Back in Portland - loving my yard

I'm having a love affair with my house in Portland right now. Maybe it's because everything we planted two years ago is in bloom, maybe it's the weather, or the fact that we almost sold this sucker a month ago. Regardless, our time here in this house is limited, because we have a goal, and that's Hood River, baby!

We got back Sunday night, and the sounds of the city, after being in such quiet solitude, were so welcoming. Kids running in the front yards playing, neighbors, and friends stopping by to chat. Such a contrast from the week we just had.

One of the first things we did was check the plum tree. It was getting pretty ripe before we left, but not quite ready to pick. But check this out! We must have had 25 plums this year, compared to the two last year. A number of the plums had started to shrivel and fall at the beginning of the summer, so I googled fruit tree and decided to prune the fresh stalks to preserve the fruit. It worked! It was work. I also read that it's good to prune it to keep it low and easy to pick, but if you do it at the wrong time, you can kill the tree or something. Not pruning, though, can result in a 50 foot pear tree that is beautiful, but unreachable. My neighbor behind me has such a tree.

After I took this picture, the kids grabbed the camera and took a few themselves.

Then I headed to the front yard to take some pictures of my favorite plants in bloom.

 Later in the week, the kids practiced some face painting skills they picked up in art camp. Best face painting technique is only achieved when tongue is hanging out of your mouth.

I did a little shopping and made a very unpractical purchase at my favorite local consignment store. Jesse later told me that it looks like a pear. Should go great in that giant tree right next to the pear orchard! The ladies in the store, whom I'm very familiar with (considering I furnished almost our entire house from here over the past three years), gave me kudos for climbing into this puppy, high off the ground. Sold!

Whoops, wait, we don't have a moving truck. Time to rent a Uhaul! We talked about buying a trailer for back and forth trips, but trailers run about $2500 new and are hard to find used in food cart city. So we decided to rent one and see how hauling a trailer feels. 

I was pretty intimidated, but the guy at the rental place hooked it up for me and there was no going back. I decided to make a last minute craig's list sofa purchase and next thing I knew, the trailer was too full to bring the things we originally intended to bring. Like tools, farming bins, and random other things that we don't need in Portland anymore. Why I have a farming bin is beyond me. Because once I thought it looked cool?

I picked up Jesse on the westside with the trailer and gave him a small anxiety attack when I almost took out a Mercedes on a turn (I didn't almost), and we were off. I'd been driving it all day by then and was fully confident. The turns are tight on a 5x8 trailer, but a 5x8 trailer doesn't hold much.

The giant pear didn't fit. Maybe next trip.

Back to the Hood!