The Fight Concluded

 

 

 

 

The Fight Continued

 

 

 

 

The Fight

 

 

 

 

After Christmas dinner, we all needed to work off some calories. Joelle initiated a good old fashioned pillow fight. First it was just her and Steve but eventually it spread to Doreen and Natalie. You can see the sequence and they finally ended up on the floor!!

Christmas at Church

 

 

 

 

On December 20, the church put on a Christmas program in which we were asked to participate. Sandra and Doreen sang in a choir which Doreen helped to organize and they had me direct. The whole program was little vinettes staged with live people portraying encounters of several different people during the time when Christ was born. There was the encounter of Mary with the Angel, Joseph's encounter with the Angel, the Shepherds' ecounter with the Host of Angels etc. . . Here you can see some of the shepherds(Joelle and Natalie)with their sheep. At the end, Doreen and I sang with our friend, Randy. The song was "The Gift" which was sung on a CD by Randy Travis. It was the last song on the program. We had a good time helping with the play and thought all of the people acting out parts did a very good job.

Christmas Parade

 

 

 

 

Joelle and Natalie were in a Christmas Parade. They even got to ride in a float. Here are some pictures of the parade and the participants.

Christmas Eve

 

 

 

 

We had a very nice Christmas Eve with family. Grandpa reads a story to the grand daughters, Joelle opens a great gift then trys to play a tune, and wow, what a gift - a collection of State Quarters from Grammy and Poppie, then a display of money. . .money. . . money! And Great Grandma watches it all, remembering when one gift on Christmas was all that her folks could afford. We and our grandchildren are truely blessed, even if times are hard right now.

Leaf Blower

 

 

Today I bought a used leaf blower. I have been cleaning leaves for a friend who has a very big yard, so since we also have a lot of leaves, I found this blower and it really moves the leaves. You can see that we need it!

Happy Thanksgiving/Birthday

 

 

 

 

Today is Thanksgiving day and also Sandra's birthday. We are sharing it with Merna, Doreen, Steve, Joelle and Natalie.
You can see how nicely our table was set and how Joelle(7 years old) decorated it for grandma with several balloons. We have many things for which to be thankful.

Ready for Fill Dirt

 

 

In preparing for the plumbing in this garage (turning into a three bedroom, two bath house)I was building a retaining wall to terrace the side near the creek. Now the wall is ready for digging to begin. There will have to be a hole for the grinder pump and a ditch for the drain lines. The extra dirt will be deposited behind this retaining wall.

Making a Retaining Wall

 

 

 

 

After taking all of the concrete chunks outside we began building a retaining wall where we will put all of the dirt from the ditches and grinder pump hole. This will bring the ground up closer to the siding and will look better terraced. The concrete chunks will help to stablize the ground in case the creek runs over its banks. So, we dragged railroad ties from the front of the house down to the back and started building. We nailed the railroad ties together with 3/8" rebar cut into 30" lenths. There will be more pictures as the project continues.

Plumbing Preparation

 

 

 

 

We are turning our garage/storage room into a house. Besides building walls, we have to put in plumbing. In order to put in plumbing we had to have several cuts made in our concrete basement floor so we can install a drain system. We hired a company to come in and "SAW" our floor. They made 99 feet of saw cuts in the cement, then we have to remove all of the concrete chunks to make room to put in the drain lines. The chunks weighed from 40 lbs to 120 lbs (approximately). Getting them out was a big job but you can see how nice and straight the line is after we took them all out.