On Saturday, June 18, many members of the local Troyer family gathered at the home place to lend a hand with some yard work and home maintenance tasks.
It was time for some more red rock to be laid on the path.
Notice the young man in the white shirt. That is my nephew Chavon, Jean and Kevin's son. He is 10 1/2 years old. You will see that white shirt in so many pictures, working hard at a variety of tasks!
Unfortunately I didn't have my camera handy when Chavon was skipping across the driveway with the weed eater! He was pretty excited about weed eating on the other side of Grandma's driveway!
Look how nice the path is looking! You go, Jean, nudge those rocks into place.
Oh look, there's Chavon sweeping out the trailer, with his dad Kevin.!
Looks like Betsy is doing a little dancing while she works!
And there's my brother Dave, trimming one of the many trees he attacked that day.
Brother Doug working on some drain pipe issues, assisted by my niece Jewel's husband Steve.
My brother Galen, who worked so hard getting the driveway and sidewalks spotless. Much to his dismay, it was not to stay that way for even one day….
My husband Will, attacking the massive (and past its' prime) photinia hedge with his chainsaw.
The hedge is gone, now it's time to pull out the stumps. Stand back, we're not sure what's going to happen….turns out not much. Nothing in fact.
Those stumps don't want to budge until the roots are attacked with some shovels and axes. (Look at Betsy working hard in their with those shovels and axes! And Jean, so great at the moral support!)
Oh look at these cute girls, Karise and Janae, my niece Brianna's daughters. Janae is working on blowing a bubble with her gum, and they're watching the stump pulling action!
Quite a few people end up watching the action! The stumps come out, slowly but surely.
Oh, it looks like Peter also dances while he works!
I check out the action on the other side of the house. Dave has moved on to the two enormous redwoods.
Doug and Steve are making lots of progress.
Anisa is happy to take a turn sitting with Linda, who is very pleased to be a part of it.
Brianna and her children join to continue watching the stump pulling. (Janae is on my chair right there!)
Peter calls the girls to come check out a huge spider with an egg sac…
And then there's Galen, sneaking a donut before it's officially break time!
My niece Jewel made these fantastic donuts earlier that morning. Here she is with her son Victor and Hope's boys Justin and Joel.
Janae and Karise have some serious decision making to do…plain glazed donuts, coconut, chocolate, or chocolate walnut?
Linda thoroughly enjoys her donut, especially in the company of her sweet brother Galen.
I tried to get a picture of everyone with these two shots and sent it to our brother Tom back in Indiana. (Didn't quite get everyone. Oh man, why didn't I turn around and do a selfie with all of them in the background?!)
Tom replied with some regret that he was missing the donuts but he forgot to mention how sad he was to be missing out on the work…
I love to see Linda smile! (I should have done some photo editing, good grief, this pic is so off center, but if I took the time to do that, this would never get done!)
The nephews always seem to like hanging out with Uncle Doug. Maybe it's his droll sense of humor.
Emmie has figured out a great one-handed way to hold on to her donut while she takes a drink!
Doug and Jean have figured out how to look fantastic while eating amazing donuts.
Joel and Justin worked hard all day loading debris in the trailer, hauling it away, unloading, and coming back for more! (And the skies are growing dark…)
I helped too. The rain was starting to come down at about this time.
Shortly after the donut break, the skies lit up with lightening, the thunder rolled, and the rain came down! We found cover!
Can you see Harold (husband of my niece Faith), continuing to work at trimming the tree?
Oh, the rain, it did come down so hard! Oh well, it was nearly time for lunch anyway!
Janae had success with blowing a bubble! So exciting!
While it rained, we ate lunch. Pulled pork and cole slaw, baked beans, and look at all that fresh fruit. not to mention rhubarb custard pie and a berry dessert (not pictured). Oh my. (Thank you to Brianna for helping Mom in the kitchen with this fantastic meal!)
After lunch, the skies were looking so much better. Kevin and Faith are working on the raised bed area.
Jean and I operated a hedge trimmer with great skill and precision.
Oh, look, there's Chavon again, this time with the edger!
The hedge is gone and the bed is all smothed out looking nice, ready for the next phase of its life.
Anisa is helping clean up the tree debris, and Harold seems to have taken over the tree trimming.
Doug and Steve have moved on to another drain pipe issue. (Mom and Jean are striding to the back corner to help me with a massive shrub that I have been expertly trimming.)
This crew, including Faith, Victor, Kevin and Chavon, has redone the edging of a bed under the trees.
Dave has moved on to cleaning the gutters, while Hope's son Brandon offers moral support.
There are always the goof-offs in the crowd, who have to check their social media.
Time for an iced tea break! Oh dear, Galen is fretting a bit about all the muddy footprints on his formerly clean cement. (There were also some amazing homemade cookies of several varieties for snacking.)
Hey, let's have a marshmallow fire with some of the needles from under the redwood trees!
Look who's under the deck, pulling up some blackberries and even some fern starts, which Mom transplanted! Chavon and Brandon crawled under there and did the dirty work!
(See how nice I am Brandon, no one would ever guess you are borrowing Aunt LeAnn's girly pink gardening gloves!)
Doug and Steve get to stand up and stretch their legs, hauling out more redwood needles.
And the boys are loading up the redwood boughs.
Galen is rototilling as we enlarged the front flower bed. Will got to have a turn operating Galen's little rototiller too, and as I knew he would, he remarked how much he would like to have one of those handy little rototillers. Galen assured him he could borrow it any time. Whew, more equipment collection averted.
The edging is replaced and it looks great!
Oh look, Chavon is not all work and no play! The boy knows how to have fun roasting a marshmallow or four!
And some of us don't even have to roast them before eating!
I know I can speak for all of us, my brothers and sisters, in-laws and out-laws, nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephews, when I say that every one of us enjoyed working together, eating together, talking and laughing together as we helped Mom take care of tasks that are just too overwhelming for one person to take on. It was amazing and awesome to see how hard and cheerfully the teenagers worked: Joel,and Justin, Victor and Betsy. Mom works very hard to keep her home always looking well maintained and orderly so you'd never guess that so many tasks needed to be done. She was so grateful, and she managed to stay out of most of my pictures too!
We came home, showered and cleaned up, and soon it was time to head for another family outing, a birthday fire to celebrate my nephew Duane's 22nd birthday in Doug and Anisa's beautiful back yard. I snapped this photo from their patio. What a beautiful day! I cannot even begin to express how grateful I am that God put me in this great big family with all these crazy wonderful people!
