I'm teaching Osker how to pick blackberries!!  It's the only gentle thing we do!  Osker gets covered with burrs and has to be brushed every day.  Mom even vacuums him!

Here are the ridge beams to each gable.  Looks weird!

In the middle of the upstairs room there are four posts and beams that will support the ridge beam with additional posts.

Here is the view with the house trusses in place.  The gables at each end and the ridge need to be hand built.  The plans are sketchy on this so it will be interesting!

The guys (Dad and Mike) finished sheeting the garage roof today!  We have shade!  This is the view looking north.  The ridge beams, etc were delivered and set up on the second floor ready for framing!

Friday afternoon the trusses arrived on a boom truck and trailer.

The truck driver placed bundles of trusses on the roof of the house and garage.

Carpenter Mike had two guys helping him secure the bundles to the framing.

Then they set the garage trusses and were done before 5:00!

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!