We're Goin' to the Fair, Fair, Fair

We were early birds, thanks to Annie getting the gang going Saturday morning. She had been out at garage sales and stopped by with donuts to pry Caitlin and I out of bed. We all piled into the Pilot and headed for the Chelan County Fair. The fair grounds are about five minutes away from their house. We had a great parking spot on this man's lawn...$2 for the day! I had to take a photo of the easy chairs out under the plum tree.

They were having a parking war on this street...I was headed into the $3 yard until "Eagle Eye Annie" spotted this spot.

We headed in to my first fair!

The girls let me wear Oliver!

Brooke and Kent loved the farm equipment - she sat and "drove" just about every one on display.

Chickens of all sorts...

Goats that were treated just like pet dogs...

Heading down the goat aisle.

An auction was being called - here a 4 H-er was showing a goat during the bidding.

It seemed that the hogs all came in pairs...I thought this was priceless and had Annie snap this photo! I learned that some farmers notch the ears for identification. Some of the poor pigs had ruffled ears!

Walking behind a food concessions I spotted this table of older gents shucking corn and shooting the breeze. This photo doesn't show much, but they were priceless!

 After some time in the Ergo Front Pack Oliver lazed in the stroller...not a fussy peep out of him all day!

Pile on Grandma!

One day when the kids were visiting I stretched out on the floor...probably to play with Oliver. Brooke decided she needed to have a snuggle and then we thought Oliver should join in on the fun.

Oliver is a tough little cookie and likes to be right in the middle of all the action. He loves his sister and wants to nibble on her!

A Brooke Sandwich!

What a Girl!

This is the sight that hit my eyes as I entered the house just minutes ago!!! I had to do a double take and blink twice before understanding... ONIONS!

Second Birthday Present

Cement continued

The truck was backed into Caitlin's yard.

Her garage is dwarfed by the truck.

It was a tight fit with the wheels just missing the roof.

Pouring Cement

They removed the cracked sidewalk and widened it at our request. Here the forms are going in.

Next we had the cracked cement cut back on the side of the house. This leads to the kitchen door that Maisy uses all the time.

By this time the pile of debris was growing. The neighbors next door wanted to salvage some of the sod.

We were able to salvage some of that good dirt. Caitlin and I went into Wenatchee and picked up four new planter barrels for the dirt. We also stashed some in an empty garbage can.

The cement driver came down the back alley with this huge mixer. It was a narrow squeeze but he managed it well.

One of the contractors climbed up on top and held the neighbor's wires as the mixer maneuvered to get the correct angle to off-load cement.

The driver and contractor get their hand signals and plan of attack understood.

The first wheelbarrows went into the front corner.

Excavation ~ Appearances are Deceiving

Day one brought the two contractors to work. They leveled all the ground in the patio area and then began to dig the new pathway. I thought they would bring in a small cat to push the dirt around...but no, they had two shovels and a wheelbarrow! It was hard work.

Many interesting characters appeared the second day. Caitlin and I had wonderful belly laughs. 

Most of the ground work was refined with a larger crew working hard in the heat.

I had to come out to get some of these characters on film...as I was headed for the sidewalk this man yelled at me to take his photo! Later we learned that he was the father of one of the contractors ~ quite the character with a lively sense of humor.

Here the cement finisher, over from Moses Lake, helps build the forms. When he arrived we thought he was on some kind of "upper" since he was so quick and jittery. He was a hard worker and skilled at his craft.

Then the punk rocker with the Mohawk arrived and began working. He's a gentle man who worked very steadily and quietly.

They ripped out the garden edging we had just put in to allow for a widened path. The plantings will look great with the cement as an edging.

Eyeballing the line...one of the contractors.

Then the rattling started with the "flip-flop" guy running the pounder! I think he is an uncle of one of the guys...

Cement Project

This morning the cement guys were coming so I was up early to get a few odds and ends accomplished before they arrived. I was out at 7 a.m. digging up the irrigation zone for this area (photo below). They had put 6 pop-ups in this space! Caitlin had decided to include this area in the concrete patio work since it was never a nice lawn. The digging was fairly easy and the new irrigation tubes are flexible and easy to pull up. I was worried about leaving the zone intact with cement going over the top.

I was able to take off the pop-up stringers but this main pipe had crimped gaskets. I was able to snip the gaskets, but I wasn't strong enough to pull out the couplings. Kent will have to help me with the rest of this.

Removing the 12 inch pavers was next on my list to do. I moved these back to the rear of the house. I'm thinking we can use them against the side of the garage by the back door.

By 9 a.m. I was ready for a break and the guys still hadn't arrived. Caitlin had to work so she gave them a call from work. They finally arrived at noon and put in a full afternoon's work.  More photos to come later!

Fairview Flame Red Maple

The Fairview Flame Red Maple is ready to go into the ground. After deciding that we had the perfect place for the shade tree, we started digging a hole.

The sod was a mass of grass roots and fairly dry to boot. Caitlin and I were shoveling the heavy sod... we had to use the hose to loosen the dirt, which made the clumps even heavier.

You have to use all your weight jumping on the shovel for this kind of digging.

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Oops...a bit over zealous! 

The neighbor across the street was quite impressed with us. She asked if we knew what we were doing...can you imagine not knowing how to plant a tree!! She wanted to take our picture so we posed... 

Planting 101

Caitlin had some hard packed dirt to soften up before planting. We took shovels and worked our way across the garden patch. It was weed free thanks to the fabric ground cover she'd had over it.

Last summer Kent brought over his rototiller and they added bags of steer manure and leveled out the land, but the planting hadn't been done. This year we made a visit to Sleepy Hollow Nursery and found some plants to continue the project.

Edging was purchased at Home Depot and tacked into the ground.

Caitlin planted her first lilac, Pocahontas Lilac which will have a very fragrant reddish-purple bloom next spring. Then in went the Crimson Pygmy' Barberry, Emerald Gaiety Euonymus, Pink Hydrangea, Purple Leaf Sand Cherry bush and some Spirea. We liked the color and texture of the perennials.

They all were watered thoroughly and . . . job done!! Next year she can fill in the spaces with more perennials or annuals. Since these photos were taken we have added brown mulch to keep down the weeds.