Lovely Day

Endentured servitude is not all that bad. Especially when the weather is nice and the company is good. Today, we celebrate Labor day by doing labor around my in-laws house. We've been coming up many Saturdays this summer because of the financial assistance they gave us to help us with our car. Painting, shoveling, weeding, landscaping, etc. Kitye is always complaining how hot it is outside, while Mike and I are out there not minding it much (the big straw hats help out a lot!) Keep the water coming and we're fine.

Last night we had a cool thunder and lightning storm rip through the valley, lots of fun. The Robbin's house is the perfect place to watch them. Grace and I sat under the gazebo they bought from Sam's Club watching the rain and wind and lightning on the mountain above us. It's a really nice gazebo, seems like it might blow away, but it's pretty solid and has been a wonderful feature. Micah and I put it together in about 4 hours worth of work. Easy, just put it together.

A few weeks ago, Mike needed to dig up the access cover to his septic tank. All we had were two vague measurments to go by to find this thing. I tried measuring it out and we dug for two hours through the mostly-rock soil before deciding to re-measure.

So we get 4 people and two measuring tapes and "triangulate" (oooooh!) real well where the lid should be and then Mike and I dig, pick-axe and all for another 2 hours. Just as we give up, I sit down and spot the very edge of it. Another 45 minutes later and it's uncovered. Woof. You want a workout, skip the gym and machines, just weild a pickaxe and shovel rocks for a few hours. Here's a picture of the hole and cover partially filled in (after Mike put the extension on it to bring the lid closer to the surface) Thank goodness the Lord answers some prayers with a yes, it would have been lame just to have to give up without finding it.

Today's project was weeding, laying fabric, and putting down stones to pave the ditch along the street into a dry-creek bed. Mike hired a neighborhood kid and the three of us went at it for about 3-4 hours. We made progress, but it's not finished yet. Mike's going to plant more of the ground cover plants, rearrange the drip lines and we need to finish putting down stones on the bank.

We added on to the work Mike had done a few years ago, you can see where the stones go all the way up from before.

Here's a few more pictures of the house and other projects. Emily and I did the planter near the bottom of their driveway (weeding, laying fabric, filling in the bark, and lining it with stones). The other pictures are of friends, family, and the scenery of their beautiful home in Woodland Hills, Utah. It's easily one of the prettiest places to live in Utah, and still roughly unheard of (being in the "hick-ish" southern end of Utah Valley). Just make sure you have 4-wheel drive for the winters.