Nate's projects.........FINISHED........almost

Every year at tithing settlement we set goals with our bishop, one spiritual and one temporal. Nate's goal last year was to get a door cut into the foundation of our house so we could have another entrance into our basement. He got that done, but we never poured cement for stairs. So this summer we did that........along with a little patio. It looks great!

Also, Nate has been so excited (pretty much ever since we moved here) to dig a pond and have fish and ducks. And ever since we have moved here I have wanted to plant more grass in the front yard (right now it seems as if it is a big pile of weeds), Nate had always said that it would be really expensive to water it (our front lawn is pretty big). We do have one acre share of water rights so he borrowed our neighbor's backhoe (A LOT!) and started digging. Sometimes he would dig until 1-2 in the morning (weird). He just wanted to get finished. The boys loved riding in the backhoe with their dad, unfortunately I forgot to get pictures. I will keep some when he does the trenches. Everytime Ty heard the sound of the backhoe engine coming down the road he would do this wiggle dance and start RUNNING for the door. He does the wiggle dance for any sort of machine: tractor, 4-wheeler, big truck, cement truck (yep, we got to see it when we poured cement), etc.
The pond is pretty deep, about six feet and just feels up with the ground water. I couldn't believe how high the water table was, but it is. Nate had to pump out the water for a long time before he started digging, because it was hard to dig with the water.

These are both pictures taken from upstairs in our house, just so you get the idea.

I will have to make sure the boys don't go out there, right now, they don't, but hopefully they always remember that rule. Nate says he will build a fence, but who knows if that will keep them out. I am kind of nervous about that.
All he has left to do (I think) is dig the trenches for the water lines and we can plant grass and have a sprinkler system. YEA!
He has already got a couple of ducks and is looking on ksl everyday for other free ones (even though I keep telling him that they aren't FREE we have to take care of them) and has the fish that him and Kace have caught from the river by our house.

Nate made a HUGE pile of dirt that has since become a favorite place to play for the boys and their friends. It will make a KILLER sledding hill in the winter. He is going to use some of the dirt to back fill where he wants to build his monster shed (someday, people, someday!)

This is the view our upstairs bedroom window of the monster dirt hill. Also is a shot of the great swing set (also HUGE) that my dad built for the boys. How lucky are they?!

Well, I am off to get ready for tomorrow we go to Ft. Worth, texas. RISE AND SHOUT!