We went to the "ranch" limb dump to get some chips for the paths around the raised beds. It is open for people to take their yard debris, no garbage. At the end of the season, they bring in a huge chipper and mulch everything, then give it away the next year. We made the mistake of picking a windy day to do this, so we ended up not getting much this load because all the dust was blowing as we loaded it. We'll get more next time, though, as it works well at holding down the weeds.
The next big project was refinishing the railings on the deck. The deck itself is Trex (we splurged on this, but with the low humidity and strong sun, we figured it would pay in the end....), but the railings are cedar and we didn't reapply the preservative last year like we were supposed to :( so had to sand it all down and do it all over again. Dean got a sprayer, though, and it went a lot faster this time. The white thing in the photo below is an old shower curtain liner - stapled it to a board and I held it up to protect the deck and the house while Dean sprayed.
We also taped around the posts and put down some old packaging paper from when the beams were delivered to protect the Trex.
This is a demo photo - I would normally be holding up the shower curtain, but couldn't take photos while I was doing that, so....... Also did the gates - this is the one to the back and the garden area.
More of the early irises are blooming - the darker yellow ones are miniature, I think - quite a bit smaller than the others.
And the veggies are coming along nicely - this is broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.
So, that's it from sunny and HOT Central Oregon. Other than the above - I have been working on my sermon - so, Becki, that's why the updates have been slow. I'll let you know how it went - after it's over!