This is a post that was probably better meant for last weekend, given that’s when I actually completed the fence project mentioned below. Oh well. I discovered in the course of my digging a likely reason why the fence undulated the way it did: gigantic roots and a layer of fist-sized rocks. After much hacking and digging though order was restored. Not perfect, but everything is definitely much sturdier. The next order of business is a re-contouring of the hilly area around our peach tree (pictured above Taylor in the picture on the left) and at some point in the coming weeks an upheaval of our scraggly looking lawn. I noticed this morning that the peach tree produced one nice-sized peach and deposited it in the dirt near it’s trunk. That’s it. One big, bird-pecked peach for the year. This is one reason for the contouring of the soil around the tree. Currently the ground slopes away dramatically and this area of the yard tends to receive very little water. Little water = paltry fruit production. Next year I’ll be providing graphic support for Roald Dahl.

I celebrated a day off from work by spending all morning cutting and pasting our raggedy-looking back fence. Top left, you can see the ill-advised undulations of our fence. The posts are also tilting mightily in a few places. My plan, you can see taking form top right. Basically I’m knocking out all of the boards and returning them on a level plane. This, as it always seems to turn out, is taking forever. Mainly because I’ve had to move quit a bit of dirt so far to make room for boards that drop down. Anyway, I’m now halfway done and calling it a day. Also pictured: confused dogs and blurry praying mantis.

Mary and I drove up to Chinook Pass yesterday afternoon with Taylor and wandered around on some of the hiking trails around there (couldn’t hike into the National Park though with dog in hand). Gorgeous views of Rainier and nearby valleys. The Rainier picture below is definitely worth the click for the full size view. Makes me want to climb it all the more.

Appalachian State??? Come on… I guess one advantage of living on the West coast is that I have less access to watching Lloyd Carr botch things for Michigan football. Why isn’t Les Miles coaching this team? Or that guy from Boise State? Or Appalachian State’s coach? If Mike Hart weren’t so much fun to watch I’d call it a season at this point.