Nice weather, lots of activity.

Posted on by David Maxwell

My parents spent last night with us and Luke was excited to see them this morning. After breakfast my dad and I took trash to the dump, and then we all went to Cars and Coffee in downtown Columbia. There were some neat rides there. Next we went to the farmers market and Luke enjoyed seeing everybody there. After that it was time to get to work. My dad and I planted sweet potatoes while Liz and Luke prepared some plants to be mulched. After lunch and while my dad was napping we went to Home Depot for a few bags of mulch. Upon returning he was awake and the two of us went and bought some straw to put around the sweet potatoes. I also started conditioning the other bales I had for a straw bale garden. Once our work was complete my dad headed on and the rest of us went inside. Luke played, I red, and Liz prepared dinner. After dinner Luke went to bed surprisingly early, but not easily.

Diggin’ it.

Posted on by David Maxwell

The excavator texted about seven this morning to say he was on the way, so I headed on to the job site. I did some last minute preparations and they showed up about eight with a tracked skid and mini-ex. I showed them the layout of everything and they started moving dirt, a lot of it. One site was close to level and the other wasn’t. So they were able to level one up, but the other will have two steps in the footings. One of the guys and I went to lunch at the Goat Market and after that I laid out the footings and they dug. That took until about four. I left there, went back to the cottage to pack up, then drove home. My parents were there when I arrived, and everybody was finishing up dinner. Luke stretched out bath and bed time and I have been reading a little. It was a draining day.

A good day of work.

Posted on by David Maxwell

This morning I left the house at the same time Liz and Luke departed for High Hopes. I drove to Manchester and bought ground plastic at Home Depot. I wanted block sealer as well, but they didn’t have five gallon buckets of it. My next stop was at the market in Pelham for a little breakfast, which I soon regretted. I tried to take a nap upon reaching the cottage, but could only lie on the couch thinking. Finally at about one I headed over to the job site. It was still pretty wet but I was able to remove a lot of tree debris. I also did the initial staking for the excavators. I worked until nearly dark because around four o’clock the excavator texted to say he’s coming tomorrow and I wanted to be fully ready for him.

A different kind of productive.

Posted on by David Maxwell

After dorking around this morning I drove down to the surplus store in Woodbury where I bought 360 sheets of OSB at a cost of over $12,000. That represented a huge savings over other vendors, but it still stung. From there I drove to Lowe’s in Shelbyville for rebar ties and chairs. I drove home as quickly as I could, and made it home well before dinner so that I could play with Luke a bit.

Doing a little bit more of everything.

Posted on by David Maxwell

This morning after breakfast I went to Kroger and then the gas station, then cut the grass in the back field. The mower did great. After that I went to get straw for our straw bale garden. We just kind of hung out around the house for a bit – I showered and prepared dinner in the slow cooker while Liz and Luke played outside. We had lunch and the rain started while we were eating. We drove up to Lauren’s to have a Mother’s Day celebration with my parents as well as their friend Megan and her son JT. It was a nice time. We returned home for dinner and Luke talked all about our time there. Due to the storms he didn’t have a real bath. I am waiting around for the rain to stop or at least slow down before I drive up to Monteagle.