Some Work and Some Play

Over the course of the summer, in addition to my ice cream duties, I worked at the gravel crusher off and on.  I filled in if anyone had to be away or was sick.  I do enjoy working on the crusher, but my days of hard work are over.  If I get over zealous and lift or shovel, I pay for it for a couple days after with a sore back or just played out.  I am slowly learning my limits.  My job normally entails operating the crusher from a tower on top of a trailer.  It has big windows all around so I can see everything that is happening.  Kind of like an air traffic controller except with rocks. lol

There are a bunch of machines around me and I sit and watch for things to go wrong.  I also try to maximize production by regulating how fast the material gets processed.

During the summer I only work occasionally because Sue needs my help at CJ's.  Our kids and grandkids spent lots of time with us this summer so I wanted to be around for them as well.  Donovan and Dani were here almost all summer.  They were a big help to us and next year they will be able to run it a bit to give gramma Sue a break.  Many of the other grandchildren were here too, but most of them are too young to be helpers yet. Our front yard kinda looks like a daycare when they are around.

Baby Emma 

They do their part testing the ice cream.

Derek and I went for a little paddle boat ride one beautiful spring day.  It is sure pretty around our lake.  This year we went from ice on the lake to the heat of summer in one week.  And in the fall we went from hot summer to snow within a week.  Really weird year.

One of the things we had to do this summer was get our jeep fixed.  If you remember we had a truck run into us on our way to Texas last year.  We delayed the fix until we could get back home.  I was really impressed with how it all went.  Our insurance company even waived the deductible which is unusual.  Took it in to the body shop on Tuesday and picked it up on Thursday.  We even had a courtesy car for the time it was in the shop.

Heres what it looked like after the truck hit us.

The jeep came back from the body shop looking like brand new.  

If you are ever around our area and need body work, Advance Auto Body in Brandon comes highly recommended by us.

This was our view out our window at the Ponderosa with the Green Team cleaning up the green spaces.