not quite there yet.  

For this project, I had to remove the old shelving (supposedly for file box retention), scrape and insulate the concrete brick walls, and then put up some interior stud walls. 

Next was a trip to Shurway Lumber and selecting the wood for the built-in shelves.  I have to say I like their prices on hardwood lumber.  I'm no professional and they carry pretty decent lumber for the price, most have small defects which is perfect for any of my projects since they're usually slightly defective too!  I settled on alder since it was one of the lighter woods I could get and pricewise was very attractive.  I thought about considering the beech that I used on the back wall (see previous post) but they didn't have the dimensional lumber that I wanted and would've cost me probably twice what I ended up paying.  Everything was sanded but raw wood so there was a lot, I say a lot, of time spent staining, waiting, varnishing, waiting, sanding, varnishing, waiting, sanding, varnishing, waiting...you get the picture.  And because this is an old house with weird tilts, shrinkages, expansions, skews, and generally chaotic old-houseyness, most pieces needed to be custom cut for their particular place in the plan.

I did put some adjustment peg space in for raising and lowering shelf heights but kept it fairly minimal so that I didn't have shelf sides that looked they were attacked by woodpeckers.  I also designed the bottom cabinets (they may eventually get doors) to fit the tremendous LP collections we received from family and a few of our own recent additions.  It's been fun to have a working turn-table back in rotation (ha, I didn't even plan that one!)  There are still a few pieces of front trim to cut and then some crown-moulding to cover the big gap at top but after this, it's on to adding a small bookcase on the back wall, re-venting the heat duct, then drywalling it in, putting up the dart board (20 years later), and finally enjoying a nice gathering space for family and friends.  You know, whenever that can actually take place again. 

 

Construction Breaks

It has been five months since the last post: Progress!  As usual, if I'm going to slack on something, it'll be on following up with posting on this blog.  The summer, as all summers do, flew by quicker than should possible and we were able to get out and enjoy a lot of outdoor adventures but that doesn't mean I haven't been productive on the project front.  After the series of attic adventures, I haven't had the gumption to start in on another big project yet.  There was a sink faucet replacement, finishing one of the remaining percents of the 2% left on the deck (yes, it still isn't 100% and may just never be done), and many other random fix-its.  A good chunk of the summer work weekends went into helping a friend put up a new fence.  It shouldn't have been necessary but property lines and ungracious neighbors can make that type of thing a necessity.  There was loads of help from other friends and neighbors and all-in-all, it turned out okay.  I could have done a much better job ensuring it was straight but for a span that went about 200' I think it's probably good enough.  Aside from all that, there have been some other things cooking.

Do these look
bourgeoise to you?

Speaking of cooking, I just have to post a pic of what are now deemed "Bouzhee Buns."  We went to a camp-out where one night was going to be a grill night so I brought my homemade hot dog buns and they earned the nickname because someone thought they were fancy-pants ones, I'll take that as a compliment!  In truth, they looked nice on the outside but were too dense.  I blame it on the old yeast.

Second, as an update to the last post, the lamp turned out great!  As soon as it was done, the mom-in-law said she had a place in mind for it so it's now out enjoying some coastal weather.  Probably a good place for it since it tends to be pretty gray most of the time.

Is it just me or is this lamp
throwing some serious shade?

The rest of the summer was consumed by mostly non-construction projects.  Two of them were started due to some events related to the spouse's job.  There are a couple of activities happening this fall with one specifically related to otters.  The other is animal-related in general.  Spouse asked if I would be willing to make a couple pysanky eggs to donate to the events and so I began brainstorming ideas for designs.  Knowing that at least one had to be otter related, I tested out a native-america inspired design that had been kicking around in my head for awhile.  It looked pretty good on paper so I put it to wax.  The second one I wanted to keep with an otter theme but also blend in a more traditional pysanky look.  The final design really isn't very traditional at all but there are some elements that would tie it back to the original.  Unfortunately, these pictures are of the second-runs since the photos I took of the originals are currently in Canada with the good camera.

Otter egg.  Look out platypus,
you have a rival for weirdness

While making them, Trusty Assistant, wanted to get in on the pysanky-ing as well.  He spent a good amount of time on one that you can see in the background of the white egg.  Unfortunately, the egg had gone rotten and just as he put on his last coat of dye and was showing it around, it broke.  I tried to salvage what I could by putting the rest in varnish and I'll cut off what's usable but, poor kid. 

Hypno-flower-otter

The second challenge project was to make some corn-hole boards for an upcoming conference where spouse is in charge of organizing entertainment.  Well, that does sound up my alley.  Having nearly half of the underside of my deck stuffed with random wood products, I felt I could take this one on and give me a reason to use some of it.  My first goal was to use as much salvage material as possible.  And, after browsing the interwebs for some initial ideas, I just knew that this couldn't be any plain 'ole corn-hole set.  It had to be artistic!  Or at least artsy.  Whatevs.  There was one set that had an octopus theme and they really stuck with me and since this was going to be put in use for another animal-focused group, that sounded right to me.  It's still in the works but I was able to construct the boards using pallet pieces and OSB that I already had on hand along a couple scrap pieces of alder left over from the ladder-shelf.  The only new things purchased to make this were the tubes of acrylic paint (a sweet discount at Craft Warehouse!) and the nuts/bolts/washers hardware to attach the legs to the box.  It's not finished yet but aside from some more detail paint work and a few layers of varnish, they're nearly there.  Spouse found some awesome corn-hole bags online that match the color scheme.  Color coordination for the win!

Maybe we should change the name
to "Cthulu-hole"

Okay two more quick things.  I had the yearning to get to work on another boat painting.  I wish I had a better term for them because "boat painting" sounds pretty boring but apparently I've exhausted by creativity.  Anyway, I started this one up soon after my last post.  Soon after starting Trusty Assistant said, "Is this going to be another one where you paint a lot and then stop for months and months?"  Friggin kids.  I took it as a personal challenge to not stall and actually go that extra mile and finish what I started in the same pace.  It's now October and guess what's been staring back at me since the last time I put some paint to it back in July?  That's why he's called Trusty Assistant, he speaks truth.  I''m going to put some blame on the weather because it's awfully difficult to commit to staying inside and painting when the weather is so nice but now that we've finally entered a true Autumn, I'm hoping to wrap this up...maybe before Christmas?

Boat Painting

Last thing, I found a great deal on a woodcrafter's workbench at a local estate sale!  I know, you're thinking, "But he already has a workbench?"  First, try not to start your sentences with "But" and secondly, this has two very nice wood clamps that my home-built one does not possess.  The clamps alone are worth the price of the bench and this one is much more light-weight as well as having some freakin' awesome castors that let it glide across the floor very easily.  I'm still not sure how I'm to reorganize the basement to make this fit but it will happen!  That's all for now and I hope you all have a lovely autumn.

Estate sale success!

All The Things

Stairway to Storage

 If you're like me, I'm sure your first thought is probably, "What the heck have you been up to?"  And then your second thought would be, "It is improper grammar to end a sentence with a preposition."  That's why we're nerd friends.  However, I do have several answers to the question of what I've been doing since February 2017.  The new job I took in January has kept me busy as has running Trusty Assistant around to weekend events and after-school activities but no big changes on the family front otherwise.  That doesn't mean I've been lazy in my free time.  Well, except for updating this blog.  After finishing the last big project of the expanded garden bed and stone & brick inset patio I took a bit of a break but it didn't last long.  In the late summer and early fall of 2017 I began the fun task of redoing the attic.

Now, I'll admit I've been procrastinating on this one, something at which I'm pretty good.  And for good reason.  The attic had old blown-in insulation (thankfully no asbestos), old wiring, and needed some reworking of the rafters among other things.  The first step was ordering and installing an attic ladder as the previous entryway was just a 2' x 3' hatch which required me to set up the fold-able ladder every time I needed to get into it.  The step ladder install went fairly well and after that began the real fun.  Our 1920's era home still had some knob & tube wiring that was in integral part of supplying power to the main floor lights and walls and other fun wiring surprises hidden under the insulation.  At first I attempted to remove the insulation with my five-gallon shop vac one garbage bag at a time.  After about four trips to the waste transfer station, and only clearing out about an eighth of the attic, I knew it was time to get serious.  I ordered a drop box and rented an industrial insulation vacuum and managed to fill up six and a half 75 cu ft bags.  Those suckers (pun intended) are about 4' x 6' and surprisingly heavy when all that insulation gets compressed in them.  To say the original workmanship in the attic was tidy and clean would be a whopper of a lie and there were often times when large chunks of wood or plaster would block the vacuum line and at one point I even had to remove the impeller cover to clear debris.  It was a mess.  I still managed to get it all done in one day and return the vacuum the next morning for a nice discount.

Look at all that usable space!

Afterwards, the fun of running new wiring began as I had to replace every ceiling light fixture junction box, wall outlet, connected switch, and more.  Thankfully I had already put in a series of new lights and an outlet up there prior but before I began the re-wiring I also installed a window on the west end for some natural lighting.  What a difference!  Once the wiring was complete, I followed with a moisture barrier (there wasn't one before), new denim batt insulation, and then a plywood overlay so that the attic could actually be USED for something.  Unfortunately, prior to installing the ladder and the window I didn't consider how I might get a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood up in that space and I ended up having to cut them all in half to just barely fit them through the ladder access hatch.  After laying down the plywood flooring, I used the scrap plywood to add reinforcements at the rafter joints (which were just butt-joints) and finally remove the three cross braces that hung about four feet up from the attic floor.  I swear I have a permanent scrape and bruise from hitting my head on those things.  With the attic finally done, I had the pleasure of moving a bunch of crap from the basement upstairs.  Yeah, it's as fun as it sounds.  The west exterior got some new siding and trim to go with the new window and now that summer is nearly upon us, I'll get out to paint it soon.  The final pieces of that project are on hold for now as the big lifting has been done and much of the basement has been cleared to begin on the next one...the basement bathroom.

Rasped, chiseled, carved, and
sanded.  I won't lie, this took
way too long.

One other thing came out the attic update that is almost complete as well.  After cutting the extra plywood pieces into rafter braces that fit the shape of the rafter pinnacles, I was left with a large bunch of plywood triangles that were almost all identical.  I just knew that there was something that these could be put to use for besides a burn pile.  Eventually I decided they would make a great lamp stand.  Centered around a spare piece of 3/4" conduit, I stacked the pieces and rotated them slightly to make a helix appearance and glued them all together.  Once the glue was set, I used a rasp, chisels, carving knives, and sandpaper to smooth the overlaps on all three faces.  Being plywood, there were gaps all over, especially at the edges, where chunks had separated or holes existed.  To remedy this, I took inspiration from the recently installed bar at Loowit Brewing which had used reclaimed 2"x 4"s.  They had used a transparent resin to fill all the small holes that existed from the wood's previous life and then coated it with a matte finish to give it a really nice natural look.  I found some self-setting resin at the Craft Warehouse and began trying to apply the same to my lamp base.  This may have been a bad idea.

Watching varnish dry.  Nearly as fun as
watching paint dry.  

Because of the spiral nature of the helix structure, there are no level surfaces except the top and bottom.  To fill the gaps, I had to work on one face at a time while the base was turned sideways in a bar clamp.  Using painter's masking tape along the edges, I would pour about two ounces of resin at a time over an area, let it set, then twist the base slightly so that it was "level" now a few inches down.  This process took way too long and I wouldn't recommend it.  If you're working with something flat that can easily be leveled, resin is great but not for this.  Eventually I got all the holes filled and even the edge gaps covered.  I did discover that because my degree of rotation for the individual pieces wasn't enough to bring it back to a full 360 degrees, the center of gravity was off so I had to add a one piece plywood base to provide the necessary support.  I picked up a lamp kit at Lowes (I know, I would have gone local but I had a gift card to use) and a lampshade from Goodwill.  After lots and lots of sanding with my orbiter sander, I finally evened out the resin so that you just see it where it fills the holes and gaps and the natural wood comes through otherwise.  I had to remove the base piece prior to applying the final layers of matte varnish and once this is dry and sanded, I'll install the kit and base and, voila, a new lamp will be born.  Thanks attic.

Beach Combing and Wood Working

This will be a short post as I don't have a lot of time to elaborate and I want to get some pics posted of recent projects.  Needless to say, we went beach-combing (more like trash cleaning) recently and I picked up a few choice pieces of driftwood to work into some small projects.  The magpie sculpture was crafted from some leftover scraps of old doug fir, glued together, that I had used to make a painting frame.  Enjoy!

Patio Possibilities and the Backyard Breakdown

Is it an 'M', a bow, a snake, a mustache?

 The spring and summer of 2016 should have just been known as the season of backyard folly.  As the need for a larger open space in our immediate backyard vicinity had diminished, I thought it would be an appropriate time to consider expanding our usable garden area and give some new life to the ole' asphalt patio that we inherited with the house.  After years of canine path-making, soccer practice, and just general wear, it was time to give new life to moss/grass/mud that had become our backyard.  Our garden area had been pretty minimal before and with the wild motivation of volunteer tomato starts over the last few years, they always seemed to take over whatever garden area there was.  Little did I know what was to come.  My first plan was twofold; nearly double our garden space by bringing the 'wall' out from the house and start the with a somewhat clean slate on the remaining grassy area.

To do this, I first started by uprooting the existing wall of roman block stones and lining them up in the potential new configuration.  There was enough of the original wall to lay down a first layer but with the slope of the ground and a desire to raise the garden area a bit more above the grass, I went and purchased about 70 more blocks.  At first, I went to the local manufacturer, Mutual Materials, with my plan but the salesman was kindly honest enough to admit that the prices I could get at Home Depot were better than ordering through them at retail price, at least for the Roman Block to finish the wall.  I took his advice and did so, making my first mistake of the season.  After laboriously loading 70+ blocks into the old Subaru (and making sure they were evenly spaced throughout much of the car to balance the load) and again unloading them at home, I realized I had reversed the count of which ones I needed and purchased much more of the interior blocks (the ones with oval-like ridges) than caps (no ridges).  At that point, I took the easy road and just broke up the few caps I had with the regular interlocking blocks and interspersed them along the wall.  I'm sure it looks totally natural.

After getting the wall set, mostly level, and in place, it was time to build up the garden area.  For this I planned on using some existing soil that I had on site and also whatever I could contribute from our oft neglected compost bin.  But first, let me back up a slight bit.  Before putting the permanent wall down, I wanted to take the opportunity to loosen up the existing garden soil and also prep the remaining lawn for a makeover.  So, I purchased an electric roto-tiller to do the trick.  I remember having to roto-till my parent's garden every year with our old gas tiller and for some reason, that was a chore I actually did enjoy.  Perhaps it was a matter of wrestling with the tiller to keep it in line at the same time as laying down a swath of destruction behind you but something just made it fun.  Needless to say, I was looking forward to this part.  The tiller worked wonderfully even though it didn't have the half-combusted exhaust smell that was part of my childhood reminiscence (and which probably killed a few brain cells).  My Trusty Assistant enjoyed watching the tilling but didn't want to try his hand just yet.  Little does he know that there are several years of gardening left, ha!  After getting the wall in place, and adding a second level to raise the garden bed area a bit, I was short on gardening soil so I cleaned out what we had been composting in the side bins and added it to the garden.  Now, I'm a lazy composter and don't like to regularly turn the mulch so, while my compost looked like some pretty good dirt, it was harboring all sorts of volunteer plants just waiting for their chance in the sun.  Indeed they got it and before we knew it, we had dozens and dozens of squash starts all over the area where I'd added our compost.  Needless to say, between them and the volunteer tomato and tomatillo plants, we weren't able to grow much else.  This spring I will be much more judicious in pulling early starts out before they take over everything else.

Along with the garden improvement, I also wanted to transform our oh-so-lovely asphalt back patio into something a bit nicer so I scratched out a plan for an intermixing of materials to make the space a bit more hospitable.  At first, my idea was to use man-made flagstones for a more geometric design and intersperse the lightly used spaces with river-rock.  After checking material prices at Mutual Material, I decided to look at another route. This led to more searching online for some good landscaping materials sources, and I put in an order with Portland Rock and Landscape Supply.  Their online catalog seemed pretty descriptive and clear to sizing and their online calculator was helpful to determine how much I would need.  For the brick fire circle, I already had some Hidden Brick (some pretty cool local history there) for accents but I was short quite a bit to complete the whole ring.  On Craigslist, I found someone in Beaverton that had whole backyard that had at one point been bricked over and she wanted it all gone, free for the taking if you were willing to put in the labor.  So, I called my father-in-law to enlist his help and his truck and made a day out of it.  Using two five-gallon buckets we made several trips from the driveway to the backyard to eventually get about 120+ beautiful red clay bricks.  There were probably another 500 or more still in that backyard but we were both worn out and in need of a cold McMenamin's beer.  If I thought that hauling brick was work, I was in for a real treat when the stone arrived.

When I placed the order for the flagstone and river rock, the salesman said that while delivery was free, he would need to charge me labor time to unload the flagstones because of their size and weight.  I assumed this meant there would probably be at least a two-man crew to unload the rocks when they got here.  When the truck and dump-trailer arrived, I was surprised to greet a man, maybe ten years younger than myself, and a good six inches shorter, and probably not much over 150 lbs.  That was the crew.  When I went around back to take a look at the rock, I realized I had under-estimated their size based on the online description and that these suckers were going to be heavy.  But, the driver twas there with the rock so I offered to help unload.  I was informed that The largest stone, which happened to be on top had to be loaded at the site by a forklift.  I don't know how we managed, but eventually we got it all unloaded and placed behind the fence.  Afterwards he lifted the dump-trailer into the driveway and took off.  Knowing that my wife would be home soon and would need to park the car there, I knew this was going to be real fun.  Using buckets as shovels, my Trusty Assistant and I got all the river rock also behind the fence and the parking area cleared.

Over the next couple days, my wife helped me move some of the stones into place and I log-rolled some of the larger ones by myself with a pry bar.  It took several weeks of placing river rock in the empty spaces during which I was able to learn all of that summer's pop hits due to the only portable radio being one with a broken tuner and I could only get the top 40 hit station.  Justin Timberlake gave me so much damn sunshine in my pocket that it burned my leg.  As I went, I back filled empty space with masonry sand to keep the smaller rocks and bricks from moving and then finished by filling the top with a polymeric sand filler to lock things in place.  By then, summer was mostly over and I didn't quite get to finishing the brick steps but hey, I have to have something to do this spring, right?