Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Summer Projects


Mike and I spent our 29th anniversary doing house projects. Mine was creating a bookcase bed with Kimmi. His was tearing out the front fence and replacing it. We started yesterday. Needless to say we're not finished. He talked me into helping with his fence demolition this morning. He's out dumping the old fence materials. I'm in a chair trying to recall when my forearms last felt this rubbery. Swinging a hammer is harder than it used to be. Since he was to be at the dump anyway, I rounded up all the old paint to go to hazardous waste. Amazing how many coats of paint we've put on this place since we arrived. There were even some colors I couldn't recall ever using. I wonder where they came from.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

I love the mountains, I love the rolling hills


The Black Hills of South Dakota (my 26th state) were amazing. This is the view from our driveway. The long drive through Wyoming was worth it. We stopped at Devil's Tower:
We spent more time right outside the monument at the prairie dog town:

We went boating - something we don't ever do at home. I wonder why not?
We panned for gold:

And we went to Mt. Rushmore.
We even petted kangaroos and alligators!
All in all, a very fun if not too restful trip. My favorite part? Being able to see the stars again. No light pollution to ruin our view of the Milky Way.