What We Did This Week

Out of love for his wife's sanity Will built this ramp

for the everyone to walk on, INSTEAD of through the dirt pile and INTO the house.

Thanks Hon!!

Notice the orange flag tape hanging from the corner of the house? That was put there

AFTER Aleana and I both hit our heads on the corner. OUCH !@#$%

I made salsa for the first time on Wednesday.

I love the colors!!

It was alittle runny because I used my chopper for the tomatoes to be more efficient.

It tasted really yummy so I don't think it matters too much about how runny it is.

I used the chopper for the onions too and that worked well. I had to hand chop the

peppers though. Any tips about the tomatoes?

Here's the dirt pile from digging the holes for the footings.



Aleana had a friend over and they set up our "old" smaller tent.
Sleep overs are so fun. We won't mention that didn't actually sleep in the tent!

Here's a shot of all the footings before the cement was poured.

One more shot of our dirt pile.

This is the cutest!!! My first video upload and it worked!!

This is Peter's first "real" piano recital.

What do you think? Do we have another Mozart or Roy Orbison?

Decking the Yard

Early Saturday morning - the cement truck came to visit us.

The excitement in the house was reverberating mostly off the stairs as

little feet jumped up and down trying to follow the action.

The "cement man" loading up the wheelbarrows.
The men had 20 minutes to unload the cement.
The children kindly stood at the door letting
everyone how much time they had left.
They didn't seem to notice that
the men were ignoring their
hyper vigilance.

Brother Mitchell was a huge help - he's got muscles,
which we needed. I remember when he was born - sigh...


A bird's eye view of Mitchell and our messy yard.

Will already brought one load of wood to the dump.

Dad leveling the cement once it was poured in the forms.

Will and his Dad have always worked really well together.

I guess it's partly from all those sailing trips that required mutual respect and responsibility.

I love watching them.

At one point Matthew yelled "That's team work!!"

Mitchell too, just fit right in with the "team work".


And of course we can not forget the supporting cast who

were delegated roles "behind the scenes".

The wooden forms after the cement was poured.

It's hard to smile while pushing a cement laden wheelbarrow but he managed.

The "cement man" filling up another wheelbarrow.

The cement in the "sono" tubes. One learns so much when building a deck.

Did I know anything about footings and sono tubes before? Nope!

Dad filling the sono tubes.

At the end, we had two sono tubes to fill and only one wheelbarrow left.

It's neat what you can do to fill every corner - turns out we had exactly the right amount

but not before there was some sweating about it!!!

These are the "saddles" that fit on top of the footing. I guess it could also be called a

"bracing". I am using quotations because I don't know if those are the correct terms or not.

So that's where we are today. It will take a week for the cement to completely dry and then we get to start building. It's down hill from here, as far as I'm concerned. Yippee!!

Like anything in life, building the foundation takes the most time, skill, exactness, and energy.

Camping on Shushawp Lake

This was our destination...

but we had some hesitation

as the skies were not in cooperation.

Our passengers were still excited
despite the weather that bited.

The rain left us frustrated

but soon it abated.

It left us something funny

before it become too sunny.

Our Peter posed so lovingly

it was hard to decide

Is he looking stubbornly? with a hint of pride?

The mischievous grin reminds me a

little of Uncle Wes' side.

We walked through a canyon to a waterfall...

took memorable pictures...

of all the smaller ...

and the tall.

Here's a homemade wasp trap
made by Matthew in a snap

with some of Dad's old beer

the wasps were all

too happy to drown in there.

Catching mice took some work

around our campsite they did lurk.

Helping set up the shelter from the rain

and wasps that were such a pain.

This made Mommy very happy

to feel dry and not so crabby.


Bike rides were lots of fun
for absolutely everyone.

once all the work was done...

Waterslides were fun on a cloudy day

the line ups were fast I say.

Ethan bought a snorkel which

he enjoyed one day in the sun.

Would you like to buy a merboy anyone?
He's lots of fun.

More of Margaret Falls.;
Matthew didn't go into the cave,

but Daddy did so he could wave

to all his fans with a song

not to disappoint the

cheering throng.

Our last day we lit a fire

hip hurray

it was so dire

without the crackling, red pyre.