Snow!

Oregon got a huge blast of winter weather and I am loving it.

Notice the howling wind pushing the snow across the road. Even the bushes are pointing slightly to the left.

Squirrel chowing down with a wintery blast all around.

Icicle's hanging from the top of my place. Ignore the terrible hung Christmas light.

Watching mothernature.

I enjoy a good black and white photo every once in a while and this one turned out well. The light at the end of the tunnel.

Day 3 - Fireplace

Well I skipped a day as the week has been a bit hectic. So now to figure out what type of mantle to put up on the fireplace. Then installing the wood fireplace insert. So far is looking pretty good.


I was a bit hesitant as I was hoping more reds and blues would be in the rock, although after the moisture came out, it seemed to give it more color.

Leaf sucker

My roommate and I had a crazy idea and we could so see this on a comedy site. I bought a leaf blow and sucker, which I normally wouldn't get but you don't understand just how many leaves fall on our front and back yard. On the sucker piece they give you an ultra small bag that would fit maybe 1/50th of the leaves in the front. That would be insane! Sooooo, we had some extra dust collector tubing from the shop. We grabbed some duck tape and off we went.


After a little magical duck tape we got our invention up and running. The greatest thing about this concept, unlike paper or plastic bags you can really pack the cut up leaves to the bottom.


Packed and cut up leaves.


Imagine this whole yard with leaves... And then realize they all went into that bin. The chopping and packing definitely helped and provides a funny story. :)

Day 1 - Fireplace

Crazy Saturday, so all of the bricks down to the fireplace opening have been removed, cinder blocks were laid on top, and then finally were covered. This was from the huge crack in the middle of the fireplace (previous post shows) and could continue downward.


Fireplace brick, we are thinking we may clean these up a bit during the spring to build up a firepit in the back yard that hopefully a porch will be surrounding. We shall see how it goes.


This is after a day of drying. Hopefully Monday it will be dried so the next process can continue. You can sorta see where brick removal stopped and cider blocks were replaced. The piece of wood above is where we are going to hang a mantel (haven't decided what).

Day 0 - Fireplace

My roommate and I have been talking about putting a wood insert in for a long time, and finally I went down and spoke to someone on what is involved. This will be quite a project, so what better way but to document the process over the weekend. :) First project will be replacing the brick with river rock, so time for some destruction. 3:)

So the first image will be of Day 0 of the firecode hazard removal. Had it cleaned out last year so it has been prepped for the weekend's day of brick removal.

Halloween 2008

So every year a good friend and previous co-worker puts together a huge party and his front yard on display for all of Oregon to see. He has been in newpapers, news on the TV, and even fearnet. This year was crazy, there were so many people viewing the yard they had police guarding and blocking the road. All in all it turned out great. I have too many pictures to show just how great the yard really is, but here are a few.

To project just how large of a building, the skeleton at the door is 5-6 ft tall. The broken window above the door is animated with a ghost and with the window breaking.



There are about 60+ of these gravestones, but would take a number of pictures to show all of the funny and quirky gravestones. It is amazing how realistic they really look. I really liked this photo from the bloody skeletons hanging in the background.



This one is situated behind the large gate in the front of the yard. It shows how the little trickier treaters are treated when trespassing. ;) He has around 10 of these when entering the gate in the front.

All together it was an amazing yard and rated one of the best front yards in the states. Anyone interested should check out his website of www.davisgraveyard.com. If you check a few months before Halloween he has group leasons on how to create your own gravestones and number of other interesting events.

Mailbox construction

So to our dissatisfaction it seems something happened to the mailbox. It almost looks like someone might of hit the side of it, or the mailman got pissed one day -- either way it forces us to move it out of my neighbor's property. I am sure he will be happy (long story) :). So we decided the last owner has a cement slab on the corner of our driveway, so lets build a mailbox

So I was going to separate out these posts as I was taking photos, but I was lazy and only took the photos, but not post the posts. Sooooo, here is the beginning of Day 1 to Day3 (Although day 3 was a week later).


Day 1, we framed, bolted the framing to the cement, added sides, and even after too much time at Lowes figured out what mailbox to buy.


Day 2, spent too much for cedar shingles and then realized had to get a 2nd bundle >_<, although it is turning out quite nice. Next up the roof and trying to angle around this mailbox. Day 3, which is really next weekend, but we are finished! Seemed to turn out really good and now we have the neighbors seeing if we could build a 2nd one. :)


End of day 3, celebration of our hard work with a few drinks and a group of friends around the firepit. Good times.

Been awhile

Well it has been about a month+, so I thought I'd throw up a few photos. Life has been alright, work has been hectic, and weekends have been fun. The last few weekends I watched the airshow, went on the Portland Spirit, did a lot of yard work, and saw the baby elephant at the zoo with a few friends. But time for some photos.

Wish it was a sunnier day, although this turned out well.

This is my roommate and I building a water reservoir and cooler in a computer. Nerdy? Yes. But either way was fun and the computer is still working afterwards. :) Always funny to see people's expression when stopping by and seeing water in a computer.

I was in the hammock while reading and playing with my camera, when a squirrel jumped around to grab some food out of the feeder. I really like how this photo turned out.

Amazing Sunset

Had an amazing sunset outside of our place that surprisingly I got a pretty good shot based upon how dark and failing to find my tripod in time.

Olympic Trials - "Send Off To Beijing" - July 6th

A bit late, although thought I'd post another one of the pictures I got accepted in the sports runner magazine. Got enough for the pictures that I am deciding to either buy a very wide angle lens or a fish eye. We shall see.

What a race.

She has such a passionate personality, I am sure she will be in the spotlight win or lose during the next races.

Otherwise been helping on the house. This past week I have been crawling in the attic and the below crawl space while stringing wires to network all of the rooms. Quite the challenge we have determined.

Fourth of July

Hard to take pictures while swaying back and forth, but a few turned out.

Olympic Trials - "Beautiful Oregon" - June 28th

Attended the Olympic Trails at Eugene and caught an excellent photo of Tyson Gay crossing the finish line with his time in the background.

AHP Lan Party

We had people from Oregon, Washington, California, Canada, and Idaho visit to have a party at the World Foresty Center. The event lasted for 2 days, with the day before we had a small group get together for drinks. All together, everything worked as planned.

Small group of us at Edgefield -- a day before the main event. As you can see, we all had a bit too much to drink.

Day of the event. Brings back memories of how much setup this took. >_<

First Post

I decided I'd throw up a photo blog again and hopefully post a bit more than I previously did. We shall see how it goes.