Weekend- 11.01.08

Nick Here-

We had a pretty productive weekend. We started things off going to a halloween party, which was pretty extravagant. I'll let kenzie post pictures for that if she wants to. Saturday I dug out for our new gas line that we are running. Basically with the gas stove and insert that we are adding we had to run a bigger service. We fused the pipe together with our fusion machine, and then laid it in the trench Sunday. The gas guy did everything inside, so now all he has to do is hook everything up. After we got that done on Saturday, I did some more clearing with the 135 out in the back. It is amazing how overgrown everything was, and how someone could let that much property become unusable. We will have to find some before and after pictures to show the comparison, but it is a huge transformation so far.

With the gas line run outside, all that is left is to hook everything up!

We have a storm outlet in the back and a ditch to drain the water away- all of which was covered with blackberries. After I cleaned it out, I built a rock wall with all the random rocks laying around our property.

Here is a different angle. The fence is in disrepair, and needs some work. The blackberries had overgrown so much the weight of them stripped the barbed wire off of the posts and laid it down on the ground.

Here is looking back towards the back of the property. Where my work truck is sitting was completely covered in berries before. It was tough to back a trailer down between the blackberries and the chain link fence previously.

Nick's Birthday

I have pictures to post, but of course, they are on Nick's camera that he takes to Ontario with him every week.

Nick's birthday was last Saturday (the 25th) and he turned the big 2 6. I cannot believe how time files. I was joking around with him that he is now in his mid to late twenties since he is past the halfway mark. Then I started to think about things. We have been out of high school for 7.5 years. We have both been done with our first batchelor degrees for (me 3.5 years) and nick 2.5 years. I don't know if I like how fast time starts to go by once you are out of school and in the real world.

Anyway, Nick had a great birthday. We went down to Coos Bay with his dad and the rest of his family for an 80th birthday party for his grandma Lois. After the birthday, we stayed down in Coose Bay for the night and made a visit to the casino, where, despite never gambling (much) we won $600. For his birthday, Nick got a pair of Denali north face fleece gloves and a lafuma chair (from me), a Nintendo Wii (from his mom) and a tool set (from his dad). Additionally, he got a gift certificate to GI Joes (from Linda and Ashley). Pretty successful if you ask me!

The October Tan

It is a hard thing being married to a Greek. Greeks are blessed with flawless skin, a georgeous tan ALL year round, thick dark hair, beatiful long eyelashes etc. It makes it more difficult when the Greek is a guy since they could care less about these things. Ugh. So, as a result, any picture that is taken of Nick and I shows Nick all tan and stuff~and then me, all pasty...magnified by the fact that he is tan, which doesn't help the situation! So...I went tanning. Ok, I went tanning and then got talked into a spray tan. I am going to go back to work and have to be like, yea, flew to Hawaii last night, tanned in the dark, flew back! WHAT WAS I THINKING!!! It is October and I have a new TAN! This is like, really emberassing since I am not really one to do this kind of thing much less in a way that makes it SO obvious that I spray tanned. Ugh. Let me say it again. Ugh. It seemed like a good idea at the time though.

This picture was stolen

Thank you to Matt and Missie who are actually good at documenting life with pictures. I stole this from their blog to prove that yes, we are crazy and ate pizza at Sy's at 1am after the duck game.

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.