Happy Birthday Austin!!!!!!!

I would like to start by wishing my favorite nephew a Happy 8th Birthday! He’s a great guy who I wish had been with us earlier this week to dig holes.

So, let’s talk about my summer camp at the lake this past Sunday to Wednesday. I had a great time. I was there with Sonny, Dad, Jim & Deeny (who, if I’m right about this, are my 2nd cousins), and Mary Beth (Jim & Deeny’s daughter... which I think would make her my 3rd cousin). Others were also there for some of the time, but these were the people there the whole time I was there. So what did we do? Drank beer and played in the pool, lake, and game room for about 99% of the time and worked for 1%. God, I wish that were true. What we really did was work. You know movies showing guys in prison down in Georgia working on a chain gang out in the heat doing “hard time”? That was us. Just without the chains. We had some big projects on our plate and had anyone asked me before hand I would have told them there is no way we would get even one of them done. I’m not 100% sure, but I think we got all of them done. Our list included: moving the fence, repairing the dock, finding the leak in the pool (and then stopping it), cutting the front yard (fyi... it ain’t as small as my front yard), replacing the propeller on the boat, and numerous other smaller projects.

Let’s start with moving the fence (this took about 2 days). This required us to dig holes (for the posts of the fence... try to keep up). If you have a paved driveway, I want you to go out there with a post hole digger (make sure the blades are dull) and then dig about 10 holes. Oh, make sure you are out there in the middle of a sunny day. That’s about what it was like for us. We approached it like a hockey team with almost constant line changes. We then had to pour redi-mix concrete into the holes (which involved lifting an 80 pound bag of concrete, pouring it into the hole, pouring water in there, and mixing it... with the post in there... while making sure everything was level... a step I didn’t exactly agree with, but I wasn’t in charge of this worksite). It was this job that made me re-think my views on illegal immigration. We at I’m just sayin... are now in favor of leaving our boarder with Mexico unguarded (as long as the people crossing over are willing to dig holes in the hard Georgia clay).

The next job (and perhaps the most important) was finding the leak in the pool. This took about 3 days. I have a new understanding of what BP is going through. The good news here is Jim was absolutely, without a doubt, 100% sure of where the leak was. The bad news is we had to cut through the concrete deck around the pool, dig down through the clay making sure we didn’t hit the pipes down there (which wasn’t great, but not as bad as the clay where the fence was going) and find/repair the leak. The worse news is the leak wasn’t there. The good news here is Jim was now absolutely, without a doubt, 100% sure of where the leak was. The bad news is we had to cut through the concrete deck around the pool, dig down through the clay making sure we didn’t hit the pipes down there (which wasn’t great, but again, not as bad as the clay where the fence was going) and find/repair the leak. The worse news is the leak wasn’t there either (which really hurt because we thought we had it that time). The good news here is Jim really was now absolutely, without a doubt, 100% sure of where the leak was. The bad news is we had to cut through the concrete deck around the pool, dig down through the clay making sure we didn’t hit the pipes down there (which still wasn’t great, but still not as bad as the clay where the fence was going) and find/repair the leak. The worse news is the leak wasn’t there either. Now, I wasn’t around for most of the third dig because I had to get back to James Island for a baseball game. From what Sonny told me, the next step was to completely stop up the jets around the pool. This got the job done. I don’t know if this is the long-term solution or just a short-term solution, but I do know it was the only solution that worked.

The dock work (1 day) was the easiest because we had some back-up show up (a couple of 3rd cousins). They knew what they were doing and they did most of the work there (though me and Sonny were still needed).

The front yard (a handful of acres) involved cutting the grass and picking up trash/logs/limbs/large sticks and throwing them in a trash pile. It took about half a day and was only hard because we were tired from the work we’ve done the previous days and it was HOT. Replacing the propeller was also hard only because it was so freaking hot out there.

Overall, it was hard work but at least I got a tan out of it (without getting burnt... which was amazing... yes, Jenn, I did put on sunscreen... SPF 12). Of course, The Wife thinks that it was all fun and games down there.......