August Activites

Hard to believe it's been a month since the last update. It's been a busy month and a lot of work; I wish I could say I did some of the work but most of it was my brother-in-laws Phillip and John who really worked their butts off in my back yard. We cleared off a 40x80 ft section with a sod cutter to level it for a croquet court and lawn bowling area. Then we hauled in 18 yards of sand and 12 yards of topsoil and leveled it all off. Before that could be done an 80ft long retaining wall was installed with bricks by Phillip. Due to my heart condition about all I could help with was the leveling with a small tractor. Phillip's friend Fast Eddie then came over and installed a sprinkler system to help keep the new grass from dying. And he donated all the pipe, labor and digital timer and valves. He used to be in the business so all I bought was the sprinkler heads (6) and PVC pipe and valve to enlarge the water supply in the basement. He also donated the use of his small tractor which worked great. Now we need to plant grass seeds (Burmuda) or buy sod (Zoyia) before Labor Day to get the roots started before an early freeze. I'm running the sprinkler 20 minutes every morning and the old timer is working well. My water bill will increase about $35 a month and mowing the area may increase to twice a week. Eddie is also donating his old reel-mower which is designed for short Burmuda. Looks like I'll have to build a compost bed next.

Phillip and Janice left for Calif last week and I drove to Louisville, KY (8 hr) to visit the grand-kids and Adam's in-laws, Charlotte and Bob. It was a very nice visit and I really felt at home. I last saw the kids in Nov so they have really grown. Audrey is 5 and Roman will be 3 next month (9/11). We mostly stayed at home and played in the back yard when we could tolerate the heat. They also enjoy watching cartoons, playing inside and staying up late. They will be with the grandparent 4 weeks while the parents are in Ukraine and Europe on mission work and vacation. The grandparents are real troopers. Not many would agree to that extended period I suspect. We got a call from Adam when they first arrived in Ukraine and all is well there. I also made to short visits to 2 monasteries in the areas just outside Louisville. One was the Gethsemani Monastery where Thomas Merton lived in the 40's and 50's. I've been wanting to visit it for a long time, so that was a treat. There's not a lot to see unless you are on retreat there, it seems. But there are a lot of walking paths outside the walled area that belongs to the Trappist monastery.

My brother Jim decided we needed to convert our above ground pool (24ft dia) to a salt water system instead of the traditional chlorine system. He found a great deal on a nice system at WalMart on-line ($140), so he bought it and we installed it about 2 weeks ago. It is real simple and really seems to work well. It's a lot less work than adding chemical daily and seems to be a lot cheaper. It generates chlorine from the sodium chloride we added to the pool and runs about 10 hrs a day. It also adds a little copper in the process of dissolving the electrodes and that is a great algeacide. It also allows me to run the pool pump less hours so that saves a lot on electricity ($35/mo). It looks like a real winner so far and the water does not taste very salty.

My three fish tanks are doing fine and my sister Peggy loves her's (guppys). She has had it since June and it is still clear as a bell without any cleaning. The only thing I can figure that's keeping it so clean are the many plants that we added and then put in in her living room window for lots of light. With all that light it would be growing algea like crazy except the other plants are controlling the algea amazingly. Now my brother Jim wants one for his gold fish to move them inside during the winter months. I found a nice cheap 55 gallon tank at a garage sale and we will install it this week-end. I guess we'll need to install plants in it and put it in the window.

The doctors say I should recover completely in 3 months from my heart surgery which I hope to have in late Oct. I learned that a group (FCN India)) where I sponsor a child in India is having a 2 week tour of mission sites in late January, so I decided to sign up for that and make it part of my return trip to Tanzania in early February. That sounds like a ball and I'm really looking forward to that. I finally shipped 27 used laptops to Tanzania via DHL Express. It was expensive (4 boxes) but they all arrived in good condition for the Kowak Secondary School.

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