So, Saturdays in Houghton tend to be filled to the brim with projects and activities (and lots of pizza and college students visiting). Many of our to-do list items don't ever make it onto the schedule. Things that need to be done because they've been waiting, and taking up space, or are a noisy distraction. Thanks to our reduced extra-curricular activities schedule, we (read: Steve) have actually had time to tackle some of those projects over the past couple of weekends. And there is photographic proof....
Honey extraction. It takes up the entire kitchen for a day, but it makes the house smell sweet and in the end, we have nearly 10 gallons of fresh raw honey. Andrew and Elisabeth were excited to get to help on this project.
The previous weekend (and a few days following), Steve
tuned our piano. The girls learned how to do this process, and our piano sounds MUCH better thanks to their diligent work.
The boys have spent some time on their own projects. They
built a tree fort in their favorite backyard tree. With no parental assistance, except to give permission and let them know which lumber was available. They used their own tools and wore their hard hats. It was pretty sweet to watch them work on this together!
5 comments:
Great post, Snow Princess! It was good to see what you folks have been up to lately, though I'm sure what you showed was just the tip of the iceberg! Do you actually go through all that honey? Interesting to see the piano being tuned. I didn't know a lay person could do that. Good for Steve and the girls! And I'm pleased to see the tree fort the boys built, and impressed they did it by themselves! Reminds me of the tree fort the kids had at the Giles Rd. house. I can't remember if they made it or if Mike helped them. Hoping somebody weighs in and sets the record straight. Thank you for taking the time and effort to share with us, Rachel!
Wow. These are some fun projects to hear about - I'm especially touched by the tree fort. It reminds me of my own memories growing up, building tree forts on my own and with dad. Those are some great memories for me, and it looks like the boys did a great job doing that, too. Very special.
I'm really impressed you learned how to tune a piano, Steve! Was it hard to learn?
Oops. I thought Steve had written this post. I guess I'll have to text him to find out about the piano. Thanks for the nice post, Rachel! I enjoyed it.
Mom, as for the tree forts/houses, I remember very few that were built on their own (a rare exception is the case of Lisa and Catherine Lee, I think), but most were engineered and managed by dad. I don't think too many got built that didn't have his hand in them.
I can remember at least five different distinct tree houses growing up (the original and oldest one was in the north woods or "back yard", one on the west side of the property in Uncle Scott and Aunt Debbie's property (this one was a little small and incorporated the slide from the wooden swing set), two over on the east side of the property (one right on Mrs. Bliss' property that we were always worried would sue us if we fell into her yard, and the one Lisa and Catherine built), and then a great three story one in the front yard woods (south of the house). They were all great.
Thanks for the updates, Rachel! I'm getting to this post many months after you made it, but I love seeing what you were all up to in the early spring.
I'm remembering a fort (not a tree fort, but on the ground) that Steve and I built at Grandpa and Grandma Barnhart's, in their yard off the front porch. I think it lasted for a year or two, but it wasn't as impressive as the one your boys built.
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