Charlotte Goes To Kindergarten

This past week was a great one for Charlotte and a hectic one for her family. Tim and Andi took her to meet the teacher (or is it creature?) during a half hour time slot one day. Next came a half class visit followed by a session with the full class. In the remaining days, she went full time and loved the whole thing. In fact, on one of the first half days she came home and asked her Mum why they couldn't be full days. "Is that all there is?", she asked, or words to that effect. Reminds me of the first kindergarten day of someone else in our family. (I won't mention his name otherwise Ben might be unhappy). He came home at the end of his first day in KGTN. When asked how things had gone he replied, "O fine, but I'm not going back tomorrow" When we asked why not he said, "You told me I would learn to read when I went to school and I didn't!"
Charlotte had a great time. We look forward to supporting her in this new phase of her life. Love to all you out there who read this.

Driveway repair-Friday-Sept. 04-2009

Removing the concrete and asphalt.
Today we began work repairing the driveway to our house. Reason for repair...roots from adjacent trees had lifted sections of the concrete and asphalt. Ben brought over his tractor, Tim appeared with his buddy Wayne and I gave a hand too. We began work at 08.30 and by 11.30 we had lifted all the concrete and asphalt. We created a large pile outside the house and on the roadside. Next came the removal of the roots, some of which were as thick as my upper leg and taller than me. In the afternoon we ordered some gravel as a base which was trucked in and spread using Ben's tractor. When that was done, we ordered another load of blue chip gravel to go on top of the first roadway gravel. It packs down more and will firm up the top surface. We spread that too with the tractor. Now all that remains to be done is to remove the waste. Here are some pictures of the process.

 

Preparing the drive

Some of the roots

Size of roots compared to garden gnome

Cleared drive awaiting gravel

Top load of gravel to be spread

Cheerleaders: Oliver in Grandma's jacket, and Erica, Wayne's daughter