What kind of car is this?

Has anyone seen a car like this? It has room for 2 seats only. Behind the two front seats is enough room for maybe a row of grocery bags. I thought the car was cute. I've told Becky that this car might solve her problem of using the car as a closet!

On a different topic, we went to the Nativity Walk tonight. We had G&G Rasmussen, Todd & Dree, Amber&Mark&kids, and Kimberli's kids. It was very enjoyable. It is setup on the bike path that separates the hickories from the demeyer subdivisions. You wait at the city gates which are painted to look like blocks of stone. Two Roman soldiers are standing guard. When you enter, they have various scenes set up as you work you way to the stable. There is a fruit market, a bakery, a carpenter shop, a crowed inn, etc. In the Nativity scene, they even had a live burro. Everyone donates a canned food item to the Christ child. Then we leave the city and have hot chocolate and cookies.

Afterwards, we returned to our home and had dinner. Becky had prepared two different types of soups. For dessert we consumed cinnamon rolls complete with ooey-gooey frosting!

I spent most of my day working on Christmas presents for the grandkids. Lots and Lots of sanding.

Jim & Ruth Smith 65th Anniversary

My Mom and Dad have been married 65 years. We - Jim, Gaylene, Ken, Colleen, Bill, Del Lou, Becky and I took them out to dinner. We went to Cafe Ole. We had an enjoyable evening with good conversation, lots of teasing, etc. The highlight of the evening was when the restaurant brought out a complimentary ice-cream treat for them. It came complete with lots of noise, a mexican sombero for Dad to wear during a picture, and of course a delicious dessert. All the rest of us were too full so we didn't order any dessert; instead, we watched them eat it.

This was Becky's costume for Halloween. Halloween costumes are really big in this school. The extended resource room staff all came with an Alice-In-Wonderland theme.

Yard Cleanup

I spent from 8:30 to 4:30 working on the backyard - annual fall cleanup. I'm pretty sure the garbage men dread the week I set the trash out. This is a combination of apple tree, crab apple tree, garden, boxwood, and magnolia trimmings.

The squirrels are also getting ready for the winter. This is a picture of a squirrel next in the ash tree in the front. Yesterday, while I was working, I could hear and see the squirrels moving all over the maple tree. I think it was wishing I would go inside the house so that it could harvest some more food. It didn't dare come off the tree while I was working.

I have a "thing" about trees. I like to be able to walk under them and not have the branches knocking my head. As you know, the crab apple tree in the back was pretty full and had lots of low branches that were offending me. Becky had taken Tom to the store to buy some well-deserved shoes and clothes. This left the crab tree defenseless. I remembered that when you prune you are not supposed to leave any crossing branches. I also wanted to remove the offending low branches. And finally, I needed to get the tree off the roof of the house. As you can see, I accomplished my finish. Becky said we'll probably have the take the tree out anyway.

From this next photo you can see that I completely removed all the boxwood plants, except the root ball. These were completely overgrown and overwhelming that area. They needed to come out anyway to make room for the window well project. Per Becky's request, I also topped the magnolia bush. Believe it or not, I discovered there was a house behind the greenery!

Last Tuesday, we went to the Pumpkin Patch and had an outdoor experience. Keyton got to do all sorts of things such as a hay ride, a corn maze, a pumpkin patch, a giant bouncing pillow, pedal cars, duck races, etc. Unfortunately, he wasn't feeling very well, but I think he enjoyed himself. I know the rest of us did.

Sprinkler Update

I worked hard on getting the sprinklers done this past week. As of today, I have the main line with its four hose bibs are working and turned on. This makes it much easier to hand water the garden areas. I also got the two front grass circuits connected. Here are some pictures:

1) This is in the garage where the car is supposed to be. Instead, my 4x8 cutting table is full of various sprinkler parts. Despite all the stuff, I still had to make several trips to the store.

2) I hooked up to the city water via the existing buried 1 1/4" line - bottom of this picture. The other two circuits that are hooked up are the grass front side yard and grass front yard. The two pipes not connected are garden spray circuits. Since I'm going to drip irrigation, I'm abandoning these circuits.

3) Trenches, trenches everywhere. It is hard to walk without some of the dirt filling in. I must admit that I'm getting somewhat tired of physically working so hard - day after day after day.

4) This is one of the drains. I found some cheap buckets at Lowe's. I drilled lots of hole in its bottom and sides and then filled it up with gravel. You can also see the gray conduit which contains the sprinkler 24V control wires. I have been using clamps like crazy since I double clamp all connections. For a tee, I have used 6 clamps.

4th of July yard work

Got up early to bust some sod on the east side of the house in the back yard. I used a mattock and got the edges where the sod cutter wasn't able to cut. Then I picked up piles of sod and dumped them in the trailor. I managed to get most of it done except the west side yard. Todd came over and together we finished the side yard. We also moved about 3 cubic yards of medium bark into existing flower beds. It seems like one has to done that every 3-4 years. This was done by 2 pm and it was getting pretty hot outside. Todd helped me cut some 4 x 8 sheets of 1/4 inch plywood for Grandpa Rasmussen's shed. He then took them over. I dug out some existing rainbirds that won't be needed anymore and plugged them. I then drew on graph paper the yard so that I can plan out the sprinklers.

Later in the evening, we went over to Becky's parents and had hamburgers and fixings. We played some games and talked.

This is deep inside the Timpanogos cave. It was a refreshing 50 degrees. I thought I might get cold so both Emily and I took jackets, but we never did need them.

Emily and I decided to hike up to Timpanogos Cave, which is located in the American Fork Canyon - just north of Provo. We had intended to get there earlier, but the car was shimming so much I had the impression to take it to be checked. Sure enough, and about 2-3 hours later I had purchased four brand new tires, had some ball joints replaced, and the alignment performed. So we didn't get to the National Monument until late in the afternoon - the hottest part of the day. We made the 1 1/2 mile hike in about 50 minutes. It was tiring, but not too bad except for the heat. Here is Emily on the hike up standing next to some Quartzite.