One Week

We started working digging out the dirt between the house and garage last Sunday. We started by using a mini backhoe but the machine could not reach the whole way that needed to be dug out. We still had to dig out about a 5 foot section down six feet by hand. On Wed Lorne came out and started digging with a spade. He made it down about 4 feet the whole five foot section before he left for the day. Jay went out after supper and the next moring and finished digging out the last couple of feet. On Sat we scraped down the walls with a wire brush to get it ready for the water proof membrane. By the end of Sun we had the hole filled back up again almost to the end. We used wheelbarrow and shovels to fill the hole back in. Lorne and Ken came up to help on Sun with this job.

Pushing It

Once dug out all the dirt we had to come up with a way to push the walls back out so they were straight and we could brace them. Duane came up with the idea of using a jack all and some 4x4's. It was not the safest set up but it worked really well.

Here are a couple of before and after pics of the walls. the pic on bottom right has a yellow rope on the ground to show where the 4x4's were sitting from the before pic.

Digging up Dirt

Jay started to dig out the dirt with a little backhoe, on the left, it wasn't doing the job so he took it back and got the next size up. It worked better but he could not get down as far as he needed to and it as taking a long time, at the rate he was going it would take him several days to get it done. These pic are what he got done before we called in a full size backhoe.

The boys had fun watching the backhoe digging up the dirt along the back of the house. They were not to sure what to think when they could feel the house shake every once and a while.

It got a little stressful when the backhoe was digging around the gas line with the big tree branch underneath it. I am so glad everything turned out ok. The one tree branch was as big as Jay's arm and it pushed up against the house for several feet ( the same place that the 2x6's were broken on the inside)

What we found

Once we got rid of all the water, we had to start the clean up. We had to rip up all the carpet (that we just put down the year before) and the flooring in Embers room. We tore down the dry wall and found that the insulation was wet for about 4 feet up the wall. Behind the drywall we were able to see what kind of shape our walls were in. we found out it was worse than we thought and knew we had a lot of work a head of us.

The top pic is part of the north wall. The previous owners had built a second wall over top of the 4x4 's. Some of the broken 2x6 's were pushing up against the 4x4's ( it didn't show up very well in my other pics) The second pic is part of the west wall. The south wall also had some 2x6's that were broken but not as bad as these ones. In order to fix the walls we have to dig all the dirt from around the three walls, so we can take some of the pressure off of the walls in order to straighten them out. once we get them straighten we are adding more braces in. The walls were built with 2x6 every 16 inches. We are adding a 2x6 on each side of the 2x6 that are all ready there.

The Start of it all

In June our basement was flooded. I used the shop vac and haul out over a 100 gallons of water out of Embers room and the storage room before Jay brought home a pump. We took a day or two pump out the water. Here are a couple of pics of the water in the basement.

It has been a while

Things have been busy around here lately, but I guess that is not new. We have been busy with work and then trying to fix the house up. I will be posting pics of what is going on with the house, a lot of changes.

New Hat

Zane was getting tired of sitting in the van with nothing to do. He desided he needed a new hat.

Public Speaking

Each 4H member has to do public speaking at the club level but they have the option to compete if they want. Ember thought it might be fun to compete this year, so she wrote a speach and has been practicing a lot. Last night she had to compete aganist the other 4H members in rouleau, to see who would best repesent the 4H club at the next level of competition. Ember's practicing paid off and she was chosen to go the second round, on March 7. Ember went to the second round and she did a very good job but she placed 4th out of six. I am so proud of her for getting up and talking infront of fifty people. She is already thinking of what she might want to talk about next year.

Hurt

Zane had a rash on his belly and it was bothering him. He said his belly hurt and I tried to put some cream on it but it still did not feel much better. He went and played for a little bit, and then he came back to tell me that his belly didn't hurt anymore, and then he lifted his shirt to show me that the band aids made it feel better. (9 band aids in total)

First Tournament

Zander had his first hockey tournament last weekend. There were a total of six teams and Zander played three games. It was a long day, but it went very well. Zander did very well, and manged playing all the games with out getting to tired. Thier team lost all of thier games, but none of the kids were upset, everyone just had fun playing the game. Zander was so excited when he got a medal at the end of the day.

Four

We went down to Weyburn and had a party for Zane. It was on the same day as Uncle Ken's birthday so they shared the day.

Zane was so happy that he got more hot wheels and tracks for them. He also got a game and some clothes. He had a fun day. We also had a little party on his actual birthday.

Fun in the Snow

Jay and the kids spent a couple of hours at a small hill in Weyburn just down the street from Mom and Dad's. Zander doesn't like the speed so he didn't like to start at the top of the hill, he would just go half way up. The other two kids love the speed and would love to go to a bigger hill. Jay even went down a couple times, he didn't think things thru all the way when he went down on his stomach, there was a large bump at the bottom that took his breath away.

Christmas

We had a good christmas this year. Here are a few pics of our day.

Santa brought us a lot of goodies but he left a mess behind. You can't really tell in the photo but there were foot prints on my carpet.

Jay opening his GPS, the kids thought it was a funny, but usefull gift because Jay always gets lost.

The kids got too much stuff this year, they are spoiled. Everyone got wii games plus other things. Ember got webkinz, board games, clothes, bendaroos, and pixos. Zander got bakugan toys, webkinz, board games, and pixos. Zane got hot wheels, Deigo toys, games, movies. I know they got more but that is all I can remember right now.

First hockey game

Zander played his first hockey game of the season on Sat. He was very excited about playing an actual game but I think as it got closer to game time he started to get a little nervous. He as only had six practices. The first practice he could stand up on his skates but could only shuffle his feet a little bit and if he fell down he could not get back up on his own. He can now skate from one end of the rink to the other, starting to turn a little better and can get up on his own.

He did great in his game. The game as two 30 min periods, and each set of kids were on the ice for 3 minutes at a time. The players got to rotate positions. Zander was happy that he got to be center for the first puck drop of the game. He also wanted to play in goal, and he got the chance for that too, and he was able to stop a puck. I think he let one in too but he stopped one and that made him happy.

They lost their first game but Zander had fun, and that is what matters. There next game is next Sat.