Fresh cut back field and more walls.
My dad continued his mowing adventure today and turned his attention to the back field. It took a couple of passes to get it looking reasonable. But it sure makes a huge difference!
The framers were rolling right along today too. They pretty much have all of the interior and exterior walls framed.
Monteagle this past weekend.
On Saturday morning I got up at a rather unpleasant hour to photograph sunrise at Lake O’Donnell. Once the initial difficulty of getting out of bed passed I had an amazing time. The air was so fresh and the solitude comforting. I used my still somewhat new Canon 80d for these pictures.
My next stop was Green’s View overlook. I have always had a rather difficult time taking great pictures there. These aren’t fantastic, but the do a decent job of capturing the scene. I love looking out over those fields.
Next up was the goats at the Sewanee farm. The babies are getting big!
No sunsets and no Sunday sunrise. It was a fairly lazy weekend, and not so lazy in other ways, due to Luke’s presence. Hopefully we will return soon. Memorial Day weekend is a possibility.
Miles of smiles.
Lots of smiling this afternoon. Unfortunately I didn’t record the best ones. Or really any of them, now that I look over my pictures. Oh well, should have ample opportunity moving forward.
Spiderman and a bottle.
I didn’t see much of Luke today on account of my leaving the condo at 5:45 this morning and returning at 7:45 this evening. When I returned Liz was giving him a bottle, pictured below. Now he is sleeping. Liz had her six week after birth checkup today, and the doctor said that everything looks great. So that is a huge encouragement. The next doctor’s appointment on the schedule is Luke’s two month checkup.
Walls.
The house is getting some. Today they put on the subfloor and started on he walls. I noticed a couple of mistakes that they need to correct tomorrow, but they should be easy fixes. The walls are a little over ten feet high and look quite imposing. It feels so nice to see this progress. There has been a lot of frustration to reach this point.
It was incredibly hot again today and I got a lot of sun. Probably need to buy some sunscreen. The first heat wave of the year is always miserable, and this one came earlier than usual. Fortunately it is supposed to be ten degrees cooler tomorrow. The downside is intermittent thunderstorms.
My dad cut a lot of grass today with his “new” riding lawn mower. The front yard looks so much better with the grass cut, and the back field will look great too.
A strong start to the framing.
Well the framers came and got started today. They got almost all of the floor joists into place. Tomorrow they should knock out the subfloor and make good progress on the walls. This evening I printed 24×36 copies of my floor plan at FedEx. I hope that They will be able to follow them okay. I will be there every day to answer any questions they might have. I will certainly be a lot less stressed once the framing is completed. I am really getting excited though. The views towards both the front and back are going to be amazing. Seeing the house start to really take shape is very encouraging. Hopefully Liz and Luke will be able to come visit as soon as the framing is complete.
Six weeks!
I didn’t get to see much of Luke today since I was out of the house from about six this morning until eight this evening. We did give him a bath after I got back and ate dinner though. We used a little bit warmer water this time and he didn’t really fuss at all. Liz said that he ate and napped well today.
First Mother’s Day.
I woke up at the crack again this morning but was too lazy to go out and take photographs. It ended up being a pretty relaxed morning for us. After lunch we went for a walk on the Mountain Goat Trail. Probably about two miles, I didn’t clock it. We pushed Luke in the stroller.
We didn’t end up leaving the cottage until about five. I’m not really sure where the time went. Lots of feeding I reckon. We had to stop in Murfreesboro on the way back in order to nurse again. Once safely returned to the condo we were warmly greeted by Lily. Hopefully we will be returning to the cottage on Memorial Day weekend, just two weeks from now. I’m pretty excited about that possibility.
So overall not a very exciting Mother’s Day, but memorable for the fact that it was the first. The time in Monteagle was a very nice escape. We do hope to spend a lot of time up there this summer, enjoying the cooler temperatures, outdoor activities, and of course the goats.
The busiest day of Luke’s life.
My day started super early as I went to Lake O’Donnell for sunrise. The fresh air felt amazing, and it was so tranquil having the lake to myself. I took a lot of pictures with my “real camera”. Here are a couple from my phone.
My next stop was Green’s View overlook. It was stunning as well.
We took the rest of the morning pretty easy before heading of to campus for the crafts fair. We talked with our friend Debbie who sells amazing candles. The fair was rather busy as it was graduation weekend. Luke started out in the stroller, but got a little fussy so I carried him in the ErgoBaby most of the time. There weren’t many booths and we didn’t feel like hanging around much. Plus it was really hot. We got back to the car and Luke started fussing in a hungry kind of way, so he nursed there in the parking lot.
We had lunch back at the cottage then went to Lake Cheston for a little hike. We did two laps around the lake, with me carrying Luke in the ErgoBaby. It was ridiculously hot, but it still felt good to be outside and active.
Of course we had to stop by and see the goats after that. They took down the “keep out” signs, so we went inside the pasture to get close to them. The babies have really gotten big and are starting to grow horns.
This evening I picked up dinner at a new-ish place in town, a BBQ joint called “Up in Smoke”. I thought the brisket was pretty good, although Liz said hers tasted like lighter fluid. They have several other tasty looking items on their menu, and their prices are reasonable. Luke has continued to be rather fussy this evening, so I have been walking him a bit. There are tons of stars out and it feels amazing outside.
Mountain mayhem.
We hit the road mid-afternoon today and headed up towards Monteagle. We actually made pretty good time, stopping only once for gas. Luke pretty much slept the whole way. At the cottage we were greeted by some lovely rhododendrons and markedly cooler temperatures.
After a little feeding we drove over to campus and saw the goats from afar.
Luke was kind of fussy through most of the afternoon and evening. I spent a lot of time walking him up and down the driveway in the ErgoBaby. For dinner we just had sandwiches and chips.
