Being an accountant, Jenelle determined a monetary storage cost for each item that she scrutinized.  If the storage cost exceeded the item’s value (cost_storage > value_item, for those of you who think like that), it was off to the garbage bin, recycle bin, or the Goodwill.  Let’s say that Jenelle kept those three destinations very busy.

After many weeks of work, the result: the house looks like it’s been expanded (or robbed).

We had quite the time.  We all made our first visit to the Portland Children’s Museum, which featured a special exhibit on Bob the Builder.  Bob himself was there.  We also got to enjoy a “Tractor Petting Zoo” with some shiny yellow earth movers.

We showed Nathan our compost pile and explained that it’s where earthworms eat our vegetable scraps and make dirt.  Nathan, being a budding Master Recycler and Earthworm Aficionado, wanted to see the worms dining.  We suggested he come back in the summer when we actually bother to turn the compost pile.

Our trip to the Columbia River Gorge was memorable, partly because we’ve never seen it so windy there.  We arrived at Crown Point (which overlooks the Columbia River) to find winds so strong they were preventing people from returning to their cars.  Elsewhere, fallen trees lined the road, and we drove under one of the trees.  The waterfalls coated the rocks behind them with ice, making it appear they had been flocked, like a Christmas tree.