The Adventures of Jami and Joshua

Monkey Business!

jjlord — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 01:21:02 +0000

My older lady friend Norma asked me to make these adorable guys for her twin granddaughters. She bought the kit from Hemlickershlemar at 20$ each. Two sox, two buttons, thread, felt and a pompom. They even came with little birth certificates! I have the pattern so I can make monkeys out of all of our sox and yours! New sox are probably better, but whatever will work. Send me your sox and perhaps I will make you a monkey!

Heart Shaped Garden

jjlord — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:55:16 +0000

Winter took a vacation for a week and gave us the opportunity to dig in the earth and get our hands dirty. Well, Josh did the majority of the work, but I was there to document and help dig up sod. We picked an area that would get a lot of light in the summer plus it is on a slight slope, so water can be used to its fullest potential. Josh dug at the wild grass, got his knees dirty and was the happiest camper. The garden kept growing just a bit bigger and a bit bigger so that eventually it became the shape of a heart! After the digging was done, chicken poop was mixed in, then mulch, then the sod to hold it down, then black plastic. We will let the garden “cook” till May/June and hopefully come this summer our heart shaped garden will fill our tummies with delicious food and many happy days of playing in the dirt!

Coffee and Petroglyphs

jjlord — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:32:21 +0000

This is a painting I did for some friends in Summer Lake. We took them out to the desert and showed them this petroglyph. They were so inspired by it that they commissioned me to paint it with a Maxfield Parish background. I enjoyed the process very much and look forwards to many more paintings. Hope you enjoy seeing this.

Three Generations

jjlord — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:48:13 +0000

This last fall we took a marathon trip up to British Columbia. It happened to be the same weekend as our 6th anniversary, our friend Nick’s birthday and Canadian Thanksgiving. We had the good fortune to have family visit us in our short few days there. This is a special photo because it has Grandma, Mom and me all together, smiling and happy, three generations of great girls. Josh, Nick and Pappa Shu recorded an album in the dungeon while Mom and I played with jewels and indulged on red wine and snacks! What a great time we had!

Welcome Back!

jjlord — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 03:14:49 +0000

Merry Christmas from the Gang Busters!

Ahh the aromas of home cooked dinner. Josh is embarking on his first slow cooker experience. It is 7 pm and he is getting ready for dinner to be done in the am so we will be having dinner for breakfast!! Pretty good!

He is enjoying the new blades I got him for Christmas, fancy sharp shooters that make slicing and dicing a joy! What fun. It was a good Christmas this year, one we will remember fondly. We enjoyed many ups and only a few downs. Ups being a food processor for me, some fine antique jewelery, small ornaments and cook books. For Josh… a microphone, leatherman, lino printing set, and a new chop saw plus many other gifts that Santa brought for us. What a guy!

For a down, I managed to cook the first turkey in its bag accidentally forgetting that the turkey was “defrosting” in the oven. Turned it on to 350 to make bread and about an hour later… Baam, it hits me that I have begun to cook the turkey!!!. Fortunately Josh went to town to purchase another for us. It came out perfect. We worked together to make a delicious dinner. Bed came early, but many many thanks and cheers were givin to all our friends and family.

May this new year bring you many new blog posts from us kids down south!!!~

And The Man Came Around

jjlord — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:22:21 +0000

Fall into Winter

jjlord — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:15:37 +0000

Hello Friends and Family! Took the summer off to play, but now we can start off where we left off. It is now fall here and we are excited to have a change of season. We have experienced one full year of Summer Lake living and it has been such a joy. So many good times and we look forwards to more.

This is one of the petroglyphs just a few miles from our house, basically in the backyard! We have brought a few groups of friends to check them out and we have all been impressed. Our friend Douglas who first showed us the rocks says that they could be thousands of years old. I love living in a place so ancient and secretive…

Backyard Thistle

jjlord — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:18:48 +0000

We can officially say we are in summer in Summer Lake. Last weeks thunder and lightning have turned into not a cloud in the sky and hot hot hot! Yipee, it has begun and I have a sunburn to prove it! (ouch)

I have had the good fortune to not have to go into work the past few days. Mini vacation! Actually, Josh is on a solo project at work and there is no way for me to help. He has taken on the monumental task of removing the blow in insulation from the old homestead building at the Inn. This is now day five… He is wearing a mask and using a big sucker machine that goes slow, but today is the final sucking then to the dump. His contraption is ingenious. He put up large sheets of plywood with braces on both the truck and the trailer (both have dump features) then plastic to contain the fluff that could get out and has attached a pipe to the tube running from the sucking machine to send all of the debris shooting into either the truck or the trailer. He comes home really dirty but in surprisingly great spirits!

This thistle is growing wild in the backyard. It is really pretty but mostly likely not soft! I remember when I was a kid I spent 17 days at my aunt Ronda and uncle Jim’s house in Northport. My cousin Jessica and I would take off to the hills with kitchen knives and have battles in the fields with the hundreds of thistles that grew there. I don’t plan on going to battle with these cuties but I remember that at the time it was a lot of fun. Funny the things we do as kids.

The chickes are doing good at making us two eggs every day. They have figured out our bedroom window and they come around in the early morning a squawk for their breakfast. Good girls.

The garden is doing really well. We got the grass seeds in before the rain and now we are about ready to find a mini mower. It is the tiniest little yard ever! We planted carrots and cucumbers from seed a couple of days ago. We have 13 established tomato plants, three leeks, one bean, three squash and one not so good looking basil. All of the sunflowers are almost over three feet tall with some pushing four. We transplanted some wild grass from the field, most of which has begun to established itself. My friend Jan gave us mint, comphry, fennel and some oregano all of which also enjoyed landing in our secret garden. The yard looks like my Mom’s so I know we are on the right track. I would like to get some rocks to go around the beds to help contain water and to make it look even cuter!

Cherry truck is at the mechanic. We are really doing it up this time. The original stutter is still there, so we are looking into that getting fixed once and for all plus we are getting all sorts of underside work done and some new burly desert tires from les shwabies. Lots of $ and attention so she’ll run like a dream. We haven’t been able to drive around and adventure like we have wanted because she has been in pretty rough shape. But soon, oh the back country off road driving we will do! Our friends at work have lent us his Grandma’s car until Cherry comes home, very generous of them.

The Storm Continues

jjlord — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:54:23 +0000

Long time no write, I know, but here we are again! Summer Lake has been a wild place these past few weeks. This is the wettest year ever so says the people that are from here. This is a picture of the first real thunderstorm of the spring. Storms with lightning and thunder, big ominous clouds and then the rain, oh the rain. Every day for the past two and a half weeks we have had this kind of weather activity. Suits me just great, the storm chaser in me has to only step out the front door. So much for this place being dry! It is good for our little garden oasis. We planted grass seeds the day the storms hit and now we have almost a full grassy area.(aside from the patches of dirt that the chickies made..) We are going to wait one more week, then we are going to take our shoes off and take our first steps on our very own baby grass. It is the little things that we get our kicks from! The tomatoes are so so. But the sunflowers we got in early are doing really well. At least the birds will be full and happy this harvest season. I have not given up on the garden, it is just frustrating with the poor drainage and bad alkali soil. Still fun to play!

Josh got an amp from Mom and Dad Shu for his birthday and we solidified the deal with a brand new Ibenez and some headphones. He will go into our shared studio and not come out for hours! Usually I am in bed sleeping by the time he wraps up, but I have seen him come out looking a bit crazed and very happy. It has been alot of fun. It will be exciting to take the show on the road someday! Josh is trying to convince me to use my “jackson” pipes and try to sing! After a couple of adult beverages I get a bit more relaxed with the idea!

I have been working on a hand painted sign for an RV park. It turned out really pro looking and I am hopeful for more commissions. Anyone need a sign? The art has been slower in coming, need to make some frames… I had submitted my work to a couple of different shows, but they didn’t want me… Boo. But if you fall off the horse, get back on and ride harder! Other opportunities will surface in time, till then we have a house full of paintings! I have a show in Portland this summer, so I imagine that is where the Landscapes will land. Anyone need any art!

We are keeping very busy with work these days as well. The Inn is well on its way to being a whole new establishment. Our part in the deal is the siding. We have to take all the old bats down, caulk all the seams around windows and doors, tar paper, then measure and cut the Port Orford Cedar. It smells soo good!! On Fridays (when the crew has gone home to Eugene) we go to the site and clean up the mess they made through the week. We pick up and sort random wood pieces, haul burnable to the pile in the back forty, collect the trash, load up the trailer and get ready for the dump run on Saturday. We go into Paisley and get iced mochas at the coffee stand (a big treat that I look forwards to!), some lunch and then to the dump. The truck we use has a dump feature, so it makes us the envy of all the dump patrons! Strange, but going to the dump has always been fun for me. Not strange when I look at my family. I remember as a kid dump day was always fun. Go collecting other peoples trashy treasures. All sorts of things came from there! I don’t bring anything home from the dump these days, but I am sure if I went for fun I could come up with something to haul home.

Home is good. The warm weather has brought on the little critters and bugs…. Yikes. The only way to defeat the noseums is to slather on the deet and off you go. They drive me batty! The other night we even had an encounter with a scorpion!!! He was crawling over me while we were watching a movie. I was squealing like a little school girl on the chair freaking out! We released him a good distance from the house and hope to not have to go through that again. And then there are the mice. We are getting two rent a kitties from some friends of ours today. They are farm kitties, but hopefully we can coax them into the house, then they can catch as many mice as they want. That is the plan, we will see how it goes! LOL!!!

I hope to get back to the Adventures of Josh and Jami, so keep posted, I promise to write again.

Just Be “CUZ”

jjlord — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:37:29 +0000

Cousins

Up getting my best sister dress made at Mom’s. Josh volunteered to stay home and take care of the “ladies” even though he really did want to come up with me…

So far the visit has gone really great. Mom, Dad and I spent the Easter weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. We had delicious food, good wine and time to take it easy looking out over the lake while talking with G&G. Yesterday my good friend Mark from high school invited me over to see his new house. It was his birthday and he made brunch for me and his roommate. Nice to see friends and their successes. Last night I had a get together with my cousins that are here living in the Kootenays. We went to Kim and Bruces house in Neslon and had a great dinner and talked the night away. Thanks so much you guys for the memorable night! Such fun to see all of you with your families. Very inspiring…