Hello, it's now October 1, and we're still working on the house...and a few brave souls showed up last weekend to get muddy! Nancy (Don's sister) came out to help. Janet Kiley came, even though she had a bloody finger (an accident with a knife) and Lynda stopped by after her soccer game. They worked with trowels to finish a portion of the outside wall...

My friend and co-worker, Julie Zhu and her son Jonathon came to help on the inside walls. They came later in the day with the hopes of using Jonathon's telescope to see the stars...but although we had a perfectly clear day, by nightfall, the clouds had moved in, making star gazing impossible. Besides the help on the wall, they brought Chinese dumplings and some sort of steamed vegetable buns which greatly improved our dinner menu! Thanks Julie and Jonathon!

In other news, Bill the plumber has installed the gas line for our future stove ...

And Keith Gipfert and crew came and installed the two sets of French doors to the...

Work room...

And Living room...

And drumroll... (not the greatest picture...but it's sure a lovely door)...the front door...

We are anxiously awaiting the windows (brrrr...the doors helped but the wind is still blowing in throught the open window bucks!) which are not expected until Oct. 14th...two weeks away...yikes!

And, I just know you were wondering about what's happening this weekend...well, on Friday, we are expecting a group of MSU students who were given the option of working on a selection of worthwhile projects in lieu of taking an exam. We will let you know next week how many students chose to 'get muddy'. Then we're taking Saturday off to cheer on the Spartans to a hoped-for victory over the Wolverines. But rain or shine, we will be there on Sunday, with my famous Southwest Stew planned for a hot and hearty finish to the day. Hope to see you there!

PS. Don has requested that anyone who has access to cattails, gather a few and save them for us...the cattails are opened and the shredded fluff inside is collected and added to the finish coat. It's similar to adding straw to the first and second coat, the fiber helps to strengthen the plaster but the cattail fluff is much more pleasant than straw in a finish coat.