Once again, some of the family were able to get together for a Labor Day celebration. We enjoyed great weather and even better food. We all agreed to put down the hammers and take the day off.

Kern and Matthew brought along a new toy and had some fun and laughs. It was definitely "rocket science".

Installing wall coverings in the stairwell required much skill and nerves of steel.

Eating well has become a tradition at the Grasshopper Ranch.

With Fall just around the corner, we enjoyed the occassional walk and captured a bit of nature on film.

Fall colors came suddenly. We enjoyed a blast of color over just a couple of weekends before the snow started.

Harlene took lots of time to select the right pieces of wood flooring to make the strips match.

Providing food and water for the birds occasionally pays off. This Indigo Bunting was a rare visitor.

After much debate, we believe this to be a female Rose-Breasted Grosbeak.

In the Spring I thought that it would be a fun prank to scatter sunflower seeds, hoping that they would sprout randomly around our property and on our neighbors. The joke was on me, however. The only one that sprouted was this one that came from bird seed scavanged by a resident squirrel.

We were greeted with a great snowfall prior to our visit after Christmas. This morning the frost was heavy on the hardwood trees and about 14 inches of snow on the ground.

During the Christmas break we worked on the stone behind the fireplace. This has become the most tedious task of all the projects that we have undertaken. Selecting the odd sized stones and placing them in a way that makes them fit together tightly has taken many hours. The look we were working toward is called "dry stack" ledgestone. Dry stack means none of the mortar joints will show. When this picture was taken, we had spent over 4 full days working on the project. We need to purchase more stone and should be able to finish over the next weekend.