The week started out beautifully - there was never a sunrise in Kazakhstan that matched this one in Oregon, viewed from our porch.
I started a fence clearing project at Jessica's and pretty much worked on it all week. I did it in the early morning instead of walking. At the north edge of her property at the eastern end, right where the road turns left to go to the Smiths, there was a lot of old fence still standing between trees and old rotten cedar fence posts. There mostly was a double fence - rusted brown barbed wire on the inside and newer stock fence on the outside. In most cases the fence wires had been originally attached to tree trunks, but now, eons later, the trees had grown up and around the wires. The existence of the fence caused all the leaves to collect on them, and every time I walked by I saw the mess and the poor trees impaled by the wires, and honestly, I could stand it no longer - I had to cut the fence wires out and "save" the trees. I started out with our fencing tool which just didn't work well enough.
I complained and asked Malcolm, who has almost every tool invented, and he loaned me this cutter which easily dealt with the super thick wires of the double twisted barbed wire. Squeeze, little twist, and pull - done!
In all the work I only lost the plant clippers once and had to use a metal detector to find them. I collected all the sections of old fence in our drive way, then carefully loaded it all into the pickup and went off to the dump - so satisfying.
Dad had found a guy on Craigslist who collects old (really old ones) Gravely tractors which he parts out or restores. Who knew that someone might want the ten or so old Graveleys and attachments that have been languishing out by the barn for up to 40 years?
The guy came this week and loaded them into his tractor and they went off to a new life with a new family who could properly care for them. The best thing is that Dad now has a source of tractor parts, if he ever needs them.
Wednesday was the Hillcrest Women's club luncheon hosted by Jessica.
Now---begins--the further demolition of the deck. I had thought, originally, that I would crawl underneath and unscrew all of the boards. Well, that didn't work very well because not all of the screws would come completely out - because of rot or rust, whatever. I finally called Dad and whimpered, "I need help". He came with the Persuader and created results.
n the afternoon, Warren dropped by to visit, and Dad tricked him in to working by saying that he wanted to hold Holland so she could watch Daddy work.
Success! The decking was removed and is now neatly in a pile - ready for use by Malcolm on the shed or to be cut up by us and lovingly placed in the basement to be used as fire wood.
But wait - there is more. We now had to remove all of the joists and the concrete pilings. Dad was a champion using the Persuader to pry apart all of the joints.
I tried to get people to take a section to use as a balance beam for their kids. No takers.
Removing the concrete things proved to be a bit more complex. We tried using the tractor to pop them out of the ground....which worked
But we realized that wouldn't work with those joists that were near the house - we didn't want to drive the tractor over the septic tank. Armed with our red nail puller and a hammer, I attacked each post joint which had six big, thick, and heavily embedded nails. It was awful, but I persevered and separated them.. Now the job was to drag the concrete blobs out and onto the sidewalk. How to do this? Eventually we got the idea to use the ATV and the winch and drag them out. Then we found a creeper that'd been in a greenhouse for years (it didn't work for scooting along a greenhouse aisle) and used it to to drag the concrete across our new patio/sidewalk which we didn't want to scratch.
We should have used the pulling power of the winch to load each one onto a hand cart, but no....we used human power to load the handcart and take them out to the gathering area
DONE!!! Two whole days - pretty awful, but we saved $1200 by doing it ourselves and now can use that money for one round trip ticket to somewhere in Europe. the builders will be coming on June 3rd or June 10th!
Saturday was garden planting day. Holland went to Wilco to get seeds.
and everyone joined in with the planting. There is some speculation that the potatoes were planted in the same row along with the corn. We'll have to hope they are compatible.
Afternoon activities during the week
Ruby is learning the balancing basics of bike riding
Saturday was the Ward Activity - "Moving in May". There were going to be active games for all people. We decided to set up a table and 'advertise Family History' and maybe get some people to ask us what they should do next.
We were not overwhelmed by ward members who either wanted to set up an account or who needed some help navigating the website. One guy said, "mine has been done, my family have been members forever, and we have people who go back to before Christ. Oh...okay.
Dad did teach Camille how to do Indexing,and I helped Evan complete his 4-Generation Pedigree Chart which he needs for his mission.
Next week we have to start/maybe finish digging out and replacing the drain to the south of our bedroom. There is a mud clog or something else is wrong, because in a heavy rain, water gurgles up into the basement. We have to do this before the deck is built because afterwards access to the area will be limited.
Also next week we're going to Idaho Falls for the marriage of Elder Colton Bullock and Sister Maren Symons. We were their honorary grandparents while we were in Astana.
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