Tree house update.

The weekend that Kricket took the girls to the beach was a productive one for me here at the house. On Saturday, I headed out to the Pick-a-Part on 99W to get some Subaru strut tops for the rally car. We had been using the OEM VW variety: to say that they are not robust is charitable. Using lore gleaned on the internets, I decided to switch over to the OEM Subaru variety of strut top mount. It is a beefier unit all around, being designed for a car that weighs about a thousand pounds more than our svelte little Rabbit.

On the way back from the junk yard with 4 "new" strut tops, I stopped at the landscaping supply to pick up some rock for the new strawberry beds. Dad gave me a couple half-barrels, and after filling them with layers of river rock, pea gravel, and finally soil, I put a half-dozen strawberry plants in each.

This enabled me to fit the rally car back in the garage just in time for Chuck to arrive to help me out. While I worked on opening up the holes in the strut towers to accommodate the new strut tops, Chuck riveted the fender flares and mudflap support brackets back on. We had a productive day, though I destroyed a 4.5" hole saw in the process.

Fender, flare and support brackets back on:


New strut top, drivers side:


The new pair in, (still need to figure out how to fit the strut tower brace back on.)


On Sunday, my plan was to head over to Aaron's so he could weld the axle on our trailer back together.


Unfortunately, I neglected to get his address or phone number on Friday at work, so the trailer fix would have to wait. After a quick check of the TV to determine that there was indeed nothing on, I headed out to work on the tree house.

I don't have any pictures, but I got the roof completed, (roofing paper and asphalt roll roofing installed,) and up on to the tree house.

To do this I used:

• A 25' chain
• x2 12' chains
• x4 d-shackles
• x2 5/8" eye bolts
• x4 1500lb ratchet straps
• A 10' step ladder
• A 6' step ladder
• x7 16oz bottles of water
• A Warn Pulz-all, (Thanks Frank! I couldn't have done it without this!)
• x2 20' dacron ropes
• and what seemed like a few hundred trips up and down the ladder.

But in the end, (actually about 5-ish in the afternoon,) the roof was in-place and screwed on tight.



The girls didn't get home in time to check it out, but on Monday after work/school, we went out for some fun.



Cousin Carrie had given us a swing a while ago, and Libby has been digging it, especially since she can't go up in the tree house yet.

Trip to North Bend with the cousins!

We have been talking about taking a trip to North Bend for awhile now, but with the upcoming rally and everything else going on, Bill hasn't been able to get away. I had lunch with my cousin Carrie last week and she mentioned that she had a three day weekend, so I talked her into heading out to North Bend for the weekend with us. Saturday morning, bright and early, the girls and I loaded up and headed south to Salem where we picked up Carrie and her boys, Brenden (8) and Jacob (5) and then on to Mimi (as Libby refers to both of her grandmothers) and Gramps's. Once we got there, the weather was gorgeous, so we figured we'd better take advantage of it and headed to Winchester Bay to the beach.

Abby, Brenden, and Jacob trekking out on the sand.

Sand stars.


Oh, that is cold.

Baby squat...only babies can do this. My knees hurt just looking at her.

Libby and Mimi.





Libby's mad that mean Aunt Carrie won't let her run into the water.

Brenden building a sand castle that I think Libby stomped on later.

Abby lounging in the sun.




More water for the sand castles. The kids all got so wet and sand covered that we had to change their clothes before letting them into the car.


Abby wrote her name in the sand.






Libby would start out walking towards the water and as soon as she realized someone was following her, she'd giggle and take off at a full sprint.






Ha! I caught you!


Playing in the water.






Bath time for Libby. Sand gets everywhere!

Carrie hanging out with Gramps and Uncle Mike.

Watching cartoons. We've been busy this weekend.

Playing in the backyard.

Yum, hot dogs.

On Sunday, the weather was still pretty good, so we decided we'd better get one more beach fix before heading for home.

Notice how Libby has Mimi's camera? The last three pictures are ones she took.

Baby toes.

The sky.

...and a pretty good picture of Brenden. Maybe she has a future as a photographer.