Schaffhausen

Eric and I have started our winter European trip in the Swiss town of Schaffhausen. We are staying with his friends Thomas and Denise who live below the castle.

The town of Schaffhausen is pretty cool. It has been rather foggy since we got here, so not the best views, but pretty.

The castle has its own resident deer

They live in the moat

The rest of the castle is surrounded by a vineyard where they grow all the grapes for the town's wine.

And they are protected.

Going up into the castle, we first passed through the stables which was a wonderfully cavernous place.

It's a pretty simple castle. This winding ramp takes you up the tower to the battlements.

Eric at the door to the caretakers place on the top of the tower. It's a tiny bit small

Not a bad place to live, no?

The view over town and the Rhine

Thomas and Denise's house, from the castle

Schaffhausen in the fog

On the way back into town

The town has wonderful lights strung up for the holidays

A moment of pretty light, this was the coolest building around

I like this style of building for some reason

The church square

Thomas and Denise have a lovely old house in the middle of town. It is something like 600 years old.

The bottom floor used to be a wine bar or something. The stories of the 6 centuries of smoking stench are wild. It smells ok now, after a lot of hard work. or it did till my curiosity got the better of me and I opened up an old closet. oops.

I swear there isn't a right angle in the place, or even a strait line.

they have a lovely garden, quite big for an old city.

Thomas's machine shop, which is the old cellar

I will eventually take more pictures of this lovely place.

Freezing fog

On the day of the final for my Saturday class, the fog that covered portland decided to freeze just over the school

Fall 2011 classes

PCC classes

Early morning BI 101

Late morning BI 101

Let's just say, there were a lot of term papers to grade!

BI 101 lab

These poor saps were stuck with me for lecture and lab

CCC Classes

BI 112 Saturday. Troupers for sure.

(that's the mitosis interpretive dance, if you are wondering)

BI 101 night class.

This was a really great group.

BI 112 lab

Last bits of fall

Since we had such a cold fall, there were really spectacular colors. My garden was surprisingly beautiful

My boys

Making wine

Eric's neighborhood is so very cool. They have set up a wine cooperative. We all get together and smash up grapes under the supervision of Josh who actually knows what he's doing. Eventually, we get to drink it. Eventually.

I don't have pictures of the crushing party, but here are some of the pressing party pictures.

This is Josh, who conned us all into doing the heavy labor. ;)

Rin and his bud Chloe

Eric and I. Man it was cold.

Last hints of summer

I realized that I didn't take any pictures of my garden this year, which is pretty silly of me. So, this is not at its best, but here is the last hint of summer in my garden. And Rin enjoying the sleepy sunshine

All of my summer effort here

Rin sure loves Eric

Eric's house

This is all actually old news, but I'm finally posting, so no complaints anyone. Eric's house is actually much further along than this.

These are the building blocks for the basement. Yes, they are styrofoam.

The footing just poorer

A layer of recycled crushed concrete

Then sand, and it took some effort to get the compactor into the work area

Next, a bunch of layers of radon barriers and other goodies

more styrofoam insulation

And then its all about putting the lego blocks together

The basement is actually done and they are working on the main floor foundations now, but I don't have pictures yet. Oh well, progress is being made.

Deschutes trip

I finally convinced Eric to take a quick camping trip to the Deschutes. It was a bit of work to drag him away from work, and haunting the permit office, but it was worth it.

wildflowers, in September?

I went to California in September, to work on some leftover PhD stuff in Davis, and to spend some time with my Grandma in Arnold.

We went for a hike up on the pacific crest trail (not a long one, but still!)

The weather was sketchy, but there were wildflowers everywhere. Tons of them.

I haven't seen so many, in wildflower season, but the end of september at 8000 feet? crazy things

We eventually got chased out by the thunder storms. Beautiful, but a little unnerving

Framing the footing

Well, it's almost October, and still no building permit. The permit office folk are getting to know Eric real well at this point. I love the comment from one secretary: 'we wish you were a jerk, because then we wouldn't feel so guilty'

But, the framing is up for the footing and they are ready to go, the moment they get the signal