Pulled the old bike out of the dust, and cleaned it up...

Yesterday, with a challenge from the Kashi cereal website, I pulled out my 15 year old bike from under the deck, and washed off the dust and dirt.

I didn't realize what bad shape it was in. The fabric seat was toast, both tires were cracked and flat, and rust and scratches everywhere.

Soon after Matt and I met, before we were married, we purchased matching bikes. Matt taught the girls to ride their bikes without training wheels, and we frequently went for bike rides in the Sellwood neighborhood we lived in. A few times we rode down into Milwaukie where his dad was living.

Our bikes and the kids bikes went with us on all camping trips, strapping bikes to the back and top of our car. When we moved to Newberg, we took the bikes to Champoeg State Park and enjoyed the long trails. I remember taking our bikes to Forest Park once, and camping in Boardman along the Gorge with our friends Lynn and Randy.

Yesterday I dropped the wheels and seat mount off at our local bike shop. Today I put it all back together and sprayed silicone on the moving parts. There is still a bit of rust here and there, and I will take care of it as time goes on. I bought a big-butt seat, new bell and a mirror and the bike looks ready to go down the road~

I am looking forward to riding, and hoping Matt will have time to join me often.

Before the clean-up
Our "downtown" bike shop--helpful and efficient

Cleaned up, new tires and tubes, seat, and bell

My new shiny bell :)

Matt & Randy's Project Bike

Matt & Randy have been searching Craig's list for motorcycles. Matt recently got his motorcycle endorsement on his driver's license. With the weather turning nicer, Matt's got the bike bug.

It's a 1983 bike that needs a little work, but they both are confident they will have it road-worthy. Officially, the bike is Matt's, and they are looking out for a bike for Randy.

Lori's not to happy about the "little butt seat", she would rather have a "big butt seat" before considering getting on the thing.

Matt & Randy, messing around

Randy

Monkey-ing around....

One of the projects Nicole and I set out to do this summer was make a sock monkey.

We were inspired by the sock monkey collection on display at a store in downtown Portland. The display was also highlighting a new sock monkey picture book (though I can't recall the name at this time).

With her full-time work schedule, and the start of school looming on the horizon, we kept trying to make appointments with each other to get the monkeys started, and then finished. With the sewing machine on the living room floor and a laptop on a sock monkey tutorial website, we set out to create the little creatures.

Abi had purchased a sock monkey from the local summer festival, for $15. Nicole and I set out to make them for almost nothing. We had to buy a bag of stuffing, and buttons (so the eyes would match).

We had the pleasure of sewing on the tail, arms, and ears while we waited in the stadium parking lot for Nicole's turn to register for the marching band. Within an hour, we just about had our monkeys complete.

Last night I completed my project by sewing two black buttons for eyes and a red heart on the chest. Nicole is now at school, and she has her monkey with her. It will be fun to share a digital photo of where our sock monkeys visit.

-Lori

Projects and Garden Update - Zucchini, Zucchini, Zucchini !!

We had a computer crash last week, and took a trip to the computer fix-it dude. Had to start all over, luckily we anticipated a problem earlier this year, and backed up almost all of our family photos.

Before we had a week of rain and thundershowers, we were able to get the deck stained and sealed last weekend. One of the summer projects that is now complete.

Garden update: We have had a few tomatoes, but not the abundance like previous years. Hardly enough to make a bowl of salsa. The sunflowers are very tall, and can now be easily seen from inside a second-story window.

The zucchini is most abundant (of course!), Matt was able to share several with people at work, and the zucchini bread count is now at 7 loaves, with 2 additional loaves to make tonight (with raisins) for Lori's mom. The third batch of zucchini brownies has been made, and the kids don't seem to be eager to partake. I sent a batch with Nicole and her friends today for their "guitar hero" get-together. This Christmas we'll enjoy the cinnamon/nutmeg favored zucchini bread more so than today, hopefully :)
-Lori

The LAST time I will sand a deck!!!!!!

Well, one of the summer projects that I wanted to complete before school starts back up in September is to re-stain and seal the deck.

Each year we have pressure washed the deck, and stained it to give it a fresh look and protect the wood so it will last for a long long time. Last year I stained it with a "solid" redwood color that was not as nice as the transparent stains that show off the wood grain. On top of that error in judgment, I also rushed the staining job by probably not letting the wood fully dry out, and we had mold/mildew areas under the stain. The mildew may have also been a result of the rainy winter we get, and the two trees that surround the deck.

So, the right thing to do would be to sand it all down to remove the old solid stain, and get down to the nice wood with its natural grains. That was about a month and a half ago. I first started by hand-sanding the railing and each individual rail, followed by a nice natural cedar transparent stain. That portion went okay, so then I started on the floor of the deck.

I would not recommend sanding by hand to anyone--it takes way to long, especially trying to remove layers of stain. We have since invested in an electric belt sander and an orbital sander, which have helped with the process tremendously, but it is still hard work. I have invested about 32 accumulative hours of labor into this deck so far this summer, and its almost ready to seal.

I don't plan on having to do this again, I'll either move or hire someone else to do it.

-Lori