Pop quiz for the arb and more work on boats and such

It is almost Tim's birthday! This seemed like such a far away date - that for sure we would be well settled in our apartment by now. Instead, the plastic over the door to the bathroom is covered in wet paint, and after a weekend of rolling up the plastic to get to the kitchen, it's back to being firmly taped in place and covered in wet or flaky paint. The rush to move in is dwindling as we adjust to this strange system of living. One advantage of our little plastic world is that all these extra walls help keep the heat in, or out, of each section of house.

This morning, Tilly and I went on an extra-thorough tour of the estate, dropping off compost and watering plants as we go. The chicken run is flourishing with things other than thistles and nettles, proving my theory that the best way to get rid of one plant is to plant another. This red barked beauty above is probably my favorite tree on the property. Although a lot of the trees currently planted are more decorative than productive, this one makes me itch to take off my shoes and climb into it's arms. Any ideas on what kind of tree it is?

This one, at least, I am pretty familiar with - a ginkgo. I always think of them as dinosaur trees, as my instructors on the urban farm told me they are a very old species. My instructors said they absorb pollutants exceptionally well, making them ideal for planting along the sidewalks places like downtown New York City. They take 16 years or so to mature, then they reveal themselves to be male or female by the females beginning to drop stinky seed pods which some Asian women cook up into good foods.

Any ideas on this tree's identity?

When we moved in, this tree was enormous but had cracked and broken off, leaving a mess of dangerously dangling limbs. I assume Dad was the one to add all those branches to the woodpile. We'll see if the tree manages to grow back from it's roots and trunk, or if we will be finding something interesting to do with a tall stump.

Another beautiful tree I'd love to identify. It's leaves are almost iridescent.

Tim and I headed up to Oak Harbor again to pick up the truck and do more work on the boat. In need of supplies, we went on a little adventure looking for our missing piece. First stop was Home Depot, which didn't have what we were looking for but which does have excellent lighting options.

I thought I'd take home pictures of the choices for wall-mounted lights to ponder and compare options for either side of the bed in the upstairs master bedroom and for the hall-side wall in the "twin room". We'll have to poke around downstairs at the lighting situation, but for now, those seem like the most in-need and ready-for-light rooms.

Which lighting do you like? Tim saw that swirly cast iron bowl in the middle of that bottom picture and thought it was pretty cool. We also liked the four little lights in the bottom of the top picture.

Though Tilly loves the possibility of attention and treats that come with stores, I'm not sure she likes our new idea on carrying her.

With Home Depot letting us down, we headed North to Anacortes. We had the idea of going to West Marine to look for the part, but missed the turn and ended up in Tim's new favorite store - an antique marine and hardware store. We drove past not believing such a thing could really be, but once we went in and were surrounded by the glory, Tim started wondering what it would be like to live in Anacortes.

After successfully finding what we needed at West Marine, we headed back to the boat. Tim got busy tucking into his wiring project and I doodled plans for a fence. We've been combing over materials options, and I think I've settled on a good option. Home Depot sells "U" or "T" posts for about $5 each, which are easy to stick into the ground, strong, and last forever. After finding them in the store, we went home and found them all over our property! Hopefully there are 28 between the yards and the barn, but if not, at least we can cut down on the number we need to buy. While driving around the island, we've been scrutinizing other people's fences and have decided "T" or "U" post fences are very popular on working pieces of land. We've also seen that people often use wood posts for gateways and corners. I think we have a pretty good plan for fencing our lower yard and I will be able to get to work tomorrow relocating "T" posts and outlining our 100ft x 70ft x 100ft fence. The gaits will probably wait until we move into our shop (assuming that's soon) and then eventually we can string up the metal fencing between the posts. Really, we don't need a fenced yard until spring at least, but it would be so nice to clear deer poop from one area and let Tilly run around. Also, I'll have the largest piece in place to plant my gardens around.

Oh right, while I was daydreaming, Tim was doing what he does best, and by the time we left for the day, the electrical circuits were stronger than ever.