08 July 2008 – Tuesday
As usual I spent the morning working on the yard. Each day I find more to do, more to clean, more to prune, more to weed. Today was spent mainly on the North hill – major work that took hours but when I was done it looked really good. At least Mary can see what I have been doing.
When I get really tired I take a break and read under the oaks. It is so peaceful and quiet. It is like I have a private park with only the sound of the water feature breaking the stillness. Birds fly in and out of view. If the wind comes up some of the bells and wind chimes can be heard.
I spend one of my breaks reading from the SS lesson from Alma. I have not been spending any time reading the scriptures and that is not good. Hopefully I will make time each day for doing this. Another break is used doing some things for the HP group.
One thing happened that I count as a blessing. I got a call from a man who manages some of the apartments near ours on 7th. He called to say he had mowed our lawns and done some clean-up. I asked him if he was interested in managing our apartments when we go on a mission and he said he was. He thinks we can get about $700 per apartment plus utilities if we rent to couples. If we could do that, even if I pay him 10% for managing and taking care of problems, we will do better than we have over the last three years. It would be great to get this worry off our minds while we are away. We will meet with him on Thursday and walk through the apartments.
Since I work on the yard all morning and part of the afternoon, I have not been taking my bath until about 3:00. This makes for a rather strange day but it works for me.
Mary spent much of the day getting things ready so we can do our taxes and doing some genealogical indexing. She fixed a great dinner – eggs, bacon, biscuits, and gravy which we eat outside. After dinner I head for Lowe’s to get the things I need to work on the sprinkler system. For once I can get everything I need in one trip – I hope.
We watch some TV together – it is great to have TIVO again. We get to watch three shows in two hours or so. Now I am working on this journal – I am behind, while Mary is doing our last report for the ERS Jakarta. Next month it will be up to the Rebers to get it done.