More Pictures!

Introducing...

David Matthew Becker

May 25, 2010 8:12 a.m.

8 pounds, 12 ounces

20 1/2 inches

We are home and doing well, all things considered. I'll be back soon with loads more pictures and my usual witty commentaries!

They clean up pretty well, don't they?

Last night's piano recital required some polishing up from their everyday look, which could best be classified as "modern street urchin".

Wrapping things up

We are drawing to the close, or at least a good stopping point, on a number of fairly big projects around the house. When you own a home, nothing is ever really "done"; there is always another project ready to come down the pipe. I have been showing tremendous restraint by not buying materials for the next ten really great projects I'd like to do. Buying stuff for projects, as it turns out, is usually way more fun than actually finishing projects.
I am typing standing up right now, because the new floor does not quite come all the way across the room to where the computer is (lack of flooring has been a contributing factor to my lack of blog posting.) We did manage to build a hearth, and had the wood stove installed last week; we just need to finish the flooring, and put the moldings back up, and stain a few more trim pieces, and put some shelves up, and.....
We are also trying to grow some things. In the last six weeks I've been able to get about three grass seeds to sprout in the huge bare patches in the back yard, despite sowing about 50 pounds of seed and spraying 10,000 gallons of water. Growing grass has never been a very fruitful endeavor for us. Hopefully we will have better luck with vegetables this year. I popped these plants in the ground yesterday, and we'll hope for the best.
And speaking of growing things...we are at T-minus-8-days till we wrap up this project (or unwrap this project!) I bough milk yesterday that will expire on my due date, which you may remember, is almost a week after my scheduled delivery date. Not that I'm keeping close track or anything...

Want a nicer looking lawn, but no time to mow?

Then you need one of these remarkable new all-in-one yard machines: the self-propelled eleven-year-old boy! He gets great mileage when filled up with high-test chocolate chip pancakes. Here he is seen with the optional push mower attachment. He can also be equipped with a trowel for scooping up doggy doo, and in winter can be used with the snow shovel attachment. His opposable thumbs make him ideal for picking up sticks and pulling weeds. Very low maintenance, just hose him off after use and store him in a spare bedroom until it's time for the next job. Also available in the nine-year-old boy model for smaller jobs!

Fun and Excitement With the Beckers!

It's been a thrill a minute around here lately. We are in a sort of "crunch time", as we try to finish up a number of projects before the new baby arrives. Let's check in on some of the heart-stopping action...

Watching grass grow. Tell me, does it get more exciting than this? We had 4 cubic yards of topsoil dumped in our driveway recently, which we then hauled (wheelbarrow-full by wheelbarrow-full) to various spots in the yard. We used some in our new raised planter beds, and the rest to repair some of the damage done to our lawn by dogs, kids, and weather. The "we" who did the hauling was mainly me, with some eleventh-hour help from Matt. FYI, according to the folks at wikipedia (who would never steer you wrong!), 4 yards of soil = about 6 tons. That's a whole lot of dirt. Dirt. Dirt that I had to pay money for. How suburban is that?
Watching concrete dry. As you saw in the last post, we had to pour a new front step. The "we" who did most of the work on this project was our own Big Daddy. You would think it would be pretty simple to pour a 4' by 4' square of ordinary concrete. You would be wrong. The dang thing took the entire weekend to do. On the plus side, we have greatly added to our knowledge of the finer details of pouring concrete.

Well, that'll have to be enough excitement for one post. We still have a few big projects to go, so stay tuned for more fun and follies!