House O' Sullivans

A few scenes from this week at the Sullivan's: On Wednesday night I went to teach a student for a couple of hours and came home to this amazing driveway development: Sophie, Hallee, and Zeke pulled out a bunch of scrap wood and other sundry garage junk and built what they called an "amusement park."  They were so thoroughly engaged in their work and happily demonstrated the features of each "ride" to me when I arrived on the scene.  I tried a few out and "WOW" is all I have to say.  Lots of teeter-toters, balance beams, and log rolls in the mix.   Notice the wire baskets, carefully affixed to the chain-link fence.  Genius! Casey and I re-purposed some wood that he scrounged recently near his office and created three giant grow boxes for the west side of our driveway.  After removing a bit of turf, we filled the boxes with rich organic material (including our very own compost and chicken poop and some composted horse manur...

Last weekend I went on a short backpacking trip with Sarah and Carlynn--long time friends who love to get out and fire it up.  We set up our tent in the saddle on the only hospitable spot (after a bit of rock removal with the "orange trowel") and then hiked our dinner to the top of Grandeur Peak, overlooking the Salt Lake Valley.  Sarah just landed a teaching position at a university in Wisconsin, so we celebrated with Martinelli's and banana splits--made from Nielson's frozen custard--of course.  So much fun!