The girls helped me paint the benches on the front porch and a "Directions Art Project". We researched where towns were that bore all of our first names. Mine was the furthermost at Deb, Nepal, India. Abbie loved that hers was both on a beach, and had a French spelling, Cote d'Ivorie! Dave has become the spray paint artist, and spray painted the tops of the leaf stools for me and a stop in Chimney rock for tea towels yielded pillows for the new rockers and old swing!
In between painting, the girls discovered severed grape vines from David's orchard project and imagined they were Tarzan and Jane flying over the jungle (at least 6 inches off the ground!)!! While gnawing into an apple (that's what you do without any front teeth!), Ella preserved most of her apple seeds and had Granddaddy plant the core so that she would have an apple tree in the orchard! This is what is so terrific about having the granddaughters at Park's Peak: the best memories are those that cost nothing and come from exploring and their imaginations!!
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| Planting Ella's Apple Core |
Dave's project of the month has been the laundry room. He has been determined to get it finished. I now have the best laundry room in Bat Cave!! AND he has one set of doors out of the way so that he can start the next project (closet at the other end of the room). He's trying desperately to clear out the basement of sheet rock and doors so that he can begin to work on the wine cellar (and my kitchen cabinets?)
But sometimes you need a construction break and a little "civilization"...so on Wednesday we ventured down to Chimney Rock and the gem mines. Ella was afraid she was going to have to wield a pick ax in a cave and was delighted to pan for gems in the water flume!! We know that the buckets are "salted" but that didn't take away from the girls delight at finding rubies, crystalite, and geodes.
Thursday brought a visit from my sister, Sharon and Richard. Good food, wine, and movies were followed the next day with a hike to the bottom of Hickory Nut Falls from Chimney Rock. The grown ups earned their beers keeping up with the girls, and the girls delighted in both the falls and the river. Family time is the best!!
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| Sunsets are always special with family |
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| Then you get to tell stories by the fire... even in April!! |
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| We made it!! |
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| Niece - Aunt bonding time! |
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| Beers in Chimney Rock.... while... |
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| The girls eat ice cream by the river |
After the girls left, Dave and I returned to finish up a few projects and to prepare for Deb's Girls Bridge Weekend. Dave had bought a soft top for his jeep and needed to take the hard top off and store it here. While not heavy it was too awkward and high for Deb to lift so he had to rig a pulley system on the 2 story deck and pull it up so that he could drive the jeep out from under it. I wish I had taken pictures. First we tried to lift it to no avail... then there was the "thinking time in the hot tub", where he engineered the pulley and rope system... next, there was the executing of his plan. Now this all started about 6 pm which mean dark and supper time was approaching... of course a 20% chance of rain (it didn't) meant he then had to put the soft top ON the jeep, which by this time we were in the dark (and up here it is DARK), which meant much holding of flashlights and words we were glad the girls were not here to hear! Let's just say we ate hamburgers about 10:30 and fell into bed!! And unfortunately, the next day was too chilly to ride with the top of the jeep open. I'll take my BMW with its one button system, seat and neck heaters any day!!
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