Taking Shape

Addition to the main house is progressing along. With framing done, plywood on exterior was completed and Steve cut out the upstairs windows this week. Before he left for Labor Day weekend, he was working on the cornish... adding the front and north eaves.

Ground Breaking

We finally broke ground on the main house addition. These piles of dirt were full of arrowheads - apparently this spot was around the fire/gathering circle!

The second photo shows where the porch was removed... surprising how small the porch looks on the house.

A New View

After years of encouraging the purchase of some kind of ATV, we finally got a golf cart! Now, this isn't just any golf cart... it has a crazy suspension kit and amazing all terrain wheels! I think technically we did a little four wheeling in the mud on the the way back from the Big Blue Hole (even though it's only two wheel drive)... there was mud all over the cart!

What do you do with fallen branches from a big storm?

Make a custom fence! I collected it all up, chopped and chopped (really tired of things with black and red handles this trip) and fastened them to the fence that was put up after the drunk diver crashed through.

Let Mother Nature do some of the work!

In my continuous effort to be able to walk the length of the property without setting foot in dirt, I cleared a small ledge connecting the lower bluff to the garage area that we had cleared last year. With the last flood, a little more of the bluff just above the beach was cleared. Over the last two years maintenance of the south area has led to a fairly clean lower bluff path all the way down to the bridge.

With another flood pending, I broke up the only soil on the remaining piece of that lower bluff. And Mother Nature helped me wash it away!

April Showers?

Just about every year there is a flood. In the past when this was just a summer place, we often missed it. Dad saw several over the years. This was the largest since we have had this property. The water just kept coming up! The lower bluff is usually six feet above water - in this photo it is three feet below. You can see the water flowing over the concrete table where everyone watches fireworks.

Christmas Day

The cranes hanging by the golf course continue to fade and fall back to earth. I saw these two the morning of Christmas Eve next to a frozen birdbath on the golf course.

Another winter at Flint without Dad.

But he is here: in the horse across the street that is oddly entranced by me one morning, in the little things at Flint that are constant reminders, in the odd double meteor blazing across the sky, in the flurry of brilliantly red cardinals we now have (including four sitting on the back of the swing Christmas morning), and in the snow or even just some little white snow flurries that seem to grace every Christmas Day!