Weekly Update: 7.22.23

This week was so much better than the last. It felt good to be moving forward again, even if it was a slow move forward due to the heat and then -- rain. Praise God for the rain! Watching it fall Thursday and Friday felt like a true gift. We so needed it in our area -- especially for our local farmers.

Over the weekend, our dad and Jeremiah finished installing some plumbing in our office building. We now can use the old commercial ice maker our folks had from their coffee shop days. We are thrilled, as you cannot have too much ice in this heat!

The rest of the week looked about the same each day. Our priority was the bunkhouse foundation. We mostly worked on digging the footing holes deeper at the east end of the bunkhouse. As I said previously, we found debris in some of the holes (and in the nearby septic tank area) that suggested a buried dump pile. We are digging down past the debris and pulling out burned wood and some barbed wire. So far, we have had to go about three feet deeper in the problem holes. We also have had to figure out how to modify our foundation. I've been doing research and posting questions in Facebook groups and online forums. We think we have a plan moving forward, but we will see how it goes.

Along with our major project, we have completed a few minor ones. Bonnie-Jean repaired the screens on our tent door and one of the office windows.

A couple weeks ago, our weed eater quit working. We ordered another last week, and this week we got it put together and working. Our brother spent one day making our campsite look lived in again -- it was starting to look like a jungle.

We got to swim in our new, non-leaky pool starting on Sunday. It feels good to have that project finished (though we eventually plan to do some landscaping around the pool). It took me a couple of days to get the chemicals balanced, but I finally managed it. I also installed a sprinkler our mom ordered. Fun fact -- pool sprinklers and fountains help cool the water. With the heat like it is, we need all the help we can get.

Grace installed a small, level pad with some pavers for a projector table. We haven't watched any TV in awhile, but we hope the new table will make it easier when we want to enjoy a bit of big-screen fun.

Bonnie-Jean has also been working with her German Shepherd pup and helping out with Jeremiah's. The pups have started learning some basic commands, and they seem well on their way to being excellent homestead guard dogs.

Since we had so much rain on Friday, we spent most of the day in the tent, doing research and planning for the next phase of the bunkhouse. It felt good to enjoy drinking coffee in the daytime -- it's been so hot, it just hasn't sounded good.

In between the busyness, we found time for some personal care. Bonnie-Jean has been giving several of us ladies haircuts and treatments. This week, she gave me a trim and some curtain bangs. I've had my hair all one length since 2020, if memory serves, so its a nice change.

In other news, we learned a fun fact about cast iron pans on Thursday. You can use them in a gas grill. Our Dash skillet decided to go out mid-breakfast. It was too wet to build a fire, so we dumped the frying potatoes into our cast iron skillet and put it on the grill. The potatoes turned out beautifully.

Looking at the forecast for next week, we know we have another heatwave to face. I'm thankful for the cool weather we've had, and I feel blessed to have our pool and mister system at the ready. I love the long days to get things done, but I can't help looking forward to autumn. In the meantime, there are still summer wildflowers to enjoy.