How We Use 80 Feet of Rope!

Dad had to work most of the day on Saturday (his line was running), so when he came home he decided that he needed a project to help him relax . The first thing he hit upon was a rope swing. So he packed Jacqueline and me off to the home improvement store to buy 80 feet of rope! When we got home, Jacqueline and I found our work clothes and then headed out to help him.

The rope was in 3 different pieces so we had to find the longest one and then tie a pair of knots on either side of the middle where the ropes attached to the swing would go.

One bored Jacqueline + one camera= a lot of funny pictures

Tying the rope around the tree. (Dad is standing on a ladder in our tree house)

On the other side Jacqueline had to hold the rope taunt. 

When Dad finished one side, he had to tie the other .

I think that we were all praying at this point. 

Once Dad had finished tying and had gotten off the ladder the mood lightened a lot, probably because no one was  thinking about how far away the nearest emergency room is!

Jacqueline was so excited that she couldn't wait for the seat! Swinging is her favorite think to do.  She is outside for an hour or two almost every day!

Drilling holes in the seat for the ropes.

Tying knots in the rope.  Notice that Dad's favorite beverage for working (and not working)  has made it's appearance

Mom was worried about how a rope tied to 2 trees was going to support any one's weight so she made Dad try it first.

After individual turns, Jacqueline and I decided to go together.   Even Mom tried the swing although she declined any souvenir photos.

Jacqueline has commented that in all of our videos one or both of us is screaming.  So here is a continuation of that tradition. 

Sunshine and Falling Leaves...

means Autumn is making an early appearance!  In the 7 years we have lived here, I think that this is the earliest that it has ever started to cool off ! The temperature was in the high 70's with mid-low humidity! Maybe this means I can start wearing my favorite sweaters soon. 

10,000 ways that don't work.

Thomas Edison said, " I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work"

Life is not always about the successes.  Usually it is about the failures and how you learn from them.  So we haven't failed, we have just found 7  way how not to garden! 

1) A garden is another name for a rabbits salad bar.   A rabbit's favorite foods are peas, green beans, carrot heads, radish tops, and an occasional weed, which we really appreciate.

2) In an effort to go green or if you are just trying to save some money, you might use a brown paper bag for potatoes.  It doesn't work.  In fact, this is what you get......

3) The Enemies of a garden: Weeds, Bugs, Heat...

     3a) With the onset of warm weather, the garden will quickly become a weed hole.  You spend as much or more time weeding then harvesting ( in our case at least). 

      3b)  Did you know that worms " grow"  on corn?  I think we raised more worms then ears of corn.

     3c)  Heat: a synonym for sweat, and being covered in the dirt that attaches itself to that sweat.  And it doesn't matter if you go out early.  You are STILL going to sweat. 

4)  Keeping your garden on the same watering schedule as your front lawn doesn't work.  Gardens require much, much more water. 

5)  Plants lie.  Just because a plant blooms it doesn't mean that it will produce fruit.



On a positive note, the deer haven't bothered our garden this year.  Just that darn rabbit!

Catch-Up: Pool Part 2

Dad asked some of his buddies from work, Mr. Ron and Mr. Doug, to  help install the liner. These guys were a big help. I don't think that the four of us  could have done it by ourselves!

How many engineers does it take to open a box with a liner inside?

Laying the liner out

pulling it across the pool

Almost done!

Mr.Ron brought his dog, Abigail. She is twelve years old and spent most of the time in the shade.Jacqueline,  being the animal person that she is, instantly made friends with Abigail! 

The vacuums are to pull the air out and push the liner as close to the wall as possible until the pool can be filled with water.

After Mr. Ron and Mr. Doug left and we started filling the pool with water, Jacqueline and I decided to start sliding down the slope into the water. We did get fairly wet by the end but it was worth it!

                       The noise in the background is two vacuum cleaners going.We didn't realize at the time just how loud they were!          

Dad decided to stand behind us while Mom was taking our picture. But he slipped down the slope and crashed into us instead!

Wet, but very very happy!

Catch-Up: Pool Part 1

With as busy as we have been over the last month (and probably will be for the rest of summer), I haven't done a very good job blogging. So this is the first of a few " catch-up" posts.  

At the beginning of May, we replaced our pool liner... by ourselves! Those have to be the most grueling few days I've ever known! The entire bottom of the pool had to be re-surfaced! It took us several days just to do that. 

Mom and Dad did a trial run to see how long it would take to mix and apply the pool-crete.

Jacqueline measured 41" from the top so we knew how far up the wall to apply pool-crete.

 

Isn't she ornery? 

 

Me, catching a frog (or toad. I can't tell the difference!) that was living on the bottom of the pool

 

mixing pool-crete. 

Jacqueline would flip the pool-crete on the wall and Dad would smooth it out. 

Resting

Almost done for the day. Hooray!

Trowels at the ready!

 

Through out the very long ordeal, Jacqueline never lost her sense of humor. Here, she is hanging herself in despair. This humor usually kept the rest of us laughing our way through long days and aching backs instead of snapping at each other.

 Drink Girl.

"What would YOU do for a Klondike bar?"

Surveying his handy work.

 

" Are we done YET ?"

I'm FINALLY clean, and I'm very tired. So leave me alone.

Warm Snap

We've had a bit of a warm snap and since we hadn't gotten the leaves cleaned up from this fall (very bad :0) we took advantage of the pleasant weather to do so.





before



 Jacqueline doesn't care for raking, so she made the trips down the hill to the compost area.



After the umpteenth millionth time down the hill, she has updated her resume and is applying for the raking position next year ;0)

We worked Friday afternoon after school and Saturday morning.  It definitely looked better once we had finished.

You know they saying every job worth doing is worth a new tool.  Well, it works for women too :0)  Mom got a hand pruning saw and trimmed the crab apple tree.  But don't tell Dad.  He might take it away from us (he has been known to purchase tools that we can't lift)...we're referring to it as a scrap booking tool.

Looks pretty good...