Another length of fence now stands two feet taller between the canines and the outside world. The 25 feet I finished yesterday, plus the roughly 40 feet that I’d already completed, puts me just under the half-way mark.

We’ve now had visits from every East Coast family member to our new home. Last weekend Ken, Leigh, Ellen and Joshua came up for a Saturday afternoon visit, and we had a great time. There were some tired eyes in the group- Joshua had hardly slept the night before, so neither did anyone else- but everyone managed to stay awake. We took the (grand?) tour of the house and they listened patiently as I explained all my home improvement plans. Then we sat around a bit and did some catching up. It was a crisp, windy fall day, so we took a walk up to the village and had some pizza. We wrapped things up mid-afternoon and they headed back home where, hopefully, they got some rest!

Thank you, Hayeses, for making the trip up to see us and inspect our new place. We’re glad to have you so close that we can enjoy visits like these, and we hope you’ll come back and feel welcome. We look forward to seeing you all again very soon!

No, the title is not a metaphor about overcoming obstacles or improving communication. I actually tore down some basement walls. I had a crowbar and a little help from my friend. As you can see from the pictures, they were not much to look at- they were cluttered with the remains of some wallpaper from a bygone era, they were water-damaged and rotten, and they were crowding the space besides. So I tore them down.

Of course, demolition is much easier than what comes next, namely prepping everything, sealing and painting the walls and finishing the floor. But it’s progress. And it was fun.

Since our dogs are more adept than most, I’ve been planning a fence topper to deter even their most enthusiastic attempts. Meet the two-foot fence addition. The neighbors will think we’re some kind of privacy freaks.

I anticipate another three or four Saturdays of work, and a couple more trips to Lowe’s. And several more sets of before-and-after pics. I do love some before-and-after pics. Much to Katy’s chagrin, while I’ve been working on the fence I’ve been thinking ahead to tearing all the walls out of the basement. Sometimes I just hold the crowbar in anticipation. Is there something wrong with me? I imagine this happens to lots of people when they own their first home. I’m sure it’s perfectly normal.

I hope Katy enjoyed her birthday as much as I did. We kicked it off by sipping coffee on Katy’s new glider, and once the morning wound down we headed over to the Indian buffet for some curry indulgence. I spent part of the afternoon throwing together what turned out to be a little too much food for even the heartiest appetites present. Some of our fine Roanoke friends provided the merriment and we had a handful of surprise guests shipped in from Asheville to round out the crowd.

Our dine-and-drink gave way to a quick game of bowling, at which I beat everyone by at least 30 points. No big deal.

We closed down the CI, then Spike’s, then a few of us robust-types made a late run to Texas Tavern for a little something to remind us the next day why we don’t eat that stuff on the regular. I woke up feeling like a grenade went off in my stomach, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.

Just a quick note of gratitude to all of those who made Katy’s humble birthday gathering a success. We are very pleased to have such fun and generous friends and we will try to not take that for granted. Those who made the long trip for a short visit from Asheville, thanks and come back anytime. If anyone has a decent picture or two please forward them along- mine are clearly sub-par. Finally, to Katy- I hope to celebrate alongside you for lots of future birthdays and I love you very much. Even more than Zoom, King of the Stars. Happy Birthday.

It has begun. We put out the invite and they took the bait!  As visits save us from having to go out of town again they have been rewarded with food, hospitality and general appreciation. We have enjoyed all of our visits and visitors without exception.  We had a great visit from the Amoozegars (sans their mighty overlords Zeus and Thor) which included much food, drink and entertainment. We also enjoyed a short but satisfying visit from the Yaddow parental units which was again accompanied by great food and entertainment, and even a few lap visits by our 40 pound canines that don’t realize they’re not lap dogs (or don’t care). Molly came up today with Grayson and Hadley, and we had a nice early afternoon cup of coffee and trip to the playground across the street. Hadley was a delight- quiet and smiley and alert. Grayson was a whirlwind of activity which included running with orange juice, watching a Barney video, playing the banjo and riding on uncle Tim’s shoulders. A swing and a slide were also involved.

If you are reading this (which is painfully optimistic, I know) and you haven’t visited, you should. We aim to please, and we can tailor our hospitality to your needs. Hiking, museum trips, gluten-free meals, whatever your heart’s desire. However, we can only accept cash- please, no out of state checks. Call now for reservations.

After almost two years spent sharing a car, here are my own latest rides: a pickup with character and a classy new bike. The pickup has been exponentially more useful than it is attractive (as, hopefully am I), but the bike has not yet crossed that threshold- I just got it last week. It was built by a friend here in Roanoke, and is intended to be my work commuter.

It’s not exactly pirates’ booty, but I found the flagstone walkway pretty impressive as I dug it up. It took me about three days to dig it all out, which I’m sure has nothing to do with the fact that I was using a painter’s knife and a screwdriver. I think I need better yard tools. Here it is:

The grass in the second picture is so much greener thanks to the monsoon season here in Roanoke. I can’t cut the grass fast enough. In addition to a shovel and a rake I need goats. Do they have them at Lowe’s?

There seems to be a common thread of anniversaries lately, so let me list a few:

First of all, today is our two-week anniversary in our new house, and three-week anniversary of being homeowners! Quite honestly, this has been great. We really like our new house and we think when you visit you will too (even though I’m sure everyone is already sick of hearing about it). So come visit. We’ve had one guest already and he seemed to like it. That’s 100% satisfaction rate- eat your hearts out chain hotels.

We also had the privilege of celebrating Harvest Records’ five-year anniversary last weekend. Sixteen bands over 3 days followed by a little mountain retreat. My personal highlights were the Bonnie Prince Billy and Budos band shows, and the cabin retreat near Pisgah which I wish had lasted a couple more days (even though I was absolutely drained by Monday morning). Well done all around, Harvest boys. Your success is well-deserved.

Finally, our two-year wedding anniversary is coming up on the 30th. Most of you will remember getting the shocking news that we had run off together like foolish children to elope in the mountains of Tennessee. Now here we are two years later, foolish children run off and bought a house in the mountains of Virginia. We’ve come so far in some ways, not so far in others, but we have a lot to celebrate and appreciate in our lives and in one another. Katy, I love you. And also, this is your anniversary card.

One last note: we’ve applied for our carrot-on-stick tax rebate, which means that the future of this blog is going to document mostly home improvement projects (please, no Tim Allen jokes). Our top priority is excavating and grading part of the back yard, in conjunction with building a patio and securing the yard to thwart the escape of  a certain Henry Houdini. Right now I’m digging out the flagstone walkway to our front steps which have been buried by years of neglect. I’ll post some picture soon. Really.

Well, I promised pictures and regaling tales of our moving experience, then I failed to take any pictures and the move proved to be the easiest experience of it’s kind. We packed like experts (which we are) and the movers we hired we’re clearly impressed by our achievement (they said so). They proceeded to move all of our expertly-packed items from point A to point B in two hours. It was far more impressive than our packing job. So the whole move was finished before noon. We had everything unpacked and mostly in place by Sunday afternoon. End of story.

If anyone finds this disappointing, pretend that the movers didn’t show up and we had to move ourselves, just two days after my hernia surgery. No trucks were available so we had to use the Subaru, which broke down when our bed was strapped to the roof and just then it started pouring rain. On our 15th trip (out of 60) the piano fell out of the truck we borrowed from a friend and smashed into the car behind us, and then we got a ticket. Sometime midday the dogs escaped the yard and we spent two hours looking for them. When we finally finished moving in at nearly midnight, the power and water were cut off due to a problem with utility transfer and we had to spend the weekend without them.

There, now that’s a little more like what was expected. Sometimes we fail to appreciate the things that didn’t go wrong, but not this time. We appreciate.