Ooooh, shiney. Sorry, I couldn't resist. The stainless steel culvert is being assembled today. It came in pieces...you don't just toss a 14x60-foot culvert on the back of your flatbed and drive down the highway. This baby puts our rusty old 2x8-foot culvert to shame. But, the old one lasted since the early 70s and was still working, though not well.

Do you see the men in their orange safety shirts in the upper left of the picture for scale?

You can see the framework being built for the wing walls. I have learned firsthand how important these structures are. When the neighbor's tree fell on our concrete-block wing wall and cracked it, it did not take long for the creek to cut a new channel through that crack during the height of the rainy season. More concrete will be poured after the forms are completed to finish those walls.

You might notice that dirty, old pipe that is lying on top of the culvert. That is our main water line from the well to the house. Still no electric power hooked up yet though. And, just to give you an idea of the size of Bjorgen Creek, the creek is flowing through a one-foot-diameter flexible pipe during the construction (so the water does not become laden with sediment). But, DFW believes native salmon, if they ever choose to jump up the nine feet from streambed to culvert downstream from us, will very much like the 14-foot-diameter culvert. I wonder if Billy Frank Jr. would agree?

When the Russians bomb the Pacific Northwest, I'm going to take shelter inside this culvert.

Click on the pictures below to enlarge them.

This past week in home school, we have been doing Lesson 1 in Who is God? published by Apologia. For those of you who have already finished Volume 1 of the Biblical Worldview series, you may remember the first lesson is all about laying a solid foundation. The lesson is called "Where am I building my life?" It details how to build our lives on the Rock and uses architectural blueprints and construction as a analogy.

Well, isn't it sweet that Father is giving my boys a front-row seat in viewing foundation-building in our front yard?

"For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God?" 2 Samuel 22:32

"[God] alone is my rock and my salvation." Psalm 62:2

Oh, and my driveway is going to be bigger than your driveway. Neener, neener. Ha, my driveway will be as big as a highway overpass! Shoot, I'll just be glad to be able to finally drive to my house after these years!!

Click on a photo below to enlarge it...

The concrete footings are being poured in the huge hole in my front yard as I type. Hooray! This is great progress. RPD has spent the last two weeks digging the huge hole, and the concrete guys came out to build the forms. They have all been very kind to us. It is obvious these guys are pros. I love the way they hustle too. I have also been grateful to have such a wholesome group of fellows in my front yard as we are fairly conservative and have children. I heartily recommend RP Development.

Now, what it interesting to me is that, per specs to protect native fish, my little 8-foot-wide driveway will be replaced by a massive 60-foot-wide structure. None of the guys doing the construction nor I can understand the logic of how that is more fish friendly. But, who is to question the wisdom of those omniscient entities at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife?

There is something that I would like to make very clear:
Gina Piazza at DFW expected me,  a lowly working-class homeowner, to fully fund and arrange this construction MYSELF!

Let's see what we've got down there: a huge excavator, a backhoe, a concrete crane, two concrete mixer trucks, two dump trucks, a whole mess of utility trucks, and at least 20 guys who are working 12-hour shifts, 6 days a week. They will be here working 6-8  weeks. They bought us an $800 generator and are supplying us with about $50 of gas a day (as they had to cut our power line so no one gets hurt on the job site). Oh yeah, I've certainly got enough change in my mason jar to fund this kind of operation. Seriously folks, am I from another planet, or is it absolutely ridiculous for a government agency to expect a homeowner to be able to pull something like this off? When I was researching repair options after a heavy rain washed out our driveway (and after Ms. Piazza told me that she expected my repair to be "just like what DOT did at 305 and Johnson"), I discovered that the cost of the repair would be about a quarter million dollars. Folks, that is as much as my property was worth back in early 2011 when I was pricing the repair. What kind of bank do you think would give me a loan for that? I don't think I will ever wrap my head around this one.

Here are some more pictures...

The picture of the metal gangway is our new access to our house across the creek, from where we park our cars on the other side. (p.s. If you see me driving around and consider judging me for having a completely dusty, trashed-looking vehicle...keep in mind that it's been a couple of years since my car has been up to the house where the hose lives.) We still have to walk up the hill through the orchard the length of a football field. It has been fine except that we have not been able to get our huge Great Pyrenees LGD to the cars easily for his vet appointments. He just had TPLO surgery on his knee and is lame. So, the mobile vet will be visiting us tomorrow. You really don't want to know how much it costs for a house visit from the vet. But, Kenai has an infection in his sutures, so we will happily part with another paycheck to ensure his recovery is the best we can make it. RPD said they will do everything they can to help the vet get his rig parked on the job site and to get his stuff (like an x-ray machine) up the hill to our house.

Teddy, our beloved Maine Coon cat passed away in his sleep Saturday night. He was the most perfect pet I've ever had. He was my best friend. I adopted him from the Multnomah County Animal Shelter in Troutdale, OR, when I worked there some eight years ago. He was already a grown cat when I brought him home. I wasn't expecting to adopt a cat. But, our cattery was full and an upper respiratory infection was spreading throughout. There was no more room in the ICU, hospital, nor intake area for any more cats. Teddy caught the URI. He was an unneutered male and sick. The combination of those criteria meant that he would need to be euthanized. During kitten season, we would get so full of cats that the criteria were pretty strict. Well, I hadn't met such a sweet, mellow, affectionate boy like this in the feline world before. I couldn't bear the idea of this magnificent cat being put down because of a cold. So, I asked my boss for permission to adopt him. He was the only pet that I would be allowed to take home (so employees don't become hoarders trying to save every lost cause). I got the medicine from our onsite vet and worked on getting him better at home. I've never regretted the decision. What I do regret is not having Teddy by my side right now. I miss him so much my chest aches.