The Newest Addition...

...is not a baby.
Victor is asking for a new baby already, Mike told him that when he was able to take over all of my chores & Miranda was a bit bigger, he would pray a special prayer to make that come about, but really, we need physical labor done around here right now & he won't let me work if I'm carrying.

We were listening to Michael Bunkers new radio show & he was reading a chapter out of his new book, Modern Religious Idols. I think it was chapter 8, The Idol of Feminization. Mike had never heard a Bunker rant before & it got him pumped up & mannish feeling; he declared he was going to dig a hole tomorrow! And he did. So I present: our root cellar.

When I say "our root cellar" I mean the very beginnings, I'll update as allowed, DV. Here Mike & Victor are breaking ground on site. It's right above my summer kitchen & all of my fruit bushes are down to the left. Though it does face south there is a mountain directly in front of it to block all of the afternoon sun, besides a bunch of shady trees.
Now, I have not dug a hole since digging my hasty fighting position during basic training in Ft. Sill. I was 18 then & had only a small utility shovel. I think it was early October, & I'd been there since the beginning of Aug., long enough for me to decide to never live in Ok. (Sorry Okies.) I've mentioned our special dirt before & it is just clay all of the way down so far, which is fine except we've had a very wet spring. Man , it's a workout.

Mike & I were in a digging mood about a week before this, w/ a conversation that went something like this: "Hey, how deep did you want the ditch in the goat shed?" "6 inches."

I started digging around the concrete pad & he jumped up to help & then recruited Victor to start filling buckets of gravel from the drive. Something he did NOT want to do. So I offered to pay him as it was above & beyond his regular chores. He consented warily & then Mike told him that if he spent his earnings on tools then he would match him in price. We had a french drain in about 2 hours.

Mike & Victor went to Ace a few days later & returned w/ a real untility shovel; $7.00 for Victor & the root cellar commenced. I get to swing the pick ax; I do shovel but I prefer the pick ax for its more immediate result. Here is about 3 days worth of work. It is not 3 consecutive days, or even one 12 hour day, but here & there between storms w/ a day or 2 to dry out & lighten up. Neither of us want an injury & his back goes out for the seemingly smallest reasons.

I had some fun which I probably ought not to have had. To pass the digging time I told V & C that there was a monster egg down below ready to wreak havoc on our county & it was up to us to dig down fast enough & far enough to reach it & save the town. There was so much speculation & older B horror movies are a regular thing at our house; they got into it much more than I thought they would & Charlotte had a nightmare, so I gave them an ending.
Victor has conjectured that a baby dragon hatched out of its egg during a storm & was crushed by a river of dirt wherewith our present day hill formed over it. Charlotte finds it plausible & I'm hoping the whole thing will just die. Our other between semesters project is (are?) chickens.