Sunday thankfulness

     This is the end of a full week of work.  We await the arrival this afternoon of cousins driving from Georgia to Pennsylvania and look forward to an evening of visiting and reuniting with them.
     The property looks great, it is all mowed, weeded, weed whacked and trimmed.  The house is clean, truly clean for the first time in over a year now that all construction is done.  The year has brought the erection of the stone masonry fireplace continued into the basement, the installation of tile for a hearth in the basement and tile in the breezeway/laundry room, new cabinets and sink in the laundry room, log and flat wood siding in the basement with an additional bedroom added, bamboo flooring in the basement and shelving in the root cellar for the bounty of the garden, cedar siding down the stairs to the newly finished rec room in the basement.
     This year also brought electric fence around the garden to deter the deer, rearrangment of the garden to give us protected, permanent beds for berries and grapes, for the bounty that garden has provided, for the time and knowledge to can and freeze its bounty for the winter.  New ballusters on the back deck and a thorough cleaning and restaining of it.  It has also allowed the cleanout of much litter from the sinkhole and creek on our property, many decades of appliances, glass, tires, and cans left by others before we bought the land almost 7 years ago.
     We enter the fall with sore muscles, happy to be able to still do this kind of work.  Thankful that we have neighbors who will help, for a son who has the skills to do the masonery and carpentry during the summers between his high education.
     We end this season thankful that we have three beautiful children with spouses/partners that have 5 delightful children between them and that they share those children with us, sometimes for a day here or there, sometimes for an entire month of grandgoodness.
     Life is good.