More work accomplished

Besides all the things I wrote about the other day, here are some of the other things we checked off of the lists:

• wash the exterior windows (Juli did all of them!) 
• knock the dirt-dobber and birds' nests off of the house and flood lights 
• refill the bird feeders 
• clean out the gutters 
• trim the tree limbs overhanging the roof 
• take down the Christmas lights (usually they leave them up all year, to avoid putting them back on, but the squirrels have taken to chewing the wires)
• clean out the waterfall
• plant new flowers in the front flower beds
• dust all the picture frames and corners in the house
• haul rocks out of the creek bed for Granddaddy to use to hold up the trail
• mow and weed whack all possible areas
• rake sand around the trees down by the bridge

I can't think of any more right now (except one thing, which I'm about to document with pictures), but I don't believe that this is an exhaustive list.  The main point is that we got a lot of work done!

That last thing was actually Gretchen's idea.  When they went swimming at Blue Hole, they remembered the tire that was residing at the bottom of the shallow end.  Gretchen thought that it would be good to take the tractor, attach the logging chains, and haul it out so that it wouldn't be junking up the water anymore.

So one afternoon she, Reagan, Heidi and I all set out with Daddy on the tractor.  A tractor is obviously not designed as a transportation vehicle, but we all managed to be on board -- in one way or another!  In case you can't tell from the angle of the picture, the three blondies are riding in the bucket.  :-)

Unfortunately, Granddaddy has problems with people trespassing on his land to go swimming in the various pools.  So we were not surprised to hear, as we were approaching Blue Hole, the sounds of swimmers enjoying themselves in the water.  But let me tell you -- they bugged out really quickly when they saw what was coming up the road on the hill above them! 

We all tramped down to the edge of the water, where Daddy assessed the situation.  Because the tractor trail is a fair distance uphill from Blue Hole, he knew that he had to be really picky about where he parked the tractor and how he pulled the cord down to the tire.  Then he and the three swimmers stepped out to the peninsula.

Gretchen was honored with the responsibility of pulling the cord over to the tire and attaching a hook onto it.

The hook pulled it up all the way to the bank.

However, there was a 2 foot distance between the water and the top of the bank where we had pulled it.  The strain of trying to pull the tire up and over was too much for the hook; it bent out straight, letting the tire fall back into the water with a splash.  So we moved to Plan B: attach the logging chain directly to the tire, the way we do onto logs.  With the power of the winch, Daddy was then able to pull the tire up over the bank and up the hill to where the tractor was waiting.

And now Blue Hole no longer has the degrading presence of a huge tire!  :-)