In door sky diving

K6 and I drove to Kansas City last Friday night to pick up K8, who, on Saturday morning, was finishing up a week-long attendance at EFY (Especially For Youth). On the way home, we stopped at the iSky in door sky diving facility. They suited up and I watched.

They don't simulate jumping out of a plane or off a platform. There is a powerful turbo fan in the floor that blows wind up in excess of 100 miles per hour. The first session is low level orientation with an instructor (in red), then...

...they had a 2nd session where the instructor takes them a lot higher. This is K6 going into the "air tunnel" for his second flight. Most of my photos were blurry, so not many pics for you this time.

K8's first trip.

Later, on his second "flight", he got airborne. It was fun to watch. I could not participate because of having previously separated both my shoulders - the waiver doesn't allow it, because of the stress of raising your shoulder blades so far up and back. Since my left shoulder hurts every other week of my life just from putting on my truck's safety harness, I didn't bother. I think if we lived closer to KC and the boys had more experience doing this, they both would be doing incredible flying stunts. After each group is finished, the instructor puts on a little flying show, jetting up and down and all around, which is pretty cool - made me think of Spiderman without shooting his silk webs or Superman without his cape. I would give this place and activity two thumbs up - highly recommend you try it if you get the chance.

Things start winding down at night as we get ready for evening family scripture study, prayer and off to bed (at least for the little ones).

After six years of wear on house and driveway, time for a "make-over"

Our cedar log siding and wooden decks were dirty, faded, and worn, so they needed a good scrub and re-sealing. I hired my neighbor kids to bring their power washing machine and blast everything clean a week ago Saturday - including our wooden deck chairs. Notice the grass growing up through our gravel driveway. 

Momma painted the chairs on Monday, and that night, after getting home from a 10 hour road trip (I took K8 to the University of Kansas for a week of EFY), I sprayed the driveway with a weed killer at 9:30 P.M.

The next morning we had two crews arrive. The first was Alan, who built this beautiful home 6 years ago, and his son. They taped off all windows, doors, and light fixtures. Then sprayed the logs with a new coat of "preservative" which made the house look shiny and new again, plus will protect the logs from the rain and wind for another several years. K6 will be staining the decks next week after the forecasted rain storms are gone.

The second crew to arrive went to work on the driveway. I had been planning to dump a few truck loads of chat (small gravel) to re-coat the surface after fixing the ruts, which is something I pay several hundred dollars a year to re-do. But this time, we decided to really fix it...

...by paving it with asphalt. I doubt we'll have any more ruts appear after heavy rain storms, and no more gray dust and mud tracked onto our wood floors.

They started out back at the bottom of the driveway, just at the entrance to the corral.

I have been wanting to pave with asphalt for six years, so this is a dream come true.

Then paved a short spur into Grandma's backyard. It will be finished later. This week, a third crew arrives to put up a new fence and gate over the road, so we can let the chickens safely roam Grandma's yard during the day, and after locking them in their coop at night, open this gate and let the dogs roam both yards at night for security. Yes, I am throwing lots of grass seed on her yard tomorrow since rain is in the forecast.

The paving crew is a local family business with dad being assisted by his 16 and 20 year old sons, and his 18 year old daughter. I think I will put up a basketball goal just to the right of the barn - where their paving machine is. 

They return this week to finish the driveway out thru the front gate and connect it to the paved county road that runs along the front of our house. Standby for photos of the finished project next week. No, I am not painting lines for parking slots, but I am toying with the idea of posting "reserved" signs for my truck and Momma's car!