Even more Paradise ponders...

Even more Paradise ponders...  Just a quick one – I've been working with Tim all day, and this old lad is tired!  Tim's trench is completely backfilled, but we haven't quite completed the cleanup work (that's made especially challenging as the entire length of the trench is through lawn, and we're trying to preserve the sod).  This afternoon, just when we thought the end was in sight, we discovered that we'd accidentally buried a wire that needs to be repaired.  That's shovel work to fix it, and once it dawned on us what we'd done, Tim looked at me and said “Tomorrow.  Let’s do it tomorrow!”  And who was I to object?

We worked hard today, both of us.  Lots of shovel work and sod-carrying.  We had an especially nice break in the middle of the day, though: Debbie drove into Tim's driveway with a tray full of homemade beef stew and just-out-of-the-oven cookies (oatmeal chocolate chip, with cranberries and orange peel).  The beef stew was piping hot and absolutely delicious – and for two old farts working out in the cold all morning, it's really hard to imagine what could have been better.  The look on Tim's face when he realized what Debbie had done was priceless :)

Now this ancient and very tired one is headed for bed...

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  Yesterday was a day of rest for me.  Mostly, anyway.  It was nasty outside: cold (40s), windy, and intermittently raining.  Did a few chores around the house, then Debbie and I had a nice lunch (as always) at Jack's.  We had a weird-sounding pizza that was actually quite delicious (a specialty there!): prosciutto, slices of pear, rosemary, honey Dijon mustard, fresh mozzarella, and no tomato sauce.  The soup we had first was also great: chicken mushroom with a cheesy, buttery broth.  Evil, but great :)  After that we went grocery shopping, for today Debbie is cooking vast quantities of food: an Amish beef stew, her signature chili, and oatmeal chocolate chip orange cookies.  I'm gonna gain 15 pounds this week!  The stew is sort of a normal quantity, if you had a family of 12 or so.  The chili, though, she's making on an industrial scale.  Some time ago I bought her a beautiful stainless steel soup pan that looks basically like the bottom half of a 55 gallon drum.  That thing is now sitting on our stove bubbling away.  When it's finished, she'll be packing up the bulk of it in freezer containers, and we will fill our chest freezer in the garage.  Those containers will come out on nice, cold winter days when chili sounds perfect for a fast, easy meal.

Later yesterday afternoon I wandered out to see Elray the well driller.  He was welding on a 20' piece of 6" steel casing so he could pound casing down to 200' in preparation for the next 20' of drilling (that will likely be today).  I'd mentioned before to Elray that I had no idea how to weld, and he said he'd bring an extra hood and show me.  He was as good as his word – broke out a few scraps, a few rods, fired up his welder, gave us each a hood, and then he set out to give me a few lessons.  We didn't spend even a half hour at it, but by the end, thanks to his teaching, I actually made a weld that looked like it might hold.  A bit more practice, and I could weld two pipes together.  Best of all, I can see that with just a bit more practice, I could do some simple welding on my own.  That's a darn handy thing to know how to do, so that's now on my list.  Now I have to find myself a decent beginner's welder...

Today as soon as it's warmed up just a tad, I'll be heading over to Tim's place with my tractor to backfill the lovely ditch we dug together.  We need to get that done before we have a hard frost, else his brandy-new water line will freeze and crack.  That would be bad!