Earthworks

Suffered through the head last weekend to get the geothermal lined underground with lots of help from the tractor. Managed to wrap in up just in time for a dinner at the beach! First of the season. Took to the shovel and measuring tape to get the trenches dug for the foam forms that will hold concrete and gravel footings and insulate the greenhouse. 5 feet below grade is pretty far down.

Ran out of fasteners for the insulation and I can't seem to find any more in town, so I will need to make some out of sticks. Just to hold the pieces together until they are packed in with dirt. It took a long time and some help from Abigail to get the corner stakes placed. Then I needed to find a level all the way around. Used a water tube for that. Very accurate. Neighbor Rick said he did this on a job site, got some crap from a different builder who brought his expensive laser down to check his work, and walked away in surprise saying that he had never seen such an accurate measurement. I went right around the perimeter and when I checked the last stake with the one I started with it was dead on. This will tell me how high the concrete needs to go at each anchor point. 

Abigail and Amélie had a fun week. Soccer, NMU camp, and finally some time with Grammie and Grampie! We will drive down to pick them up today. Naomi managed to pass her first test at NMU. A prerequisite course for her potential MBA, and the background she needs for the marketing course she will teach this fall. Off to a good start!

A bit of shade for the pit.

Extra room underground for the tubes to snake around.

Filling in the hole.

Morning for digging, afternoon for filling it right back in.

Finally, some help!

A bit of insulation. Hopefully it helps.

Hand digging the footing trenches.

Leveling out the anchor points.

Backyard Canyons

With some help from Naomi and the neighbors, the water and electrical lines are down. I'll finish burying them this morning before it gets too hot, finish digging the geothermal line, move a couple piles, and then I can return the tractor to Tyler by the time he gets back from his bike race this afternoon. At least, that's the plan. Then dinner at the beach since it will be so hot again!

Last year I kept the windows open at night to keep it cool during the day, but the humidity in the house was way too high. I think it might be a good idea to use the air conditioner a bit more to help keep the humidity down. Managed to finish up the matching couch for those two Morris chairs, so now we just need to figure out how to get it down to Escanaba. 

The girls had a good week. Tried out a new piano teacher, but that won't work out, so we will see how it goes with 'homeschool piano' where Naomi can help out a bit here and there, and they will stick to their practice schedule. They had fun at camp and soccer was a blast! They play right next to the tennis courts, so Naomi and I can play some tennis and check out the field at the same time. 

Amélie's newest hobby - feeding chipmunks. 

Finally, done!

A bit curvy to get around the septic tank.

Persian Cuisine

Last night we were lucky enough to enjoy a Persian dinner hosted by our friend at a fancy local restaurant. First time we had tried that type of food. It was amazing. Rare to be able to have such an experience where we live! Happy to have a positive cultural message amid increasing tensions. The food was great. Similar to eastern mediterranean food but with some asian twists thrown in. Got to try many different dishes over the 2.5 hour experience. The girls got to enjoy a pizza and some couch time on their own! 

I also started excavating for the sunken greenhouse. Made me a little nervous to use the neighbor's tractor, but I got the hang of it. I'll pay him back with some time helping with his projects, but it sure was nice of him to let me use it. Got through the drain field without any trouble, and set aside the gravel to use for the project. Still have some trenching to do along with plenty of hand digging, but the big piles have been made. 

Got a queen bee in the mail from that nasty company by Minneapolis yesterday as a small compensation for the dead colony. I guess I will try the same split hive approach again. It seemed to work well last time. The bees and the rest of the garden are holding their breath in hopes of some warmer weather. It's been a chilly week. 

The girls had their last day of school. Amélie especially is very sad about that. She still loves school! They had lots of fun playing with the neighbors on their first day of summer vacation, and then had a couple friends over on Friday. My parents even came up in spite of their jet lag with a load of firewood to celebrate their anniversary and the last day of school with a cookout in the front yard! At some point I will definitely need to get a firewood shed put together. Working on sourcing the pallets for it but the space needs to be cleaned out first. Materials for the greenhouse. Somehow our big yard seems way too small!

Not exactly what Henry Ford was known for, but he spent a lot of time up here.

Guess I won't use this garage door for a while!

The big hole.

Fun to see the Italian architecture and influence in Negaunee.

Fancy Persian food.

Garden Time

We got the garden planted yesterday. Left a few tomatoes in reserve in case these don't make it through the first couple weeks. Also, a pileated woodpecker made its way into the beehive, so I had to patch that up. Managed to find more compost than I expected, so hopefully we will have some good produce this year! Pear trees are finally leafing out too. 

The girls had their piano concert on Sunday. They did a wonderful job! Also, their big annual track meet this year. Next year, if they do track, they will have six meets! It got postponed a couple times due to weather and smoke from the wildfires. It was an apocalyptic drive making it back home on the day it was canceled from my parents house. I stopped at Dominic's on the way, and when I left the car said 91 degrees and it was sunny. The smoke fog started just north of Trenary and through it I could barely make out a wall of cumulonimbus. By the time I got close to Marquette the temperature had dropped to 51 and the rain was coming down so hard that I had to slow down. Good thing all the cedar I milled up was inside the car this round. 

Sure didn't make much progress on the couch this week. Hard to get it done with so many other things happening, and Wednesday is the girl's last day of school for the year. Did manage to line up a new teacher, though. She seems great. From Marquette. Hopefully we can find her some students! 

Ready to run!

A second entrance. 

More Cedar

On Monday I was able to get the chairs delivered and mow my parent's lawn. Even got in a round of golf. Then on Tuesday I went to Dominic's to mill up more cedar for the greenhouse. Made some good progress. Amazing how much that car can hold! Also got a couple bales of cedar shavings to make woodcrete out of. Barely made it back in time to pick up the girls and drop a dinner off for their teacher who just had her baby. 

Made some progress on the couch and the girls have been doing okay with their replacement teachers. Amélie got a surprise from us - a new alarm clock cd player boombox because her old one broke. She is thrilled. Also, we were able to separate the bees into two hives. Both queens are laying plenty of eggs, but yesterday one hive was much more active than the other, so hopefully everything will continue to work out. 

Got plenty of piles rearranged around the yard to prepare for another load of cedar this week. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Maybe we can get some things put in the garden today. Definitely warming up! Might be the last fire this morning, but who knows. 

New boombox.

Giant asparagus.

Old and the new.