Pictures from our vacation to Portland, Oregon

Here are some picture of our vacation to Oregon.

It met the requirements for a vacation this year.

1) Some place cooler then here.

2) Some place we haven't been before.

3) In a different state.

4) Not in the camper.

The girls would have been happy to swim in the pool, at the hotel, all day if we let them. But they seem to enjoy themselves at the museums and zoo. The Tillamook Creanery was pretty cool too because they had ice cream.

Quick blog from the desert

Sorry for not blogging lately, I check everyday (sometimes twice) to get a tidbit of what someone in the family is doing. Out here in the middle of nowhere, it gets isolated and getting contact with you guys is always a bright point of my day. Not lonely or bored, between work and the family we are staying very busy. At work I am working an exercise that as roughly 1200 people here, I'm here almost 7 days a week for the entire month of July and am going non-stop all day (except for a few minutes to shove a sandwich in my mouth and surf the web simultaneously.) Theresa started in a new office here also and as been keeping very busy. The girls are staying active at the daycare during the week and gymnastics on Saturday. They have a daily schedule that keeps them busy with swimming, park visits, bowling, movie theater, and even out of town to a water park. They come home tired :-). Katie is even taking a sewing class on Tuesdays and is planning on making a skirt for herself. She also entered a writing contest hosted by the local writing guild. She won second place for young writers! Summer is starting to warm up here, we've had numerous 100+ days, even a 109.9 day! I am getting the backyard landscaped finally, but at the current speed of the contractor, we'll be lucky to plant before winter comes. The few hours on the weekend I do get, I'm finishing up a set of Adirondack chairs and tables for the front porch. We are trying to plan a vacation for the first two weeks of August, but not sure what to do. Oregon seems like a good possibility. Well that's everything in a nutshell, hope everyone is fine and enjoying their summers!

Latest Project

Here is the latest to come out of the shop.  It is a set of occasional tables made from Spatled Cottonwood trimmed in Red Oak.  I made them for the museum auction they are having at the end of the month.  I made three but donated the two best.  The cottonwood came from a tree I planted at my old house.  I didn't know at the time how big cottonwoods can get and it out grew my backyard.  When we cut it down I used an attachment on my chainsaw to slice the log into boards.  I have been using these for odd project. Cottonwood is not usually a primary wood, but the spalting, the black streaking through the grain, makes it very eye catching.

Desert Flowers

Here is a collage of some spring flowers that have started to bloom.  Also is some pictures of our latest neighbors.  This pair of hummingbirds have built a nest on the rope that holds our newly planted Photinia trees.  There are two eggs in the nest.  We hope they will survive and add some more bird life around here.

Junior Olympics

Forgive me family, but has been 76 days since my last blog.  I have waited until the winter-bound folks have started thawing out.  Due to my lack of any common courtesy, I would have said something rude about the weather.  

Instead I'll show you some

 pictures of the girls during junior

 Olympics.  Julie ran the 100 meter and running long jump. Katie ran the 100 & 200 meter as well as the running long jump.  

  The school doesn't spend any time teach the kids how to run or jump so it is more like an organized recess then a competition, but both girls enjoyed themselves and are looking forward to the week off for Spring break.

Julie's First Poem!

Julie just had to get into the writing game.  Here is her first entry.

Cats

by

Julie Koch

Cats are fat

Cats are skinny

Cats are big

Cats are mini

Some walk around all day

Some just lay on a mat

Cats are fluffy

Some are not.

Wonderful Christmas

It was a great Christmas.  Mom and Vinny came down from Fallon to spend a few days with us.  Theresa's family was up for the day so we had 12 for a prime rib dinner.  Theresa and her sister Kris, did an excellent job preparing all the food. We all did our best to eat.  Brother John and Sara stopped by the next day.  John, Sara, Mom, and Vinny then headed back up to Fallon so John and Sara could spend a little time in the snow and appreciate the San Diego weather even more when they get back home.

I learned a new computer past time to spend even more time in front of the computer.  Video chatting.  Vinny guided me through the concept of how to get setup.  I took a cheap little camera that Katie got for her birthday and hooked it into the computer. It is has a little solid state memory device built into it, but if you connect it to the computer with a USB cable it will act as a webcam.  I manged to get that and Skype hooked up and we spent some quality time with my brother Karl and his family Christmas night.  The next day Vinny felt real sorry for me and got me a real webcam.  We got to call my sister Heidi and chat with her family the next day. 

 It was real fun.

If you've got 7 minutes to spare you may want to see the play that Katie put together with her cousins and Julie for Christmas.  Katie came up with story, wrote up scripts for all the players and had rehearsals before the big night after Christmas dinner.  

If the video doesn't work here, you can find it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hpPFVyIFiY

Here is a picture of the wine glasses I made for Theresa. They are made from Quina wood and then the goblets are attached.  In the middle is a coffee mug I made for her birthday.  It is made from 129 separate pieces of Pink Ivory wood.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas.