It has been a couple months since my last post. Let me catch you up.
I’ve been driving back and forth from Felton to Bishop and Independence so often that I’m starting to remember most of the huge, car-swallowing potholes, dips, bumps, and rough railroad crossings along the way. I’m not as nimble when pulling the big trailer, so I’ve hit a few – ouch! Sweetheart developed a shimmy in July and I thought she needed an alignment, which she did, but it was also time for new tires. Now she is all set.
I turned my focus to beautifying the Felton house. Let me tell you, we’ve been busy beavers! All the manual labor has kicked up my metabolism a bit and I feel like a hungry, hungry hippo! Uh oh, I sound like I’m listing Ubuntu releases.
Just call me Ilene 
Repaired the rose gate
Jon and I set up a new automatic watering system, replaced rotten steps, and planted lots of ferns and a few other plants. By then, Sweetheart was fixed up, so I got 5 yards of redwood chips and spread them around the yard, made paths, made a couple dump runs with weeds (ivy, jasmine, and redwood suckers were overrunning our yard). Then I got 3 yards of pea gravel (I could only haul 1 yard at a time, since it weighs a ton a yard!) and spread it over the driveway.
Will work for popsicles 
Sprucing up the sideyard
We set up the solar sails, which was a project we’ve planned to do for a few years, but digging 4 foot deep holes for the posts sounded worse than it actually was. Jon fixed the rose gate and attached the mail box to one of the solar sail posts, so it won’t lean any more. I can’t count how many compliments on our yard that we’ve received from neighbors and walkers, so we must be doing something right!
Speaking of doing something right, we’re really glad that we take deep core strengthening classes with Lizzy via zoom a couple times a week, so we haven’t “strained our gizzards,” as my mom says. Thanks, Lizzy!
We’ve been fixing up the bathroom, kitchen, and deck and still are working on those.
The delays for our dome plans and tiny house gave us much more time to fix up our Felton house, so while I’m impatient to be on the Eastside, it has certainly worked out.
