Bustin’ Concrete!

The Greenfield Estate Basement Project moves into its next phase: a bathroom!

Now, bathrooms might not be that big of a deal to you, but try having one bathroom–and a small one at that–for eight people, which includes five females! We’re definitely looking forward to having a second full bath.

We started busting concrete for the lines and etc. Saturday. Talk about hard work! We had sore muscles…

This next picture might not mean much to you, but it represents a good two hours of work! The big hole in the back busted out so easy, we thought we’d be done with everything real quick. Then we hit a spot where the concrete was an easy five inches thick, which took much longer. The hole is now 33″ deep for the pump…

 

Here’s some pix of Lydia–nothing to do with the subject matter of this post, but she sure is cute!

Ella Gets Her Wish

Our fish is an African Cichlid that Trish named “Ella.” The Wikipedia entry correctly notes that “Species of cichlid can be kept in aquariums with other fish, however [and that's a substantial however], many cichlids are predatory towards smaller fish.”

Ella has successfully preyed upon at least a half dozen ghost shrimp and numerous fish that we have tried to introduce into her tank. She’s been so predatory that I jokingly renamed her “Jezabella,” after the queen of Israel famous for killing the prophets of the Lord. Every time we sent a “messenger of peace,” Jezabella killed it!

Ella thus has a voracious appetite, which at this point is allayed only by fish food. Any member of our family who walks by her tank is solicited by Ella by swimming wildly about.

Well, this morning Lydia gave Ella her wish:

Think “snow globe,” and be sure to click on the pictures to see all the fish food on and in the tank!

I also wondered if my friend Chris Anderson ever had his daughters do this to their dog.

The Pile of 2007

A quick check of the weather told me that if I wanted to finish up (i.e., start ) taking care of the leaves in my yard, I’d better do it today. So, Josiah and I took to the lawn with our rakes. Here’s Josiah, typical 5 year old, hard at work:

We decided to collect all the leaves into one big pile–actually, this isn’t all the leaves, as a week or so ago we used the lawnmower to blow the first round into the creek. Here’s The Pile of 2007:

Of course, before play could ensue, The Pile had to be, shall we say,  broken in correctly:

Living in Amish Country

I stepped out to fire up the grill to roast some tube-steak tonight for dinner, and a familiar aroma filled my olfactory senses. The thing is, we live in town–there aren’t any barns or farms in the immediate vicinity, so I was wondering why I smelled that smell.

Once the dogs were cooking, Josiah and I shot some hoop and then I saw the cause of the smell: Amish exhaust–

(Our house is the one with the kids playing in it As always, you can click on a picture to enlarge it.)

Once that mystery was solved and dinner was devoured and cleaned up, I took some of the kids to the park behind our house. The Amish men were there in force, some playing softball, others football. Hannah got to chat with an Amish girl pushing her sister, and later we took some pix by their “rides”

There are definite benefits to living out in the country; come to think of it, if you ask me, there aren’t really too many benefits to living in the city or suburbs! Heh heh

For one thing, there’s the scenery:

For another thing, when your fuel pump stops working half-way from shopping on a Friday night, the “hood” that you break down in is a lot safer looking than most any other place!

Sunday Afternoon Naps…

…have been a “tradition” of sorts at our home.

Well, at least for the “older” and “younger” set of our family!

After I woke up and spent some time preparing for the evening service, I took a little stroll toward the back of our property along the creekside.

Looks like I wasn’t the only one taking a break and escaping the heat!