Of Mud Puddles and Mud Pies

We dug our patio this past weekend - in sheets of pouring rain.
Nuts, yup.

Ray's friend Dave was visiting from Kentucky this past weekend and we were looking for something to do - hiking up Mt. Cardigan, poking around Burlington, shopping in Manchester Ctr, VT - all seemed like a pleasant way to spend the day. So when Dave asked us what house projects we needed to work on, I said, half joking "Well, there's digging a patio, and building a fence. Your pick."

And sure enough, playing in the mud would be come the project of the day.
Under sheets of pouring rain, and to Ray's dismay, they pulled up sheets of sod in a matter of 3 hours (they, because we only had 2 shovels for most of the project). I was Project Coordinator - tyring to salvage large chunks of sod, pulling out garden plants long past production stage, pulling up delapidated steps - and argued about why we needed to separate sod from soil for future use.
"Unfeasible in these kind of weather conditions." I understood their plight.

Next is grating the area down a couple more inches, then laying in the manufacutred sand ($6.50/ton + $55 delivery, or $2/ 5 gallon pail) and placing the field stones.
Much thanks to Dave, for his thoughts and interest in this very labor intensive project, and Ray for putting up with a wife who has too many grand ideas for a house of only 1022 square feet and .022 acres.

Finally seeing the light(s)

Well, we finally have hardwired lighting.
One might say our house is "lit up like Luna Park". After 6 months of owning the house, we finally have installed most of the lighitng. Our handy electrician installed two interior lights today and one exterior. He's coming back for the second exterior light and motion detector, because of issues with old wiring, aluminum siding (ugh) and that new lights just don't like playing with old wiring.
We purchased the dining room light from Sturbridge Yankee Workshop and the entry way light from Lowes. The exterior lights are from, as Ray would say, "Cheapo Depot." But they look great too. You'll just have to come by and see them for yourself...