McCall Vacation

Nick Here-
Just an update from the mid way point in our week in McCall. We have only confirmed every reason we have as to why we want to move up here. Weather has been perfect, town isn't too busy, and overall life here is great. Both of us have the same sentiments about moving here- the sooner the better. It is probably a few years out, but it will be great whenever it does finally happen. So far we have worked on the place quite a bit. We were running low on wood for the winter so I went out to the ranch and my cousin Gus loaded our trailer up for me with a load of wood. I sawed it all up in to 16" pieces back at the cabin and then Kenzie and I split wood for two days. My back hasn't had that good of a workout in a long time. After splitting we stacked wood for about 5 hours. But at least we are stocked for the winter. We actually ran out of room to stack where we normally do, so we had to create an overflow area.

After that was done we got a mini on demo from the local Cesco dealer. They brought us out a hitachi 50 size mini excavator. We acquired some 36" culvert pipe and proceeded to install a 36" culvert where there was a ditch previously. This allowed us to fill it in to make a circular driveway so we can get in and out much easier with trailers, as well as not having to back in to the snow banks during the winter. All in all, a good project. Kenzie even got in on the action!

Anyway, here are a few pictures. That is all from Idaho!

Chainsaw massacre....

F'ing tired. But thats the life of a lumberjack.

Clearing

Ahh shit look out!

Lay the pipe

More pipe.

Backfill.....

New Driveway!

Back in Eugene

Nick, Showing how pictures should be taken at historic Hayward Field

Running like a Hayward Field Champion! HA!

Hayward field!

Duck Game!

Inverted Thermal Pipe fusion process (Welding upside down)

So Mckenzie has been on me to post on here for a while, and I had a little bit of time this evening- so I figured it was a good time to put up my first post. I don't have much that has gone on in the last few months besides work, so here goes-

This is what happens when the crew doesn't dig you a big enough bell hole to weld all the way around the pipe. It isn't too bad, but it isn't comfortable by any means. (yes those are my feet). Oh and we are laying up a 40% slope, which is about a 45 degree slope. To give you perspective the wire feed (LN-25) is sitting level.

So, part of what I enjoy about my job is the fact that we basically have free reign to be as inventive as we need to be to make things productive and efficient.
The Predicament in this job was that we had many different areas that required us to haul in 24" ameron pipe that was 40 ft. in length. We couldn't carry it sideways with a loader, and there was NO way we could have pulled it in with a tractor trailer so how would we transport an 11,000lb. piece of pipe? What to do in this situation? I introduce to you, the pipe buggy. (Not sold in stores). I am thinking of starting a company- "Custom Hauling and Transport". ha.



And what job would be complete without a goat? This is Buttercup- named so because this goat is indeed a head-butter. She will whack you in the shins, and drop you in the back of the knees if you aren't paying attention. Really pretty sweet if you pet her though. Liked to beat on the pipe a bit and eat the plastic covers off the end of it. Oh well...

That is all from Newport tonight. Out.

Clarificatin

Not that I need to clarify-but in case you don't know Nick and I well, I am the one that needed convincing to get a TV. Some background:

I grew up with lots of TV's around. My dad owned a business that sold-ok, I will go back into some history. Back in the day, my great grandfather ran and owned the first gas station in Eugene, Oregon located on the corner of 6th and Blair Blvd. He ran the gas station for years, until just before he passed away. (I vaguely remember seeing him when I was really little, maybe 2? so that would have been 1984/1985 that he died). Sometime before he passed away, it was determined that someone should take over the business-this was before my sister came along (1982) and later, me (1983)-my parents were in the PeaceCorps in Oman. When they came back, they really didn't have an action plan, so my dad decided to take over the business. Lets see-they were married in 1977-went to Oman for two years - 1978/1979 came back and took over the business. (I hope they will correct me if I am wrong).

In addition to selling gasoline, my dad began to sell used books and records. My dad has collected and been passionate about two things music and baseball (cards). It seemed fitting that he would sell records. Sometime during elementary school (for me), the gasoline portion of the business became a money losing venture so my parents shut that portion of the business down. (Insert my side-rant here-gasoline, like many other items, is discounted the more bulk you buy. Large companies such as Texaco and BP were able to buy in mass volume and therefore, received better pricing, which in turn drives the small, mom and pop places out since people want to pay as little as possible for goods. I do not bring up my views on larg corporate places such as WalMart up on my blog, but I will make an exception here. I, on a personal level, refuse to shop at places that make it a point to drive small family owned businesses out for the purpose of making money and selling cheap junk. I watched my dad struggle to make a family owned business with unique/hard to find and good quality goods flounder at the hand of large corporate companies-read WalMart etc. As a matter of principle, I refuse to support them with my dollars). Once the gasoline was shut down, movies were added.

At our house, we had many movies-but never cable TV. I remember as a kid, at my house, I mostly played outide. When I would go to friends houses who had cable, I would be glued to the TV, even if nothing was on, simply because cable was so special. I found, in my very young adult life, I would waste hours and hours watching nothing on Cable, simply because it was there. So, when Nick and I bought our house in February, I insisted that we not get cable. Since not having a TV or cable at all, I find that I get so much done! I loved it. However, I agree that in the times that Nick and I wanted to watch a movie, it was difficult on the laptop. And so, after living with no TV for 7 months, we did get one, but still, no cable. Nick agrees, we don't need the expense or the distraction. =)

So there you go-some history and clarification.

Weekend together

Three whole days together-did I really just write that?!? Nick and I got to spend three whole days together! It seems strange to write that-we spend so much time apart that I am just not used to saying that we spend more than one night together.

I should go back a few days and update on what we have been up to. On Wednesday (or maybe it was Tuesday?) night of last week, Nicks grandma Lois was up in Portland to have a cancer screen. She has had cancer for around 5 years and has been doing very well with it. She came up to Portland to meet with the cancer doctor to determine the best treatment-she is having more trouble breathing and her lungs keep filling up-so something needs to be done. Joni (nicks mom) brought Lois and Bob (Nick's grandma's husband) up to Portland. Nick drove up from Toledo, Oregon to have dinner with Bob, Lois, Joni and Steve (Joni's boyfriend) at Steve's house, which he cooked and was AWESOME. We had Salmon and rice and broccoli (my favorite) and something else but I can't remember. When dinner was finished, Steve brought out like 5 desserts from Claim Jumper. Wow. Lois looked really good and it was great to see everyone.

Nick had to drive back to Toledo the next morning-but he came back on Friday!

We stayed at home for the weekend. On Saturday, we slept in and then got up and did some things around the house. I had a CPA exam on Saturday which I thought was at 2pm but turned out to be at 4. I went and did that and Nick went to Costco and brought us into the 21st century. Yes, we now own a TV. We made a compromise. We have a TV but we are not allowed to get Cable TV. So, we now have a 42" Plasma 1080 TV in our bedroom. We watched four movies over the weekend as we went to bed- all three Bourne movies (which we could watch over and over) and 21. We also went up to Parrott Mountain and saw the street of dreams. I will post pictures when I get them off Nick's camera-he went back to Toledo with it. We missed the Duck game, but they won!

On Sunday, we had breakfast with George (Nick's dad) and then we went and looked at paint colors. We tried to go shopping, but we forgot that stores close at 6pm on Sunday-shows how much we shop! We looked at some furniture at Macy's but didn't really find much that we wanted for the prices they had. Oh well! The floors are getting finished up on Thursday, so we will officially be able to bring in some furniture! Hurray!!!

Monday, we cleaned the gutters, hung out, went to California Pizza Kitchen, and spent time together. It was so nice to just lie in our very comfortable bed together and just giggle, chat and be together. It is seldom that we get to do this. It is funny how so many people need vacations from their significant other, or take them for granted-get annoyed with them etc. Nick and I get to spend so little time together that it is nice to just be together, and do nothing but "pillow talk" all day. No-"pillow talk" is not meant to be dirty-it is the time you spend in the covers, sunk into your ultra comfy bed just talking, laughing, spending time together. =)

The weekend was great! Only 1.5 weeks to vacation in McCall! Countdown begin!