06-30APR14 - Sultan, WA (with a return to houma, la)

Sunday morning, 06APR, we hit the road to our summer quarters in Sultan, WA.  As always it took more time to reopen house than to close it up.  First set back was when a PVC pipe that had been frozen during the winter, burst in the pump house necessitating emergency trip to Lowe's for parts.

Monday was a glorious sunny day, so we focused our attention on the outside of the buildings & landscaping.  Eventually this meant mowing over two acres of dead and/or wet grass that has been unattended for over seven months.  During the day cousin Steve (who we saw just yesterday in Kittitas) stopped by since Bonnie & he were in Munro helping Bonnie's parents.  Steve has volunteered to help Dan install electricity in the new shop/garage building, so it was a good opportunity for him to see what he was getting into:)!  By the end of the day no one had energy to fix dinner, so it was take out from Ixtapa's Mexican.

By Tuesday we finally moved the RV into the new garage/shop we had built last summer.  One immediate benefit of the new building was being able to immediately dump the RV holding tanks!  Then it was back to yard work with Corrie working on the landscape & Dan attacking the blackberries.

Thursday, 10APR, Dan headed into Everett to get Electrical Permit from the state department called Labor & Industry (aka L&I).  Friday Dan headed out to pick up our repaired old computer.  For those that don't remember, the hard drive mechanically failed last month in Phoenix.  Since there were still important files on the drive, we needed it fixed if possible.  The technician saved the files but now software needs re-loading, & remember Microsoft no longer supports Windows XP.

Thursday, 17APR, Gene of AUSA Excavation arrived early with his track-hoe to widen our driveway to the new shop/garage, to dig an electric power trench to the shop, dig a water trench to the shop, & to move dirt.  To save time & cut costs Dan even helped with our 60 year old Ferguson tractor.  A couple of times Gene overloaded the Ferguson with the track-hoe & all of sudden Dan would feel the rear end of the tractor lifting off the ground!

Sunday, Easter, Dan's brother Shawn & fiancé Cindie come by on their Harleys for a visit.  So we stopped our never ending yard work & had a great visit, including an "early" dinner.  

 As we mentioned in our BLOG back in March for Sierra Vista, AZ, our daughter's husband Raymond Pitre was sent to an Army training school for four months.  This resulted in daughter Rebecca taking care of two infants & the house, while working fulltime.  So we decided that Corrie should fly back to Houma, LA, for a week, to lend a helping hand & hopefully lower Rebecca's stress level.  So Tuesday early morning, 22APR, it was off to SeaTac airport to send her on her way.

Wednesday cousin Steve drove over from Kittitas to help with getting electric power to shop/garage.  First thing was getting PVC conduit into the trench dug last week.  Since it has rained almost continuously since the trench had been dug, it required a rental "trash" pump to move the water; but it was still muddy, muddy, muddy.  For some reason Steve didn't want to play in the mud, & made Dan do all the dirty work?  Steve's reward was dinner at Ixtapa's.  Thursday morning before Steve's departure, Steve & Dan decided to go visit Aunt Jan, who was back home after dealing with some medical issues.  After that visit Steve went home; & Dan spent the rest of day cleaning up & putting stuff away.

Saturday, 26APR, Dan headed into Seattle to attend the Japanese Festal at Seattle Center.  We attended this Festal last year (see below BLOG to learn more about Festals at the Seattle Center).  After that he walked down to the Pike Place Market to people watch.

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2013/04/06-30apr13-sultan-wa-rain-rain-go-away.html

Monday, 28APR, L&I inspector showed up to inspect the conduit & trench.  No problems found.  After L&I's departure, Dan headed to Home Depot to rent a Kubota tractor with back-hoe to quickly bury the conduit & fill in the trench.

Unfortunately Wednesday, 30APR, Corrie decided to cancel her return flight to SeaTac because grandson Mason was really sick:( Sad news for Dan, but it will definitely be of great help to Rebecca.

The month went by quickly but it seems like most of the time was spent:

---landscaping

---mowing

---battling blackberries 

---building shelves & work bench in shop/garage

---maintenance on the Toad

---installing two sets of lights for garage doors on shop/garage

---smoking salmon filets

---new battery for Ferguson tractor

---straightening out bank accounts

---etc

 

In general, the never ending stuff that comes with being a home owner; along with a couple of acres of land!