I started the day much the usual with a before 6 roll out to my usual routines that start while Nancy is still in the sack. I had my handful of vitamins and supplements washed down with a cup of hot green tea laced with turmeric and fresh ginger while I posted the day before's activities and then spent some quiet moments giving thanks and lifting up several by name. The good news is that preemie baby Findley has made it another 48 hours when there was only a 20 % chance he would survive at birth. He is at 4 pounds and was 10 weeks early and the reason for the early labor is still not totally understood; but the momma is doing O.K. So keep up your prayers for both of them. Everyone else seems as well as can be expected as I've nothing to the contrary.
Larry and Brandon ( workers) came around 8 and got to work mixing mud and setting tile through out the day. They are a great father/son team and the finished product looks awesome with the Subway style tile. They will grout today and do some last minute touches before we reinstall the vanity before putting down the plank flooring. We are hoping next week to at least start the flooring if not sooner but they have to finish up another job that was held up due to material. The shower install will make it a little tight in the room but will be such an improvement for our family and guests at bed time.
I worked in the driveway smoothing out ruts from the gully washer the night before and neighbor Gerald brought out his tractor with the box blade and really gave the driveway a going over. We have a couple areas where the rushing water runoff has worn away the bank back toward the travelled section of the driveway so he scooped up three buckets of these much larger quarry stones called ric rack which is used to thwart the eroding water and dumped them along side the drive. I then raked them into the deep area which kept us busy for an hour or so. I also cleaned out some ditches of debris which caused the running water to divert into the road instead of off into the ditches. Heavy gully washers are just what they are which causes deep ravines where ever the rain run off gathers and then forms a river or gullies/ ruts as they travel the path of less resistance down hill. I have one in the front yard by the flower bed when the rain runoff from the roof is torrential. It requires raking back the dirt and filling in the rut. The grass holds most of the area but still when we have these down pours it causes erosion.
We took off before lunch on a hike to the top of the mountain. At times it looked like rain and the vistas were not there today. We could barely make out Pilot Mountain which is just a few miles as the crow flies from our mountain. We did stop and speak with Tommy and Carol Brown before they headed back to their home down off the mountain. I put the idea in his head as I did Joe Browning a year or so ago about using his extra out building as an AirBnB. He brought this building in for his guests to sleep in and fixed it up with a bathroom and small kitchen area and Joe did the same at his place and generated some income while it just sits there rotting away. Oh well he is now intrigued as we shared how we enjoyed staying with different folks on our trips to Michigan and Ohio while Nancy's mom was alive plus the bucks you save. He and Carol are thinking of a cross country trip and once entertained pulling trailer or buying a motorhome.
Well we came back and had a bite of lunch. I piddled around in the garden loosening the wet soil so as to save as many garden seedlings as possible. The onions look the best of anything green as the tomato plants are suffering from all the wetness. I do have some seedlings up from the pots I sowed them into and will transplant them today into 6 packs until they get large enough to plant into the garden. There isn't much I can do to help the workers except cleanup and keep the porch somewhat in order. Luckily we have a nice 8 ft wide front porch which runs the length of the cabin under a roof which make it great for either relaxing or in this case from the rain and sun. We did turn on the a/c for the first time and we had trouble remembering how to use the remote. It was a muggy day with high humidity and the workers were sweating on the second floor and in the small bathroom.
Well after they left we settled into the internet and a book. Nancy was ordering all kinds of stuff for the bathroom again and one order she made last week she had it sent to Bobby's place in Brandon. He called last night to inform her of her mistake and we all got a laugh. I decided before she orders anything off the internet I needed to check the order, oh well. She was into the TV and Ipad and I was watching the Ray's vs Yank's when I hit the showers at 10, they were winning 2-1 but I saw this morning they lost again 6-3. Where is the relief pitching we so desperately need, LATER
