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| Yeah, that needed to be replaced. |
Ruth had my van for the day, so I either had to go pick it up, or try to load everything in my Rabbit. I went with option B. I was positive my dirt bike wouldn't fit in the bed of the Rabbit, but I loaded it in diagonally and even managed to close the tailgate!
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| It fits! |
I drove up to Walker Valley and had a really fun ride. The snow has melted off and the trails were in great shape. The only issue I had all day was when I was on the highway, the truck would start making this HORRIBLE noise about 57-58 mph. If I would turn or slow down it would go away. It sounded like a tire was rubbing really badly against something. With the amount of weight in the bed, that wasn't a far stretch of the imagination. I pulled over and looked all over and under the truck. I couldn't find anything wrong. Once again though, 58mph and the noise was back. I stopped a handful of times again before realizing what was so loud. The fender of the dirtbike actually sits higher than the cab on the VW. The wind was rushing over the cab and causing the fender to resonate with an earsplitting tone! After realizing that my truck was working just fine, I enjoyed the rest of the drive.
Saturday was yard work day. I had started removing this overgrown hedge in our yard last week. We didn't have much of a plan for it other than we wanted it gone. I had removed all of the brush, but the roots and stumps were still in the ground. We spent all day pulling and digging out the stumps and roots. The work was not fun, but it looked so much better when it was done.
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| This is a before photo (sort of) I forgot to take a before picture, this is from Google Maps in 2008. It hadn't been trimmed since then. When we moved in, the hedge was as tall as the stop sign and you couldn't see the fire hydrant. |
We ended Saturday by heading into Seattle to meet up with some friends for Cinco De Mayo. Michael and Gretchen threw a great get together with some amazing carne asada tacos and margaritas! Thanks guys, it was awesome!
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| Cinco De Mayo! |
Ruth and I awoke sore and tired on Sunday, but were determined to enjoy another day of beautiful weather. The original plan was to meet up with a bunch of different groups at out Exit 38 and shuttle some DH runs. I started calling people once I woke up and it seemed liked the interest was waning. A few people decided to head north, a few decided to head east, a few were hung over from Cinco De Mayo etc. So Ruth and I decided to head out there and just deal with it. We got out to the trail head and were were the only ones around, so we took Rylie and hiked a few runs. It was fun to take it easy and Ruth was riding really well. She is really getting used to the DH bike.
After a few hours, we headed home to work on the yard. We decided that we should plant a garden in part of the area and landscape the corner. One big trip to the Garden center later, and we started tilling the ground and planting our first garden.
On the corner of the lot we planted a Japanese maple and a few smaller shrubs along with a few big rocks from the old pond in the backyard. We were really happy with how everything turned out and can't wait to start removing and replacing the rest of the overgrown yard.
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| Rylie sitting in the yard overlooking the finished product. On the far right, you can see the start of the garden. The rest of the overgrown landscaping will be removed soon. |
While we were working, our neighbor came up to us and said "I have a brand new grill that is too big for our family, do you want it?" Ruth and I decided to BBQ some chicken and have a fire in the backyard to finish the weekend. It was a great weekend. I love being home.
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| Ruth adding some BBQ sauce to the food. It tasted great! |
-KT
