The Fire Pit

Another Saturday, another project. Robert took Alyssa and went with his friend Larry (the one who helped with the benches) - and his friend Larry's truck, to a place where you can get scrape granite for free (as long as you load and haul it away yourself - well worth the price!).


With the load they brought back, Robert built our fire pit (with some help from me: where we should put it, moving rocks from one part of the yard to the other, and verbal encouragement). It started out in one part of the yard and square shaped. It ended up on the other side of the yard in a circle. The bench beside the fire pit is on two pieces of stone and the wood beam was found in our woods. While walking around looking at other trees in the woods, Larry found another beam (he has quite the eye for spotting wood) and Robert has already hauled a larger one out of the river. The land will ever surprise us, especially in the fall when most of the leaves fall and allow a clearer view through the foliage.
We will need to check on outdoor fire regulations (with the drought) before we can test the fire pit out. The girls are looking forward to toasting marshmallows every night!
It looks great and Robert can now get a better feel for his desire to do a paver patio out of the free granite and stairs down the hill beside the house (where we are planning a tier garden).
There are still some rocks left over. The kids were nervous, but we didn't take ALL of their stones for stepping over the "hot lava" of the back yard, they just need to size down the "lava pit".

RAIN!!

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and heard dripping. I listened for a sink, toilet, the humidifier in the boys room before I realized it was coming from outside. I had to open a window to double check. It was raining!! and I was hearing the dripping of water in the rain gutter pipe. After many weeks it was great to hear the rain and see the wet ground and trees this morning. We hope this is the start of many more showers, as we are far from alleviating the drought conditions, but we are grateful for whatever rain we do get.

Robert's Project

For the last couple of months Robert has been working on making benches at his friend, Larry's place. After lots of cutting, sanding, more sanding, oiling and coats of varnish they are done. He has made these three. Two small ones and a large one. Jake and Logan are sitting on the large one and the picture of the top bench is of the big one as well. We have used the small ones as benches at the table when we have guests over for dinner and for extra seating for visiting, in the living room. They have worked out great and we haven't had to buy a new couch.
Of course that means that Robert has been trying to sell them to the house budget at a discounted price (to be transfered to his budget), but that didn't fly with bring home fish and it won't work with the benches either! :)
They turned out beautifully!

Catch Up

Now that we have a new camera and I can blog with pictures again, I thought I would catch up a bit on what happened in October.
We had a great long weekend with cousins when my brother Mark came down with his wife Rana and children Celeste and Grace. We had a great time at Fall Festivals (school and county), soccer games (Celeste was a great cheerleader, we were glad she was cheering for our team), and playing. We were sad to see them go but were so glad they came down.

We carved pumpkins at our friend's house - the Ritz's. The girls made faces as they pulled out pumpkin guts, but did it and got their pumpkins carved. Jake drew his face on and then left to play, leaving Logan to dive right in. Logan would get mad if I grabbed too much, thinking I wasn't leaving enough for him to take out. Once the pumpkin was cleaned out he wanted to take the knife to it as well. After it was all done he kept mushing his hands in the bowl of pumpkin insides and threw a fit when we were done and left. For sure there was more pumpkin to play with. We know who will make sure we have carved pumpkins for Halloweens to come.


The Watkinsville fire station had a Halloween open house. I took Natalie, Jake and Logan. It was great. All the fire engines and ambulances were out. They had game booth, a big slide, sno-cones, cotton candy, hot dogs and chips, popcorn, soda and boiled peanuts. Natalie took one smell of the boiled peanuts and opted not to try them out. We wish we could have stayed long enough to go on a hay ride, but we needed to get home.




The weather is turning cooler and we are loving it. Saturday Natalie told Robert she wanted to move back to Utah, that there was nothing good about Georgia. Robert laughed and said. You are playing outside in shorts and a tee-shirt in the middle of November, I think there is something good about Georgia! We are still praying for rain. The drought here is getting really bad and we are doing our best to conserve. We wouldn't mind some flooding (we are uphill) if it means the lakes will fill up a bit. :) Any rain would do.

Feeding Chickens

Jake got to help Robert feed some chickens one Saturday. Alyssa was jealous, thinking she was missing out on seeing baby chicks. Jake told her it was REALLY stinky and he had to hold his nose the whole time. When they went into the rooster area, it was so loud Jake covered his ears and asked to leave. I don't know how eager Alyssa is to go help feed chickens next time!

Alyssa's Birthday

Alyssa's birthday was last Sunday. It was hard to wait to open gifts until after dinner, it was especially hard for Jake. She got to open the one she got from her friend Sam in the morning. After all of her favorites for dinner - ham, potato casserole and homemade mac and cheese - cake and gift time came. She got a pillow that Sam made for her, a story journal from her friend Morgan and the rest UGA stuff (shirt, necklace and bulldog earrings). After watching the UGA vs. Auburn game yesterday she thinks she might be swaying away from wanting to go BYU. We'll have to see in another 7 years.

Soccer Sisters

Although they wore the same colors Alyssa and Natalie were on different teams (in different age groups). But, they both had great seasons with great coaches and had a ton of fun. They can't wait for spring season to start.