Birth Of An Ocean

Today Lee Ann and I spent about four hours at the Tower House. I mowed and bagged up trash, and Lee Ann mostly dug in her pond. The previous owners had a little pond in the same place, about three feet in diameter and long defunct. Well, Lee Ann wanted a BIGGER pond - and the more she has worked on it, the bigger it has gotten. Of course it is not nearly ocean sized - that would be an exaggeration - but the Great Lakes are starting to worry a little bit. The pond doesn't look like much now, but the liner is on order and once we get that things will really start to take shape.

Lebanon Garden Tour

On Sunday Lee Ann and I visited several nice gardens on the Lebanon Garden Tour. The weather was just right, not too hot.

Basement Stair Cover - Almost Done

I started this project a couple of weeks ago and am nearly finished. This is a classic old-house basement entrance with external stairwell. Since we bought the house we have been using the old rotting wood cover - not really a door, just a four foot wide panel made out of boards fastened together that we had to lift off and set aside to use the stairs. The panel finally fell apart and even with a tarp draped over it was letting a lot of rainwater into the basement, which forced my hand.

This was a fun project to do and the best part is that I got the lumber for free. Lee Ann brought it back from the barn where they had no use for it. The boards are nice tongue and groove material. One more coat of paint and I'm done.

New Barn - Lee Ann's Horse

Here are some photos of Ruler, Lee Ann's horse. Ruler is my idol - he has worked a deal where his "subjects" feed him and wait on him hand and foot, and he needs do nothing in return. Ruler is in something like his fourth month of injury related stall rest. See how instead of the graceful lines you might notice on racehorses, Ruler is built kinda like a truck? That is his draft horse ancestry showing through. He is generally the biggest horse in any group. In fact, I (Scott) suggested his name did not do him justice, and he should be called "Yardstick" at least. That is the sort of obscure wordplay joke I like to make, which causes no end of eye-rolling by my girls.

The last photo shows the main aisle of the barn to which Lee Ann's friend Jill relocated her horse operation a week ago. Jill was renting a horse facility but late last year bought her own place. She and her family have since been hard at work upgrading the barn with added stalls and putting in a riding ring outside, to get the place ready for the fifteen horses now in residence. Our small contribution was to wire in a line of electrical receptacles for the box fans that hang in the new stalls and keep the horses cool in the summer - you can barely see the gray line of the conduit on the highest horizontal board over the stalls on the left side of the picture. I worked on this all day Monday, and then Lee Ann and I finished this project up on Tuesday night.

The Magic Blue Tub

We are ex-vegetable gardeners, having moved last fall to a place with no decent garden space. So early this year I signed us up as members of a local CSA (community supported agriculture) farm called "Goodlife Farm." In exchange for an annual fee, we get a share of what the farm grows delivered to us weekly. Last Friday we got our first delivery, which consisted of various greens, some radishes and onions. It was a big salad week for us. Today we got our second delivery. It was even more of everything we got last time - see picture. Next week we start getting broccoli and peas, and other crops will follow in season. In all, Goodlife grows about 60 different fruits and vegetables.

Last week's share was delivered in a blue plastic storage tub. Now each week we leave the empty tub at our back gate on delivery day and find it later on our back porch, filled again. For this growing season at least, we have NO excuse for not eating a healthier diet.

Annie The Custard Queen

Yesterday (Friday) was the grand opening of Whit's Frozen Custard in downtown Lebanon. Annie worked the 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. shift, waiting on customers and dishing up ice-cream-like custard concoctions and other food items.

Lee Ann and I walked up to Whit's after dinner to visit Annie at work and to provide some quality control on the finished product. Lee Ann had a Buckeye (peanut butter and chocolate) and I went with the Lebanon (all chocolate with brownie bits and nuts). We awarded five stars.

The Whit's space is newly renovated, bright and clean. We liked it except there is very little seating. We sat at the one counter on bar stools along the wall - there are no tables. The grand opening was rather low key, and we were the only customers while we were there. We are hoping that business will pick up as folks discover Whit's, but there is a fair amount of competition in town (including a sit-down ice cream parlor only a few doors down) so time will tell.

News On All Fronts

Here is a wrapup of recent McAlpine family news.

• Annie is out of school and enjoying her summer - but not too much. She is working regular shifts at The Tack Trunk and just got a second job for extra $ at the new Whit's Frozen Custard in downtown Lebanon. Training starts today. Annie has ambitious savings goals, and besides that she wants to spend, spend, spend. And believe it or not, Annie has stacks of schoolwork to do over the summer for her junior year Advanced Placement courses.


• It is the last week at the old barn for the Hunter's Hill folks. Lee Ann and the rest of the crew are working long hours to get things moved and set up at the new barn on Nixon Camp Road by the weekend. The last thing to move will be the horses. Lee Ann has for the last several months owned a staggering three horses, but a few days ago closed the sale of one of them. That was Chocolate, a young draft-paint horse. [Editorial comment - the only thing in life more joyous than buying a new horse is being able to sell it later and put the money back in the bank!] Lee Ann had a close call on another of her horses, Caffie, a couple of weeks ago but the buyer returned her so she is still for sale. That was a blessing in disguise, as it turns out. As #1 horse Ruler's convalescence (due to a suspensory injury) stretches into the future, at least Lee Ann has Caffie to ride.


• Compared to the others, I (Scott) am slacking big time. Monday (yesterday) was my first off-day occasioned by my move to a four day work schedule. I spent the long weekend working on house projects (plumbing at the Tower House, outside basement stairway at East Main), running errands, and goofing off just a little. Mowing season has hit its stride, so part of every weekend I am cutting grass at one house or another. On Sunday morning Lee Ann and I went to Lawrenceburg, Indiana for the big monthly antique show at the fairgrounds there. We picked up some old-house hardware for various present and future projects (see photo - this is what $48 buys you), and Annie got a horse clipper.