PROVIDENCE SODDING SAGA

Spence and Amy have free air flights, a Stampin' Up car, a speed boat and a riding lawn mower.  But they don't have a good old truck to haul stuff so they use their good old suburban to do the job.

Holly, Amy and I measured the square footage we would need to complete coverage of areas Holly, Eric and I had prepared the last six weeks and Spence drove up to Franklin for some rolls of newly cut sod to lay.

By the time Spence returned Holly had left for work and he and I began at far north area next to fence and worked our way up to utility boxes.  We did the area next to the driveway and around the boxes as needed.  We could have used 20 more s.f.but we'll see how it fills in by next spring.

He is such a great neighbor and friend to help me out with this project of making yard work around here much easier for Holly and I.  She has some good ideas for our project on north side  and around back for next spring.

To keep the little goblins off this newly planted grass Holly came up with a great idea of using tape to ward off all those ghosts, monsters, batmen, and spider-men on the lawn.

It really worked well as many of those kids left my front door and headed across the lawn to the Johnson's and then turned around and left via the sidewalk.

Sooooooo glad it's all done and yesterday she and I carried gifts of thanks to Spence for all he'd done before several of her friends came by to stamp Christmas cards.

PROVIDENCE UPDATE

 Holly did a great job putting the 

finishing touches and color accents 

on her grandmother's buffet. 

 Dooie would be so proud of her!!

She's had lots of

compliments by those who have seen it the garage.

Here's the finished project which  holds many of her serving dishes and kitchen ware.  It especially looks great with her cute black and bing cherry red table and chairs near by.  Good Going HollySue!

Our yard project has turned into a much bigger renovation than I had originally planned with Amy.  And the tree stumps removal has caused a huge headache for me.  Seems they are very close to most of the utility lines to the house and not wanting to cause damage to any of those has been the major issue.  Eric comes over about once a week to help with the heavy duty stuff and he was able to take the small Chinese Cherry tree stump out with a sledge hammer.  He has also removed many peonies that were getting to large, fell over with weight and were a mess most of the time.  Other friends came over to get some for their yards. 

I hired Larry to take down the huge bushes that had grown around the ugly utility box.  People couldn't even walk down the side walk because of them (they were supposed to be midget bushes).

With his back hoe he also moved my huge rock with character to the front of house where Holly and I really like it.

Then after waiting on the list of clients for the best stump grinder in valley, he finally came and ground the two stumps and three large bush stumps out with his amazing robot grinding saw (2400 rpm).  I (and he) was thrilled that no utility wires nor water pipes were hit.  WHAT a relief that was to have it done. WHEW!

I'm still picking and sharing apples with friends and beginning to tackle the yard work that needs to be done before winter arrives.  (I'm worn out but usually sleep much better at night).

Glad to hear that sweet Haedyn is out of the hospital for treatment for a calf bleed that had to be attended to 24 hrs a day.  He's still in pain, but hopefully his doctors will figure out the best course of treatment to get him "up and attum" again.  Lots of prayers in his behalf...

Hamilton Happenings since we saw each other last...get ready this is a big one.

Shannon, Kim, Steph and I took a trip to Spokane in August to see The Book of Mormon.  We had a blast while we enjoyed a night away from our families.

 

We went camping in August with our dear friends Kahne, Nat and Acacia.  It rained most of the time, but we made the most of it.

  

Hiking to Baker lake with friends.

Jesse and Job Corps students marched in the Ravalli County Fair Parade.  Looking good Jesse!!

First day of school.

My baby is in Kindergarten.

We went to a wedding in the woods this September.  The kids got to take a canoe ride with daddy and Chris.

Reba is 40!!  I was sent to a salon for a scalp massage and hair style so folks could set up my party.  

Paula and Shannon

Nat and Kahne

Kim and Johanna

The obstacle course was a big hit!

I asked Chris and Jim for a new Raiders sweatshirt for my 40th. This is what I opened....A sweaty raiders shirt.  Hilarious.

The decorations were mostly pictures of me with people I love!  Look at my hot 19 year old self.

I am volunteering 3-4 days a month as a receptionist at the Women's wellness center.  This is me at our fundraiser last month. It was a Alice in Wonderland theme.

Jesse spent many weekends with his friend Chris to keep our family warm this winter.

Rowan had fun playing Pee Wee Soccer.

Dylan loves to play football.  He is practicing to do a flag football show at the High School  football game's half time this Friday. 

The boys are getting better at guitar hero.  Mommy sings of course.

Halloween sugar cookie decorating.

Nothing like a little home improvement.  Jesse power washed both decks and the house.  I spent yesterday staining the decks.  As mom would say "Way to go"

PROVIDENCE UPDATE CHAPTER TWO

                                                       

  Let's see, where was I?  Oh yes, I wanted to share this cute photo of how the family helps each other out.  Good going, HollySue!


  

Congrats to Katie who hardly broke a sweat when completing in the 26.2 mi Big Cottonwood marathon in SLC two weeks ago.  First time she's done a 26 miler and I'm glad it worked out that I could go down to support her.  I'm looking forward to when she does the Boston marathon so I can go support her there also.  Good going, Katie!

It's harvest time and Holly and I are reaping the fruits of our labors.  We have pears, peaches, apples, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes, kale, lettuce and spinach. .  Here's poor college student,Eric (Katie's brother) hanging out in the delicious spartan apple tree.  He helped pick the top, hard to reach apples  for me so I could share with family, friends, neighbors, can and store some for HS and I.

I've been doing lots of dill pickles, HollySue found a delicious dill pickle relish recipe and we worked together to bottle some for her use this year.  So much faster with two people on the job.  Good going Holly - you're a canner like younger sis Reb.





We've had more  AZ type monsoon rain storms this week and roads still aren't repaired from last month's heavy rain.  Yesterday we got 1.7 inches (i thought I was back on Guam)!  Had lots more flooding downstairs and mopped up two separate times - Holly helped me sop it up faster with very large heavy towels.  She was heading to work and I noticed that there was a river behind Japanese maple tree next to garage.  It hit me that the problem wasn't crack in cement below front porch, but the RAIN GUTTER since there was a water fall next to the rain spout.  Who to call?  Everyone I could think of was ill, out-of -town, too old or usually never home when I needed help.  But this tme my neighbors to south were home, came right over.  Bruce climbed up ladder and with two swipes of his hand in gutter, Gayle and I were relieved to hear the loud swoosh of plugged up water going down the drain under the front lawn.
The tree had gotten so tall and when trimmed last spring it left leaves, etc in to cause the problem.  I'm so grateful to them for helping me out.  We've had more rain today, but no more in the basement, yea!  I just removed their thank you dessert from the oven.

PROVIDENCE UPDATE

Congratulations to two family members with significant milestone birthdays this past week!

"I'm loving 40, it's great!! .. and at 18                     voting adult Hannah says,                      "Rats, I'll never be a child again!!!!!"
                 (That was soooooo easy).

The trek 2 1/2 weeks ago through WY I took with Lance, Becky, Lonnie (Becky's brother and his wife Marsha was great and really gave me the essence and pictures of what my great grandparents and papa's great grandparents went through to come across those desolate plains and mountainous trails.

Becky and I pulled Lonnie who played the part of great grandfather, Hopkin Matthews (first land owner in Providence) because he was ill and his wife, Margaret and daughter, Elizabeth, had to do it for him.

At Martin's Cover, after I watched a large rattle snake crawl right in front of me.  Then on the way back Lance nearly stepped on another one while pulling the cart.  Such excitement!

Here's Lance and I at Independence Rock where another great grandmother,Mattie, gave birth to Peter who lived only one month.  He made the 7th child she and Mads had buried:  three in Denmark, one at sea and and two others who died of diseases after they arrived in America.  I'm in awe of her as she had been raised in a wealthy home and wouldn't have had to do any physical work.  She was remarkable that she could still keep going - must have been in her strong will.

The flat tire on Lances's car surely threw a wrench into our well oiled trip schedule.  But, it happened where he could get off highway on level ground and spare put on just before it got dark.   We had to cancel hotel reservations (too far) as spare requires only 50 mph on highway and the place we were going for  best deal in USA to get huge ice cream cones for little money was closed.  Found famous Little America had rooms and they all ate at midnight.  Next morning he had to drive about 30 miles and bought two new tires and returned to pick us up.

Oh, oh times up - canning of pears is calling.  To be continued.....