Catching Up

Its been over two weeks since we posted anything, so I thought that I would share what we have been up to since summer break started.

Using an infared game camera we found out where our dog food has been going. Rather than try to trap the huge raccoon we moved the food inside. With his size I am pretty sure that he has been here longer than we have.

We made a trip to Texas on Memorial Day weekend for a very quick visit with family and to enjoy the annual "Big Deal" family reunion. Of course Oscar made the ride interesting. We thought several times about how we wish we had sprung for the $85 kennel stay.

We are now working a little on our front yard. We had six trees that were partially dead, poor health, in the wrong spot, or that we just didn't like so we cut them down yesterday. We still have work to do to get all of the debris removed and the stumps cut down to be ready for grinding, but the stressful portion is over. We have power lines on two sides of our front yard and they never met a tree so I consider the day a success.

This was the worst tree. It was huge and rotten through the middle with all of it's branches growing towards the road and the power line. Lots of chain and prayer were used.

Here is the yard with all six down. We will update more as we get time. Our plan is to line the driveway with crepe myrtles approximately every 20 feet, so we will need 10 to make that happen. We may not get all of them right away because we want to buy pretty good sized ones, but we will see.

Joshua and the zip line

The Zip Line is Active

Today was a productive day. The flashing and roof made it on the treehouse, and the trap door and ladder were put in.

We still need to put in the railing for the balcony and the ladder to get to the zip line landing, but that shouldn't take long. It will require a trip to Lowes or Home Depot for some long 2x4s, but that should be all. We still need to get some paint to trim out the door and windows, but we are not in a hurry for that, maybe after Memorial Day.

Here Joshua is trying the zip line (with my help getting on). Until we get the ladder built and a step to make it easier for them to get on the trolley it requires some assitance.

And it's Jacob's turn.

Unfortunately with all the fun, Joshua got pulled back too far and caught the edge of the metal roof which required the first change to the design:

Kinda hard to see, but the edges of the metal roof are now protected by a split section of garden hose.

It's been said that the hardest part about bringing up boys is keeping them alive until they're 18 because if the can climb on it they will jump off of it. We may need to alter the phrase to "they will jump off of it or their Dad will build a zip line from it". OK, we may not see that quote taking off, but it does apply here.

Backyard progress

End of the zip line. 228 feet starting above the treehouse and ending at this tree.







Treehouse so far, still needs paint, roof, balcony, and zip line launch pad. Zip line barely visible above the treehouse.







After three weeks the grass is going strong. Hopefully within the next month the gazebo will be restained.

We are ready for a slow down with baseball winding down in a couple of weeks. At the same time the treehouse should be complete and we can take a break and enjoy everything. That is, until we decide to start redoing our family room.

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Projects never end

Life would be simpler if we could just take it one project at a time. Not likely to happen. The tree house is still in progress, but is waiting for funding. By the end of May to early June we should have siding purchased. Once the siding is up the roof can go on and the platform for the zip line can be built. Apparently, no tree house is complete without a 250 foot zip line. My heart may not survive, but at least the boys will be having fun.

In addition to the tree house the yard continues to take up way too much time. Our wonderful neighbor, Burt, came over and spread some more dirt to fill in the ruts (see above) from our last dirt moving adventure. Hopefully, the grass will spread quickly and we can have a green front yard. Even without grass, it is looking better thanks to these lovely flowers. I love finding such beautiful surprises. In the midst of these time and money gobblers, we had several days of rain. As we sat in the house, since it was too wet to play (credit Dr. Seuss), John began to ponder a fascinating question. What does the floor under the bar in the family room look like? Being the unsuspecting wife I am, I said, I don't know, we should move it and see. Of course, once you remove the bar, you have to remove the light from over the bar and the chair rail. Okay, now removing the backing from the old wall paper (yes, the previous owners just painted over the wall paper) and painting the family room has been added to the "to do" list. And yes, that is vinyl record wallpaper and blue walls. We may take the easy way out and just replaced the sheet rock. Removing 20 year old (at least) wall paper is not my idea of fun. I found an old picture to show what the room looked like with the bar. We are planning to put a pool table in the room, so it made sense to move out the bar. Okay, so there was plenty of room even with the bar, but we get bored when we don't have something to tear up.

Saturday at the laundry mat

Some day I will be cool and have a high capacity washer and dryer. Until then an occasional trip to the laundry is necessary to wash the kid's comforters. At least John and the kids are having fun.


-- Post From My iPhone

Fun with tractors and dirt

So two weeks ago I borrowed a tractor to spread a few loads of dirt and got it all spread, but only after getting it stuck a couple of times and leaving MANY ruts in the yard.






Today I tilled up the entire back yard, raked it out smooth, and seeded it all.



Hopefully within 12 days we will have lots of seedlings popping up.



And once again got a tractor stuck.

-- Post From My iPhone