Front Yard Landscaping Project

It all started with John cutting and installing slate tile on our front porch



Goodbye Blue Spruce -- No more lights on the tree at Christmas!

Goodbye green lawn



Goodbye bushes by our front windows --

jack hammer and pick-up were needed to complete the job.


After letting the lawn die out over the summer, John rented a machine to strip the dead sod out, then had to take the strips to the dump


Lots of rototilling, making mounds, and digging for the new sidewalk


The first of many deliveries


After the bottom soil was delivered for the walkway, John rented another machine to tamp it down.



Gayle had fun trying to figure out how to fit all those slate sandstone pieces in the walkway. After she put in the grout, she had to fix the mistakes with a drill and grinder



The good soil was delivered -- lots of shoveling work



Boulder rocks delivered to add aesthetic appeal.

Did we mention this was back-breaking manual labor?


John bought a roll of cardboard to put on top of the soil to serve as a weed barrier.
It needed lots of wetting down to get it to mold to the landscape.



Finally -- planting the drought-resistant plants!



John installing the drip irrigation lines -- not an easy thing to figure out!


We had to finish up in the rain, but finish we did!!!!

We can't wait to see what our baby plants will look like when they grow up!

Oregon & Washington, Summer 2009

What a great time we had on a road trip--without our trailer! We spent a couple nights in Ashland, OR on the way north. Dorothy and Jerry Brooks offered us their home to stay in, even though they weren't there -- our big disappointment. But they are located just a block from the downtown area. We were thrilled to see 3 plays, and enjoy their comfortable home at the same time.

We spent another couple nights in Portland, OR, at a lovely downtown hotel. We did lots of walking and utilizing their great transportation system to see many of the Portland sights. We had a wonderful meal on our last night -- right on the Columbia River.

Our main destination was to the Bellevue, WA area where my brother, Alan, lives. His wife, Sue, planned a 60th birthday party for him. It was great to meet so many of their friends, and to show a slideshow for the gathering of our growing-up years. The other goal was to get to Silver Skis Lodge on Crystal Mountain to officiate at Alan's stepdaughter's wedding. The weather had been sizzling hot the weekend before, but the wedding weekend turned cold. Our Hawaiian outdoor laua by the pool (for the rehearsal dinner) meant we had to wear jackets and gloves to keep warm! The sun peeked out (barely) for the outdoor wedding, but all in all, it was a wonderful weekend.

Mt. Shasta Work Project Sept 2009

John and I participated in a Care-a-Vaners work project at Mt. Shasta UMC Camp last September. We joined with 12 other retired United Methodists with our RVs for a week in the beautiful area of Mt. Shasta City. This was our first experience with Care-a-Vaners, but it won't be our last. Our main project was to close the camp up for winter. Most of us women took on the job of splitting wood for the caretaker's cabin during the winter, as well as guests who use the lodge. John and the other men loaded the logs from the mountainsides and dumped them by our log splitter. John also tackled other projects -- adding on to their tool shed, and organizing the tools, as well as running lines for the water pumps. We had a great time. We spent several days afterwards at Lake Siskiyou campground -- one of our favorite campsites. Beautiful weather; beautiful scenery.

wine country weekend

Once a year my friends, Jane and Dovie, come up from Palo Alto for a day or two in the wine country. We always have a great time, but this year was especially wonderful. We were celebrating Jane's retirement-- from the day before. We were distributing my new cards/fliers to wineries that have wedding venues. (If interested, see: www.gaylepickrellministry.blogspot.com)

We were "catching up" after our year away. It was a lovely time. The rain held off all day Saturday, and we were some of the few people going into several "out of the way" wineries. We had great interactions with the winery staff at each stop. At one winery, my friend and a former priest, Tony, who now pours wine several days and drives a bread truck a couple other days (what a great eucharist metaphor!) is always a joy to spend time with! (middle photo)

On Sunday, when it was raining non-stop, we went on a cave tour at Gloria Ferrar Cellars in Sonoma and learned more about making "sparkling wine" -- or champagne, but they can't technically call it that. John joined us that day, and as you can see, our last stop added a bit of "flair" with our drunken (statue) friend!

Amgen Tour de California Bike Tour

It was cold and rainy, but we braved it anyway and joined the throng of people who watched the Tour de California bike race here yesterday. They had predicted 90,000 would show up for this Davis to Santa Rosa Stage 1 event, so we went early and found a spot on the top of a parking garage. But the weather kept many away.

Lance Armstrong and our own Santa Rosan, Levi Leipenheimer, were expected to win, but a Spanish fellow was way out in front until the last minute. He is the lone rider in grey -- he did win yesterday. But there are many days this week they'll be competing--most of them in the rain. It's great California is finally getting rain. Too bad it had to be this week!

Fun with Friends

When our children were very young, four families used to get together on occasion. Some of us even had children in backpacks as we went on backpack trips. Other times we took car camping trips, and paddled in canoes, and took day hikes.

Our lives got busy and our children grew up. We haven't spent much time together as four couples in our "mature years," but we are hoping we've started a new tradition. We spent part of a weekend together at our home in Santa Rosa recently, going to Bodega Bay for lunch one of those days.

We decided it was a good time to say a big "thank you" to Sue, since it was near her birthday and she has remembered everyone of us on our birthdays every year -- and we are just a handful of people she regularly contacts on their birthdays! She had just retired from a nursing career. Part of the retirement "ritual" Karen created was of her smashing an alarm clock!

Pictured are: Jerry and Sue Angove (Jerry is a retired UMC minister -- he and I were on the UMC conference youth executive team in college days); Bill and Kate Johnson (Bill is also a retired UMC pastor who preceded me at St. Andrew's UMC in Palo Alto, and was a co-officiatant at John and my wedding; Kate and John were in meditation groups together); Stan and Karen Johnsen (long-time friends who even lived with my former husband and I for a few months and they were house-hunting in Palo Alto. Karen is a retired teacher; Stan is close to retirement as a physicist at Varian in Palo Alto.) One of Stan & Karen's daughters, Dr. Jill Johnsen, was just on a National Geographic TV special program last night about nanotechnology. Talk about our children speaking a different language!

It's A Brand New Day

Last evening we witnessed a beautiful golden sunset where we are staying at a friend's (Linda Carroll's) family beach house in Ventura. And this morning we witnessed a shiny new day. We couldn't help making symbollic connections. We finally saw the sunset on the Bush years, and the glorious beginning of this new hope-filled day. Even the porpoises seemed happy as they playfully swam along the coastline, and then we saw several of them riding the waves. What fun!

And what a day it has been!

We had the kleenex box handy as the President-elect became The President of the United States of America. Things are different -- a seismic shift has happened this day.

Barak Obama was definitely presidential today. His smile so genuine. His humility so real. His poise and grace so remarkable. His speech so terrific with great word images and thoughtful rhetoric. It was inclusive (speaking to all faiths, all nations, all ages, all men and women, youth and children, military and civilian, the powerful and the unknown.) It was personal (speaking about the condition of our society during his father's adulthood) and political (reclaiming a new direction for our nation); thoughtful and tough; historic and forward-looking. He appealled to all of us to become better human beings, and to the world to join in common humanity.

We are so happy we were a tiny part of helping this day happen!