Gracie's Vacation

While we went Santa Barbara for the 4th Gracie went on her own vacation. She went to Philomath, Oregon with my friends and their doggies. Where the heck is Philomath you ask. I'm not really sure, but Wikipedia knows.

Here are some pictures.

We have been speanding most of our time off from work making a very large planter. When we laid sod in our backyard we left a corner covered with visquine for a raised bed.

We had to remove a bunch of dirt to lay the foundation.

There was a lot of shoveling gravel. Very heavy! Then we laid the first course of bricks. Leveling them was very difficult and took a couple of days.

Stephen did a great job breaking the bricks to make all the corners.

Stand by for more!

Kitchen demo

We wanted to open up our kitchen a bit and add a bit more storage so we decided to get rid of the bar that was too skinny to eat at, so tall it made the kitchen seem smaller, and had no storage under it.







Now we have two levels of shelving and two drawers! We also have a much more open kitchen.
We also know why the heater in the bar never worked. However, we don't yet know why the power cable runs in the opposite direction from the electrical panel or where it goes. We'll have to wait for our actual kitchen remodel to figure that out I guess.

We just got home from an awesome vacation. We drove down to California and then back up.






We spent a lot of time in the car,












Stayed at many hotels,










Visited lots of wineries, drank lots of wine,











Enjoyed the view at many beaches,










Hung out with friends and family,











Watched some Olympics,












Sat inside a huge tree, drove through a huge tree,










Saw the bluest water we've ever seen,










walked through a very strange house,
(winchester mystery house)




and much much more!

More Pics of Gracie

Gracie is doing very well . When we got her she was 6.3 pounds, but she has grown to 11 pounds now, and our vet has had us up her food intake. She is still a handful, but is just the cutest little dog in the world. Especially when she's sleeping...
She loves to run around in her yard; she likes to be chased and to bite your pant legs (we're trying to correct that...)


Once again, sleeping is still her favorite. 2 naps a day minimum. I wish I could have that every day.


She's taken to burrowing beneath the covers when we let her sleep in the bed. I don't know how instinctual that is, or if it's just warmer under there.


I swore that when I had a dog she would never be allowed on the couch. That lasted for roughly 4.3 seconds. I believe we let her sleep on the couch starting on the first night. Oh well. How can you refuse that face?


This picture must be a little old, as the stuffed chicken she's holding has since met it's untimely demise. She now has a bunny to wreak physical violence upon.


Um... Did I mention she's cute?


Really enjoying our new family member. She's getting really good at potty training, and knows sit, stay, come, down, and is doing much better at leash training. She has learned to bark, though, and is now barking at people and dogs she sees outside, as well as the TV (Darn you Animal Planet in HD!)

Anyway, she's the best. She brings sunshine and joy wherever she goes, gets stopped all the time on walks by admirers, and even makes random passers-by smile as they walk by her. One woman asked us to take a picture with her and gracie, and we've even had someone pull over their car so they could get out and meet her and pet her. Just amazing.

We hope you can meet her soon.

The fence project

We got a dog so we had to build a fence.

We live next to a grassy / weedy area and we needed a buffer, so we built a three foot rock border around the fence post. Shoveling the 1 1/2 inch gravel was by far the hardest part of the project. Our backs hurt for days.



Then we installed the 2 by 4 rails. This is when we discovered that the company we hired to install the rails didn't do the best job. There was a pretty big difference in the measurements between posts.

Stephen worked out a formula for spacing the pickets so you can't tell that the measurements are a foot different in some cases (we also got to buy a really nice finish nailer... YES!).

We went for a shadow box look with dog ears at the top of the pickets.


Now we have a beautiful cedar fence for our sweet puppy to run around outside. And a little privacy from our neighbors as well. Our back yard is nowhere near done, but we're well on our way.

Our New Addition

We got a puppy!!!

Gracie is a very sweet 11 week old tri-color ticked 13 inch beagle.


Her favorite activities are chewing on rawhide, carrying around her stuffed chicken, and cuddling.


Did I mention going potty? She likes that too.

Gracie loves her buddy Lulu (a friend's dog) but Lulu is not so sure about anything with that much energy.


She is very smart. She knows her name, is pretty good at coming, and is well on her way to going potty on command. We still have a few accidents inside every once in a while, but she's doing very well.

It's not a very good video, but I figured what the heck.




We start puppy kindergarten Monday and I'll try to get a better video there.