The Great Wall of Pasco

...is what we have dubbed our new retaining wall. We decided that this summers Gargantuan House Project was to build a wall to cover up the one that was there. Eventually it would need to be replaced since it is made of railroad ties...11 year old railroad ties. After looking at that wall for 11 years now (and we have never liked looking at it), we decided to get'er done and cover it up! We will need to stain the fence now, since the rest of the yard looks so good, but that can come later.

We changed some things in the yard (took out the pool and are replanting grass in the "crop circle", moved the swingset) and it looks so much bigger. I love to hang out in my back yard now! Plus we can sit on the back patio in the evenings and build a fire in our fire pit that doubles as a patio table. Yay!

So the pictures start out showing you the 7 pallets of blocks, and my photo-timeline of the wall's creation. As you can see we had help, and Brian did most of the work since he was laid off and I was working mornings. I helped though. :)

We planted some vegetables on top of the wall - there is about a foot or so of dirt behind the wall. Next year the girls plan on having a huge garden on the wall. For now, we have cucumbers, peas, bell peppers, and carrots.

If you haven't seen The Wall in person, pictures just don't do it justice.
Enjoy this account of the creation of The Great Wall of Pasco.

The Blocks (and the neighbors' kitchen window):


One Helper:




The Counter (28, 29, 30...):

And now, for the panoramic views of the yard...


This would be the first row...

...getting ready for row two...


...and now the second row...

...the third...covered for backfilling...

...and the fourth...


...the fifth...

...the fifth row in progress - almost done...

...and finally, the last row. VICTORY!

Here's that last row again in more daylight...

"Hi (I'm never building a retaining wall again...)!"

Here's the entire yard with it's new "facelift".

Let's not forget our awesome fire pit table that we love to sit around in the evenings:

And it doubles as a great table on which I can display my pretty Gerber Daisies.
Life's simple pleasures.

A quick note

For those of you who have been checking to see if there's any new posts, be assured that I'm working on it. Brian's back to work again now, so I have a little more time on my hands to update my pictures. Anyway, since it's been so long, I'm trying to put the pictures on chronologically, so some of the newer posts might be from May or June - so check the archives to see if you've missed any. I just posted pictures from Emma's birthday in May, so start there.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures that we share!

First Train Ride

The girlies got to take their first train ride in May to see Grandpa and Grama. We rode the train to Portland, then took a bus to Salem. Grandpa picked us up and we went to see a play that Grama played piano for - Aladdin. Then we went to their house. The next day, we went to Grandpa's logging job (another blog post in itself) to take him lunch and I got to play with the log loader. Later we went back to their house, and took a walk to look for snakes - all we found was salamanders. The day we left, we ate lunch at Tanya's house, and got to see the cousins. The last few pictures are of the train ride home.

I just felt like running...

Cousins Jordan and Jenna!

Waiting for the bus to take us to the train station in Portland...

The Dalles Weekend

We went to meet my parents and sisters in The Dalles in April for a weekend "mini-vacation". Here are some pictures from that weekend. We visited Maryhill Museum, in the Columbia Gorge across from Biggs. The peacocks are all over up there and so beautiful! The pool pictures are from the motel we stayed in. Before we left for home the girls took a ride on the merry-go-round that's by the motel. FUN!