We are still here!  I haven’t been taking many photos this summer; mostly, I think, due to being so very busy with the landscaping projects I’ve been working on.  We did lots of hikes and camping, beach trips and picnics… but those ones will have to be remembered in our minds rather than in pictures.  I’m sharing here some of the “after” (current) photos of the outside of our home.  The “before” photos don’t exist— we spent the summer ripping that out and replacing it with pretty things.

The photo above is the giant redwood tree we didn’t know we bought along with the house, and which needs to be removed to the tune of $7500.  Oy.

Our neighbor, Bob, has been a HUGE blessing to us.  He’s amazing and so very helpful.  And he adores Addie.

We ripped out the existing front yard (which was mostly dead moss, deep layers of thatch, and sand), tilled, mixed in a “dirt” that was actually composted bio-solids from the city of Tacoma (we tortured our kids by making them help shovel it: it was smelly, it was poop, and they moaned as we made them dig, which offered Matt and I great enjoyment), and planted grass seed for a new lawn.

I attempted a late-season vegetable planting, and was met with some success.  We harvested beet greens, lettuce, kale and squash.  Carrots are growing slowly, as are beets.  Baby herbs, too.  Broccoli is growing well and I’m hoping to eat some in the next month.  I have some baby cabbage and broccoli growing for a spring harvest, if only the birds would leave it alone.  The birds, and squirrels, are driving me mad with the way they eat and destroy my hard work.  It is so nice to be able to plant things again, even if it’s just a little bit.  I’m really looking forward to spring planting.

We have birds galore outside, things becoming green again now, and a lovely fuschia plant that has bloomed all summer and brought hummingbirds for us to enjoy.  I have plants and flowers newly planted that I am excited to watch grow while we are here, though sadly I won’t be here to see them as they become big and lush.  We also have weeds, bulbs that are unstoppable (like the ones pictured above next to my baby rhododendron), trees topped in previous years that need gentle pruning, and all the downsides that go along not only with any yard, but with one that has been neglected for years.

We have homeschooling in full swing, and a table often covered both with the flowers I find in my generous neighbors’ yards (and next year hopefully in my own yard) and the creations of the kids.  Our home, with its 3 skylights, offers so much light– light that I’ve been craving for years and years.

Matt has been playing, practicing, teaching piano, and getting his Christmas tunes ready for the holidays.  He might also be the music director soon for our church, Kitsap Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

We have a lovely view of the mountains and sky when we walk outside our door, which we have often soaked in on summer nights.  Now the fall sky is beautiful in a different way. Being able to see the mountains is a wonderful thing.

Now it’s time for the inside of the house to be focused on, with bathrooms and kitchen and all kinds of things to spend time and money on as we continue this journey of home-ownership.