Fall, Food, and Footpaths

We have been enjoying the fall weather (rain), fall color, and fall foods in our house.  The main entertainment in our house has been walking when it is not raining and reading when it is. I've been trying to stay positive and optimistic, but I know we need to recommit to isolation and carry on until this virus is controlled. I really miss my usual routine of Pilates, craft time with a friend, book club meetings, Symphony Tacoma concerts, and family visits.

Minimalist Halloween Decor (an old sheet)

Fall color at Wright Park

Russ took a time lapse video of the leaves falling.

Duck friendly ecosystem.

Coffee is so good when the weather turns.

The small pumpkin on the right was grown by my Aunt.

It's finished at last. R-Pod Parking!

The food this month has been so good. I love the change of the season and the chance to cook with foods I haven't seen in a year. We are done with tomatoes now, and I did manage to get sick of them by the end of the season, so I'm good until they come back around next year. A note about the donuts. It's a weird consequence of retirement from work that we never eat donuts now. When I (and Russ too) was working, someone usually brought donuts to the office regularly. We found out that we just aren't drawn to them when they aren't available at the office.

The last berries made a good breakfast.

Hominy and green chile casserole

Cabbage patch soup with corn muffins.

Breakfast Before Casserole for dinner

Wild rice with squash, corn and leeks, plus gin and tonic.

Soba, edamame, and carrot salad with grilled salmon.

Potato and fennel gratin.

Shashuka.

Penne with vodka sauce and the last caprese salad, plus a cosmopolitan.

Russ likes a Joy Seeker.

These mixed wild mushrooms made a lovely pasta with pesto dinner.

Happy hour in our friends new RV.

The friend made this dinner. Scallops with herb dressing.

Veggie tortilla stacks casserole.

Potato leek soup with Waldorf salad.

Our first (only) donuts this year from the Original House of Donuts.

Panko crusted salmon with roasted potatoes and brussels sprouts.

Breakfast burrito.

Charcuterie board with old fashioned cocktails.

Red beans and rice with corn muffin.

 

We took a last weekend getaway with the R-Pod to Port Townsend before the winter. We got to experience a good storm with lots of wind out on the exposed Point Hudson. Our friends just purchased a new trailer, so we met them at the RV park and had a dinner in their new rig. So nice! We have all been isolating at home, but I still have mixed feelings about spending time indoors with anyone right now. They had just tested negative, but we have not been tested at all. In the end, our risk worked out, it has been two weeks since the trip with no illness. We spent most of our time reading in our R-Pod or braving the wind to walk around town and along the shore.

Painted rock garden.

Truth.

Always a good idea.

Sunrise and the lighthouse after the storm.

Mt. Rainier alpenglow behind all those masts.

Russ watches the sunset.

Bird and Mt. Baker at sunset.

Port Townsend from above at the bell tower.

Random love note.

My favorite bakery in Port Townsend.

Whitecaps tell the story. North Cascades on the horizon.

 

Our latest adventures are closer to home. We walked at the Chambers Bay Golf Course trail and got takeout from a local joint, The Red Hot. We are trying to get a to-go meal about once per week from one of our favorite local restaurants to support them. I don't want to lose our typical haunts to the coronavirus!

Sweeping views over the course and the south sound.

The Nature Boy vegan hotdog with mac and cheese.

The New Retaining Wall and a Wider Driveway

Since we returned from Port Townsend (a few final pictures below), we've been home, watching our driveway widening project finish up.

Sunrise from Port Hudson.

Driftwood fort at sunrise.

Walking in town; I like the sentiment.

A last look at a still Hood Canal from the bridge.

The project began in late May; we came home early from our RV trip to the southwest to be here for the construction. The city gave us a new sewer main in a better location (down the center of the street), and then had to connect all or our side sewers to the new main. This part of the neighborhood has all the houses on a hill above the street, so each connection required a canyon of a trench between houses to get to the side sewer. Our house was the most difficult for the city contractor, but they did good work and were happy to let us put the side yard back in a different way. If they city had not dug out the old side yard, I'm not sure we would have widened our driveway. It took almost six months from the start of the dig to get it finished, and it was expensive. At least we didn't have to pay for the initial work by the city, so it did cost less than if we had done the entire project ourselves.

The wall forms are ready

Pouring the concrete retaining wall.

More concrete. That little trailer is the concrete pump.

Forms removed!

Back fill. They saved our original dirt on another local site.

Pushing more dirt.

The final slab. Our contractor broke his toe (not at our house).

 

Finished.

Curing.

It seems amazing now that it's finished!

Our neighbor is also happy with how the project turned out. I feel so fortunate that we have such a good relationship with our neighbor. We made sure to get his input throughout the whole thing, and he was super accommodating about how the footing for the wall is actually on his property. We did a nice final grading of the side yard after it was filled with dirt, so any water will drain properly away from our houses. Water management is very important in a place where it rains for nine months of the year!

We are still waiting to have the old concrete pressure washed so it will match the new concrete, but we are super excited to get our trailer moved over to the new space. It is so nice to have such great off-street parking now. It makes the house work better for us; plus we won't have to pay to store our RV elsewhere. As a bonus, we now have a sewer connection in the driveway that we can use to empty our RV tanks. We've lived in this house since 1999; it was built in 1962. Twenty years of upgrades are now almost complete. The final change we plan is to add solar panels on the expanse of south facing roof with a house battery. We have spent twenty years working to make this house our own, finishing the basement, adding a bathroom, remodeling the kitchen, earthquake retrofit, upgrading the plumbing and electrical systems. It feels so good to know we are close to the end. Just in time to repaint the outside next year!