A restoration project

A couple of months ago Deb and I endeavored to take on a project for a friend of ours. We were going to help her reorganize her garage and do a couple other things that she is not able to do. We ripped out the noxious weeds that had taken over her flower beds, re-did her food storage, and she had some faded, kind of worn-out-looking benches she wanted to be able to use again.

After I tackled the weed beds, I went to work on the benches. They were wrought Iron and wood and the wood was very weathered and not smooth anymore. I took them apart and sanded and sanded and sanded till they weren't that aged grey color any more. Sorry I don't have any before pictures, but you can imagine what it looks like. The stain that she had picked out for the new color was (supposed to be) this nice, dark reddish, Mahogany color.

Nice, huh?

Well, we got them stained that day and proceeded to become extremely busy with wedding plans. The wood sat for awhile and we got a call from Charmaine a few weeks later saying that the wood turned out to be not what she wanted. In my mind, I was thinking 'Tough noogies lady... do you know how hard I worked on those and now you're saying it's not right!?' But bless my wife she told her that we would fix it for her.

When we finally made it over there we saw what she was talking about. the wood had turned almost black in color and it just wasn't acceptable. A bit hideous, eh? I guess some people might like it, but when it was clearly not the color we were hoping for, we realized it had to go.

I got out the sander and burned through I don't know how many sheets of sandpaper, but I finally made it though the blackness. I found some linseed oil in the garage, applied it to the wood and came out with this very lovely, vintage-antique look that really looked fantastic.

The finished product turned out with a very nice color, VERY smooth, and created a very pleased Charmaine! The transformation from too light, to too dark, to just right turned out to be a great experience in the end!

Yesterday we went down to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house.

And when we got home got to have fresh raspberries for a treat and swung on the swing!

orchid bloom

when we got home tonight I noticed that this Phal is finally blooming! This was my first orchid and has been quite a reliable bloomer for me, with the flowers typically lasting from 4 -6 months. One year they stayed on from early June till after Thanksgiving!

Tubing

Tubing is going to become one of our favorite things to do, I think. Today our same group plus a couple more decided to go somewhere a little wilder than the concrete irrigation canal. We went to a place called the Oneida Narrows. It offers a little bit of everything for everyone; calm, peaceful slow spots and a few places that will jiggle your jello. It was really fun! Only one person got dumped out, and that's because she was in this small inflatable boat thing that wasn't very stable.

Picture

I just had to put this picture of Callie up from tonight! Who gave her permision to grow up!!???

More Summer fun!

( Read this in the most adventurous voice you can muster)

With only our wits and a few sticks to defend ourselves, our small band of safarians embarked upon a trip into the wilderness. We braved searing heat, raging rapids, sheer rock faces on both sides, dangerous undercurrents, towering waterfalls, hungry, ferocious animals staring down at us from the cliffs above with their beady little eyes! Indeed it was a treacherous journey, but we knew that the conditions were just right for this type of expedition. So we made the necessary preparations and set out on our voyage. . . .

(Dramatic pause)

Yes, our intention was to... (gasp!) Float the canal!

Aaah! Defend yourselves from the wild beasts!

Those ferocious animals are saying, "Just you wait... You may have escaped this time, but we will get you next time!"

Of course many of the most perilous aspects of our trek that were described at the beginning could not be captured on film because they were so dangerous, but trust me - we feared for our very lives throughout most of our passage through that uncharted territory!!

~Keep checking in for more adventures!~

Summertime!

Here are a couple great shots of Callie going to town on a ginormous hunk of watermelon tonight. VERY cute, in my opinion...

Food! Glorious food!

While Deb was out pitting a "chair of Bowlies" on the steps, I went out to the garden to grab these loverly things. It's amazing how fast they grow! That is an 18 inch ruler, by the way. We didn't get the garden planted until the middle of May!!

In fact, this before pic was taken on May 8 when I had just began to redefine and refurbish the plot. We didn't actually plant until later than that because of weather and I started school and stuff.

This is July 9th... Our zuchini plants are waist-high, our tallest corn is head high and has the flowers starting to come out. One stalk has three ears starting on it already. There are tomatoes in there somewhere that are just out of control too. we've got a few pepper plants mingled in between that are doing great, and onions galore! I found those three Zukes lurking, with even more on the way! We decided we are going to let this guy grow to see how big it will get though.We'll keep you updated on it's progress!

Will you post your photos?

Those of you who were able to come to the wedding, will you please email your pictures to us or post them up here? We're still waiting to get ours from the photographer and we're dying to see how it all turned out from another perspective than our own (which was very busy and barely had time to take very much in). Thank you,
Zach & Deb

Our first Camping trip

We went on our first camp out from yesterday till this afternoon. It was so much fun! This morning we went on a hike just to see where the trail went. It lead us around mant interesting turns and bends, always ascending higher and higher. We didn't run into any ferocious beasts while we were up there, except this menacing butterfly. It even has wiskers by it's "nose" !

We saw a couple more like these below!

And here are some samples of the flora we passed along the way too. This plue and purple one is Penstemon.

This is a wild Delphinium, just like the cultured ones we had at the wedding.

And here's a close-up view of the flower to show all the fine details of it

Columbine; white ones and yellow ones...

Paintbrush

I don't know what this little white one is, but it was so dainty and cute I had to take a picture of it. The breeze was blowing enough that it wouldn't stay still!!! Grrr!

These guys were much more vivid in real life...

Here are a few pictures of our surroundings

A little catching up

I was a little preoccupied the entire last weekend to get any pictures of the wedding, so I'm depending on you all who were there to put some up until we get ours from the photographer. Here are a few I did get.