i swear i'm not bragging...i just happen to be maybe one of the luckiest gals ever. there are many reasons i say this but my evidence of late is my birthday present from one fantastic team of germans. first off you should know, my bf isn't the type of guy to bring me flowers all of the time, or always share his chocolate bars, but he has a real knack for hearing my random whims and wishes and darn it, if he doesn't manage to put those flower bouquets to shame with every pair of work gloves (i swear they are really special) or puzzle that he randomly surprises me with...

case in point: i've wanted a hammock for our backyard forever now. easy enough request to fill, non? well i got better than just any old hammock. and this took some serious planning...

bf called his mutti all the way in deutschland, had her find the collapsible-travel hammock that he lived in when he was 3 months old and they went camping for weeks and weeks at a time.
she took it to the very same old guy who handmade it back then and he restrung it and fixed it up. she tied special knots in the hanging ropes so we wouldn't damage our trees and shipped the whole thing to mrL who stashed it in his suitcase for his big trip to see us.
and somehow, while i was gone they managed to pour concrete, install a huge blue pole, make a path, and set up the hammock without me noticing, for my birthday surprise. damn. 2 years in a row of best birthday ever....

on a side note, anyone care to identify this spider we found? it was HUGE. we moved it using a broom stick and lots of shouting.

this is an old post that never quite made it up on the blog. it dates back to august....enjoy!

there's been a lot going on around these parts. our summer guest arrived last week and we've been busy putting him to work, camping and swimming. the boys have made serious head-way in the backyard and L is now a master with the chainsaw. impressive for a 12 year old, no?

so many small projects with not so many photos. a lot of moving dirt, leveling areas and taking out dead tree stumps. we've (i mean C and L. i had to go to day-job work). they've successfully added an entirely new area to our backyard...making headway in to the national forest...

okay, projects with pictures: the stairs we built up the side of our hill weren't actually done. they still needed a set of stairs leading from the concrete patio up to meet the hillside steps. this proved to be quite perplexing, but german engineering came through (shocker there, eh?). while i was whiling away the day at the computer, curt and L. managed to figure it all out....once the actual steps were built, a hammerdrill was needed for drilling 2 holes in to the cinderblock wall. L. proved to be top-notch at cleaning out the holes in preparation for the silicone and metal bars....screwing in the posts and the board to attach the stairs:et, voila!

almost exactly a 2 month break. we had a busy summer...projects, visitors, more projects and lots of travel. just a few photos of our trip to colorado. note, we took the train back and despite the 5 hour delay, i'd do it again in a heart beat. colorado to utah to nevada and california. our train was rerouted in the middle of the night when we hit utah and we ended up missing the donner pass in california, but we lucked out and got to take the original route through feather river canyon...