Paul with a load of dirt, getting ready to make me really.  really.  really nervous.  The bucket was 6 ft wide, the corridor 7ft at the widest, so he literally only had inches to spare.

Looks like he's watching out for the house though.  He only bumped it a couple of times.  We didn't even call them scrapes.  A little touch here and there.  

It was wet and slippery in the back yard, but he managed well.  Saved me about 100 loads with the wheel barrow :P

It rained that night, got a nice little river path for the water already.

It's a dream come true, I've wanted to get this dirt brought in all summer.

Unfortunately we had to sacrifice the front lawn to get it done so quickly.  A worthy sacrifice.

Our roommate from Saudi Arabia, Ibrahim.  First time he ever used a shovel.  Me, doing my part to share a piece of American culture with him lol :)  We were flattening out the dirt in preparation for more garden beds next year.

After driving 6 hours on Friday evening to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, we set our tent up in the dark.

We awoke to a scenic drive around Coeur d'Alene Lake, which is much bigger than this picture implies.

Then we went to Silverwood amusement park, where we rode the Scrambler...

The Tilt O'Whirl....

And I don't remember what this one was called, but it sure looks like Limei was having a good time!

Nice photography light at the end of the day.

Then we set our tent up in the dark, again, and got ready to cook the best campfire meal possible.

We had steaks, corn on the cob...

...and yes, those are baked potatoes on the left, we throw them right in the fire.  Yummy!!!

We woke to a beautiful sunny morning.

Farragut State Park has a lovely lake, we had to postpone a swim for the next time though....

...because we had just found out that there were 3 frisbee golf courses in the park!

Nothing like tossing some disc in the trees with the mountains in the background.

Yep, nothing quite like it.  What a great weekend, who'd have known Idaho was such a cool place?

Spinach from early summer. That stuff grows like a weed!

The first tomato harvest.

Yummy cherry tomatoes and green beans from today.

Tall tall tomato plants.

Bearing some good fruit.  Or vegetable.  They taste good, that's all I know.

I don't know how we did it, but we grew some good stuff this year!

Mountain Biking at Emerald Lake Trail

It's been a busy August, lots and lots of pictures to upload.  Not so much going on with building the house, but what fun would it be if I left it at "we built a house and now it's done?"  That's not any fun!  What about building a great life here?  That's important too, right?!

Limei looks a little scared, but I promise you she is having a good time.

And working hard.

Really hard.

Really.  Really hard.

But still having fun.

Lots of fun.

Coming up on a technical spot.

Oh, and I was there too.

New Camera

Here's a shot I've always wanted to get, our porch at night, it's just magical.  My new camera has a setting for shutter speed and I got a tripod with it so I'm finally able to start experimenting with shots like  this.

Another angle.

One of my first macro shots with the new camera.  I'll do a whole post on flowers and the garden soon.

I had to take a road trip for a meeting the other day and I took the camera along for some fun.  This was taken out the window, across the driver, and going at highway speeds.

And then I zoomed in and got this shot :)

We had to turn around for this one.  Well, actually for the sign that you'll see at the end of this post, but I got this shot out of it.  I think it's the best one I got that day.

Yep, totally worth turning around for.
Wish I had had a tripod with me for an HDR shot though, this one most definitely needed it.

My friend Paul who was gracious enough to lend his truck and strong back to the project.

The driveway end of the path.  It's hard to tell in the photo but there is a slight rise in the path.

The sidewalk side, we used some of the bigger stones here to fill things in nicely.

A nice low level shot to show the elevation changes.

Overall shot after the landscaping gravel was used to fill in the spaces.  Whole project took less than a couple of hours, probably the first time I have ever over estimated the time it took to complete a home improvement project.

Dragged my ladder out for this late afternoon shot.
I think my camera was struggling with the light reflecting off of the tumbled quartz pavers.

Tree!!!!

Behold, our sugar tooth maple arrives.

This looks like a fun job.

A really fun job, what a cute little backhoe.

Not too shabby for $50, thanks Bozeman Cost Share Tree Program!