Fort Stevens State Park

I had this idea in my head that I needed to get one more camping trip in before ski season this year.  About a month ago we set that weekend as October 24-26, and the Park was Fort Stevens State Park near Astoria, Oregon.  Going into it we knew it would probably rain.  We got lucky and it was dry when we arrived and it stayed clear while we set up.  But, it rained all night and this is what our camp looked like when we woke up.

 

And this is what Josh thought of it:

I was beyond impressed when he had been out of his sleeping bag all of five minutes and he started building this:

I was genuinely surprised at how well the trench worked.  It drained our picnic table area and kept the tent dry.  It rained pretty hard while we were there so we had to reinforce it a couple times, but the trench drain was a brilliant fix.

 We got the camp site setup pretty well, we had enough cover to keep dry and the place was gorgeous.

Here is me maintaining a relentlessly positive attitude while cowering under the tarp with a cup of coffee.

We took a walk down to the beach on Saturday.  All night we could hear the ocean, so we thought for sure that it was right over the hill.  The walk to the beach was at least a solid mile, but we made it!

There is so much to explore at  Fort Stevens and we didn't even scratch the surface of what we wanted to see; the weather kept us to a fairly hermit-like existence.  But, we did get to see the Peter Iredale shipwreck.  It was the biggest reason I chose this park, and it is beyond cool.  It was really windy at the beach; Josh said it was the strongest wind he had ever been in.  We could only handle staying on the beach for about 10 minutes, and this pic of Leonard is the only one we took.  Josh had to act as a wind/rain break for me to take it.

 We got back to the campsite and started a much needed fire to warm up and dry out.

We ended up making friends with the people in the background.  They were crabbing and had caught 400 over the last several days.  They gave us 4 whole crab, they brought us over and shared crab cakes and moonshine.  It is always amazing who you meet!

Leonard decided that there wasn't anywhere worth laying down except the car.  We shut off the lights and let him sleep the afternoon away.

Go Cougs! We have to represent wherever we go :)

It was a great trip.  We definitely want to go back when the weather is a little better so we can check out the rest of the park.  My first camping in the rain experience was totally worth it, now I know what its like.  And I learned a little bit about my husband and how resourceful he can be.

Josh's Birthday!

Josh's Birthday was on the 9th.  He is *redacted* years old, and I think we celebrated in style!

The Saturday before his birthday we went out to dinner at one of Josh's favorite places, The Ram, and enjoyed some delicious beer, food, and watched the Huskies do worse against the Ducks than the Cougs.  Its unfortunate though, because when the Ducks play the Huskies is the ONLY time you will ever catch us rooting for the Huskies.  After that we went to our local dive bar, the Star Lake Tavern.  Its has old office chairs, pool tables, darts, a view of the Star Lake in the day time, and an obese beagle.  We love it.  On his actual birthday we met up with a couple of friends in Seattle and watched a screening of a ski movie by Powderwhore.  The movie was fun to watch and it got us both pumped up for the ski season!

But, the highlight had to be his present.  I was a bit skeptical at first, but now that I see it in action, it is pretty cool.

That is a John Deere 4010J Traveling Yard Sprinkler.  They don't sell them anymore so I had my first ebay bidding war to bring it home for him.  Happy Birthday Josh!

Leonard and Josh

Watching Josh and Leonard play is one of my favorite things to do.  They chase each other around the yard like wild animals and it brings a smile to my face every single time. They usually start with a little wrestling.

Leonard is definitely biting Josh here, but Leonard never hurts him, its just part of the game!

Then Leonard takes off!

 The goal for Leonard to get as close as possible to Josh without getting caught.

 Getting Tired...

Its extra funny to watch, because Leonard does not play with me like this.  This is definitely a Leonard and Josh activity.  I've been trying to get the perfect picture for a long time, and these are the closest I've come so far.  But, I still don't think this really captures what I'm after.  Here is a video so you can see what I get to see!

Painting Progress

This has been the summer of painting the house.  At first it seemed easy.  pressure wash it, spray it, done.  See look - here is me thinking there is fun to be had in this project. 

We were very wrong.  What we thought was "house painting" became an "exterior restoration".  We quickly realized that our home had two coats of paints, none newer than 1975, and no primer anywhere.

First Josh pressure washed it.  The paint flew off the house, not everywhere, but enough to terrify us.  Wasn't paint supposed to stay on the siding?  We spent a full afternoon cleaning up the unexpected paint chips from the flower beds.  Ok - this means we have to scrape it.

We started scraping and realized that the pressure washer didn't even come close to removing everything.  Entire pieces of siding were stripped down to bare wood.  But not all of the paint would come off, leaving very clear defining lines between bare wood and painted sections.  We were lamenting this fact to a few friends when someone we hadn't met piped up and told us we should sand the house too.  It would make it less obvious where we had been unable to remove the old paint.  Damn - this means we have to sand it.

So we scraped, and sanded the entire house.  Everything that could be reached from the ground, I did.  Everything that could be reached from the scaffold, including every single tail, Josh did.

After it was scraped and sanded we decided we should spot prime it.  I decided to tackle that project while Josh redid the trim. 

Can you see the primer on Leonard's head?   A little later he managed to give himself a skunk stripe.  Its extra funny because I threatened to do it earlier in the day!  We had to take him to the groomer to get that off.

So, while I put primer on every spot of bare wood, Josh restored the trim around the windows and doors.

We also decided to paint the front trim white, before we painted the rest of the house.  This was a wonderful idea!  Of course, hindsight being 20/20, why did we only think to do this for the front?  As with most things we do, Leonard helped.

Then, finally, after longer than I really want to admit, it was time to paint.  We were discussing this with my Papa when he told us that back brushing makes it look so much better.  I was devastated, no more steps!  No more tools I want it to be done!!  But, Papa had the tools, and he had just painted his house and it looked so good...shoot...now I have to follow Josh and back brush.

 

Our plan was to prime the entire house on Saturday, and spray the color on Sunday.  We woke up on Saturday morning and it was raining.  OMG.  Can we catch a break?  It was a light rain so we decided to prep anyway and hope it went away.

Taping everything off...

 

Putting plastic down...

The primer layer!  Maybe we could just leave it white?

Josh after the primer layer.  Hooray for masks!

 

 

The sprayer setup.  We have a very kind coworker of Josh's to thank for the loan of the sprayer.  THANK YOU!

The man in action.

Go-go gadget back brush!

Taking off the tape!

Josh after the color layer.

Yay!

The weather cleared up, and we were able to prime and spray our entire house!  It looks fantastic!  We are so happy to be done, and we are very proud of ourselves for accomplishing this Herculean task.  Now, that said, we still have to paint the door and do a 2nd coat on the back trim.  So, I will save the final reveal until then...