Ground Level Trampoline

When we purchased our new home back in October we knew we wanted to put our trampoline at ground level. We didn't know how...but some how we were going to have our trampoline in the ground. When moved in and started looking at the ground and getting used to the size and shape of things in our yard we were even more excited because we were looking at a yard that was bigger than we anticipated and thus gave us room for the trampoline and room to move. It was nice. Then warmer weather hit.

Our backyard is not finished and so basically it's just a leveled and graded dirt yard. On first observation we thought "this will be easy". On first attempt to push a shovel into the ground though our thoughts changed to "this is going to be work". We spent one weekend digging and digging. We dug a hole roughly two and half feet deep and six to seven feet wide. Not bad...except for the aching backs and the overwhelmed feeling of defeat. The following week we pulled out the big guns...pick axes. Yup that helped expand that hole about two feet wider and six inches deeper. Not what you would call progress. So then came the next big weekend with nice weather. We pulled out the pick axes and got to work...it wasn't thirty minutes later that we 

One of the volunteers

called Sun Rental to get a backhoe. Now the production went into overdrive (is that getting archaic? not sure if people even know what overdrive is...I'm not even sure I know what overdrive is). After riding the backhoe across our front yard (I hope we didn't break any sprinkler pipes) and getting the hang of the controls I was able to accomplish in 5 minutes what took us 5 hours to accomplish previously. We had the backhoe for "half a day" which basically meant 4-5 hours of running time. We only needed 2 hours to accomplish our goal of getting the tramp in the ground.

The bonus...my back wasn't aching and I got to play with a really big Tonka Toy. But our story doesn't end quite yet.  You see our trampoline is a perfect circle...unfortunately the hole was not. This means that there were places with little gap and other places with HUGE gaps between the edge of the tramp and "level" ground. So we knew we had more work. We had to find an effective way of backfilling without undoing all of our work. The weather, fortunately, turned cool giving us time to contemplate the best way to accomplish our backfill project. We thought of using palates and even found six of them that we could use to create a sort of wall to push the dirt against without it filling in our hole. This seemed like a good idea until we found the palates to be too big or too small or ultimately less useful. So we contemplated investing a little money into the project (aside from the very reasonable fee for the backhoe) and buy some lumber to rig up against the legs of the tramp to create our wall. We were ready to purchase a couple sheets of plywood and just attach or lean them up against the legs. It would have been reasonable but a new alternative came to the rescue. Karen's dad was getting ready to remove the wood from his cargo trailer and suggested that we could use it for our tramp. He in all of his generosity and general awesomeness not only removed the lumber and delivered it, he also cut it to size, and then attached the lumber with brackets to the legs using his own tools on his own time (which is really saying a lot since he's an electrical contractor). So now we had free lumber, and labor to help us get the job done. Unfortunately the lumber from his trailer didn't quite cover the whole job so we went and got the last little bit that was needed. Again Karen's dad helped cut, and attach it to the legs. Our project was making progress again just in time for some good weather, we hoped.

Friday night we were planning our Saturday activities and looked out the window to see rain. It seemed our backfill operation was a bust. Thankfully when we woke up we found that the sun was out and the clouds had dropped their fill rather quickly over night giving it some time with the wind to dry up a little. Karen went to an appointment first thing in the morning and I started digging. The kids had lovingly named each of the mounds that surrounded the trampoline and when they saw me cutting away at Pop-Tart Mountain and Lego Mountain they were a little put out but they joined in and started helping me move rocks, boulders, and dirt into the gaps around the tramp. This is when the aching back came back into the project. I moved a 200-300 lbs. boulder half way across our yard to fill in one of the gaps and another one of nearly the same size about half that distance. It was a good work out. By the time Karen returned from her appointment I had done about a third of the total work already. When she got back the work really started. We had about three quarters of the back fill done by 11:00 a.m. and we were ready for a break. We went to Costco to get a new wheel barrow so we could move dirt from Pop-Tart Mountain to Hot Wheel Valley without all the back strain. By 2:30 we had what you see in the following pictures. Leave your comments below.

After The Leaves Fall by Nicole Baart

So Facebook is one of those things that is a huge time suck and rarely gives as much back as you give to it...and then sometimes you find something worthwhile among the complaining and birthday wishes of your 300 closest friends. This book was one of those things. On a tip from Glenn Beck I checked out this free Kindle book. I was skeptical since it wasn't a political book. But the last book I read that he suggested was good (Atlas Shrugged) so I thought 'for free I'll give it a shot'. I was not disappointed.
Julie, the main character, has to be fashioned after someone because there is no way in this world that a story like this could be a purely fictional tale. Tragedy is the beginning middle and end of this girls life. From the formative pre-teen years when her mother left to the devastating early teen years when her father died of cancer this girls life is anything but peaches and cream.  Beyond the storyline (which could be summed up rather quickly and would be one giant spoiler) the writing is mature and almost over the top descriptive.  Across the entire text I can find unique descriptions of seemingly everyday occurrences. The language feels like Leaves of Grass meets As I Lay Dying and the same tones and voice seems to come through in a very feminine way. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the writing event though the content of the book isn't my typical genre I was enthralled by the wonderful imagery and the overwhelming tragedy of Julia's life. In parts the writing seems nostalgic but in a present tense sort of way almost as though the story is being written years after the events took place with the knowledge of the outcome and yet unflinching in the way it describes the events in present tense. You experience it through a lens of right now but in a way that keeps you guessing about the narrators (Julia) relationship to the timeline of the story. Has Julia grown up and is just telling the story from an incredibly accurate memory or is this a travel log that grows with each new struggle? It's a great way to experience a story like this.
I would recommend this book to the same type of people who would be reading all the books on Oprah's list (for all I know this is on her list). The end of the book is a cliff hanger...just so you know this is the first book in a series and the end is natural but very much incomplete leaving you eager to finish Julia's story.

Twilight Saga: Review of "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner".

So I'd be embarrassed to admit that I've read the entire Twilight Series except that I'm not. I'm not going to do a review of the series as a whole or individual books. I am, however, going to review a tangential book that I think really has more merit, in some ways, than the original series.
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is a novella based on a character from Eclipse who has a mere page or two of mention. The book based on this short lived character is arguably the best written of the series. Bree as a character is perhaps more well written in the less than 200 pages than any of the other characters in the entire series. First of all I'm going to ignore any argument that Stephanie Meyer is a horrible writer. Any writer who sparks interest in reading for adolescents and adults alike is not a horrible writer. Second I'm going to avoid making this post about comparing Bella and Bree. I'll be happy to compare the quality of the novella to the novels but not the qualities of the characters.
Bree tanner is such an enigma in this story that I can't help but be drawn to her. The story of her "second birth" is bathed in mystery and why she was chosen by Riley is anything but clear. Furthermore the absence of her first life from the story makes her all the more intriguing. Details concerning why she was in the wrong place at the wrong time are so short that it actually makes it more interesting. Her attraction to Diego was so quick and based on so little that it was more like an actual teen trying to describe their experience. This contrasts to Bella's descriptions so completely that it actually feels more real.
Another thing that I enjoyed was the story of Frank. Perhaps the most important character in this book is also the most enigmatic. In fact if there is a cottage industry of fan-fiction Frank should be an extremely important part of that culture. As a character he is almost non-existent which is exactly as he would have it...yet his importance in the grand scheme of things is pronounced and the potential for another tangential line of stories with him as lead are obvious.
The creation of Bree and Frank and to a lesser extent Diego are proof, in my mind, that Stephanie Meyer is talented and has more writing in her than just teen-drama. If you haven't read the Twilight Saga don't read this until you do and it will be the sweetest part of the entire saga.