garden box for Jessica and Heather

I have been digging out the gravel from the old horse water trough riser of the last several days. Today I got it basically finished up and cut the framework and moved it over to the girls yard.

They want to make a raised bed garden out of it. We'll empty out the big buckets they used this year to fill it up.
 

Freezer is full again

Heather and I went to Flemingsburg this morning and picked up half of Ralphie, about 460 pounds. The freezers are full again!

A day at Kings Island

We went to Kings Island over last weekend and had a good time. It's an amusement park in Ohio that is heavy on roller coasters. Blake & Emily also went, as did Wyatt & Chelsea, 

Quite a few of the ones we went on left you floating in your seat. 

The Beast is one of the wood coaters there and it held the record for  tallest and longest when it opened. It is still the longest wood coaster at over 5.000 feet. 
 

Trip to New Hampshire went well

 

I got back from taking Allen's excavator back to him. I stopped at Jay & Debbie's place in Pennsylvania going each way. It's a good halfway stopping point and I got to see some good friends. 

Camping trip to Carr Creek Lake State Park

We  went camping at Carr Creek Lake this week. They had to move our spot due to the website not informing us the site we picked out was for tents and not campers. The new spot was nice, too. 

There was a cool feature at the entrance to the park. It was a slow waterfall that just kind of ran down the rock face.

We both thought it was picture-worthy. I made a special trip early in the morning as the fog was lifting to get these shots. There were actually several spots that the water was coming from to make the face this wide.

Nature is quite persistent. The was several trees growing in the rock like this around the lake.

We took the kyacks out several times. Being that it was a week day, there wasn't much boat traffic except for us.

I tried fishing out of my kyack. It has a rod holder for it, but doing it works much better in your head than in real life. The rod holder is very much in the way when you try to paddle and stability is also an issue. I think I'll stick to the boat, for now.

Center drainage cleaned out

The drainage ditch between the girls place and mine is cleaned out and ready. I used the dirt that I dug out to extend the slope off the septic tank. It was still too steep to get the mower over it. Now I'll be able to mow it as needed.

Allen's excavator did a fine job. 

 The biggest inconvenience was jumping back and forth between the mower with the dump cart and the excavator. But this should take care of the drainage for several years, at least. 

Back bedroom floor complete

I got the new floor put down last week, so it was now time for the next step.

Monday morning, Natalie and I got started with laying the carpet in the back bedroom. We put down the tack strips and got the padding cut, fitted and fastened down.

Blake came down and we started getting it cut to fit and stretched to hook it onto the tack strips. None of us have ever done this before, so it was a learning experience.

 For a first time, it came out pretty good! We started putting furniture back in, too. We have the bed and a nightstand in there already, and some wall decorations waiting to be put up.

 I repaired a soft spot in the girls kitchen floor today. I also had to run new water lines because they were the reason the floor was soft. The floor tiles still have to be put down, but they are over there waiting. I want to be sure everything stays dry before they get put down.

Camping Vacation to Lake Erie

Natalie and I went on a vacation this week to Coyahoga National Park. We stayed just outside the park in one of the state parks. The campground was nice. It had a small lake we could kyack on, so we did that several times.

We went into Cleveland to the Rock Hall of fame. There were 6 floors of exhibits we went through.

Since we were so close, we stopped and saw Lake Erie, too. 

This is Brandywine Falls, one of the main attractions in Coyahoga National Park. We wandered around all day. It's a beautiful park.

We also went on the Coyahoga senic train ride, with one of the bubble top cars. We had seats in the bubble.

It's a nice ride up in the top of the car, giving you a slightly different perspective on the sights you go by. We saw bald eagle nests, trumpeter swans, deer and other wildlife, as well as some different parts of the park.

And since we were only a few hours from Austin, PA, we drove over to see Jay and Debbie. It was good to see old friends and spend a little time with them.
 

A few pickles

Lisa had some extra cukes and sent them over. I made some pickles last year and they were pretty good.

I ended up with 6 pints of pickle slices and about two quarts of brine to use for the next batch.

From June 18

 

Natalie and I got engaged on June 18. No date has been set yet

Camping in Hocking Hills

The last few days we were camping in Hocking Hills in Ohio. It's a beautiful state park and we hiked to some of the easier places. This one is the upper falls, where the trail starts.

You go by  the this, called the Devil's Bathtub.

The cliffs are quite high walking by the foot of it.

We also saw the Old Mans Cave, named because he lived in there for many years.

We also saw Ash Cave with a waterfall in the middle of it.

And what is called the Rock House. It's one of the only "real" caves in the area, but still a really cool place to see. 
 

More projects

The wall going into the living room had a bad wall stud. I got started fixing that this week. First thing was to cut the drywall out so I could get to the stud. I cut higher than I needed to to make it easier to seam it afterwards.

I cut out the bad section and replaced it, then added a cover board to  make sure everything stayed together and was strong.

The drywall is cut and fitted. The wiring for the electric outlet was not quite long enough to relocate it to a different stud, so it had to get put back where it came from.

The spackle is going on. It looks the same for all the coats being put on. I currently have two on it. We'll see how it looks when they dry. It might need more, but maybe not. 

 

Project pieces

Heather's gate got hung this morning. We still need to get two more gates, one for the back and one behind the driveway. I added a hook to the post for the latching chain.

 This is the old fence line I pulled down this week. The last remaining post is where the hose was being hung and I left it until I can figure out if I want to try something different or leave it as is. I did mow all the weeds down later in the afternoon while I was mowing the yard.

Another fishing trip

Heather and I went fishing again today, this time to Grayson Lake. 

I prefer to come here because I catch a lot more fish on this lake. We even brought a couple home.

We kept catching fish until we ran out of bait and then just enjoyed a scenic ride down the lake.
 

Fishing trip

Heather and I went fishing this morning and discovered that Cave Run Lake is very high. This is the Scotts Creek launch, the highest launch area on the lake. About 2/3 of the ramp is under water and the dock is not really reachable, either. We got launched and fished some.

 This is Longbow ramp - at least, where it is supposed to be. The trees behind the street lights is where the launch ramp actually is. We didn't try to go in here. 

Back to Tims Ford State Park

We had stopped here in Tims Ford last year on our way back from the Keys. It is very close to Lynchburg, home of Jack Daniels. Downtown Lynchburg hasn't changed a lot since we were here the last time. We wandered around and looked in most of the shops in the town square.

We took the kyacks down to the lake and paddled around for most of the morning. It's a very pretty lake and also rather large. We stayed around the shoreline. It was still nice and quiet out on the water. School hasn't let out yet and it's a weekday.

The hiking trails were not crowded, either. We did an easy hike to see Short Falls. It's a pretty area.