4CarpenterHouse

     We have always wanted a large garden and some fruit trees, but moving around with the Navy for over twenty years put that dream on hold.  Now we are free to make some long term improvements to our house and property in Corvallis. Upper garden, mostly for herbs and smaller crops that you want closer the house. Tilling the ground before adding compost. Cardboard and paper from moving boxes as a weed barrier and then adding compost on top. Getting a little help from a friend. Sealing the ceder boards for the raised beds with linseed oil. Two beds installed and filled with compost. Snow peas and English peas planted. The upper garden in late fall. Then we started on the lower berry and fruit tree area. Laurel helping with Raspberry planting. Placing poles and wires for the fruit trees and raspberries. Apple trees tied to the wires.   Finally the large garden area in the lower part of the ...

Oregon has so much to offer from nature. Between gardening, hunting, fishing and foraging we have benefited greatly already. Half of grass fed beef we bought from a friends parents.  Stand up freezer from Craigslist. Crushing apples for hard apple cider.  Homemade tomato sauce from a friend's near by garden.  Halibut fishing off Newport.  You don't need a boat, you need a friend with a boat. ;) Beautiful Coho salmon from Newport.  Pink salmon from Whidbey Island.  Walla walla onions grown by a good friend. Laurel out picking blackberries from the lower piece of our property. Sporting the camelbak too. Homemade blackberry pie cooling on the deck.

    We have had a very busy summer with Deanna's retirement and long and drawn out transatlantic move and waiting on many deliveries of our household goods.  We finally arrived in Oregon in mid July and have been working away getting settled in.     We are so happy to get back to Corvallis... the town and surrounding areas are fantastic.  The people are super friendly and there is a peaceful sense of community.  Our house which had been a rental for 12 years is in decent shape, but the yard and property was in need of some serious love.    When Deanna and I bought the house we had no children so schools were not that important, but as luck would have it the schools in our area are ranked high and the kids love them.  Deanna's Retirement in Sigonella Italy.   Hard to believe that nearly 22 years have passed. The Navy tradition of manning the rails. The yard and lower property the first day the gir...