To Grandma's house we go...

We'll be finished this weekend, so I'll be posting the final photos soon. Ready to move-in next week.

Air conditioning installed and running.

Put the septic system in last Friday. Need to finish the front and back decks, then stain them.

The electrician finished the under cabinet lights today.

The stove and microwave oven are in.

All doors, knobs, and trim are installed. Interior painted.

Ceiling fans and blinds installed.

Master bath shower pan, wall tile and glass wall were completed after I took this pic. Darn storm fried our internet last Sunday, so I'm behind on posting. I'll post the finished house this Sunday or Monday. The plumber was here today and finished hooking up all sinks, showers, toilets and tubs. 

Carpet going in this week, will be done Saturday. Still need to install a hand rail , and then a dutch door at top of stairs to prevent young and old from falling down these 13 steps.

Basement living room is pretty good size.

Same living room from the opposite side.

Big basement quest bedroom.

This is our Harry Potter under stair play room and guest kid sleep room.

The 1,000 gallon septic tank and leach lines are complete.

Will have this stained and railing installed soon.

Today's topics: ballet, art, history, family and food...

This photo ought to dis-spell the notion that everybody living in the rural Ozarks of southern Missouri are "red necks". Yes, we have some quaint folks living amongst us, but quite a few people have moved here from many other parts of the country (and world), and that is a good thing. K8 and three of our foster children joined the newly formed Children's Ballet of the Ozarks (CBO is only 15 miles from our farm), and last month they performed their first ballet - "Peter Pan". From a non-artsy kind of guy's view point, I thought it was awesome! Wish I could have seen it again.

Rehearsals were frequent and demanding.

K8 (lying on stage) had the role of Mr Smee, side kick to Captain Hook. He, and the entire cast, were great. I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Their next ballet will be "The Nutcracker" with several shows over two weekends in December.

I saw a ballet dancer's t-shirt at the dance shop in the big city that read, "If it were any easier, it would be called football". After watching these athletic guys and girls dance, twirl, jump and lift, I believe it.

In keeping with the ballet theme, my wife and I recently found this Edgar Degas statue in the St Louis Art Museum. I am a huge fan of this world class museum, and the admission is free! 

K8 creating his own museum master piece. No, not modern art, but rather burn barrels - he's drilling holes in the bottoms to allow rain water to drain.

Relaxing by the pond with my favorite friends. Unfortunately, the three ducks you see in foreground were killed by one or more of our three big dogs last week, not a very friendly act...at night, so no exact culprit. I put training shock collars on all three dogs this week (and anti-bark collars on three of the small dogs as well). We have one female duck left, but I have a good friend giving us a few new ducks and geese soon. In the meantime, while awaiting their arrival, I am taking the three big dogs into the chicken paddock for some shock therapy training. I have a major twitch in my trigger finger and the dogs will feel it...

Our youngest, K9, relaxing and winding down after a typically full day of action, climbing, eating, playing, and running. He is so cute and happy.

He is very active, but fortunately, he still takes naps at mid-morning and mid-afternoon, and sleeps through the night. What a well rested and pleasant child.

K2 frequently gets home late and usually exhausted. One night last week, he fell asleep on our living room floor, so K9 joined him.

The city of St Louis is named after King Louis IX of France. He was later canonized, hence the "Saint". This statue of him sits on a hill in front of the St Louis Art Museum and over looks Forrest Park.

We discovered another Indian restaurant in St Louis and have eaten there a couple of times. This is our favorite appetizer - no idea what it is called, but it is assorted vegetables (including jalapeno) battered and fried, then served with a slightly spicy cilantro sauce...yummy, yummy.

I also had a second appetizer - "Chicken 65", tender and spicey. I was so full that I barely touched my main entree, Fish Curry, so I took it home for K8 (who loves Indian curry). On the three occasions we ate here, we were the only "white" couple - the place is usually crowded with Indians which is an excellent sign that the food is the best, authentic Indian around.

Speaking of eating, we have this big, healthy, grass fed steer ready for the butcher, but since we already put two cows in our freezer during the past six months, he is for sale: whole, half, or quarter. He'll give about 525 pounds of steaks, roasts, ground, etc. Let me know if interested. I always give friends a discount.

Over the rainbow

It got to the point where we were not paying enough attention to, and regularly working, our bees, so K8 and I loaded them up and sold them to a friend...the price includes annual payment in honey. 

This is Wendy, our smallest Dexter cow. She almost died last year trying to push a huge calf out. She had been bred to our big bull, Red, which proved a mistake. The large calf got stuck and died before we could pull her out, and it was touch and go for about two weeks before Wendy stood up and started living a normal life again. I waited months for her to heal, then put her in with a small bull to see if she could have a successful pregnancy. I am happy to announce that she safely delivered this cute little red bull calf on 18 May. 

Our friend Brian dug a giant hole in the middle of paddock 6, so we could bury all the drywall scraps from the new house that Grandma is building next to our place. The dump wouldn't take it. Brian also buried the three stumps from the trees we had to remove to dig her basement. 

He did such a good job, you would never know he dug the hole except for the pile of rich earth that was left over - which will be used on Grandma's new yard.

I hired our Boy Scout Troop to camp out one Friday night on our newly cleared hillside. They spent four hours on Saturday morning picking up all the rocks and big branches left over from the original clearing operation. Now it looks even better. Brian brought his backhoe and the Scouts loaded the rocks into it's bucket for him to haul them away.

On Tuesday, 24 May, we took Kaidan to the St Louis Temple where he was sealed to us for all time and eternity. He is so cute and sweet.

After the Temple, we had a late lunch in a little Indian restaurant. The food and service were excellent. We're going back to visit both this weekend.

I don't know how I even spotted this tiny little snake in the ditch along the dirt road down near our bridge. Probably because I had just seen a big copperhead snake slide off the corner of bridge into the stream six feet away - my snake senses were put on high alert! No, I did not kill this non-venomous snake, but I certainly wish I had killed the copperhead...I will be looking for it this summer, and hope to post a pic of it's dead carcass later, along with any other poisonous vipers.

K6 is testing out his clay pigeon breaking skills with my new 20 gauge, double barreled coach gun. He had some success.  It is a fun gun to shoot.

K8 also accompanied us to this Saturday morning "Shoot" with friends from Church at a member's ranch. K8 used his single shot 20 gauge while his Seminary teacher flung the pigeons out over the pond. K8 also had good success with his shooting skills.

Was fortunate to see this double rainbow over our hill late one afternoon after a rain storm passed through. Wish I had a better camera to capture it, but, oh well...