July

As I said in my June post, we are starting our yard project.  In order to prep for this one of the things we needed to do was move the wood pile and empty our 50 gal emergency water barrel we have back by the shed.  

We siphoned water out, but then we needed to dump the rest out.  Luckily we had 2 strong young men to help do that.  

Jaxon came for a sleep over and before Jacob headed to FSY.

Monday, July 3, we headed up to the U of U with Ahyous for FSY.  

Here we are standing in line.  It was pretty efficient--especially as they were trying to process all those kids in a 2 hour window. 

 Heading to their dorms.

Checking out information

Unpacking

Jacob was excited and a little nervous, but I think he settled in OK. 

He texted us a few times and said he wanted to go home, but he stayed and had a good time.

Meanwhile, back at home, we celebrated 4th of July and had a BBQ with Jared and Stephanie.

Our numbers have shrunk in a year or so.  Steven and Hannah moved to St. George in June 2021, Josh and Irina moved to England in summer 2022, and last week Jenny and Jacob moved to Houston for his new job.  So it was a smaller gathering.  

It began here.  We went form this...

July 5th--we're relandscaping our yard.  They began in the side yard with the pine.  Next they moved to the pine tree in the back yard.  

It went form this...

....to this.

...to this. 


....to this....

This to....

....this.

Our yard feels pretty exposed at this point.  

Our goal is to enclose the side yard with the fence and try to plant a new shade tree...which will probably shade us by the time we move out when I'm 80! 😏😅

In the front we are going to rock in all of the park strips with drought tolerant plants.  Where the big pine tree was in front we will put a circular rock section to get rid of more grass in front.  

It is a huge project!

That was the 5th of July.  Then the yard has sat for a couple of weeks.  😒

In the meant time...Jason's health.  He finally went to the Dr. on 10th.  They did tests and he has C. diff.  Apparently it is highly contagious so Jacob and I have been lucky we haven't caught it.  We immediately began using precautions to keep us away from the germs as much as possible.  We were very impressed with the nurse practitioner he saw.  She was very helpful.  She even called on Monday night to give the results and get a prescription going to pick up the next day.  

On Friday, we went in to see a gastroenterologist.  She was helpful also and talked about some ways we could help his stomach in general.  

Back to the yard....the company doing it, Greg the owner, came by one day to talk about schedule.  As we were talking he began talking about air friers.  How much he liked them etc.  One thing lead to another and he bought us one and brought us steak to try in it!  It was very good.

On Tuesday we went to Airbourne with Catheys and afterward we went to get a Slurpee for 7/11 day.  Jaxon had expended so much energy he was sick!

Thursday night's bike practice was up at Snowbird--which is good since the valley was so hot!!

Saturday!  The practice bike race at Eagle Mountain.  Jacob really doesn't like this course too much, but he did it.  This year was a repeat of last year...not in the exact same way, but later in the day Jacob was sick to his stomach and threw up...like last year.  I think he gets over exerted and hot.  Once he threw up he felt better.

Ready, set....

Getting ready to ride

Coming into the finish line!

Monday morning, July 17, and they are now working on trenching for the sprinklers.  This is such a big job...I would hate to do it.  We're paying for it, but it is worth it!

We had 3 days of sprinkler layout.  Monday-Wednesday.  

Breaking up back patio

On Thursday, the 21st, Sam came to begin the cement.  This is causing overlap because the other team is ready to move on, but Sam needs to pour and has to be super careful of sprinkler heads.  The valve boxes should have been moved and then cement and finally sprinklers.  

Digging out dirt to prep for new cement in this area

            Taking off deck.  Sam was nice enough to                   pull our deck off so we could save it.

Pounding out the stubborn pieces

This area, off original side yard, is getting
cement.  Then fencing in rest of side yard.

Here is the back yard looking east.  

 

Then the front of the house where we are putting a new front step and cementing in the area under the living room front window.  

In the end it will look nice, but right now I am sick of mud and how it looks.  

On the 19th they began the demo on the back patio, side yard and front porch.

All the while Greg's team was working on the new sprinkler system.  

Then things sat for a week waiting for the cement pour. Front porch torn up, no stairs out to backyard...it was a bit tricky to get around.

We left on the Wong family camp out on Monday, July 24th.  We went to Palisade again and Irina and Sarah were in town and able to join us. 

We all caravanned together and Mylee and Grace rode with us since Jared's truck doesn't hold all of them.  

 

 

When we arrived we unpacked the cars and then went down to the lake for a little while before dinner. Jacob was already changed and ready to go to the lake before we had finished helping Randy and MarySue unpack their car.  

Jacob and Grace on kayaks with Emma and Rob 
in the water.

MarySue and Randy fixed sloppy Joes for dinner

 that night.  They were very good and we hung

 around talking with everyone.

After dinner some of us went and walked around the lake.  It was so pretty.  

  Toward the end of our walk Mylee and Emma challenged Sarah and Jannette to a piggy back race!

Jacob on the lilly pad, Jared on float, with Lilly
and Gracy in water.

The next morning Jared and Stephanie did breakfast burritos and then we headed down to the lake.  It was a beautiful day.

The girls commandeered most of the float and made a floating chain out on the lake. 

The Thursday after we arrived home (the 27th) they came to pour cement.  It was so nice to see things beginning to get done!  Work had originally started on all of this July 5th! 

The week before, when they were putting in the new sprinkler system, the Comcast line had not been sprayed correctly by Blue Stakes.  So the guys were digging and cut the line.  A few days later they came and installed an temporary line, but as they were pouring cement, the Comcast guys came to bury the internet line.  They left and we had no internet--AGAIN!  It was so frustrating.  I called and called and finally got someone to come the next morning.  We finally had internet again!

Monday, July 31, the sprinkler guys came to rip out the park strips and start prepping them.  

Tuesday, August 1, the fence guys came back to pull out rest of old fence.  While the sprinkler guys were grooming the park strips and section of main lawn we are xeriscaping.  

In the middle of all of this we discovered that there is a wasp next under the shed and they were all over the place.  So I had to call pest control to get it sprayed.  We may need to empty the shed and tip it to get rid of the nests.  Ugh!!

So July was a busy month with yard work.  Not everyday, but in spirts.  I kind of wish it had started on the 5th and just kept going, but that was not possible.  We leave for our cruise this Friday, Aug 3 and return on the 13th.  The yard should be finished that following week.  Greg, the sprinkler guy, is waiting for me to get back to do plants.  I hope there are plants left to pick!