This one isn’t for those with dial up (part 1)

I don’t actually know if they offer dial-up internet any more, maybe that’s gone by the way side with things like cassette tapes and rotary telephones.  Regardless, this is the picture post. The one with all the photos of my house.

I’ve told Dave that my winter project, (the project I’ll work on while the sun disappears and the days are short and it rains endlessly.  The project that will be in the garage under UV Vitamin B lights.)  will be to make a new mail box, something garishly tacky and obnoxious.  Something that I can tell people, “We’re the house with the bright neon mermaid mailbox.”  or maybe “You can’t miss our house, Our mailbox is shaped like Pinocchio being eaten by the whale”.  or maybe “Our house has a mailbox shaped like the Last Supper.”  I haven’t really settled on the exact one yet.  All I know is it will be amazing!

We need some kind of landmark to point our house out. Otherwise the small driveway is rather easy to miss.

McKayla:  You can hardly see our driveway.  If those trees grew a bit more our driveway might disappear forever.

Me:  There is some cement preventing some growth. 

McKayla:  I feel like this is the beginning of a scary movie.  Dave could rip up the drieveway and plant a tree and no one would even know there was a house here.  One day he could come home and kill us all with a chainsaw. 

Me:  Okay, well if your dad decides to rip up the driveway, we now know to be scared.

We have found salmon berries. Which I think taste like dirt.  Yay,dirt berry , I mean salmon berry  jam for everyone this year!  Our neighbor told us that salmon berries have a taste that only kids can taste, something about Peter Pan’s magical fruit. He also said that it was a little early in the season, I’m hoping that as they ripen they taste better.

We have also discovered tons of strawberries with lots of little strawberries on them.  I’ve promised ice cream for the discovery of any edible fruit or berry on our property.

We have an amazing slope to our drive way that is just big enough to make for some exciting biking but not quite big enough to detour those with training wheels.  We also have some resident bats which will soon be getting new bat boxes.  Anything to make those mosquito eaters happy. Both options to the drievway lead to our house.  It just depends if you want to come the regular way, or if you are feeling a little bit feisty and want to sneak up on us.

And there is our new home. Technically, I can park in the garage, but we don’t have a garage clicker yet.  I don’t have the patience to wait for a kid to run up the stairs, unlock the front door, run through the house and then open the garage door.  I tried once, but the kid sent on the mission decided to go to the bathroom and then completely forgot we were waiting in the car, in the rain.  and he went off and played in his room.

The view from the front porch.

I don’t know why there is only one solar light on the porch. I’m not sure if he’ll get 7 more friends or he’ll find his way to a treehouse.  So far we don’t know what kind of lighting we need because it doesn’t get dark until nearly 10 pm and we haven’t arrived home in the dark yet.  Something about spending every waking moment painting and fixing stuff around the house, have us homebound.

Barely visible under the trees is a picnic table.  That’s where the kids are forced to eat lunch at during the summer.  I have instituted an “outside and playing or an inside and napping”  rule.  The best part about that picnic table is that it’s under the tree cover, it doesn’t get very wet.  The kids don’t know it yet, but they might be playing outside in the rain.  I will turn these city kids into forest kids sooner or later.  I think the addition of a tree house will really help me.

and the back side.

Please note the absence of patio furniture.  I didn’t move any patio furniture  and Dave and I can’t agree on which kind to buy.  All I know is that I needed a chair outside of our room so that I have somewhere to escape and talk on the phone.  A sports chair is getting the job done for now.

Also, please note the large BBQ.  The BBQ didn’t move with us either.  Dave could totally decide on which bbq he wanted though.

Also note the two dead trees in the back of the photo.  Dave is convinced he is a lumber jack and wants to cut them down.  It turns out that all of his engineer friends also think they are lumber jacks too.  They are organizing a tree cutting party.  I am organizing a spa trip.

I took a picture from the house looking out into the back yard, but it’s just green.  An acre of green trees.