View from behind the RV towards the foot hills of the Chehelam Mountains

We've worked hard last week at clearing the back fence, at what is going to be our future site, off the jungle of blackberries and ivy that had overgrown it in the last 10 years or so.

In addition, James and Dan cut down 3 trees as well, which had died due to being strangled by Ivy .

They used Dan's little tractor to reach about halfway so James could cut most of the limbs off first, after which he proceeded to cut the trees in half before felling them completely ..

All went well and the trees fell exactly where they were supposed to .. always a little tricky to do but James did a great job!

We're still hacking away at the blackberries and ivy but we're slowly recovering the fence and are gaining a little more view of the hills behind it.

This picture shows the view a week ago :

Which as you can see was non-existent, and this next one shows it now:

We still need to clear more ivy from the top of the fence and we might even cut down the fence a little bit, or at least cut a few openings in it, so we have a view when we sit down on our future porch as well.
It's a slow process but we have time, and due to the extreme warm weather of the moment we're limiting ourselves to about 2 hours early in the morning when it's still cool.

I forgot to show a few other projects we did last week as well, like cutting the hedge:

And installing a new light outside the barn that hasn't worked in years and that had been on the 'honey-do' list for a while.
Dan is getting a little more apprehensive of working that high on a ladder so it was a project that they really appreciated to finally have done.

   

It comes on at dusk and turns of at dawn and besides making it easier to back the car in when it's dark, it hopefully also acts as a deterrent for anybody or any animals to creep around in the night ...

For something fun to do this week we accompanied Dan and Cindy to a cherry orchard they go to every year in Dundee, which is only about 15 minutes from here.
Miller Farm Cherries is a small, seasonal u-pick cherry orchard and cherries are only $1.50/pound.
You better get there right when the season opens because they go fast!

                       

   

We decide to go early and were the first ones there at 8.00 am on opening day! Look at these gorgeous dark-red cherries!

                                                     

And although there were some trees that were practically laden with fruit the he owner told us that they're having a very bad year, the reason being that there are no bees!
Some of these cherries are self-pollinating but most others need bees and they are in short numbers these days.
Human activities like large-scale changes in land use, industrialised agricultural practices, like monocultures, and the detrimental use of pesticides have all contributed to destroying their habitats and reducing their available food sources.
It's a big problem and quite worrisome for the future of many of our crops ..

Nevertheless, we managed to pick a lot, as in 14.5 pounds in only half an hour!
We'd set a limit before going out because I have only so much freezer space, but it was very easy picking and hard not to keep going seeing all this gorgeous fruit!
(Dan and Cindy picked a lot more, as in 61 pounds, but they have a dehydrator and dry most of it).

And than after bringing our loot home of course the real work started!
After washing them thoroughly we set up a 'pit-removal station' in our back yard, borrowed two simple but very effective pitter-tools from Dan and Cindy, donned some gloves and got to work:

It took us only an hour to get them all done! I separated them into 6 baggies with 4 cups each, and into the freezer they went!

I see a lot of cherry pie, cherry cobbler and crisp, cherry sauce and cherry preserves .. just to name a few .. in the future!

Talking about food .. the other day, after we measured some houses (we now go out as a team for appraisals, at least for the measuring part of it) we decided to drop in for lunch at Alf's in McMinnville.

This historic hamburger and ice cream shack straight out of the 1950's used to have a drive through but now only serves from the diner itself. 

Their hamburgers and ice-cream is home-made and their prices are reasonable.

                                                                                   

It's a little bit of tasty nostalgia with good food and a 50's atmosphere with 50s decor and 50s music!

                                     

There used to be a monkey in a cage but I guess he retired a couple of years ago.

His name was Elvis and the joint is kind of named after him .. Alf (Elv)'s(is) ..