Our hands are sore!

And arms. I don't know about Ruth, but it's been 15 years since I've worked this hard doing steady physical labor! Enjoying it for the most part, but it would be nice to get a break long enough to let the muscles recover.

Okay, so what have we been up to the last couple of days? Let's see...

Our friends Wendy and Philip stopped by again for a couple of nights on their way back to Moose Jaw. They came into town with us when we did our weekly grocery run on Wednesday afternoon. Not only groceries, because we had to drop off another batch of recyclables ($48.45) and do some running around on company business. Like getting lawn mower blades.

Now, you would think that this is the time of year when they sell a lot of lawn mower blades, wouldn't you? So you would think the place that sells them would have lots on stock in readiness for the lawn cutting season, wouldn't you? Well that's what we would have thought too. Instead, they had some on order for the one big lawnmower, and they sold us three blades for the other lawnmower that they did happen to have. Or so I thought.

Our largest mower...3 blades and a 54" cutting deck.

So I tried to take off the first blade. Nope, it was on there tight. No idea when the last time it was changed, but it was so dull that you couldn't tell which edge of the blade was supposed to be the cutting surface. Anyhow, I decided that the only way that blade was coming off was to remove the mower deck and get it up on it's side. It was a pretty big job, but I got it done. 

So I got the first blade off, only to realize that the three blades they had sold me weren't the right ones! No choice now but to sharpen the old blades as best I could, clean all the crap out of the underside of the deck, and put it back together.

We had a good long rainstorm on Wednesday overnight. Good thing, because without rain they were prepared to institute a fire ban. We've had a real stretch of gorgeous weather, but it is nice to get some rain every now and then. 

They're doing some improvements on our playground and "the bug" arrived yesterday.

Our ladybug!

And this is where she will sit!

I guess kids love to play and crawl over this kind of stuff. The thing is made out of concrete and it weighs a ton. It must have cost a fortune to ship it here from the States. It arrived in a big crate and we needed to borrow a tractor with fork lifts to move it to it's spot! They've also bought a couple of "diggers" that the kids sit on and dig in the sand. I needed to buy some concrete to install them and now that I've got some I'll get them installed next week sometime.

Speaking of bugs, Ruth got a picture of this funny fellow yesterday.

Another quiet week, but things will pick up soon!

Taken this morning. It is a pretty lake, isn't it?

Hey, I have a question for some of you bloggers out there. Why do you install those distracting little tags in the corner of your pictures? They're almost as annoying as the ones who leave the date stamp on! Just wondering.

Okay facebook fans, it's time to vote. We're still holding 5th spot thanks to your efforts to help win us a trip to Africa! Thanks for helping out! Gotta vote once every 24 hours though, and there's only 7 days to go...

http://l.inkto.it/758d

Here's how to do it...click the link. It will bring you to a facebook page. Accept the application. Accept the fact that they get access to your friend list, etc. Standard facebook procedure to limit illegal voting. Then, find the picture titled "Drab Landscape". There are five yellow stars beside the picture. Click on the star to the far RIGHT to award us with five points...daily for the next 8 days!

If your points don't register, please try again in a couple of hours. You're allowed one vote every 24 hours...thanks everyone!