Puddle jumping weather

No pics - though there are some to post....the camera is in the construction trailer, which we locked up yesterday in the middle of a big storm.  It was a little too muddy to go back to retrieve it.

Thomas stayed home on Friday and worked with his dad on leveling the first layer.  When I got home, it was looking good.  So we added a second course of block and rebar and wired it all up.  Things were looking nice and level and plumb, so we applied the liquid nails where we needed and let it set up. 

Saturday morning I made a quick grocery store run in the morning before we got too dirty.  The third course went up pretty quickly, and then discussions about scaffolding got serious.  Mostly I tried to stay out of the boys' way.  They built up the scaffolding bases while I cleaned the kitchen, made iced tea for the trailer fridge...really serious things.  As the bases were ready, I carried them into the hole, and soon they were all ready to be stabilized and placed.  We carried some of our floor joists down to hold up our walkways and then prepared the decking for the west side.  Thomas has no problem on narrow walkways - all his days on narrow booms working on cranes.  I know it is not so high I couldn't jump off, but there is some latent fear - maybe a throwback to rolling off the bed as a baby and breaking my leg.  Regardless, I did walk along it, and it wasn't too bad, though Thomas accurately observed that as the wall grows up along side it, it isn't as scary.

We were pretty pooped on Saturday after a full day of work, but after mass on Sunday, we began again.  After we hauled some more block over, Thomas and I laid the rest of the decking and then added a couple extra braces for stability.  I got up and made the loop, but then wasn't so keen on him running across them chasing me.  Yikes!  Pop showed up just in time to see Tom's antics.  The next course went up without much fanfare, and we were able to lay the rebar in place.  Great scaffolding!  Next we braced the outside with what will be the roof decking later.  This is a most important element of securing the blocks from the mighty Miami wind, especially since we will be away at work during the week.  As we worked, we watched a storm blow in and past and around and, finally, right into us.  We had gratefully gotten the last screws in place and the equipment out of the hole before it crashed into us.  Tom and I had cut 40 ft of sheeting to cover our scaffolding when it hit.  We were under the carport while the wind flew in from the south and blew over us, showering the yard with a lot of hail.  All we could think about was the mud and soupiness of the hole.  We held out, and it let up.  The staple gun made quick work of laying the sheeting down, and we made it back across the property in our shoes caked with inches of mud.  Bummer that the screen door window let a bunch of water into the mud room, but it didn't take long before we were clean, warm, and dry.

A busy weekend on the house, and we plan to pour the basement walls on Saturday!  Hopefully all will work out.  The rain came down through the night, and tired as I was, I couldn't sleep for imagining the hole filling up with water and the bindweed storing up enough water to take over any remaining unclaimed territory.  Really, the rain was much needed!  And I won't complain for the wonderful smell of fresh rain or the way everything just felt fresher.  I am not feeling as sore as I expected today.  I figured that I got up and down from the scaffolding at least 30 times and had to crouch underneath at least a dozen to get in and out of the hole.  A whole other kind of exercise routine!

Oh, and no puddle jumping - the ground just soaked it right up!  Only good puddles for jumping are out on the highway...

First (and hopefully last) Fire of 2012

I had the pleasure of bringing  Sara home from school on April 19th.  Of course, we couldn't leave right away because we needed to get an afterschool snack at the Art Gallery - ice cream!  We enjoyed wandering around and checking a few things out while I finished my cone before driving.  (Safety first!)  She entertained me with all sorts of stories and chatter on the drive to Grandma and Grandpa's, where she would spend the afternoon with her little sister until practice and whatnot wrapped up for Marie in town.

I had just gotten home and had a chance to go to the bathroom when the pager went off.  Thomas and I share a pager and a radio for the fire department.  The pager is usually silent until paged, which then turns on the scanner for information about what is happening.  We had just had a test page the week before, so we both scrambled to get out the door as we heard that there was a tree fire at a residence on the other side of Miami. 

Tom, Pop, Gayle and I responded and found a tree on fire from a lightning strike to a neighboring tree.  It was rotted down the middle, so the fire was running vertically through it.  We let ourselves out to the pasture, and Tom promptly felled the tree to make it easier to fight.  It was a quick job, made easier by wind blowing to the SE keeping the embers from falling into the dry grass on the other side of the fence. 

We can only hope that might be the last call, but all are on guard as the drought makes us still very vulnerable.  Here's to hoping for more rain!

Late April

With Tom home after his trip to Phoenix, we kept busy as we could outside, but the wind did thwart some of our efforts.  In that case a gym was just as good a place to be watching Maya and Sara play basketball.  I got to see both of them play a couple times, and what a joy!  Gratefully their last two tournaments were in Springer and Cimarron.

 Maya took the free throw trophy for her level at the Springer tourney.  It was fun to watch her and her team - most of whom I know.  David and his fellow coach did a great job this year!

 Sara showing off her medal in Springer...didn't know most of her team, but it was fun cheering.  And one of her coaches was Marie, who did a great job steering them toward the right basket.

As much as I have been chomping at the bit to get going on the house, we have been checking a lot of other outdoor to-do's off the list:  putting the electric fence up around the veggie garden, getting the ditches ready for water delivery (last Saturday - what fun to see all that water coming onto the land and how shocking to see if fall into rabbit holes or gopher holes and never fill up!), and installing a frost-free spigot in the flower garden.  

Here's our new spigot with a couple stepping stones from Miki & Marty around it.  I enjoy collecting rocks for this particular area.  Now if I can only keep the bind weed at bay! 

With all this other activity, we rounded off the month with home work on Sunday.  Aside from accepting deliveries and accumulating materials, Pop delivered the construction trailer he created out of Tom's old travel trailer.  It is hooked up to power, has a CD player and mini fridge, and will protect tools during our extensive home work.  Tom tested out the AC, which still works, so I'm sure there may be future pictures of chairs occupied and beer in hand on a hot day.

Pop thought he was just dropping off the trailer, but stuck around as we laid our first level of block.  Next step is squaring off and shimming the low corner. 

More pictures to come of all this as it happens.  In other news of the month, we enjoyed some down time - a "block" party at our neighbors' house across the road and a couple other nights of just hanging out with family.  Looking forward to more of that, too...

Early April - aka Easter

April has flown by and I haven't even posted any news yet!  How lame!  And truly a reflection of the busy life Tom and I have been keeping.  After the trip to California, I was eager to spend any free time with Tom, though I did have a lot of evening commitments with work/church.  Quick correction to the last post - the cat had three kittens, not two.  Evidently we interrupted her birthing when we saw the first two because the next afternoon there was a third one - a little white one.  Still no sign of them - after a dog mauled the doorway of the cat house, she moved her litter and have yet to be seen.  Hopefully they survived.

So back to early April...I left for Easter Sunrise Service and Easter Mass very early and came home to an empty house...Thomas was on the road to Phoenix for a week of training.  He missed out on a lovely Easter BBQ at Mom & Pop's.  All were in great spirits, though I almost didn't wake up from my nap in time to make it.

 Sofia showing how versatile a pacifier can be.

Julie brought eggs for a hunt for the older three.  It was entertaining for all, though.  The first "hide" Julie faked them out - the door opened and closed, she came back in, the kids were released from hiding, they came up empty...Julie confessed with much amusement:

The second hide was real and tricky - those kids looked and looked and ended up needing some help.  It doesn't help that the tallest kid took the low and easy eggs.

 For sharing his lap, I think Daniel got a piece of candy (or a muscle cramp?).  Andres, every bit of thirteen, still enjoys lap sitting and the hilarity it brings.

Partaking in an Easter tradition with me, Maya and I glammed up with the malted robin eggs.  (PS - thanks, Mom, for the extra bag last week.  So yummy!)

In Tom's absence I did keep busy and do all my "home" work - read the manual on the ICF blocks and figured out a window plan.  I also got down and dirty vacuuming, mopping, laundering...phew!  I prefer the "home" work to the housework. 

Lucky and Lazy....

I didn't win the mega millions and quit my job - neither did Thomas.  I have been lucky and lazy in other ways, though.

--The gas station didn't have any water in the bucket for me to scrub my windshield on my drive home, and I could barely see anymore.  I kept thinking I should just get out a scrubby and some cleaner, but never did.  The snow coming down last night helped clean it all off - job done the lazy way!  Thanks, God!

--Sunday it was too windy to work outside when I got home from church / work.  AND "This Old House" was finally again, so Thomas and I got to cuddle up on the couch and watch it.  Super lucky getting to be lazy together!

--The lake is filling up, which is a welcome sight after watching it dry up all summer and fall.  And what luck:  we got a great dumping of wet snow last night, and Tom and I both got to stay home today and be mostly lazy.  I baked some bread, and we both futzed.  Tom having to help me get out of the mud in front of Granny's was hard work for him, but mostly today was a windfall for us. 

AND JUST PLAIN LUCKY  -- Felix had two kittens today.  Thomas was super excited!  I am grateful she had them while he is here.  He would have been super bummed if they came while he was in Phoenix.  And while I am still not a "cat person" and though my family will not fathom it at all, it is exciting to see the two little kittens.  We hope they make it through the cold night, and then maybe Thomas will name them after he gets to see more than their back sides while they nurse.  Evidently all my suggestions are lame, lamer, and lamest.

Friends...

Poor Thomas!  With my trip to California for the conference, we said goodbye Wednesday, March 21st and didn't get to embrace again until Tuesday, March 27th in the evening.  I teased that Thomas was all sulky that I get to go away for work and see friends and family, and on Easter he leaves for a week of work training in Phoenix with no friends or family....always getting the raw end of the deal!

I did get to see friends and family, and for whatever reasons I really was ready to see them and was renewed by it.  On my way to the airport, I stopped in for lunch at SAME Cafe and saw Brad Birky before popping in for a visit with Betty.  Always fun...

My momma and our friends who hosted us and Kim Zea-

Bob & Joyce are friends from my parents early days together in Portland.  Bob was especially punchy Saturday evening, when he took us for a "tour" of his old 'hood, the plaza in Orange.  We ate Cuban food for dinner - not something I get at home!

After the conference ended on Sunday, we went out for Thai with more family - Aunt Janelle, Joyce's son Mark, me, Momma, Joyce, cousin Peter, and Uncle Bob.  Uncle Bob brought me passion fruit from his trees - delicious!  He also brought some of his hens' eggs, but I begged off that I didn't think they would all fit in a quart size ziploc bag in my carry-on luggage the next morning!

Landing in Denver on Monday, Mary, Heather, Sarah, Deb, and I went for a hike at Mt. Falcon.  So nice to stretch my legs between travel to and from Denver.

The icing on the cake was family dinner!  Jennifer hosted a mighty gaggle of us in her new home: Ahna, Oren, and Ezra - just packed and ready to leave the next day for Spring Break; Andrea, Shawn, and Mackenzie; Charlotte; and the gang of hikers.  What fun, except that the allergies plaguing me took a turn for the worse with the smoke from the North Fork fire.  And Tuesday morning, before officially hitting the road, I got to see Cathy at Golden Touch for a little rolfing and AnnaBelle for lunch.

Yes, Tom had reason to be jealous!  I sure was lucky to see so many family and friends.  Always more that I wish I could see when I pass through Denver, but maybe someday we'll be there for Jazz in the Park or something else like it where we can all congregate and just catch up~

Day at the Beach

A great first day in California included a trip to Newport Beach, the strand where nobody was surfing, and Balboa Island.  It was a lot of fun to spend a day outside before three days of sitting in workshops.  

A fluffy bird at the pier!  There were lots of people fishing off the pier, competing with a whole lot of pelicans.

 It was a foggy morning, but it burned off by afternoon.

 This seal was much nicer than the big fatty Tom and I saw in Astoria a few days before our wedding.  We actually saw seals and dolphins near the strand.  There were maybe half a dozen dolphins, but all my pictures just look like sharks - dorsal fins and no jumping.

What a treat to be standing next to Momma in the middle of March!

And yes, you can take the girl out of Oregon, but there is still that bit in me that thinks the only natural thing to do around a cold body of water is get your toes wet!