Arbor Days

I just got back from Washington DC -- I had a science education conference that was great. My folks even came to meet me for lunch one day. While I was gone, Ken spent 4 days building the structural parts of the arbor over our back deck. He's actually hand-chiseling the 18 foot long 4x6" beams that span the deck. Pretty impressive. The slats that go on top are finished being cut and chiseled, but the rain we had all weekend prevented us from adding the sealant to the rest of the beams (you can see the brown sealant between some of the joists) so we can finish the project. We've been painting the sealant on the slats in the garage all weekend. Now we're just waiting now for it to be sunny so we can finish the sealant on the main beams before we attach the slats. Here are two pictures of our progress.






and....

Congratulations to Karl and Wieke who got married in Tucson this weekend!

House and Garden Updates

In honor of Mother's day, here are some photo updates of the house that I promised her. These were taken in the past few days and show some of the things we've been doing.


Here is the front of the house in spring bloom.


My new Coral Bark Maple tree is there, but he is still smaller than a tulip. He's in the left bed as you're looking at the house (just above the group of yellow tulips in the above picture).



Now that we have the new property, I've had a blast with it. We've turned it into a sitting area/tomato-grape-pea growing zone/compost area. Here is the area from afar -- you can see the sweet peas, snow peas and green beans growing along the back fence. You can also see the chairs, from where the next few photos are taken. This picture is about a week old -- I've since finished the rock border around the path (see below).



Hiding around the corner of that new area (looking over your left shoulder if you're sitting in the chairs) is the composting area we built. It will have a door, but we haven't built that yet.


From those chairs in the backyard's new area, here is the view looking out. I finally finished the rock wall going around the gravel path. You can see the rose bushes that we transplanted last spring are very happy. I love sitting in these chairs. Under the trees, drink in hand. Perfect for enjoying the fruits of your labor.



Again, this picture was taken from the same location as above. Now that we have the fence, I've turned the back area into a woodland garden of sorts. Lots of ferns, stepping stones from recycled concrete and all of my indoor plants that got leggy this winter. I'm rerooting them and will dig them up to go inside this fall. I'm hoping they get rejuvenated. They look pretty cool in the garden.



Another photo taken from the same spot. You can see more of the rock border lining the gravel path, the garage with the huckleberry/currant/gooseberry in front, the arbor that Ken's working on as well as our tomato cages surrounding the cherry tree (that has cherries this year!!!! we saw them plumping up yesterday!). We're so happy to have the extra space in the backyard. It's really coming together with all the beds and edibles. Kinley loves to sit in the grass and watch us (or eat sticks, whichever is more appealing at the time).



Closeup of Ken working on the arbor. The posts went up yesterday and Ken just ordered the 14' and 18' cross-supports (for the top). They'll arrive this week. The arbor slats will be positioned to block the sun from the west (right side of the picture). Can't wait. It's supposed to be 87 on wednesday so it will definitely help make the backyard more enjoyable this summer. Kinley approves. Lastly, although it's difficult to see, he's sitting right in front of my new peach tree (which hasn't leafed out yet).


Standing on the deck looking out:



If you go down those left deck stairs, you'll see the kiwi that I planted. He produces great-flavored, grape-sized kiwis that you can eat whole. Rachel, this is variety that you told me about a few weeks ago -- we couldn't figure out why anyone would plant one rather than the grocery store variety. I figured out why -- he will only get around 8-10 feet (rather than the 50 feet most grocery store varieties get). Plus, he doesn't need another 30'+ male plant in order to set fruit. So he seems great for a small yard and is called "Issai". Since the fruits are so small, I take it as a huge plus that you don't have to peel the fuzzy skins to eat them. I forgot to mention him in my list of plants the other day.



If you go around the corner from the kiwi plant, here is my sweet 5-variety dwarf asian pear tree. I think he has one pear forming on the top. It is small and still early to tell, but I am excited. I took the photo so I can remember which varieties are which as he grows up. I took off the tags yesterday. You can see my dwarf peach tree behind him. And the garage behind it all.


A closeup of my peach tree as it was getting dark. You can see the one little pink blossom on bottom right. He's just starting to leaf out. I love his reddish bark.



Finally, pulling it all together, here is a movie of the backyard and above items. You can hear our Led Zeppelin "working music" playing in the background.


Happy Mother's day!

Getting to know you

One of our science education programs start tomorrow and we had to submit a bio for participants to get to know us better. Here is mine:

Plant it in your orchard

Work
Lots of work at our house lately, and sadly not the kind at home. Ken has been staying late for weeks now and I'll have spent three saturdays at work out of the last 5. Usually, I'd be a bit fussy about it, but I like my job so I don't mind so much. Plus it's not a regular occurrence. Things are busy for me though -- one coworker just left since she's moving out of the country and another left in March for a (permanent) maternity leave. So now I'm spending time between two offices but getting more experience in a short period of time than I ever dreamed. I'm going to DC for a meeting in a week and a half. Plus, I'll be going back in November for SfN! How fun! Can't wait to see everyone.

Family
Other than work, we spent the last week in April in Hawley, PA for Ken's family reunion. It took us 12 hours to get there -- the closest town is Scranton, PA if that tells you anything. We had a great time and it was wonderful to see everyone. There were ~30 of us -- very fun to get everyone together at one time -- especially since nobody has to host. Or cook. Or drive. Or organize activities. You just hang out, play games, eat meals and drink together. It was great to catch up -- I hadn't seen most of them for two years.

"Friends"
I finished the rock border in the backyard this weekend, but my biggest update is that I planted a peach tree in the backyard. He gets 12' tall, is self-fertile and disease-resistant. I love him dearly and took a picture of him, but it's on Ken's camera so this one that I found on the internet will have to do. Plus, there's a chicken in the picture so it was the hands-down winner. Anyway, the peach tree is awesome. Reddish bark. Bright pink flowers. I can't wait to pick peaches in my own backyard. For drinks. To grill. To eat from the tree. Awesome.

The most hilarious part is that when we first moved into our house and planted our $5 cherry tree, the lady told us to "plant it in [our] orchard". Of course, our orchard! Now, 3 years later, our small 50x100 foot lot in the middle of Portland has the following perennial edibles (none of which were there before we moved in):

Peach tree
Apple tree (5 varieties)
Asian pear tree (5 varieties)
Bing cherry tree
Yuzu citrus tree
Blueberries (3 varieties)
Strawberries (100+ plants, 5 varieties)
Gooseberry (Captivator)
Red Currant (Cherry)
Black Currant (Crandall)
Lingonberries (4 plants, 2 varieties)
Rhubarb (Victoria)
Hops (4 varieties)

I feel very lucky. Dwarfing, disease-resistant trees make me so happy. They're not expensive (especially in bare-root form) and they give back so much. Even Ken is excited! I think my pressure canner will be very busy this summer.