Ancient memories

I love diggin' around in the ground. (I suppose that's why I got into pottery) There's nothing better than havin' my hands (or feet) in the dirt! Yesterday morning I hoed and raked the garden. The weather was absolutely perfect and the the dirt was too. I have romaine lettuce coming out my ears, and have unfortunately discovered that I don't really like romaine lettuce. It's a little too pungent. But it looks so pretty out there in its crooked little row, I don't mind weeding around it, and just leaving it for looks. I hope I have some broccoli soon. I saw a few little green tomatoes have made an appearance.My rows are a little too wide, but I got a late start and knew I wouldn't be able to plant everything I'd like to, so I kinda spread everything out a bit.

I like my tomato cages. I made them out of branches we had trimmed earlier. I think they look kinda "zen" and earthy.

I do lotsa thinkin' when I'm hoein' and rakin'. I was thinking about why I love working in the garden and why I love being a potter. Of course there are the obvious similarities, both involve handling dirt. But I wonder why some people enjoy the earth more than others.

When I was in high school, I enjoyed painting more than potting. I actually went to a commercial art school for about a month and I thought I would make a living drawing and painting. Well, that never transpired. (Not only did I never make a living drawing and painting, I basically never made a living, period!) But, my point is that over the years, I drifted away from the painting, but got more and more interested in the pottery.

I think that what I like about pottery is that it involves 3 of the most basic elements, water, fire, and earth. I like that.

And I think I like gardening because I come from a long line of farmers and my mother always had good things to say about growing up on the farm. I don't believe in reincarnation, but I do think that we retain some sort of sense of remembrance from what our ancestors did. I don't know if I'm expressing myself clearly, but I think that if we can pass along things in our genes like eye color, hair color, and things like that, why can't we pass along some sort of sense of what our ancestors experienced and loved? My ancestors were farmers, they hoed and raked and planted and now I do it too. And I think that somehow they passed on their love of the earth to me and I look forward to passing it on to my grand-kids. I had Jaedon out in the garden with me the other day in his car seat. He fell asleep. But next year, I'm sure I'll be yellin' at him to quit stepping on my beans and don't pull the blooms off the tomato plants. Yeah, it'll be fun. (I think!)

I think that what got me to thinking about that is a book I'm reading. It's called Speak to the Earth, and it's by a local Indiana woman who wrote for a newspaper named Rachel Peden. She says:

"A farmer's heart leaps up when he beholds a well-tilled, fertile field in any stage of production. If a non-farmer's heart leaps up at the sight of a field of ripe wheat or a cornfield sparkling greenly in sunlight, it is because in his subconscious ancient memory he associates it with his own food. A preservationist's heart leaps up at the sight of any kind of land...farm, wilderness, jungle, tundra, prairie, or swamp just lying there with no harvest being exacted of it. For true earth lovers the most heart-upleaping sight of all is the sight of abused land showing that it can heal itself and being given the opportunity to do it."

Corn and Concrete

It's been a busy week, yet again. Today Megan and Jaedon came out and we put up freezer corn. I haven't done it for probably 10 years!! It brought back a lot of memories! It had been so long, I almost forgot the procedure!! I found my old recipe scribbled on a sheet of paper stuck in my cookbook. It called for 12 C. of corn and luckily I had written down that it would take approx. 4 dozen ears of corn. What I didn't write down is that I really only needed about 18 ears of corn to end up with 12 C. of corn kernels, but I bet I used to buy 4 dozen ears so I could make 3 batches. It's not really worth going to all the trouble if you don't make several batches!

I did remember how messy it is! So we shucked the ears and cut the kernels off the cob outside. There was silk, and corn husks everywhere and we both had to clean our glasses off because the juice from the corn tends to spray everywhere!

Putting up freezer corn is a great thing to do with a friend (or family member - or BOTH!) When Megan was a little girl, my friend, Becky would come out to the house and bring all her kids, and they would run around and play outside while we did the corn. The shucking is probably the most time consuming part, but it provides a great opportunity to have some meaningful conversation and enjoy a beautiful day!

I would imagine that when women used to can and freeze on a regular basis, it would turn into a bit of a social event with a friend or neighbor. It makes it more fun! Usually when I make freezer jam, I do it alone 'cos it's pretty quick and easy. But freezer corn is definitely a job for 2 people.

Jaedon was his usual angelic self for us and slept like (what else?) a baby!! He's really starting to get smiley and even is beginning to laugh out loud! Grampa made him happy by playing peek-a-boo.

The kiln is still progressing too. Scott came out again last Sunday and Steve used the second grinder we purchased and we ground more bricks. We've made a pretty good dent in them and should be able to finish with one more session. The weather was cloudy and cool, unfortunately it wasn't as windy as the previous week, so the dust and sand didn't blow away as easily. We all looked like tired ghosts when we were done, and I noticed a slight cloud of dust hovering behind us as we moved around the yard. It reminded me of the "Pigpen" character on Charlie Brown.

Day before yesterday Steve and I got to work preparing the area where we poured the slab for the kiln to sit on. We decided that the sandy site where the above ground pool sat would be the perfect spot for the kiln. We spent most of the morning digging the footer, a trench about 9-12 inches deep and about as wide as a shovel. We're making the slab 10'x18' in size. The kiln will be quite a bit smaller than that, but we're going to put a roof over top and will use it for a picnic area when I'm not firing.

Steve probably dug 3/4 of it and I helped with one corner and the short side. He thought it would be funny to hold his "achin' back" when I took the picture. It turned out to be a prophetic pose because the next morning when he bent over to tie his shoes, he threw his back out!! I had tried to talk him into renting a little back-hoe but he insisted he could do it. I told him that I had no doubts about his abilities, I was just concerned about his back. So, I must've had a premonition (or wifely intuition or whatever "ition" you want to call it!) I knew exactly what had happened when he walked into the bedroom to put his shoes on and a minute later I heard him say (through clenched teeth) "D - &*%$# -!! Son-of-a-b&*%$!!!"

"Did you throw your back out?" I hollered. He answered with a disgusted sounding yes and I walked into the room to find him lying on his stomach on the floor arching his back and groaning. Uh-oh, the concrete is supposed to arrive in a few hours!!

Luckily he wasn't rendered completely immobile, and my trusty friend, Scott, had offered to come out and help us get the job done! He also told us we'd need to rent a "bull float" for the initial smoothing (after screeding.) I've learned a lot about concrete in the last couple of days! Steve's using the bull float in one of the photos below.

With 2 male perfectionists on the job, not only did I feel like I wasn't needed, I'm pretty sure that the general assumption was that anything I could contribute to the process would be woefully inadequate. So, I weeded the garden, filled drink containers, and generally piddled around. The boys screeded and floated and troweled and watered, and after a few hours, they called it a day! And my beautiful slab is ready and waiting for us to start building the kiln upon it!

I'm not sure if we'll start building the kiln first or try to get the 4x4s and the roof put up so we can work on the kiln in some shade. As usual, we'll fly by the seat of our pants and see what happens. It's worked for me so far, why change now?!

I'm somewhat surprised at how quickly we're getting things accomplished. (Or maybe my goals aren't lofty enough!!) Not having to work full-time is definitely helpful. Hopefully we'll get most of our major projects done over the summer and fall, and then with a little luck, I'll sell some pots throughout fall and the holiday season. Once we get into heavy winter, we'll have to assess our situation and decide if Steve's going to continue his "life of leisure." (I'm sure he would argue with that description right now!) But eventually we will get a handle on things here, and I think even he will get bored with sitting around the house all day! I suppose if the pottery does start selling, he could take over the household chores and give me even more time to spend in the studio!

Worst case scenario: pots don't sell at all and not only does Steve become a WalMart greeter, but I have to find work based on MY experience, which would mean waiting tables, cleaning houses, or working in a daycare facility! Not my idea of fun career choices! But hopefully the lucky penny that Scott said we should lay in the concrete will get the potting career off to a good start!! (Nobody would leave a hand print in the cement to commemorate the occasion so the penny had to suffice.)

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens! I'm just trying to enjoy the present, and so far, I would say I'm succeeding!

Only in Indiana

The summer is flying by!! It's hard to believe that tomorrow is the 4th of July.

We are in the midst of several projects around here (I think that will be the norm for awhile.) We're grinding bricks for the salt kiln. They're used bricks and have a layer of mortar on them that needs to come off. Grinding seems to be the best method, although I am going to try using a power washer on them, at least on parts that don't have a heavy, baked on coating. My good friend, Scott Shafer (an extremely talented potter - I'm laying it on thick 'cos he's designed my kiln and worked his butt of last week) came out and helped me grind. It's a messy, back-breaking job and the day was hot and windy. The wind was good for 2 reasons though, it cooled us off and it blew the dust away.

Steve is building a form for the concrete slab to be poured into. We're going to make it a little larger than necessary and also use it as a picnic area. It will have a roof over it eventually. I'll try to remember to take pictures as we progress.

Last week-end we had a visit from some good friends, the 2 ladies who introduced us to geocaching. We spent a couple days in New Castle looking for caches. Our first day of caching included spending several hours hiking around a local lake that was encircled by a mountain bike trail peppered with caches. Unfortunately, we didn't take into consideration the fact that the trail was 10 miles long and the day was extremely hot and humid. We also didn't think about bringing anything to drink on the trail. Well, one of the ladies brought a styrofoam cup with a couple inches of ice water and a wedge of lemon.

Four and a half hours later, at around mile marker 7, we were all sitting on a log, sucking on a tiny section of the lemon she had divvied up between the four of us. (I felt like Survivor Man.) We were trying to figure out if we were going to make it back to the car before dark and we were ready to throw in the towel, except it didn't look like an option. I could envision the headlines in the paper, "Inexperienced hikers from Ohio airlifted out of New Castle park." Luckily for us, a friendly biker shared some of his sport drink with us and told us how to get to the road, which saved us a couple miles of hiking. It made for an adventurous day and will give us exciting tales to tell to the grand-kids.

While we were out and about in New Castle, we came across a statue of a rather large, blue man in front of one of the local liquor stores.

I did a little online research and found a website that lists various roadside landmarks, or places of interest. Indiana seems to have more than its share of bizarre roadside statues.

I came across this one about a month ago, on our way to the closing on our house. When we drove through Fortville, I saw this pink elephant!! (And I hadn't ad a drop of any beverage that might cause this type of hallucination.) I would've stopped and taken a picture, but we were running late. I did find one online, so here it is, The Pink Martini Drinking Elephant of Fortville, Indiana:

I gotta say I admire the sense of humor of whoever put the statue there! It's in front of (you guessed it) yet another liquor store!! (I especially like the geek glasses!)

I hear there's a Paul Bunyan statue in Muncie, I'll have to to check it out.

One brick at a time

Today is rainy and dreary. At least the temperature's a little cooler.

Yesterday most of Steve's family was here for Father's Day. We cooked out and played Hillbilly Golf and Corn Hole. Our niece and her husband and sister didn't make it. She got nailed in the face with a line drive when she was pitching for some softball league they're in. It was pretty serious, but could have been much worse. It appears that nothing is actually broken in her face, but she's getting her teeth checked today, she had to have some stitches and couldn't eat solid foods for a day or 2. I hope she's doing better and doesn't pitch anymore softball because this is her second incident, and few years ago our son had to have major surgery on one of his fingers when he was pitching and got hit in the hand with a line drive. I told my niece that I've come to the conclusion that organized sports are of the devil! I've held this belief since I was a young (fat and un-athletic) child. These incidents only prove my instincts to be correct!

Today we got a little mowing in before the rain and then I was planning to start grinding the crap off of the bricks that I'm planning to use to build the salt kiln. They were used before in a gas kiln, and have a lot of crud on the edges that needs to come off. They should be smooth as possible so the kiln is tight and doesn't let a lot of heat out. But the weather deterred me from starting.

I feel like I've been putting off getting started on the kiln and I'm trying to figure out why, since it's really the main thing I want to focus on at this point in my life. I think part of it has been wanting to figure out what's the best location in regards to accessibility, but keeping in mind that the firings will produce some smoke, ash, and fumes that we may not want blowing directly over the house. After conducting some research online and emailing a few potters whose opinions I value, I think I've decided on the location.

But I think that's only been part of what's keeping me from digging into this project. Ok, another surface excuse has been that there's just so doggone much that needs to be done around here. There actually were some projects that I put a higher priority on than my salt kiln. But now things are somewhat squared away, we can at least live in the house and we've made it presentable for guests, so I'm at a point where it's time to kick ass and get this kiln built!

So today when I was mowing (I tend to do my major philosophizing on the lawn mower or when I'm shoveling horse manure, which I don't have the opportunity to do much these days.) So, while I was mowing, I was trying to figure out why I'm dragging my feet about this and I think it has to do with age and experience. I would bet that if I had been in this situation 10 years ago, I would be tackling this project with reckless abandon!! But now I know a little more than I did back then, I think that I know enough, to know how much I DON'T know about kilns and firing, and pottery and clay!! Am I making sense?

I feel like I've reached a major fork in the road of my development as a potter and while part of me is extremely excited about the opportunity, another part of me knows how much time and effort (and of course always the cold hard cash) is going to have to be invested in this venture. At 47, I think I'm just a little more aware of the effort and the possibility for failure. I know I've lamented this before, maybe I'm starting to sound like a tired old broken record.

I have a friend who's an artist (and may be one of the 2 people on the planet who is actually reading my blog!) He works full-time as a commercial artist and does his writing and painting in his spare time. A few months ago (in my former blog) I was whining about the difficulty I was experiencing in coming to a decision to buy all this pottery equipment in the first place. At that time I mentioned my "fear of failure" as one of the hurdles that was making the decision so difficult. Big shock, that hurdles back. We think we've cleared them, but they always seem to pop up again, don't they?

I guess that means it should get easier to just get on with it. My friend said that he tends to look at his "failures" more as "learning experiences." He says he feels like he experiences his greatest growth during these periods, and if he didn't take the risks, he wouldn't experience the growth. I know he's right. (It's probably where the term "growing PAINS" is partially derived!)

I guess as I get older though, it takes more umph! to get myself to take the risk!! It's a helluva lot easier to sit on my duff and pontificate about my options. (Kinda like I'm doing right now, perhaps?!)

It's also easier to look at other people's so-called "failures" as learning experiences. My friend told me about a personal experience that he had, where he considered himself to be a huge failure. I disagreed with his assessment. Without going into detail, I told him that if he had actually "succeeded" at what he was attempting, he would have failed greatly in another area of his life that probably had much more importance and significance, even if he was questioning it at the time.

It seems like life is typically a balancing act. We try to strike a balance between doing the things we need to do and the things we want to do. Sometimes they overlap, which can be both a blessing and a curse! Unfortunately I think that often society in general tends to get the priorities turned around. Society looks at a successful athlete, or scientist, or artist and admires them for their accomplishments. But society doesn't take into consideration whether or not that person's family life is in a shambles due to the amount of time they had to dedicate to their chosen profession. I'm sure there are hundreds, maybe thousands of "average" athletes, scientists, artists, etc., who could have neglected other obligations to put more time and effort into their profession, but instead decided to put that time and effort into their relationships and never achieve the fame they might have had, if they'd focused on their profession a little more. It seems unfortunate to me that we don't consider these people to be the true examples of success!

My friend says we're probably just rationalizing! He may be right. But sometimes I think it's almost easier to neglect the priorities that are typically considered mundane, like going to your kid's soccer game, or taking your spouse out for a date, or taking care of an aging parent. I believe that some people use their desired profession as an excuse to neglect doing the mundane chores that often drain us of the energy we need to do the things we consider fun. How many people who are considered to be a success at their profession have failed miserably at being a spouse, parent, son or daughter? It boils down to priorities.

So I guess all this is just my rationalization for why I'm not outside right now sanding the crud off those kiln bricks so I can start building that kiln. The sun has come out again, I've got no excuses. Well, I am waiting for Steve to get back with a handle for the disc sander. I could probably lose a finger or two using it without a handle and that's not very conducive to potting! But I'll get out there, I swear I will!

My goal is to have the kiln firing by the first of September. Yeah, I don't wanna push myself, do I? I figure that gives me time to pour the slab, clean the bricks, get it built, have propane piped out there , get the electric upgraded in the garage so I can fire the electric kiln, hopefully get water run out to the garage, get some pots thrown and bisque fired, and get my new shelves, get the kiln coated with ITC, build the kiln shed..............................OH MY GOSH!!! I'm not so sure about the first of September now!!! Ok, deep breath, one day at a time, one brick at a time.

I'm gonna go do something more productive now!!

Odds 'n Ends

We are now officially "moved in." We finally have a mattress in the house so we don't have to sleep in the camper anymore!! And we even got a couple LazyBoys, but who has time to sit on their butt? Well, we do have a little down time!

Let's see, since my last blog we've made a little progress. The room we're going to use as our closet has carpet and storage shelves now. Here are the before and after pictures:

We put down some cheap berber, the cheapest we could find. The room was just a little too big to find a remnant. We were going to put it down ourselves, but the guy at the carpet store offered to install it for 65 bucks (first it was $75, when we hesitated he said $65, I talked Steve into letting them do it. He had some idea for coming up with a makeshift stretcher, sounded scary to me. Now, it's done!)

We got the shelf kit and corner piece at Lowe's. We're going to put a few more shelves in on the right, a storage bench under the window, and a make-up table to the right of the window.

We also found a nice old 8N tractor with a finish mower! We had been looking on Craig's List and we found this guy in Alexandria who had about 10 old tractors in various stages of restoration. His name's Clyde and he apparently loves anything with a gas engine, 'cos besides the tractors, he had 3 motorcycles, 3 late 60s model Camaros (one for each of his daughters and his own) a '70-something corvette, and countless lawnmowers, both riding and walk-behind. Everything was in pristine shape, including his garage, and he kept meticulous records on everything he owned. He gave us the logbook he kept on the tractor and he recorded every part he replaced, the date, and the cost, and everytime he started it up he would write the date and the outside temperature!! Talk about anal! But that means we got a tractor in really good shape. It was a little more than we planned on spending on an old 8N, but like Steve said, if we take care of it, it will easily retain its value, if not increase in value! So, we christened the tractor Clyde Jr. and Steve spent a few hours on Tuesday getting the yard mowed.

Here's Clyde on Jr. You can see one of his camaros in the garage, and if you look closely, you'll see the corvette is actually stored above it on this crazy hydraulic lift thing!!



And here's a shot of Steve and the long, long trail which is our driveway! That's our house looking teeny-tiny to the left of his head!! (click on the photo for a bigger view.)

Here's a close-up of him:

While Steve was picking up the tractor, Megan and Jaedon and I made freezer jam. Megan noticed a sign up the road for strawberries, so I went and picked some Tuesday morning. At first the guy who owned the place didn't seem to think I'd be able to find enough berries, it is getting to be a little late in the season. But he saw my dissappointment and told me I could try to find enough. There were actually plenty. And after I started picking, about half a dozen more people came out and picked too. The owner of the farm used to be the football coach at the high school in New Castle and this is what he's doing as his "retirement." One of the people picking tod me he had heart surgery at the beginning of the strawberry season, but it didn't appear to have slowed him down. No wonder he wasn't really in the mood to pick though!!

We made 2 batches of freezer jam, I had forgotten how easy it is to make (and how delicious!!) Between the jam and the new tractor and getting our chairs and mattress delivered, it was great day!!

Wednesday we went to the Optimist Breakfast, we're thinking about joining the group as a way to get to know people in the community. They're a really nice bunch of people. The Optimist is an organization that does things for kids. This was our 3rd meeting, so when they mentioned a volunteer opportunity I thought we should probably offer to help. So that's why we found ourselves waking up at the butt-crack o' dawn (as one of the optimists called it, which was actually 4:30 a.m.) so we could make pancakes to serve at a youth camp for "at-risk" kids that was sponsored by the Henry Co. Sheriff's Dept. It was fun, Steve and I both made pancakes, so of course it got a little competitive, to see who could make the best ones. Unfortunately, there were some problems with the batter, seriously! so the pancakes didn't brown very well and looked pretty anemic. But they tasted fine!!

We met our neighbor who lives at the other corner of our road. He stopped in to say hi. It looks like we've got 2 pretty good neighbors!! He talked to us for about an hour, filled us in on the local gossip that our other neighbor, Jeff, hadn't already told us about! He also gave us his phone number and said that since we're all kinda out in the middle of nowhere we watch out for each other and if we see anything strange, like a car going real slow, or someone we don't know pulls in, he said just give him a call. He said if I'm ever here alone and think someone's messing around, just call him, 'cos he "carries." (as in weaponry! Gotta love these Indiana boys.)

I got another definition of a Hoosier from one of the guys in the Optimist Club. He told me that a Hoosier's someone from Kentucky who didn't make it to Michigan!! (Wow, I think we have Hoosiers in Ohio too!!)

Tomorrow we're having a cook-out with Steve's family for Father's Day. We thought everybody was going to make it (except Danny's girlfriend, Ainsley, who had a wedding to attend.) But we were informed today that my neice in Cincinnait was injured in a softball game. She was pitching and got nailed in the face by a line drive! Several stitches and a swollon lip mean she's just going to take it easy at home tomorrow. The ironic part is she had almost exactly the same thing happen a couple years ago when she was playing intramural at Asbury. That time, the batter was her boyfriend (now husband.) He's swearing that he was playing short stop when today's incident occurred. But he does have a propensity to nail members of our family with softballs! A few years ago he hit a line drive at a game our son was pitching in, and shattered Danny's pinky. He had to have major surgery done in Louisville, and wore a strange contraption on it for several weeks hoping that he'd retain some mobility. I suggested they just lop it off, his dad told him that it would be cooler than a tattoo, but no one agreed with us.

So, anyways, we've been trying to get the house somewhat organized and I've been on a cleaning binge, 'cos the place has literally years of grime and filth!! I've been doing lots of vacuuming, mopping, and washing. It's a little better,
but still needs work.

Here's a picture of the stairway that I took from a weird angle. I kinda like how it looks......

Danny came up today and is spending the night tonight. We took him to the Wilbur Wright Birthplace Festival. We got there just as the skydivers (both of 'em) were jumping out of the plane, that was probably the most exciting event of the day. It was a little too breezy for the R/C guys to risk wrecking their 1/4 scale WWII replica model planes. One guy flew a helicoptor, but he hadn't been flying long, so it it was kinda boring. Then another guy flew a little "park model" corsair. It was fun to watch. And one of them flew an acrobatic kite.

Came home, had spaghetti and Danny and I played a little frisbee golf out in the field. It was my first time, but I did ok! Later this evening we saw a huge buck out in the field by the woods!!

So, now I do b'lieve I've caught my blog up for the week, and I'm going to hit the sack!!

Indiana Sunset

We have a great view of the western sky from our back yard. We've been treated to some gorgeous sunsets, and I managed to capture one with my Kodak the other night.

It just kept getting more and more beautiful!!

Of course the camera just doesn't do it justice!

Projects Galore!

There is no lack of projects to help us while away the time here! I already posted about tearing up carpet in three of the rooms. Now we've started to prepare the smallest room for carpeting. It's the only one we're planning to carpet. The floorboards were in pretty bad shape, they'd never had any kind of finish on them whatsoever. They reminded me of the floor at Bear's Mill!

They've had some water damage and are very un-level. We got online last night to try to figure out how to level them somewhat without using leveling compound. I read some posts about using old roofing shingles. We decided to give it a shot! Steve also wanted to get some shingles to do some roof repair. So, a trip to the local lumber yard ensued. When we asked about the shingles, we had a little discussion about the color of the existing shingles. There seemed to be some discrepency. So, a bet was made, a firm hand-shake was given, and all I'm going to say is that I'll be enjoying a steak dinner soon!! The lumberyard guys appeared mildly amuzed.

Steve spent quite awhile trying to figure out exactly how to utilize the shingles, but I think he did a decent job. We're both glad we're carpeting this room and not laying hardwood. Here are a few pics of our progress so far:

Here's a shot of the floor with the carpet ripped up and molding removed. It's pretty rough-looking!

This was our crude method for filling in the low spots without completely ruining the original floor boards.The 2x4 served as a level.

Next, we began cutting and screwing down the luan, a very thin plywood.

We finally got all the plywood screwed down.

Sunday we took down the swimming pool. It was an above-ground and we're not really pool-side kinda people. I tend to avoid wearing a bathing suit in public if at all possible. So a friend of ours expressed an interest and we told them they could have it if they promised not to cuss us later this summer when they're doing the daily cleaning and adding the umpteenth gallon of chlorine. The best way to have a pools is if it's your neighbors, we know 'cos when we lived next to Steve's mom and dad, they put a pool in. They also eventually filled it in!! They're one of those things you can't wait to get and can't wait to get rid of!

It took about 6 hours to drain it and several more to get it all torn down. Several green frogs were rendered homeless in the process. I wish I had thought about taking pictures while we were doing it. Especially when some of us were wading around in the slimy, green water!! But it didn't cross my mind 'til the next day, so the only picture I got is the "after" shot!

Saturday, we mowed.....and mowed......and mowed!! It took about 6 hours using the neighbor's Craftsmen riding mower. We definitely need to get a tractor and a bush hog/finish mower!! My back and shoulders won't take the abuse!

We also managed to drain and refill the hot tub. Now there's a body of water I can appreciate!! And I think I shall go and do that this very moment!! Before I'm completely devoured by mosquitoes!!