Merry Christmas from 1800s Rockport

 

Back to Work

We are finally working on the house again!

Last Saturday Karen and Taylor started building the floor for the living room while I worked at the Mansion and Spencer went fishing (hey, we gotta eat). Fortunately they figured out all the hard mathematical parts that day, so with Spencer and myself helping on Sunday, we were able to get the floor almost totally finished. Here are some photos.

We are desperate for space to put some of the stuff now being stored in the "garagio." Taylor can't even move around his studio area because of all the extra building materials, so the weekend before, Karen was our buddy in helping us build a storage building (Spencer was doing equally important work off-shore inspecting an oil rig). Karen is a really great construction helper AND she can ask Taylor questions about how he's doing things without getting in trouble!!

It's a cute little storage building.

Coming Right Along

Marsha is shoveling it on pretty thick these days. She's adding nice compost and cow manure to the garden area. First, though, she has to get it out of the truck. Where am I, you ask? Well, somebody has to take the pictures.

Marsha set some concrete pieces from our old patio into the ground to make a nice path to the garden.

She also spent time fitting some more concrete chunks and old pavers into a path and bench spot at the center of the garden. She filled in with gravel. Should lock everything in pretty good. We will design and make our own garden bench from concrete. I like making molds.

The Caesar and Cleo Memorial Garden

Almost two weeks ago we said goodbye to our second basenji, Cleo. It was hard, but we had delayed it long enough. Cleo was a good girl. Here is a picture of her with Marsha and Bucky on her last day with us. Cleo was our first dog as newly weds.

I tend toward lazy on the MSS (Male Slothfulness Scale) as you can clearly see that Marsha is doing all the work. Here is a shot of where the garden is going. Marsha has planned a nice spot between these two Live Oaks in our front yard.


First thing to do is trim away the dead branches (many) and take away the low hanging branches. I call them hat dusters, Marsha calls them dangerous.


Next comes the border to define the space. Good thing we have demolished a concrete patio in the back and several defunct planting areas in the front yard. We should have plenty of stuff. Go Marsha.


Well, time to rest. Taking these pictures is hard. Marsha is waving to you. See you around.

My creation

My creation
Originally uploaded by wirerabbit

I'm currently sitting in a Web 2.0 class here at the library and needed to show you how crazy some librarians can be. Go check out Flickr and search the tag librariantradingcards.

Hosting Thanksgiving

The 9 months of work were to culminate in us hosting Thanksgiving for the Crawford family - Mom, Dad, Molly, Noel, Johnathan, Carl, Elliott, Mac, Amy, Jessica, Makayla, Millie, Kevin, Paul, Anslee, Kirby, the bulldog, and Chloe, the dachshund. Here's proof we did it!!

Yes Millie, the stove actually works! Don't look so surprised.

Even the younger ones helped make a mess in the kitchen.

Getting it all on the table.

The gang's all here. (Except those of us taking photos.)

Entertainment was provided by Wii. Here are Mom and Molly playing hand bells to Wii Music. Millie is conducting.

A bowling tournament got everyone involved. Here's Dad wondering how he missed that strike.

Of course, the big "backyard" needed exploring.


Paul and Anslee are demonstrating what Taylor and Marsha
would like to do for the next 3 months!

Final Project for Awhile

Here are some photos of the pass-through countertop.
This was tiled just hours before all the gang showed up for Thanksgiving.

There's a hole cut into the bead board so we can access the corner of the cabinet for storage. Taylor will put a door over the hole.