Grader Mania

Once Phil got going with his grader, it was hard to tear him away. He spent most of the day on Friday tearing down the mountain of dirt that has blocked the view of the finger for the last year.

It still shocks me a bit every time I round the corner of the trailer—there's nothing blocking my view!

So he shoveled gravel and moved dirt, and backfilled on all sides. He can actually drive around the building now.

I'm happy not to have four foot weeds everywhere. Orange subsoil is a nice change. It's so clean-looking!

And with the grade re-done to the south, the water should drain properly now.

Very nice.

And Isaiah made a swing: he conceived the idea, found the materials, and executed, with just a little help from Phil to actually tie the rope in the tree. The boys are loving it!

Today Phil went to install gutters, as we had rain predicted. After a good many hours, he realized that the salesman had neglected to get him all the parts he needed. Instead of the gutters simply nesting together, they have a connection piece (which he didn't get). And so the gutters are up, but he will need to take them down entirely and reconfigure them (we had wanted to drain all water to one corner, but on further research, it appears that anything over 40' long should have a high point in the center, sloping to both edges, which he hadn't figured when he got started today).

So, after that frustration, he went to move cows, a long move from the far south to the north. The rain started right around the time he left, and he was out traipsing in mud until well after the sun set.

***

Joe has been happy up on his bed. Last night, I was awake late, reading in bed, when suddenly his legs slipped down, followed by the rest of his body. I lunged to catch him (?) as he fell, but he hit right between Jadon's bed and our mattress, in that little 9" space. It could have been much more horrible than it was, as he didn't go over head-first, but he screamed and cried. The brothers all slept through it. (Makes me wonder a bit about the effectiveness of fire alarms!) After some Arnica, he calmed down and then went to sleep in our bed. I didn't fall asleep for a long time, as it is one of my nightmares to watch a child falling, and I had just had a real-life experience of that.

But the bed really is too crowded with Joe, too, so Phil built little rails for Joe today. It is hard to know what is the balance between safety for falling and safety for getting down an ill child or in the event of a fire: the former would have rails all the way along, but the latter requires some openings. So we will trust that the rails are sufficient for either purpose.