A short quail tale.

I don't feel like writing about the Quail but I said I would. Well, I'll spare you the whole long story. It's enough to say 100 were ordered, 80 made it to us alive. The numbers dropped precipitously since then and this morning there were 3. I know the post office called the morning they got the package, unlike the last order of chickens, they can't be blamed. Why we lost them all we can't figure out.

What were we going to do with them? I have no idea. I don't why Jay & his buddy ordered them. It's a shame though, poor birds - maybe if the 3 live well try and keep them around as pets.

A job I want:
Kitty corner from our building is the warehouse that stores the Miss Budweiser hydroplane. Two people (seem to) work there. The only thing I've seen happen there so far is these two guys playing their remote control cars in their parking lot. It's not like I'm some over-worked wage slave chained to my desk or anything but jeez guys, wax the boat or something, at least try to look like your working.

From "The list of projects & dreams"
Ok, so now that the office is finished we get to move on to new projects. It's really a pity that Jay can't stand to have nothing to do. We're going our tonight to source material for the new "raised beds" or new garden in what is now part of our driveway. Don't worry there's plenty of driveway to go around. My idea was to build to 'C' shaped raised beds that face each other. Their not going to be "raised beds" really as much as they are really tall, large planters. They'll come up about 28"-32" - tall enough to easily sit on the wall while rooting around in the dirt. Here's a crappy little drawing I sweated over for about 2 minutes to show you.



So the roundy things are the existing trees and shrubs - the two red things in the middle are the planters - they should end up about 4 feet across - leaving a little "room" in the middle will probably have a fountain and a chair/table in it. It's about 10x10 in there - the whole thing is about 24' x 24'. The weird rectangle at the bottom is the side of the house. Hey, I'm NOT a graphic artist, ok? I originally wanted them built out of railroad ties but my contractor (Jay) says that would look too much like a fort ( I shrugs me shoulders & shakes me head) I already ruled out the fakey home depot retaining wall bricks. (I'm sure I posted about this before) So even though timbers would be SO much easier to work with, and I think would look just fine...were going rock shopping tonight - WAA-HOO!!

The best part is Jay is "on the job" so this project isn't destined to end up half done, like one of my projects. (refer to the half painted yellow patio table & chairs or the 1/2 done oil painting for starters...)

Anyway....

It's Friday afternoon, the sun is shining and it looks to be a great weekend. Hope your having fun!

Life in the big city (well, Seattle at least)

I got home last night to a neighborhood swarming with the police. When I turned on to the main road at the bottom of the hill I could see two state patrol cruisers blocking off two streets to the south of us and could hear sirens all around us. About 15 minutes after I got home and was out back with the goats a cop in SWAT tactical gear came around from the front of the house, didn't even hear him pull up. Anyway, he told us they were searching for an escaped rapist that was attempting to hide in the woods around us. I have no idea where he might have escaped from or when or where they rape occurred. He left us with the advice to bring the dog in the house as they were bring in the police dogs. We never heard anything after that - I watched the news and looked in the paper this morning but I can't find any report of the whole thing. It's not the first time I've seen a big police response to something and then never saw a news report - makes you wonder.

THEN! this after noon Jay came into my office and mentioned that he noticed what looked like blood and a hand print in the hen house this morning. I started to give him a hard time about being clueless but then I realized that he really hadn't put two and two together. Anyway - I'm going to check it out when I get home and see if it really looks like a bloody hand print. I'll call the cops if it does. I guess I should be more freaked out about it but I'm not. Well unless it really is a hand print - I'll post an update on what I find -

ANYWAY----

On to something better - Pictures! ok - here's my new office


And the view out my much loved window to the parking lot...



And the other two side of my fish bowl (I kid, it's not bad at all)



Out in the shop...Big Red there needs to go to the dump then he can go back to storage - we only us him once in a while


Down the long hall way - we have 4 office across the back of the building and to big ones above, upstairs


And finally, Jay's office. We'll be working on getting him some big boy furniture soon - Right now it looks pretty funny - the "admins" have office suites, the owners have crap!


Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you about the 100 baby Quail chicks that were delivered yesterday - tiny TINY little peepers.

I'm Back.

Hello there - did ya miss me? I'm alone in the office for the first time since we moved in. The 'owners' have been in the office a lot ever since we moved in. Much more so than the ever were before we moved. Hopefully the new-ness will wear off soon and they'll be back in the field more soon. You can translate that to mean out from under foot too. Or in my office, or just generally in the way. Remember, respect is earned.

Anyway, I'm really liking the new place. It's a great commute for Jay & I. We drop down the hill from home - get on the freeway and go south 1 exit and we're here. The fastest I've clocked it so far is 7 minutes. Now if there was just a grocery store, gas station and post office in between here and there commuting life would be perfect.

I brought Bear into work with me the first few days but the general commotion around here was a little hard for him to deal with. Too many people moving around (to be followed around) and too much activity for him. It was a chore just to get him to settle down and stay put and as soon as I did have him settled someone would come in and start it all over again. On the third morning I was going to bring him in he balked. I was ready to go, picked up my keys and turned to him and said "Ready to go to work?!" He gave me a look, grumble and turned around and went upstairs to crawl back in bed. Well, OK then! We'll try it again sometime son - maybe 1/2 days would be more to his liking. Another issue is he knows the park is just down the road so he associates the shop with going to the park. He's pretty clear with the body language when he's wants to go play. Actually I think he'd rather stay home and see if Nana or an auntie will come play with him. The dog has a better social life than I do.

I brought my camera today to take pics of my office and 'the window' (s), of course the battery is dead - so that will have to wait. My window looks out on our parking lot and the abandon house across the road. It's a strange little neighborhood. Residential and commercial/light industry all throw together. I've walked around mentally trying to date the structures and my best guess is it was a residential area first the came the businesses that crowded them out. There are still some inhabited homes in the mix though. Two of them across the street from our bay doors. Next to us is a family run business that sells ice making machines for restaurants and bars. Very nice people. They had us over for an ice cream social/meet and greet, which was fun, and very nice of them to do.

The abandoned house across from the parking lot is completely over grown with plants, so much so you can barely see the house. It's also home to a large population of cats. There not exactly feral but not exactly tame either. They will come close to me but not close enough to pet. They're all very skinny, or more likely the look how cats are supposed to when not over fed by humans.

The nearby park is Ft. Dent, it's also has the Starfire Sports Center in it. A large soccer/sports complex. The Seattle Sounders practise and play some games there. We can go out our back door and down half a block to the trail by the river that goes into the back side of the park.

Across from the road from ice machine company is one of Odwalla's distribution centers. If you've never tried their juices I highly recommend their plain old straight up orange juice - the best I've ever had - anyway, they have cute drivers and a great product so we'll be cozying up to them given the first opportunity.

Well I'll end this by teling you that we're all fine - just been busy - It was nice to take a little blogging hiatus but I'm back now so I'll blog more soon. It's funny how you can feel torn about blogging. First I didn't write because I didn't have time. Then it seems funny to read blogs will not posting(I know, weird) Then I felt bad for not keeping up with everyone - thank god it all just in my own head!
Sorry for dropping off the planet there for a while.