Working with our hands

Who doesn't love a weekend that involves a visit from your dad, home repair, pancake breakfasts and a nap on the lawn?  That pretty much sums up the last couple days at our house.  My dad came out on Saturday to bring out the wooden rabbit hutch he had built for my bunny, who had been living in a tiny cage in my house for waaay too long.  After a trip to the Farm King, where we ran into my cousin, (who goes to school at the university out here) my dad fixed the broken kitchen light and replaced the outdated shades on the ceiling fan.  He also cleaned the filter to my furnace, ripped up the last fragment of shag carpet in the house and showed me a faster way to pull out those pesky carpet staples.

On Sunday morning, my dad and I watched some Sheep TV from the adirondack chairs under the ginkgo tree while my dad sipped his morning coffee and I ate some chocolate chip cookies my mom sent with my dad.  Joey was working at the fire department's fundraiser breakfast so we met him up at the American Legion to enjoy some hot pancakes.  Then we rolled down the windows in my car and went for a Sunday drive down gravel roads and out to the lake that supplies our city water.  My dad left for home after he and Joey rigged up an interesting way to move a tractor that doesn't run into our garage using some chains, a wooden plank, and the John Deere A.

When I was little, I thought my dad could build anything and fix anything.  And I still think so, today.  It was great to spend time by his side this weekend, working together to figure out what was wrong with the wiring for the hallway lights, fixing the kitchen light and taking apart the dryer to find out why it wasn't working.  My sister and I were raised to run steam engines, picked up from school in a Model-T Ford, and carried our own packs on Boundary Water canoe trips.  My dad has always treated us as if we are capable of doing anything, even activities and hobbies that are often considered "boy" things.  And now that I am a homeowner, I am so excited that I can share my new interest in home repair and maintenance with my dad.  Before, I never really thought about how lights were wired or the insides of my furnace or dryer.  I am really excited to be working on my own house, and proud of the fact that I own my own home.  I am happy to learn from my dad and I hope that he is proud of the work that I am doing.  I can't wait until we can work together again.

Dancing with my dad at my wedding


After a weekend of getting work done, Joey and I were ready to relax late Sunday afternoon.  There was a beautiful breeze, all of our animals were happy and fed, and our kitchen light worked again, so we laid a quilt on the lawn under the ginkgo tree and took a nap.  I laid on the quilt, with my head on a pillow, watching the clouds and hoping for rain, and thought about how wonderful it felt to see the sky, and feel the breeze bristle the hair on my arms and the scratchiness of the dry grass on my toes, and listen to the soundtrack of our new life in the country: crickets, birds, roosters, sheep baaas and the occasional cow moo.

The ginkgo and the calf

 

Comments