2002-2003 pictures

These are some random pictures, from spring 2002 through spring 2003. To save disk space, you only get these smaller pictures. If you want larger pictures, send mail.

Friday 10-May 2002: Three deer eating the grass behind the kitchen:

Friday 10-May 2002: John playing with Grandma, in his room, and filling the bird-bath.

Monday 27-May: If daddy is reading in bed, John has to do it too.

Tuesday July 2nd: On vacation in Corvallis, at the playground at the Episcopal Church.

Thursday July 4th: Taking a walk in Chip Ross park in Corvallis.

Friday July 5th and Sunday July 7th: At Beverley beach on the Oregon coast.

Saturday July 6th: Picking blueberries with Grandma, and looking at the vegetables with Grandma:

Sunday July 7th: Touching a starfish at the Aquarium in Newport:

Still Sunday July 7th: At the playground at Harding school. This is Linda's old elementary school (it was closed last year).

Sunday, July 14: John wearing daddy's toolbelt, "fixing" the compressor:

Tuesday 6-August: Grandma is visiting, and John helps her prepare corn:

Wednesday 7-August: John helps Grandma bake bread:

Friday 20-September: Ralph's group from the office had a party at his manager's house. John had to help serve the birthday cake:

Saturday 12-October: John drives the tricycle, while Ralph splits firewood with the rented wood splitter.

Wednesday 16-October: Helping Linda make Rice Crispy Treats:

Wednesday 13-November: John unpacking birthday presents:

Sunday 17-November: John getting a haircut:

Wednesday 20-November: John getting a bath:

Saturday 30-November: Testing the newly assembled Ikea bed in John's bedroom. Note that this is not bedtime; the bed just got assembled and set up, and John is just playing in it.

Tuesday 10-December: John decorating the Christmas tree in the afternoon. Note that the tree is completely organic, was never shaped or sheared, and grew less than 20' = 6m from our house. The second picture is the tree in the evening; if you look carefully, you can see that John is sitting on the sofa.

Saturday 14-December: John helps building a gingerbread house:

From Saturday the 14th through Wednesday the 18th we had a heavy storm, with wind speeds up to 76mph = 122 km/h, heavy rain up to 2½"/hour = 6cm/hour, and power out for 5 days.

Thursday 19-December: It hailed so heavily that the hail stuck. John thinks it's snow and plays with it:

Saturday 21-December: In Corvallis, going to choose and cut a Christmas tree (at the cut-it-yourself Christmas tree farm):

Wednesday 25-December: Helping Grandma and Mama cook the turkey:

Unpacking the Christmas presents, and bringing a present to Uncle Ed (who can't get them himself):

Tuesday December 31st: Dressing for the New Year's Eve party at Terry's house:

... and at the party after midnight:

Sunday 19-January: We trimmed a lot of shrubs around the house. Now we're burning all the branches. The pile on the right is all to be burned.

Monday 3-February: The new auxiliary water pump (blue, low at the left), with its own pressure tank (grey), on its platform. The gray control box contains the electronic inverter that runs the 3-phase pump at variable speed using only 1-phase power. In the background you can see our main 5000 gal = 20000l water tank (green at the left), and the two old pressure tanks (blue at the right). The reason to install this new pump was that during the 5-day power outage in December, we had serious problems running our regular 3HP = 2.5kW pump using the generator; this new pump has a soft-start, so it can run without trouble on the generator.

Friday 28-February: John decided to put on a swim suit and swim in the bathtub.

Saturday March 1st: John in his new rock box (like a sand box, but filled with little rocks so it doesn't make such a big mess). Our neighbor Joe gave us all the yellow Tonka trucks that his kids have outgrown. In the background on the left you can see John's planter box, where he is growing vegetables: Tomatoes, carrots, radishes, and kohlrabi. It has a frame made out of pipe over it, with a fine mesh, to protect the vegetables from deer and birds.

Sunday March 2nd: A little gardening: planting cistus on the slope south of the house. Observe the rope that is strung around the gardener, to hold him. Without a rope, the slope there is too steep to stand on.

Friday March 7th: Building more amazing structures with blocks:

Sunday April 13th: Easter egg hunt at our neighbor Terry's house. Note that John had to use the opportunity to sit on the ATV (4-wheel drive offroad motorcycle).

Friday April 17th: John eating a slice of lemon, when Grandma was visiting. He actually likes to do this.

Monday May 26th: John's new play structure is done. It used to be our neighbor Terry's; we disassembled it, moved it, refinished it, and put it back together. It is sitting on a thick layer of "gorilla hair" (finely shredded redwood bark). On the second picture, you can see John's rock box in the background on the right; the planter box is barely visible behind the gazebo.

Sunday June 8th: John with some vegetables from his garden: One kohlrabi and one carrot.