April 24, 2012

Back in the Saddle Again.

I finally have a camera again.  I’ve actually had it for a couple of months now, but A) I didn’t have a camera case for it so I didn’t dare take it anywhere and use it, and B)  I still haven’t had time to read the dang instruction manual (which incidentally is a CD not a book….I hate that).  Luckily, the camera works pretty well without me telling it to do anything, so I actually have a few pictures to share.  But I’ve REALLY got to read that manual!

As you know, it has been HOT, HOT, HOT around here lately.  All around town I see people out cleaning and installing their swamp coolers.  It’s only April, but it was close to 90 degrees the other day.  Spence and Hayes started working on our cooler yesterday, which turned into Spence and I spending hours yesterday cleaning all of the minerals and salt from our well and softener out of our cooler.  You people in town don’t have any idea how easy you have it! :) Spence also completely took apart the pump to clean it so it would spin again and had to take off the motor and oil it…our water is very hard.  Oh and by the way, Chase also broke his arm yesterday…but that didn’t stop us from getting the cooler ready…you’ve got to have priorities when you’re pregnant and facing a long summer.

By evening (we were still working on the cooler) the kids were deserting our hot house for our cooler yard and the sprinklers.  I took a moment to snap some pics and by dusk the cool air made me feel good enough to use the dead branches I’d pruned from the trees to have our first campfire of the year.  My kiddos eat that stuff up!  Other than Ree deciding she’s afraid of the dark, we had a great time. 

Our slide is pretty fast, but Ree has gotten good enough to land on her feet after it flings her into the air and onto the ground…at least most of the time!

IMG_0472_5160IMG_0475_5163IMG_0477_5165

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more and more paranoid about inadvertently starting a forest, or in our case, a brush fire.  It is so dry around here that I’m even more paranoid.  So I made sure I raked all of the dry weeds in a big circumference around our fire pit and then made Hayes have the hose handy just in case a stray spark fell on the abundant fire fuel growing around our house.

IMG_0483_5171IMG_0486_5174_edited-1IMG_0498_5186IMG_0488_5176

Ree kept wanting me to take a picture of her doll by shoving it in my face whenever I tried to snap a shot.  I really appreciated it!

I’m including this last photo so you’ll get an idea why I’m afraid of burning the whole place down…check out all of the dry, yellow fuel around our campfire!  YIKES! (I’d burn it to get rid of it, but I’m afraid to!)

IMG_0502_5190

Stay cool everyone.  I hear there is a storm headed in on Thursday. (At least that’s what someone at the gas station told me!)