We are blessed to live in a most beautiful place. Our little acreage is situated in the middle of the tiny town of Yarrow, bordered by farm land and backed with a mountain view. This morning I played with our two youngest grandchildren, Juniper and Henry. As we enjoyed our time together I couldn’t help but marvel at the gorgeous mountain view. After lunch I drove the kids to go home but I wasn’t done yet. It was time for a drive with our oldest grandchild, Moth. We jumped in the Jeep for a four wheeling tour of the mountain I had enjoyed from our yard. In less than half an hour Moth and I were bouncing on some very rough roads at the very top of Vedder Mountain, 3000 feet above our home. The view was spectacular and we could see all the way to Vancouver Island about seventy miles distant. It was a great way to wrap up our summer!
For the birds
As part of the trim on the grand kid’s treehouse I am sculpting a birdhouse. Janis is art directing the little piece and it seems the little trio of houses has been ‘in progress’ for far too long… YEARS! as Janis occasionally reminds me. I have been working on it occasionally but as with many other home projects it gets set aside when life gets busy. My new firm goal is to have the sculpting finished before our upcoming workshop which is scheduled for the first week of October. Becke will paint it during the workshop as a demonstration piece. So tonight, after supper, I went out to the shop and began applying the epoxy. I made good progress and am excited to continue. Stay tuned…
House keeping
Housekeeping chores in our shop are frequent. The shop floor is often swept multiple times in one day if necessary. At the end of each day tools are put away and things cleaned up. Whenever a project is pulled from the shop we clean up the area thoroughly before the next project begins. In the mixing area, out back of the shop it is cleaned up at the end of each day it is used. Concrete bags are gathered and spilled sand is scooped up. The mixer is also cleaned regularly and the resulting slurry is dumped on the ground to drain away. But each cleaning adds a thin layer of concrete to the gravel floor. Over time this builds up. For many years we would send a crew member or two in with a pick axe and shovel to break it up. The pieces were shovelled into a wheelbarrow and hauled to the spoil pile. It was a tough job that no one looked forward to and it took a day or more to accomplish. When we got our little backhoe a couple of years ago I volunteered to do this job for I love operating the tractor. It took me less than three hours to break up the ‘concrete’ floor and haul the bits to the spoil pile. Tomorrow, I’ll haul in and place a new layer of gravel and then run the plate packer over it to make it ready for putting the paddle mixer back in place. House cleaning is a whole lot more fun with the right tools!
