Day Forty One

Fresh, clean floors! This is the first of another three cement pours. Once again we had great helpers yesterday. I didn't know they were going to show up so I didn't go out to take pictures till this morning.

Here is the infamous stairwell that they tried to pour also. Unfortunately it blew out. They had to break up all the concrete and dig it all out to start over.
Pretty, little window well. Concrete appeals to me for some reason.
This finished floor is where the basement living/school room will be. Yes, we are planning on homeschooling our kids. I'm going to have to find a way to light up this room as it is seriously lacking in windows.
Thanks to Uncle Dave and our buddy Paul for helping. Great people.

A Load of . . .

We went after a load of wood on Labor Day. I haven't been up the mountain much this year so I was excited. Kendi had fun exploring the creek while we worked.

Aydri was not used to wearing shoes or jeans or long sleeved shirts or walking on uneven ground or having bugs buzzing everywhere. At first she was excited to go explore too.

She became very frustrated. She tried to sit on a log like everyone else was doing and missed. That was the end of it for her. She was miserable and sat in the truck the rest of the time. Poor thing, she'll get used to it.

Grandpa Bulloch, the lumber-jack.

Felling a tree. Saying that sounds so funny to me.

Cari got the coveted job of stacking wood. I was always envious as a kid because my oldest sister always got this job. I thought that some day it would be my turn. Now my younger sister is doing it and somehow I got skipped.

On the drive up to our camp spot to have dinner the kids fell asleep. We were hoping for a nice dinner with dutch oven cobbler. When we got there some bees had made a hive in the fire pit. My mom decided to burn them out. Bad idea. They were not happy with us. They would not let us eat our food. They were swarming around us and landing on the kids. We couldn't eat and get out of their fast enough.

So, I figured out that my stock lens was super crappy. I always thought that I just didn't know how to take pictures very well. I switched to my long range lens and it takes better pictures, I just can't get very close. Sure glad I figured that out.

Day Thirty Six

Today is the second day we've spent back filling around the foundation. I wanted to get a picture of Jared using what we have nicknamed "the thumper." I don't like the kids being around the backhoe unless they are on it so I gave up and took them home.
My mom and I took turns spraying the dirt. It has to have the right water consistency to compact just right.

I'm usually slow and methodical about the way I do things. Some people think I'm timid because of this. If I'm not careful bad things happen. Today, after spraying brainlessly for hours I got careless. It didn't help that I was wearing over sized insulated gloves that were hard to work in. I picked up the nozzle of the hose, not realizing that I had it facing the wrong way. Yes. . . I sprayed myself point blank in the face with full water pressure. At first I didn't know what had happened. It certainly didn't feel like being splashed with water. I'm surprised my contacts were still in my eyes. And then I heard my dad say in a confused tone, "What are you doing?"

Frost Bite?

Today was day Thirty One. Jared and I tarred the foundation. It wasn't as easy-peasy as I thought it would be, but we had fun together. I had to use old gloves that could be thrown away when I was done. These gloves didn't help much and they ended up glued to the handle.

Kendi was there to cheer us on. She would pick up the pieces of stip-ties that we would break off and bury them like treasure.

I let Kendi take as many pictures as she wanted.

There were a dozen more of the exact same thing.

Day Twenty Nine

The guys couldn't wait to see the walls. They went out early this morning to strip the forms. They were worried that if they used these free forms the walls would have an ugly texture, but they actually turned out really smooth.

The basement is raised up out of the ground a little so that we can have daylight windows and protection from flooding. It was fun to see the windows and door appear underneath the forms.

Kendi likes to come when I take them lunch. She inspects what they are working on and searches for horny-toads. My dad is like the old-timers. After eating lunch in the shade, he laid down and took a short nap.

Day Twenty Eight

We were finally able to pour the foundation today. I wanted to help, but my dad said he would pour my foundation if I would mow his lawns. Sounded like a deal to me. I had six lawns to mow. I tried to get out to the house before all the helpers left, but I didn't make it in time to get pictures. We had three generous guys help pour today. Thanks guys!

Everything seemed to turn out well. The cement trucks only broke the part of the sidewalk that will be taken out for the driveway. haha. Hopefully things will move along faster now.