Muck, Memories and More

A friend quoted from an article: "where there's muck, there's memory." The article had to do with discoveries from an archeological dig. Our muck may not date back hundreds of years, but has brought back many memories nonetheless.

When we go out to feed the cat, water the garden, and pick up the mail, it feels like we're visiting a graveyard.

Brutus hears us coming and runs out of his temporary home in the pole barn and rolls over to be petted, then purrs contentedly.

Mike is leaning over the deck to water the garden below. I harvested a dozen tomatoes yesterday and a handful of basil.
Occasionally we discover in the muck another item to salvage or let go.

Back at our fancy refugee pad, I spend hours cleaning and restoring a variety of items. These are my favorite tools.

And Mike spends endless hours working on the loss and replacement spreadsheet.
However, this week he also went to the insurance people to threaten them find out what was taking so long. Now things are moving and we were finally able to sign a contract with the builder. He is ready to begin reconstruction on Monday.

We did try out our new tandem one morning and enjoyed the 15 mile ride very much. But I only remembered to take a picture when Mike was putting it away.

The garage is half full of more items to restore or throw away. And there is a whole ozoned room upstairs of  stuff to be gone through. I have been cleaning the rescued photo albums, so full of memories! Also, for variety, I have been going through packets of letters my brother retrieved from Dad's office. Oh, my, oh my! Did I really write that many letters over the years? What a wealth of family history! Thank you, Dad, for filing every piece so carefully.

Midst the reminiscences and reflections, life in the present goes on.
Saturday we bought a used car that will replace mine.

Sunday, Kayla and I drove Skye to Miracle Camp.

From the photos on the web site, I gather he had a  great time. Malachi goes tomorrow.

Wednesday, after my hair appointment, SIL Diane and I went out to lunch. 

Chalupa lunch

Two afternoons Mike teaches ceramics at the Red Barn. This talented senior will soon be leaving for college.

Today, Saturday, Mike biked with his cycling club again after a long time absent.
And I ran a 5K with DIL Kristie. We both did better than we expected and won our age divisions. Kristie was also the second overall female runner. She still has the gift!

We chose to run as an act of solidarity with her father, my consuegro, on the anniversary of his fateful day and praying especially for him as this summer has been extremely trying. (To read about him and hear his story, go to http://deathbylethalsubjection.wordpress.com/.)

This is my weekly attempt to participate in Project 365. We aim to take a photo a day, some for love of photography, others to keep a record of our daily lives.  Sara at http://thebowyers.blogspot.com/ is our hostess, where we link up and try to visit one another's blogs. I failed miserably at that this week and have had a hard time even writing this post. I try not to miss because I know I can hardly remember what happens from one day to the next. So, here goes, this is Week 32.