I'm teaching Osker how to swim!  The creek is low this time of year, but there are some deeper pools that come up to my chest. They go over Osker's head!  He learned to swim pretty quickly when he reached the deep pools!

Even Mom caught a gopher (I taught her)!  There was a new hole in her flower bed so she stuck the hose down it and the gopher popped out!  She caught it in a bucket when it was trying to dig it's way back into the hole.  She let it go in the woods.  Me and Osker then finished the job by digging a huge hole in the flower bed.  We got in trouble.

The garage/shop got framed yesterday and today!  Sheeting the outside is next!

We moved more topsoil around the east side of the house.  It's so good to see the pit and piles go away!

Our new yard is one big sand box!  Perfect for me and Osker to play in!

I'm teaching Oskar how to hunt gophers!

His feet get pretty dirty!!  Every morning he runs on the dewey grass, tromps through the dirt, then into the house!

The porch roof posts and beams are going up!  The roof trusses have been ordered!  A couple of the beams are 35 ft long!  We used the tractor to lift them on top of the posts.

Uncle Walt, Dad's friend from college who just retired, came to visit!  He helped us fill in around the porch post piers.

Then we moved a huge pile of topsoil that was on the south side of the house.  Dad moved bucket-loads with the tractor; Mom and Uncle Walt raked it smooth enough so you can now see where the front yard will be!  It's very fine volcanic soil that poofs when you walk on it, so it's still a dusty mess, but now you can begin to see how the new yard will blend into the existing yard.

Oskar got a new bed.  I thought I'd try it out first.  Cozy but...

I suppose it fits him better!

Oscar is such a piggy that he naps by his bag of food waiting for his next meal!

Finally got the porch post piers dug big enough and deep enough for the forms.  That was a back breaking job.

This morning at 6 am the concrete crew started arriving to pour the garage slab and piers!!  Tomorrow they remove the forms and put a coating on the exposed area of the garage footing then they're about done!!

Oh Brother!  Here he is!  My new little brother!  I've heard them talking about it, but imagine my surprise when they came home with a puppy!  He's a 7 week old English springer spaniel.  He only weighs 10 lbs now.  I can run and roll him just like the chickens!!

His name is Oscar.  He's a foodie too!  He goes nuts at meal time--makes me look good.

After all that work building up the patio, covering it with gravel, and compacting it, we had to dig out 13 holes for concrete piers that will hold the posts for the porch roof supports.  They were dug down to the subsoil fill, i.e, rocks, compacted, then filled back in with gravel to be about 12" deep.  Dad used a "jumping jack" to compact the bottom.