Lots of projects going on the past few weeks. Here’s a floor vent in our living room that I cut a new hole in the floor for. I managed to knock it out while Mary was at the grocery store, so she didn’t have to stress too much watching chunks of our refinished flooring spraying around. And prepping the outside of the house to pull out our old windows.

New walkway in front of the house. Lots and lots of dirt, gravel, sand, and brick hauling. Not done yet, but close. Still need to cut some of the corner/edge patio bricks and fill the gaps with polymeric sand. Looks great though, pretty proud of this project.

And repaired a broken irrigation pipe after getting tired of having a soggy spot in the yard for the past year. I had to dig a trench to drain off the pooled water around the pipe, then cut away a chunk of PVC and repair with a quick-fix telescopic coupler. I’m not a huge fan of plumbing projects, but PVC is easy and outside is easy. The repair seems to be holding just fine.

And just a great time of year to be outside. The garden’s looking good. We’ve been running frost-free since early March now, but everything pictured is pretty cold hardy. Pesto from the garden kale. Radishes. Grilling out.

One window installed! It took me most of a day to get just the one in, fighting with the wrinkles of an old house that already appeared to have been retrofitted with different size windows once before I installed this one. Sooo much better though than the ramshackle mess that was there before. Especially from the inside it looks really nice.

And for a landscape that looks a little less arid than Frenchman Coulee, here’s our yard, overwhelmed with cherry blossoms at the moment.

And the garden looking good. We’ve been running frost-free for a month strong now, but everything pictured is pretty cold tolerant anyway (kale, onions, radishes, beets etc.). What’s the patch of re-seeded missing lawn in the background you say? That’s where the dogs ran out the side door to pee all winter long. The minimum distance from the warmth of the house possible. I have a feeling this reseeding will be a yearly spring occurrence.

A few photos from rock climbing at Frenchman Coulee last Friday. This is about an hour away from our house.

Didn’t have much time available, but we were able to sneak in a couple of quick routes in the Sunset Park area. I led They Have Many Names for it but the Chief Among them is the Black Lodge (5.8) (yup, that’s the name) and Bleeding Solar Tomb (5.9). Cruised the 5.8 and barely clipped the 5.9 on pumped forearms. I climbed it a second time on top-rope a little more smoothly. Nothing super special about the routes, but the views were great and it was a nice change of pace from the Feathers/Sunshine Wall area. This was also my first time on rock again in 2014, which is a little sad given how much climbing I got in early last year.

Black Lodge is pictured below left and the overall Sunset Park crag below right.

Phlox (with a Death Camas in the background) and the trail leading to Sunset Park. Just a really pretty arid landscape.

Finally into the 70s this week, feels soooo nice! Lots of plant life in motion. The cherry trees are fully budded and probably will be leafing soon. The magnolia is starting to shake some petals after opening up last week. The radishes I planted a week ago in between the rows of already-planted onions are poking through. A few sections of yard are in need of mowing.

Also, officially outdoor project season I guess. The irrigation water kicked on yesterday, so I dug up and reseeded some sections of lawn the dogs had destroyed over the winter. I also took the first tentative steps toward replacing some of our old, battered windows, by pulling off the old exterior window trim work and fascia from one of the living room windows. I haven’t installed vinyl windows before, so this should be a good learning experience. Mary will be happy to get the junky-looking AC unit out of our dining room. I’ll try to remember to take some photos as I go.

In the meantime, here’s a photo of Parko looking expectant in his cage.

Garden day! We’ve been in the 60s and sunny for the past two weeks and had another good one today. I spent part of the afternoon in shorts and a t-shirt poking holes in the dirt and planting Walla Walla sweet onions and kale in the raised beds while the dogs ran around the yard, panting in the sun. Summer-esque.

Also, here’s a photo of a corner of the living room and our new TV stand. Sugar pine, custom-made, but nothing fancy. I dig it.