Chain Throwing

Tuesday was a long, busy day for the guys. Jeff and JJ (thanks Gina!!) worked all day digging holes for piers and trenching for plumbing and electric. The ground was full of rocks naturally, which made things pretty slow, but the dirt looks like it will be good for gardening. We have a lot of clay right on the surface of our current yard which isn't good for growing anything I'm interested in. Madison likes it for her pottery skills though. Anyway, Jeff rented this auger Tuesday morning and was told to have it back by 5pm. Well, a short while after they began trenching they "threw a chain" or something like that and had to take it back to the rental place for a new machine. By this time it was 4pm, but the rental guy told them to hang onto the new machine until opening time Wednesday morning with no extra charge. Thank the Lord for thrown chains!!! It took them another three hours to trench through that rocky dirt which would have otherwise cost us another $180.

I had a girls lunch at my aunt Alice's house with my mom, sister, cousins and all our kids on Tuesday. We had a big potluck lunch then all sat around the dining table with our craft projects and talked (mostly talked.) We had a good time and I love the women in my family. They are all a sweet, godly bunch and so much fun to be with. A few weeks ago we lost my aunt Paula to cancer and I think we were all missing her. She was the definition of "life of the party" everywhere she went! Niki, her daughter, is so much like her and I'm glad she was at the lunch with her boys. Anyway, the kids and I couldn't make it to the land until around 4pm to watch them finish the trenching and that's also about the time the rain showed up! It rained very heavily for about 40 minutes, but did that stop the work? Nope! The guys know from plenty of experience that if you wait on the weather these projects will never get done. What troopers! Evelyn and I hung out in the Suburban while the big kids, including Jacob (one from JJ and Gina's slew of kids,) used the rain to help them catch toads and lizards. By the time the rain stopped they were all soaked to the bone!

This will be the view from our front door, minus the not so pretty things. You can see the rain clouds that passed over us in the background. It's exciting to have this dream we've had for years unfolding before us. I think we'll be back out there tomorrow so I'll keep you posted!