Waiting impatiently, going home.

Still no excavator. I cut what usable wood I could off the stumps at the house site and split it. About half a trailer’s worth total. I used my new chain sharpener and it worked well. Sharpened the chain about three times because the stumps had so much dirt on them. For lunch I cooked up one of the delicata squash I bought last night and it was very tasty. After loading up the trailer with firewood I drove home. Luke was napping when I arrived so I unloaded the firewood and started loading the trailer with trash. Then it started raining. That was really nice, as we were parched. The rain lasted a while. When Luke woke up he wanted me to read to him, so I read Wheels on the Bus. After Liz finished work we went to the Greenway. Luke loved playing in the fallen leaves!

Waiting, wheeling, shopping.

Still no excavators. I needed to go to Lowe’s and Ingle’s down in the Valley, so I took the scenic route through Franklin State Forest, and made a little detour down a rough dirt road to one of my favorite overlooks. From there I went to Kimball and bought a chainsaw chain sharpener, trailer jack, and hand winch at Lowe’s. In Jasper I bought some groceries at Ingle’s. It is a very nice store.

Still waiting.

I left the house about 9:15 last night and drove up to the Mountain. I wanted to be at the lot early this morning in case the excavator showed. Unsurprisingly he did not. I spent the day hauling brush to the dump and splitting wood.

Hot Sunday.

Liz’s parents were here until about noon today, and in that time we went on a hike at the new nature park and enjoyed a pancake brunch. After they left we just relaxed around the house, then went to the playground after Luke’s afternoon nap. Dinner was a new white bean chili recipe, which was pretty good. Second picture shows the weather headed our way. It looks like summer will never end.

Farmer’s market, fancy cars, football.

We started off the day with a walk on the greenway and a visit to the farmer’s market, where Liz bought some bread. Next Liz’s dad and I went to Cars and Coffee downtown while Liz and her mother went to Franklin with Luke. Back at the house we set up the TV on the front porch and watched the Michigan game. I was the only one happy with the outcome of that contest. This afternoon we did some work in Luke’s room – we hung a bookcase and curtain rods. Dinner came from Puckett’s and we spent a lot of time in conversation.

Big boys, big toys.

I went over to the lot this morning and the logger had already started removing stumps. It was a beautiful sight and I loved watching him work. It took about two hours total and he knocked it all out. Now we are ready for the footings guys! One small problem is that I will have to find a way to dispose of the stumps. I took some of the smaller ones to the dump, but still have a number of huge ones to deal with.

I spent the rest of the day reading and splitting firewood. In the evening I drove to the Templeton Library. I was a few minutes late for sunset but the view was still lovely. I really need to take advantage of my time here and photograph more in the evenings. It will be hard to do once the house really gets rolling and the days shorten.

Mountain Monday.

I spent the morning organizing the garage a bit and mowing the back field. Then I got a call from the logger saying that he could meet this afternoon. I prepared dinner in the slow cooker, ate lunch, then headed up to the mountain. The logger was super nice and said he could come over tomorrow. I went back to the cottage and split a bit of wood after that. I was too lazy to go photograph anything.

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