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Devon and Dennis stopped by on their way home from their Colorado ski trip. It was a little chilly for a weenie roast so we made Chris grill them while we stayed all comfy inside. The kids played out side. Not too cold for them. Jill and her girls and H&E arrived the Friday before so there was lots of company on SA. Since they arrived we’ve had weather ranging from truly nasty (cold and wind) to unbeatable. The latter gave the Wylie girls a chance to get out and enjoy SA. They don’t get a lot of opportunity to get outside with lots of space to run and play in at home. They got to participate in a weenie roast and play on the tractor some. For them, SA is a great place to visit.
For me, it’s a lot of work. Saturday Chris helped run the leaves I’d raked up out of the pond after I let it partially dry up through the shredder. Once shredded I put them on the caliche mounds and will eventually cover them so they will decompose. When we finished my project I helped Chris put dirt around his patio. We used the tractor and trailer to haul several loads of caliche from the mounds to the patio. Once we had the caliche spread at the base of the patio and tamped down, we put a layer of topsoil on top of it.. Rain will cause some maintenance headaches until the grass grows over the berm but who knows when that will be.
Jill and Kari took advantage of the warm afternoon Friday to tackle the lily pool. It had been five years since the last time we cleaned it out and that really should be done every year, every other year at the most. The mini hurricane we had last summer seemed to have filled it with crud and done away with the fish. Could be that the inch and a half of rain in 15 minutes created such a run off that the fish were able to swim out of the lily pool, much to their detriment. The lilies were so over-grown they were taking up too much space and it was a real bear of a job to get them cut back. It being Friday afternoon I was reluctant to pitch in when I got off work but couldn’t just stand around and watch them do it. I changed into shorts so I could step into the pool but by the time I did so they had gotten the biggest pieces out and all I did was help them finish up. They plan to take their daughters to the pet store and let each of them get a gold fish to put in the nice clean lily pool.
Hans’ back started giving him trouble before they left Switzerland but they came anyway hoping it would get better. It didn’t and they had to cut their visit short. Poor Hans was reduced to having to be wheel chaired around the airport and on and off the airplanes. They hope to come back at Christmas if Hans’ back is OK by then.