Tending Our Other Garden (Friday, Sept. 17)

We spent last night at Leahaven so we could get some work done today.  A family with young children is arriving tomorrow for a week, and we want to be sure they can safely and easily walk around and get out to the lake.  Also, we're bringing the college students from church out next Sunday for a cookout, so we wanted things to be nice for them out at the lake.  It's not a hardship spending the night so you can work when you wake up to a morning like this out the back door . . .

. . . and like this out the front door!

After breakfast, I hung fresh-washed rugs on the clothesline while Herb mowed the lawn (using the push mower).

Next, I tackled the bush-hogging.  It had been quite awhile since we bush-hogged the road, so there was a lot to do.  It takes one pass out and one pass back to clear a nice wide strip so people can see to drive from the gate out to the lake, on beyond the far end of the lake, and up to the "campground" field above the lake.  This is before . . .

. . . and this is after.  I bush-hogged all around the grove of trees near the cabin (at right) as well as right down to the water's edge on both sides of the cabin and around the little peninsula to the right of the cabin.  That way it's easy to get canoe and kayaks into and out of the water.

While I was bush-hogging, Herb was busy working on the inside of the cabin.  He had paneling to put up, but first he had to add studs since Tony had quite random ideas about spacing his studs when he framed the cabin!  Since there's no electricity, Herb had to make trips back to the house to cut a piece of paneling, then come back to nail it up and measure for the next piece.  It's not finished because he ran out of paneling, but he swept everything up, and it looks great for the next couple batches of visitors to enjoy.  (Sorry we didn't have time to get it done for you all, Thompsons!)

When I finished bush-hogging, I went back to clean the house.  One last touch was making the master bed with the new bedspread the Lord provided instead of the mish-mash of throws I was using before.  I found this great "old rose" bedspread in a two-year old LLBean catalog.  When I called to see if they still had it, I found that they do and that  I had almost enough money in LLBean coupons to pay for it--and then a thank-you check arrived from a guest, enough to finish the purchase!  What a joy to see God provide an "extra" blessing--unlooked for and unexpected--for our guests.

As we finished our work and loaded up the truck to head home, I drank in these last views that capture the peaceful ambience of Leahaven.  Wind waving over the long grass in the field . . .

. . . and fall-tinted trees reflected in the lake refresh our spirits after a hard day's work.  May this beautiful corner of God's creation continue to bless His servants who come here to rest.