Category: home and garden

Barley and I passed the Alberta Sanitary folks on their yard debris run this morning. These guys are really nice look like they’re having a good time. As they’re tossing debris bags into the back for the garbage truck, three kids in a house are watching from atop a couch. They’re all in various stages of undress, including the middle child who is completely naked. All three kids are clapping furiously and unabashedly for the yard waste guys. I point out the audience to the yard waste guy who chuckles. I guess I thought it was funnier than he did. Or maybe it’s just part of the routine.

Here are pictures from the first three weeks – including moving.

Doug and I took down the infested apple tree yesterday. It was fairly easy to cut down (Thanks to Stihl) and large portions of the tree were standing dead. We identified the culprit of the infestation – roundheaded apple tree borers. We found several larva and pupa inside the tunneled out limbs.

Once we identified the pest, we could now know how to treat… oh.. nevermind. Well, one ironic factor:

“The downy woodpecker is the only known natural enemy.”

One bit of concern – some places suggest the only way to dispose of the wood is by burning it. This may work well for orchards, but I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do. I’d better put a call in to the Clackamas County’s Extension office (Multnomah doesn’t have one).

The gnarly apple tree in our back yard is home to a house finch family. They’re delighted by the bird bath and the two feeders now hanging from the tree. (‘Let’s not go to that one, lets go to the good one’) I’m anthropomorphizing of course, but how could the birds not be delighted?

The tree also has a problem with boring insects. Nearly every inch of the tree has a hole in it with sawdust coming out. This is kind of disturbing because it means we probably have to cut it down unless the extension officer thinks it’s cool. In the mean time, a downy woodpecker is frequenting the tree. I’m going to take a guess that it too is delighted.

The seller signed the title papers and today the county recorded the sale. The home is now ours.

We’ve moved in. Thanks to the immense amount of free labor from our parents, we’ve also made most of the major adjustments needed for normal plus living. We put in a dishwasher, took out the fireplace and put a vent in the roof, patched the ceiling, put in a disposal ($5 at the rebuilding center), hung blinds and lots of misc. stuff. Things look great, feel great, and aside from the boring insects in the apple tree, we don’t have that much to do this summer. The animals have adjusted well, Tigger better than Barley, but the dog on hardwood floors is kind of funny.

So tonight we walked to our neighborhood video rental and now we’re watching Money Pit. Knock on wood. More to come. I’m kind of tired.

This morning’s walk with the dog included a rare viewing of Cedar Waxwings. I didn’t know they were in the area, but sure enough, they were feasting on a berry bush just like the one in the linked photo.

Oh, this has been up for about a week, but it was nice to see.

Here are some more photos taken with my sister’s fisheye lens & Nikon D70. Thanks Hilary…

Fisheye Alberta

Oh, and the walls aren’t really that warped. It’s the lens.