And This Makes 5

Broken windows, that is. A fly-killing fist, a golf club, a flying spoon, a hammer (I accidentally hit the window with a hammer!), and now a wild softball pitch have all given Lee a new skill to add to his handyman business card: Window Pane Installation and Glazing. The only repeat offender? Grayson, of course (flying spoon and hammer).
When questioned as to what occurred, Carissa replied that she was using the front brick flower bed as a target for her pitching practice. Hmmmm. "Did you consider that a mere 2 feet above the planter are many glass windows?" (Dumb question, of course she didn't.) Luckily, glass is cheap, and Lee is a pro now. But note to self- lock up all softballs, golf clubs, baseball bats, hammers, spoons, and don't punch flies out if they're on a window.

S†rawberry Pickin'

We have been to this farm to pick strawberries many times now, and it just never gets old! The tractor ride out to the fields is always fun, and I personally like how all the tractor drivers are young-ish girls who can pull these massive wagons into tiny little spaces! Grayson and James, his BFF at class, enjoyed it, too!
But the best part about picking strawberries here, besides the delicious berries we take home, is that you can eat as many as you want while you're picking them. For Grayson, that means one in the basket and 3 in the mouth.
Or he just sat down in the rows and chowed.
Unfortunately, Grayson's entire basket of strawberries (except for 3) was consumed during the tractor ride back to the main farm- about a 3-5 minute ride. However, mine survived, and we all enjoyed delicious berries with dinner. Now I'm ready for cherry season!

Wassup Roof!?

Kevin had all sorts of altruistic dreams when he agreed to come down on his 2 weeks off and help us roof. On the first day he was ready to go! Wearing his roofing uniform of WHITE shirt, strategically placed bandanas, sweet shades, and of course that enthusiastic attitude, Kevin seemed ready to conquer the whole roof.Well, that's before the roof smacked him around a little bit.

But still he smiles! All that hard work left 3 grown men half-dead, but in the end, it was Kevin who dominated the roof. ( And apparently he also got a side job as a chimney sweep.)
This is a 40 yard bin, picked clean of metal by the sundry drive-by Mexicans, yet which still weighed 8 tons. That's 16000lbs people! And I personally shoveled a whole lotta that. (The guys at the roofing place thought I was joking when I told them. )
Thanks Kev, Dad, and Mom. Once again, you've saved the day!

Uncle Kevy!!!

During the last few weeks, we had a special visitor at our house - Uncle Kevy! Caleb was pretty frightened of Kevin when we picked him up from the train station, but once we got home, it didn't take long for him to consider Kev his new best friend with full block privileges. We all had a ton of fun together, and we were sad to see Uncle Kevy go. Seriously, I loved having him here.

We had the camera on hand for a few of our little outings.. but certainly not all of them!

On one of them, we met at Spyglass in Shell Beach - Kev and Tyler paddled there, I hiked with Caleb down to the beach. It was a beeeeeeutiful day. I even switched with Tyler for a bit (first time since October...) and caught a few. Caleb played in the rocks and taste-tested pretty much all of them.

Kev tried out Tyler's SUP several times throughout his stay. He picked it up pretty fast, which is commendable, because it is not as easy as it looks.

Up and paddling

Later in the week, we took a hike out to the Pirates Cove cave, just south of Avila. Another beautiful day. Caleb fell asleep of course.

A very pretty trail.

Looking through the cave at Kevin.

Don't FALL!

Susie and little Cable

"Wait a sec, is that a pair of saggy, leathery buns?"

Alas, it was. Beautiful secluded cove + sunny day = naturists

We hit up Doc Burnstein's afterwards. Actually, it was strictly business - we had to do a taste test comparison to the SLO-Maid ice cream that we had at Avila Barn a few days prior. Kev votes for DB's, while I prefer SLO-Maid.

Kevin conquers the impossible.

Caleb waits patiently like a good little boy with his arms folded (haaa!!! I love this picture). This little person LOOOOOOOVES ice cream. And cookies.

What a lucky duck.

Towards the end of Kev's stay, we hung out at the beach closest to our house (5 mins walking), which, oddly enough, I actually don't frequent much with Caleb for beachy-play (He's usually strapped in a jogger, poor kid). He loved playing in the little sand dunes, so I think I'm definitely going bring him back.

Kevin and Caleb

Kev, in vacation mode. Chillaxin.

Me, in mommy mode, full sprint. The days of sunbathing are over.

Caleb, digging.

And digging. And probably eating something..

"Come back Kevin! I'll be your best friend!"

No really, come back! And everyone else needs to come too!

Trailer Remodel Project

We wanted a little more floor space in the trailer so we tore out the small dinette. I rebuilt it into a couch with storage space underneath. I used the old panels and frames so it matches nicely.

We lost a little storage but not much. The seat bases still flip up to access the storage space.

The floor space that we gained is 18" x 73" - it opened up that really cramped area in front of the refridgerator and closet.

We thought about not having the bed but after the last trip we realized that kids still like to stay over with Gramma and Grampa. The legs screw into the bed support. The plywood support flips back and sits on top of the seat panels.

Presto - change-o - it is a 41" x 73" bed.

We are going to re-sew and re-cut the cusions to fit but you can see how it will be set up. We also cut down the panel that is the back of the storage cabinet. I will trim the front edge with a piece of white Oak and we will have a soft fabric trim on the top edge. Once the extra holes are filled and the trim is painted I think it will look like it was the original design.

Oh yeah, we found a 2' x 4' plastic fold out table that can be set up in front of the couch for extra eaters. The old table was such a good table that I am adding fold out legs so it can be used outside for incidental stuff. We are adding a couple more storage places on the walls (for CD's by the player and more bedroom storage in the tomb) I will send a final picture when we do the last couple of steps.

Finishing the roof

We worked long days on Monday and Tuesday to get the roof down. Everybody worked on the various phases of tear down, rebuild, painting stuff, laying felt, measuring, cutting, and finally nailing those little fellers in place. (let's not forget keeping the kids busy, preparing meals and throwing the gator aide bottles up to the sweaty roofers)

Lee setting up the ridge

Kevin the nail master shooting away. Thank goodness Tuesday was a relatively cool day. We were able to work pretty fast from about 7:30 AM until 8:00 PM to get 'er done.

Final steps of nailing the ridge caps on. Lee and Kerry holding the snap line in place while Kevin sets the ridge. Derek climbed up to assist grandpa. Notice the clouds rolling in. We finished the roof, cleaned up the tools and "tarped" what had to be stored outside just a few minutes before the rainstorm hit. Perfect timing!

This view from the back shortly before we left this morning shows off all of the hard work. Kev took the train to Grover Beach. Kerry and Shanna drove back to P'ville and Lee, Sara and family returned to a normal schedule without the hum of the compressor, the impact of the nail gun and the whine of the saws.

On the Road Again

The night before we left we hosted an amazing fireside with Denis Winn. Here he and Ila are with Dad and a five dollar bracket which cost the gov't about $2million in transportation and research costs as part of the international space station. Google "Electric Universe" to read some of the stuff Denis talked about.

We stopped in Salt Lake City and had a brief visit with Rachel and baby Gabriel at their cute condo in the city

In Provo later that day, we spent a little time with Kevin and his girlfriend Daydre.

The Peays were gracious hosts for one night in Provo. Lisa makes the most amazing chocolate chip cookies! Jonny posed with us for a parting shot.

On to the Bradfords for fun in North Hills. Can you believe how big these darling kids are?

Up on the roof with a big problem----the air conditioning unit. Down on the ground, everyone helped!

More fun with the air conditioner. Lee, Kevin and Scott worked from morning til dark and finally conquered.

Below is a close up of the multiple layers of tar and shingles that had to be dug out and scraped off the big AC unit flashing. (That is 56 years of re-roofing!) It took hours of intense chiseling and scraping. We sharpened the chisels over and over. Finally we could begin putting the roof on.

The workers hustled shingles until dark each night - thank goodness for air-nailers.

Kevin spent a good portion of the afternoon IN the attic helping to reposition the AC unit. Between that duty and scraping tar he was a sight at the end of the evening.

In the morning what could be more fun than snuggling in Grandma's bed!


Finished Product - The Garage came out very nice and the house will soon be finished. With the AC problem fixed, and all of the new shiplap painted nailed in place and the edge moulding set the rest of the project should go pretty fast.