It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Merry Christmas from Olympia, Washington, USA. Our friends, Owen and Sandy, sent us this shot of their backyard. It's not supposed to do that in Olympia. Just rain and more rain. What is that stuff anyway?

Winter in Olympia
(Courtesy of Owen & Sandy O'Keefe)

Some of you who know us may think the scene is kind of familiar. It is. We used to live there. We sold the place to Owen and Sandy, only we left out the white stuff.

Now for some sensible Christmas greetings. Here's our Christmas card for this year. We just took the photo of ourselves this morning. It's actually overcast and cool (down to 80 degrees). Not a good day to be in the pool.

Christmas in Corozal, 2008

Don and Brenda - notice the coozies? They do get a good workout here. They made a nice present. Thanks.

Construction on the guest house is proceeding at a good pace. I think you'll see in the photos below, just how well it's moving along.

First, the footings were poured, and now the first courses of block are going up on top of the footings.

Discussing the Game Plan

Second Course Underway

Second Course Almost Complete

Another View of  The Second Course

Now the hard part, filling the holes. The fill comes from the big mound in the background, which came from the hole for the swimming pool, plus a lot of rubble from the whole collection of projects - a nice way to get rid of stuff.

First Section Filled

Second Section Filled

Third Section Filled

All Four Sections Filled

A necessary part of filling, getting the stuff to settle. Here Esidoro is hosing it all down.

Esidoro Operating the Hose

We need to get it to settle so that when we cast the floor, there shouldn't be any large "caverns" develop because the soil settles after the fact. Something that could weaken the floor.

Originally, we were going to "pipe the poop", so to speak, from the guest house to the large septic tank near the main house, but we decided that was becoming harder to do. A separate septic tank and soak-away drain field became much more attractive, so that's what we did.

Here, Isidoro's brothers are digging a two-part septic tank.

Digging to China

After better than a year of using a hunk of plywood as a back gate, we finally have the real McCoy in place, thanks to our Godson, Isaiel. Here he's just installing it and then painting the galvanized steel gate.

Isaiel Working on the Gate

Isaiel Positioning the Gate

When Isaiel brought the back gate, he also brought along his son, Joshua. Along with Joshua, his wife Amarily and her mother came as well for a visit.

Joshua and Dianna Bonding

Right across the stree, Mae and Craig are in the final stages of construction of a house, part of which had existed here for many years. It's really become a cute 2-bedroom place with well water, electricity, septic system, fencing, etc. Pretty much ready to move in. They're hoping to sell it. If you're interested, you can contact them at 501-620-0401 or their email: ctions1@yahoo.com or maeklein@yahoo.com.

Across the Street to Mae and Craig's Place