Pictures, pictures, and more pictures!

My dad hauled grain to Richardton today, but, for the rest of us, our day was filled with working on our current project: getting our giant swing-set ready to go up. :) Mother and I've been trying to document the work as we go, (by taking lots of pictures) so I'll share some of them with you here--just in case any of you ever want to build a swing-set out of telephone poles too! :)

This was taken yesterday--Jacob (left) and my dad (right) were working on "Reaming" the holes for the posts to go in... The holes have to be 6 feet deep and about 14 inches round.


Here they're measuring and marking on the pole (the top one) where the swings will go and where the posts that support it will be.
And now, for the rope-making pictures: We made 5 ropes yesterday and we children made the other 8 today. The guys thought of using the Cherry Picker for the back side, and it worked really well.

For some reason, Jacob looks a little bored here with his job of adding weight to the cherry picker!

Fern (the lady we are borrowing the rope-maker from) couldn't find the spacer that you're supposed to use, so Dad used what we had--a tire iron--and it worked really well!

In this picture, you can see the finished product--a nice, red rope...

The rope is...

...this long!

After the rope was twisted up, the guys wrapped a piece of wire around the end--to keep the rope from coming apart.

And of course, we have to keep up our strength by eating once in a while! (Now you get to see most of us in our work clothes!)

Today, Jacob spent a lot of time in sanding the boards for our swings. He was happy to be able to use the power sander for the first time--although he commented on how shaky he felt afterwards. :)

Here are our finished ropes... The top 3 are for our special swing--the 2 person swing! We doubled up all of the plastic twine to make the rope much thicker than the others...

In case anyone would be interested in this kind of thing, I thought I'd post a picture of some of the "Hardware" we'll be using for our project.

I just love this picture!!! Mother snapped it while Andrew came over to inspect my hole this afternoon. :) I think he was trying to see the rock that I was having trouble with getting out... I can't help thinking that he looks like a gopher--getting ready to go in his home.

After working in the dirt and working on the wood, everyone was ready for a treat! Andrew helped me make a fruit smoothie with strawberries, blackberries, pineapple, a banana, some honey, ice and milk. It was really, really good!

Mother helped with "The" project today by priming the boards after Jacob had them all nice and smooth. We've been trying to decide on a color/colors to paint the boards and I think we've made up our minds now, but I'll leave that for another post.

Shortly before supper-time, Andrew drilled the holes in the long pole for where the bolts for the swings will go. Jacob & I tried to direct him in which way he should angle it so as to get it perfectly straight, but I know some of them are a bit crooked anyway!

Mother and I worked together and got our next batch of Kombucha going today, and we now have 4 mushrooms (or "Scobys"). We ladies are starting to enjoy the Kombucha tea, but I don't think the guys are going to try it anytime soon. :)

My brothers also went to town today and bought some fencing supplies and then went up to the pasture to put some more clips on for the electric fence, as we had run out yesterday...

This afternoon, Mother saved our first pea seeds for next years garden...

Tonight, my dad worked on the Organic paperwork, as our inspector is coming tomorrow...

There's always so much happening on a farm, and I'm grateful to be a part of it all!