Summer haircuts

Today the boys decided they would shave their heads.

Grateful

“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.”
― Maya Angelou, Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer

I have been blessed by two experiences today.

The first involves Ellie and her ears.  She has been fighting an infection in her left ear for almost two weeks.  We have tried two different antibiotics and new allergy medicine.  It seemed to be working, until yesterday.

So, today we headed back to the doctor.  Dr. Schulz generously fit us in between patients in an already busy schedule.  She looked in Ellie’s ear.  Got out a probe and poked around a bit.  Looked in Ellie’s ear.  Poked around a little more and said, “Well I think she may have a perforated ear drum but it’s so swollen I can’t tell.”

She excused herself and was gone about 10 minutes.  When she came back in she said, “I’d like you to walk next door to the hospital. I’ve asked a favor of one of the ENT doctors and he will see Ellie right now.”  In another 10 minutes we were walking into Dr. Warrick’s office.  The receptionist knew who we were and already had Ellie’s information on her screen. Without even sitting down we were led into an exam room and shaking Dr. Warrick’s hand.

He took a look in Ellie’s ear and confirmed Dr. Schulz’ diagnosis. I explained how grateful I was because we were going on sabbatical on Monday.  He already knew.  Dr. Schulz had explained when she called him to ask if he would see Ellie.

Without fanfare he quickly placed a tube in Ellie’s ear, inserted a few drops and patted her on the shoulder with an “All done sweetheart.”  He looked at me and said “She’s a tough little girl, most kids scream when I do that.”

Ellie already feels better.

This a ferry reservations from Sydney, BC to Orcas Island, WA. Washington State Ferries has an amazingly complex website and I’m sure somewhere in that pixellated labyrinth there were answers to my questions. They eluded me.

Finally, I caved and called the 1-800 number. A beautiful voice answered my call, not in 5 or 10 minutes, immediately, and asked me how she could help.  I explained.  She answered all my questions and laughingly said, “Sometimes two heads are better than one.”

I am grateful.

 

 

The basement walls go up

After the footers cured for a couple of days, we moved on to the second step of building our basement: pouring the walls.

First, the forms arrived on a truck which set them in the basement.

After the forms were put together, a pump truck arrived.

Timing is important when pouring concrete so everything must be in place before the mixers even leave concrete plant.

Once water has been added to the mix, there is only a 90 minute window until the concrete begins to heat up and set.

The concrete mixers began arriving at 3:30pm.  They each backed up to the pump truck.

Each concrete truck has a capacity of 10 yards of concrete.  We needed 5 trucks.

Once the actual pouring began everything went quickly.  A crew of 10 men worked to get the concrete into the forms.

By the end of the day, the forms were full and all we needed to do was wait…

…24 hours later we had basement walls.

Adding gravel

The next step of building our basement didn’t take very long but it was interesting.

They backed a huge truck up and shot the pea gravel into the hole with a mini-conveyer belt.

 

 

 

Pouring the footers

A basement is constructed in three stages: footers, walls, and floors.

Each step is completed by a different crew of workers who specialize in their particular stage.

Step one: forming the footers.

Next step: filling the forms with concrete.

The footers are poured.

Now we wait for everything to dry and then fill the bottom of the basement with pea gravel.

Digging the basement

After a week of heavy rain, 5.5 inches according our rain gauge, the next step of deconstruction began.

Digging the basement.

 This poor guy was in and out of the mud all day long.

When everything was said and done.

We had a huge hole and mountains of dirt.  Next step, pouring the footers.

Tearing down the farmhouse

Almost 5 years ago Libby and I purchased property near Lapel, Indiana.

We have spent countless hours clearing our land of everything from broken bottles to old cars.

This spring saw the final preparation for our new home…

…tearing down the farmhouse.

We didn’t make the decision to tear down our farmhouse lightly.

Madison County records show the house being built sometime before 1899.

It is a piece of the history of Stony Creek Township and the Wolfe family who owned the land for over 100 years.

It was only after talking with many experts on restoration we made the decision to tear down and build new.

So, let the tearing down and the building begin.

 

This is my sabbatical blog

Welcome to my sabbatical blog.

I will use it to share with you the wonderful, exciting events and experiences my family and I are blessed with this summer.

You’ll also be able to see some of the progress we are making on the building of our new home.

Exciting times!