Visitors from CA

The grandchildren are visiting for a week.  One might guess as to what they might be doing here.

A tradition at our home is to make waffles.  Old waffle iron and my famous recipe.

K and B planned and served a dinner to eight adults.  G and I, their other grandparents and two couples we know.  They planned the menu, K went grocery shopping with me.  She was the chef and B the server. K made a menu that put to shame many a restaurant's.   

Then the riding of a variety of vehicles.  This is called an ELF.  It is G's newest toy.  It is a three wheeled bike (two wheels in the front and one in the back)

Getting a ride on the dirt bike.  In this case Grandpa  G was in control.

As usual driving the four wheeler. 

K riding in the Spitfire with the top down.  She was a passenger this time but soon will be driving it herself.

Wake up call

I have been fascinated by mockingbirds. I don't recall every seeing (or hearing) one when I was growing up in Minnesota.  We have several around our house this year.  It is fun to listen to their repertoire of various other bird's songs. But I  am becoming annoyed.  They sing all day long with a loud, almost screeching  sound. I cannot  sleep with the window open because they start at the break of day.

This morning I walked in one of our great county parks.  The park has both paved and natural paths.  I walked around this lake on the paved path as well as one and a half miles in the woods. The parks are truly a treasure and all are within 30 minutes driving distance from home.

Tutorial on field tiling.

Alexis asked about how this worked.  I had to do some research to understand it myself.  The tile underground is on a small decline that ends up at the ditch then into a runway. It does not take surface water, instead what is lower in the ground.

When the tile is blocked or breaks the water has nowhere to go, so the force pushes it up to the surface, taking soil with it.  That is what makes the big hole in the lawn.

This is how our lawn looked before the project started.

When the grass and soil was dug out on the area across the road where all the water would eventually run, it was so blocked up that this how much water ran out after they dug out the soil and grass. 

The above pictures show some of the areas where the tile needed to be laid.

Please note the person in the red shirt.  That is Gerry who was out there supervising for three days.  So that he did need to walk the area, he has the four-wheeler to get around.

A closer view of how it is done. 

The tile has little slits in it for the water to get in.  Could not find a picture of that.