Fourth of July in Berrydale

A manageable 4th at the Sitte home included just our Bellevue household, Jean, Joel, Galen, Susan, and Julie.

I grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, and polish sausages, and we brought baked beans and watermelon.  Julie brought the cakes and potato salad,  and Susan brought deviled eggs.

The girls and Galen had water fun. The rest of us caught up on news, especially with Jean as we look forward to her October 3rd due date.

"Family 4th" Fireworks at Bellevue Downtown Park

Foxnews.com ranked the State of Washington as the 8th most patriotic state in the nation.  That seemed surprising to me.  What was not a surprise was our annual two beer pre-fireworks get together with my best friend Steve White and then a walk down to Bellevue Downtown Park to enjoy the fireworks.  This year, the show started just moments after we sat down in our usual perfect spot at the northwest corner of the park.  Hundreds of folks stood in the west side parking lot, but Steve and I know the drill and seem to always find a good spot on the lawn directly across from where the fireworks are launched from the southwest corner of the Bellevue Square parking garage.  This year I took my camera but did not adjust my settings in advance and it was too dark to change settings once the show began.

Potatoes First to Harvest Then Garlic

I got the girls to help me harvest a big batch of potatoes on July 5th.  Then the Disher family headed to Oregon for five days of vacation with Grampy and Grammy.  The first bucket of Russet potatoes produced modest sizes, but the Yukon Gold 7-gallon grow bags and 5-gallon buckets seemed to produce bigger yields than last year. 

Jean brought Galen by on the 11th and he greatly enjoyed digging for potatoes, leaving just one last bucket for the girls on the 12th.  But at some point, he found it more fun to just play in the dirt than to dig for more potatoes.

I also harvested more catnip than is good for Shadow.  She still enjoys it.

I dug up 33 garlic bulbs eleven days later in the year than the thirty I harvested last June.  I plan to use the entire raised bed for garlic next season.  That means I'll need to dig up and replant some lily bulbs.  I planted three more tomato plants in the end of the raised bed vacated by the garlic.  The lilies pictured below are in both the north and south yards.

Weeks of 80+ temperatures in the forecast encouraged me to transplant the cucumbers from small pots to their trellis bed on the 9th. 

Charis helped me harvest hundreds of Bluebell seeds, but I've learned that they can take four to six years to flower once planted.  I've also harvested leek and green onion seeds.  Also, Galen and I had fun digging up potatoes down at his house.

After drying my garlic in the garage, it's one of my most enjoyable tasks each summer as I prepare the bulbs for storage and use over the next year. 

Perhaps fifty of the largest cloves will be planted in October for my 2025 crop, and the rest will be used in my soups over the year.  I only have one garlic bulb left from my 2023 crop.

Unlike our neighbors who don't have fenced front yards, we make good use of our driveway for both parking and play.

Home Projects

Nancy continued her work in the basement, finishing a wall in the workshop.  By month's end, she's begun building shelves. 

Our old Ford van was needed for our $130 trip to Home Depot for lumber and sheet rock on the 8th.  Earlier, Susan and I used it to take a load of yard waste to the Factoria Transfer Station.  Annie and I also took a garbage load in it to the Houghton Transfer Station in Kirkland.

Annie and Thomas are installing IKEA storage shelves in the attic, Annie is sorting through Nancy's saved papers, and I'm dealing with all things outside the house.

A Visit with
the Sleight Boys

On the 27th, Nathanael dropped his three boys off at our place to play with the Disher girls.  We gave them lunch and dinner, picked blackberries, played in both the south and north yards and upstairs. 

At 5:00 PM, we loaded up the six kiddos in three strollers and Thomas, Annie, and I took them down to the annual Arts Fair in the west parking garage of Bellevue Square.

Bits and Pieces

My latest exercise is to take one of the girls each day in a stroller down to QFC and back, about a mile round trip.  Irene got the first trip, then Valerie, then Charis, then the cycle repeats.  When there's nothing on the shopping list, we go another eight blocks indoors to the south end of Bellevue Square or to BECU on NE 2nd St.  On one trip, Charis and I found the little kids play area (pictured above) on the third floor of Bellevue Square.
 
Since July 2008, I've climbed annually to the peak of the roof and taken a photo of downtown Bellevue to create the banner image for this journal.  Annie offered to take that shot this month.  But the new steel roof proved too slippery and a new location for the annual photo was sought.  On the 5th and 6th I walked and drove to different locations around Clyde Hill.  My hiking partner, Charis, claimed our walk up the hill was her longest ever.  I finally settled on a spot next to 9638 Hilltop Road in the Vuecrest neighborhood just south of us.  The view is close to the one from our house, but with a much better view of Mt. Rainier!  I set up a ladder behind Sillie (our silver Mercury Sable) to get the shot over housetops.
 
It is a happy reminder of our high school friendship that our 50th high school reunion nametags hang side-by-side in the master bathroom.  While Nancy says she can't remember being my Chemistry lab partner in 11th grade, we have plenty of other memories to share in common.  These are the same photos that appear together in our senior Kimtah yearbook supplement as co-winners of the Louise Pierce Memorial Mathematics Service Award.  Nancy won for her top mathematics acumen.  I won for my FORTRAN programming skill and service to the Math department.

This month, Randy's marriage of 50 years came to its unfortunate end.  He received this terse yet expected message from his lawyer.  Date: Fri, Jul 5, 2024, 12:23 PM   Hi Randy, FYI and records — the final orders are entered and your marriage is legally dissolved.  - Adam Strand

From the Cheap Entertainment Department:  Our garbage, yard waste, and recycle bins get picked up on Friday mornings.  And now each Friday, Charis and Valerie demand that I let them ride in the recycle bin back up the driveway and the ramp up to the front door.  I lift them in and with their permission shut the lid.  While Irene has also made the trip a few times, she loudly lets me know she's not yet ready for another ride.  To make their trip in the bin an "E-Ticket ride," I run the bin around the cul-de-sac for a while before heading up to the front door.  The neighbors must think I'm nuts.



With Jean preparing for performances in August, I've had another good reason to drive down to Berrydale to hang out with Galen more often.  After Luna is done welcoming me, Galen usually asks for "video games" on my phone.  We both enjoy peanut butter sandwiches.  I binge on peanut butter at the Sitte house since I can't have it at home because of Charis' allergy.

I was surprised to see both Glyph and Verin visiting upstairs.  Luna chased Verin to her safe spot at the top of the stairs by the front door.  But Glyph got the best of Luna, sampling her food.