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.

Another before/after

I knew it would't be a pretty sight, but was not prepared for this.  Our house was built on a piece of farm land.  It was tiled with the old clay tiles which have failed. That resulted in sink holes five feet deep and many areas that remain so wet that we cannot mow there.

Lawn doesn't look too bad in the before picture.

  The tiling crew is here for the second day resulting in this. It goes across the lawn in many places. The sad part is that it will look pretty much like that for a couple of years.  It takes that long for the soil to fill in.  

FYI the man in the red shirt is Hubby supervising!

I will try to not complain since we did not have a choice unless we wanted sink holes.

 Oh, the joy of owning your own home.

Counter top

In my last post I had a picture of the "stolen" counter top.  Well the good new is it has returned and has greatly improved its looks.

The back splash was also "stolen" but has not yet returned.

All the lower cabinets had to be emptied. A new sink, faucet and garbage disposal needed to be installed.  This task fell to dear husband. He is smiling in the picture, but was not always as he crawled into the space under the sink.

I also want to comment on the blue tape on the kitchen window.  For some unknown reason birds repeatedly fly against the windows on all sides of our house.  And make a mess, I would add.  The tape solved the problem.  Guess it doesn't look like an open window, or maybe where they can see their refection.  

Returning home

Every year it seems that we are gone when my favorite flowers are in bloom. They had just started so I took a picture of the best one to take with me.

On my next posting I will show what they looked like when I returned.

The flight from Albuquerque to Cleveland was tiring, especially since we arrived at home at 1:00am.

I fell into bed and apparently slept soundly because this is what I saw when I walked into the kitchen in the morning.

Someone had stolen the counter tops.  And later in the day they all  were gone.  Actually it has been quite a job for Gerry to remove them, plus the sink.  Next week the new top will be installed.

Bernice's Adventure Day 3

I have always enjoyed the Franklin Park Conservatory.  I recall going their years ago when they incorporated  Chihuly  glass among the plants. They had one on display now. But the plants are what I love the best.

This "tree" was about five inches tall. 

And of course tropical flowers.

In the evening I attended a production of a play "Waiting To Be Invited". The props were just folding chairs.  It is a true story of three black women who tested the decision of the Supreme Court on integration by having lunch at an all white lunch counter. It never showed them at the counter, instead we were told of their fears of going there as well as what has happened in their lives which motivated them to do this. Very powerful.