Rocks and Trees

The kids and I spent most of the morning transplanting little seedlings to where the mower won't bother them. The kids refer to them as Christmas trees and they do smell like them. We are not entirely sure what kind they are or how about 50 of them have ended up on our place but we decided to give them a better chance at life. If you click on this picture you may see orange flags that are markers. They are on the back and right side of our rectangle now. While we were digging them up we found A LOT of rocks that bother the mower so began piling them up to pick up later. Kris spent most of the day working on anchor bolts and getting ready for the Kinsey brothers to join us tomorrow. It rained on and off all day today and was in the 70's. It was a nice day to be planting but a little muddy. The rest of the day was actually spent on laundry! :)

New friends

We have found some new things on our property. We were looking for baby trees and found a nest of these cute little eggs on the ground. Wesley found the toad just before church. Kris has started to get the slab ready for the garage/apt. Help is coming this weekend so hopefully there will be more to post soon. We have found about 20 more little evergreen-type trees scattered over our land and are collecting rocks to make a wall someday.

Robbing a day...

When I stayed with my brother David for a summer he had a phrase for packing an extreme amount of things into a small amount of time. It was called "robbing a day" because all you did should normally take two days to complete. These times often included a shortage of sleep as well. Today was one of those days. I worked 11p-7a. I picked up the rest of the family and we drove to Athens (2 hours away) to get our tractor. Apparently the best deals for this type are there! We drove back in time for Kristianna to attend her babysitting class at our church at 1 pm. We had to cut some of the grass when we returned and test out the new toy! Kris's parents helped us tow the tractor from Athens and are probably as exhausted as we are! The picture shows Kris's dad and Isabel taking a test drive. Our slab is poured, forms removed, and expansion joints are in place. Now we are almost ready for the wood!

Isabel goes to the neurologist tomorrow for her get acquainted visit. She is doing very well weaning off her medication and increasing her verbal skills daily. We are hoping her new doctor shares our opinion.

We have a slab! Now we can build...or get ready to build. Progress is being made but it might look like this for a few days. Soon the weeds will make even this much hard to see so that is our goal for the next few days. We took Wendy, Dominec, and the girls to our favorite spot to keep cool. They all seemed to enjoy it as much as we do. Since it was 90 degrees today it was a great place to be. We also went to Youngs for ice cream before they had to take off. It was great to have them here!

GUESTS

In the midst of trying to make new friends and make introductions to strangers, it was SO nice to share some memories with familiar faces in our new location. Wendy and the kids drove out to see us today and friends of hers invited us over for dinner. We all had so much fun. Her visit was such and encouragement to us. Isabel especially was excited to see her best bud and the older ones seemed to have a lot of fun on the water slide. Wendy's visit came at a great time as well because we are a little stuck on our building progress until a few things happen. Tomorrow the slab is scheduled to be poured so other then watering our little plants and killing poison ivy there wasn't a lot to do this weekend. No dramatic property pics today! I hope everyone had a great weekend. We are grateful today for our friends both old and new and for the encouragement God sends us with skin on just when we need it.

Something vertical

Our new neighbor Kathy asked me today how it felt to have something vertical on the property. Here is our new shed. Building #1...We are excited!

They placed the wire on the foundation today, too.

Happy 4th of July!

Sunburns, sawdust, and a shed

Hopefully by the time you all read this update this little shed will be finished. It still needs shingles, stain, hinges, and a door, but it is almost done! This is what we have done this weekend. I hope all the runners and families from FL know that the gift cards enabled Kris to purchase the needed equipment. Thanks, guys! You can see just a portion of the foundation for the garage. The slab still isn't poured but hopefully will this week or early next week. The kids and I planted a small flower garden and transplanted about 20 tiny Northern Red Cedar trees we found growing in the back 2 acres. Kristianna also bought a dying dwarf nectarine tree for $1.86 at Lowes that she is hoping will grow. We planted that and said a lot of prayers! :) I begin working nights tonight so it may be a few days before I can post again. Hope you all have a fabulous 4th! Wish we could be in Ticonderoga watching fireworks instead but will be delivering some very patriotic babies instead. Now... off to help Kris with the shingles...