4thofjuly

Some photos and news from the 4th of July, 2002

Mike and I spent a wonderful, long week in Ashland over the 4th of July Holiday. As you all probably know by now he proposed the first night we stayed there which made this vacation even more special. Our friends James and Julie were also spending this week in Ashland , and Brian and Rachael came up for a while as well and camped on the property with us.

While in Ashland we 1. got engaged, 2. saw four plays, 3. went camper shopping, 4. bought a new camper (sorry, no pictures yet), 5. talked to two different builders about ideas for our future home, 6. visited the home of one builder to see an example of his work, 7. staked out the property lines, 8. bought an engagement ring ......<sigh>...... :-), and 9. put in a new driveway so we can get our new camper on and off the property.

PHEW!

These are just a few picture highlights; to see more photos go to: http://www.ratboy.net/July4thPhotos/ for the full list.

Game night with Brian and Rachael inside the tent trailer. Another odd game from some other country - I can't remember exactly what we had to do, I just remember something about little sake bottles and trying to keep Brian from winning......he won anyway.

Brian and Rachael - look how happy Brian is. He just won AGAIN. (We'll get you next time!)

Early afternoon on the 4th of July. We decided to avoid the crowds and festivities of town and stay on the property. The guys had spent all morning staking out the property lines (getting covered in poison oak) and the ladies made sure the mosquito-free zone was intact for later in the afternoon.

James enjoying the relaxing afternoon.

Everyone on the 4th (Jayne = taking picture).

Brian and Rachael had picked up some wines to try out for their reception. We did a blind tasting of four different reds. We all agreed it was between "3" and "4", however, if you combined "1" and "2" it was pretty tasty too.

Ok, here's Jayne

The happy, newly engaged couple

The happy, newly engaged couple - again.

On July 5th we decided to do something about the menacing ditch. If you look carefully you can see how close the back bumper is to the ground. Now imagine 3000 extra pounds on the back of the truck. It was nearly impossible to get the camper onto the property. We all talked and analyzed and speculated on "easy" ways to fix the problem and in the end we decided to let the professionals do it right the first time.

This is a before shot of the driveway.

This little bulldozer arrived at 1:10pm (we were paying by the hour, with a two hour minimum). I was concerned that it was going to take all day so I was watching closely and letting them know that we wanted them to do the best they could within the two hours. Boy, were we surprised at how efficient these guys are.

There is a quarry down our road about a mile......how convenient. We had forty feet of 12" culvert put down and then four truckloads of crushed granite brought in.

Our finished driveway. They even had time to smooth out the surface farther up - all the way to where we park the camper.

Oh, and that little bulldozer was back on the trailer and driving away with 15 minutes to spare on our two hour minimum. No worries!

Game night with Brian and Rachael inside the tent trailer. Another odd game from some other country - I can't remember exactly what we had to do, I just remember something about little sake bottles and trying to keep Brian from winning......he won anyway.	Brian and Rachael - look how happy Brian is. He just won AGAIN. (We'll get you next time!)
Early afternoon on the 4th of July. We decided to avoid the crowds and festivities of town and stay on the property. The guys had spent all morning staking out the property lines (getting covered in poison oak) and the ladies made sure the mosquito-free zone was intact for later in the afternoon.	James enjoying the relaxing afternoon.
Everyone on the 4th (Jayne = taking picture). Brian and Rachael had picked up some wines to try out for their reception. We did a blind tasting of four different reds. We all agreed it was between "3" and "4", however, if you combined "1" and "2" it was pretty tasty too.	Ok, here's Jayne
The happy, newly engaged couple	The happy, newly engaged couple - again.
On July 5th we decided to do something about the menacing ditch. If you look carefully you can see how close the back bumper is to the ground. Now imagine 3000 extra pounds on the back of the truck. It was nearly impossible to get the camper onto the property. We all talked and analyzed and speculated on "easy" ways to fix the problem and in the end we decided to let the professionals do it right the first time. This is a before shot of the driveway.	This little bulldozer arrived at 1:10pm (we were paying by the hour, with a two hour minimum). I was concerned that it was going to take all day so I was watching closely and letting them know that we wanted them to do the best they could within the two hours. Boy, were we surprised at how efficient these guys are.
There is a quarry down our road about a mile......how convenient. We had forty feet of 12" culvert put down and then four truckloads of crushed granite brought in.	Our finished driveway. They even had time to smooth out the surface farther up - all the way to where we park the camper. Oh, and that little bulldozer was back on the trailer and driving away with 15 minutes to spare on our two hour minimum. No worries!