I did it!

When we built the cabin our dream was to have a stone fireplace run through the middle of the cabin to the top. We even had the floor of the basement reinforced so we could do it. We had someone give us the bid and when we were told it would be $25,000.00 to do it we realized that our pocket book would not allow that dream. So we thought that it would look nice to rock the outside of the basement. We had just become empty nesters so when Steve went to Florida I decided that I would rather be alone out at the cabin then here in Cedar Hills and that I would put up the rocks. Steve did help me get the first couple of rows in and we gathered enough rocks we thought to finish it. So the next week I drove out and started working some more on it. Since they are real rocks I had to be picky about where they would go because they had to rest on the rock below it. So I would pick up a rock and walk it all the way around seeing if it would fit anywhere. Most of the time it would not and I would start again with another rock. After doing a couple of rows I would have to let them set and really dry. It was fun at the first but towards the end I was tired of it.

Luckily my mom came over one day to help. I was almost out of rocks so she helped me gather some more of them and then spent about 5 hours scrubbing the grout off the rocks I had already put up. I'm so grateful for her help. This weekend I finished the last couple of rows and started to grout between them. Of course we had not bought enough mortar and had to do a quick trip to Park City on Friday night to get some more. Saturday Steve was able to help me finish grouting between them.
It was so much work and I hope my back recovers from it, but it looks great. I can't believe I did it. And the grand total was around $80.00. Not too bad.

Labor Day

You will never guess it but we went up to the cabin for the Labor Day weekend. We had our good friends Larry and Talitha Hudgins come up.

My brother Ken got the ditch cleared out so Steve opened it up to let the water come down and the plan was that it would water the meadow outside the cabin. Apparently it wasn't sloped the way we had hoped and we got a big pond in our front yard.

So thanks to our great neighbor Tom who lets us borrow his equipment Steve started working to get the water flowing better. We decided there are two spots at the ranch that isn't rocky. Ken found the first one when he sunk the cat and Steve found the second one and almost sunk the back hoe. Luckily we had family there and after throwing in all of Jodi and Mike's firewood they had just chopped and half our wood pile they were able to get the back hoe out. This picture was taken when they were almost out. I didn't

want to remember how it looked before.
That night we decided to take a midnight run over the loop. It took awhile for the moon to come over the mountains but when it did it was beautiful.
Steve and Taylor were on the four-wheeler and led out. Taylor and Larry had spotlights, but all we saw was one deer and a bunch of mice.
It gets a little spooky driving it at night, but Steve said nothing would have attacked us because me and Talitha were talking so loud. He said he could hear everything we said. We had alot of great food and good conversations. The only thing missing was the rest of my family.

My beautiful granddaughters

It has been almost two weeks since they moved to Georgia. After having them live with us for a year it was really hard to see them go so far away. But I'm excited for them to have this experience and to be their own little family.

The weekend before they left was cold, Taylor called after his shift and said the storm has moved over Deer Creek and the water is flat and their are no boats on it.

We hurried and jumped in the truck and headed to the lake.

The temperature was only 68 degrees but I got some good water to ski on so it was worth the trip.
It's been so hot this summer that the girls didn't use the playhouse much. So we went in one evening and they had so much fun playing with the dishes. Braelyn was the cook and came up with some fun dinner combinations.

Braelyn would ask every day if we could go to the park. I really hate the heat and would try to distract her to do something else. So the last week they were here we headed out first thing in the morning. Braelyn is old enough to do things but you have to follow Berkley around to keep her safe.
I can't wait until the end of September when I get to see them again.