Black Squirrel and Blackouts

SO, it's been a crazy last few weeks... we have had a lot of things and nothing going all at the same time. however, one small bit of excitement is the random black squirrel we have found living in our neighborhood. Naomi saw it first, and I didn't really believe her, but I finally saw it. I have a picture, so i'll upload it as soon as I remember to download it...

anyways. back to life in latonia. Hurricane Ike came through the Cincinnati area, leaving somewhere around 750,000 people without power, some even for weeks. luckily, we escaped with power all week, and we were the only ones in the local portion of our family who retained power. the only real damage we sustained was that a few of our catalpa tree branches came down, luckily missing everything of value to us!

so, in conclusion, everything here is pretty normal. life goes on.

edit: here's the photo!

Saving the Earth:)

We can now wash and dry our clothes at home!!! The washer and dryer that came with the house work just fine. My dad was able to connect the plumbing for the washer, so we thought we were set. However, my dad was not able to connect the washer to the drain. So, we spent about some time at Lowe's yesterday trying to think of an alternative to the drain. And now, we're saving the earth and cleaning our clothes at the same time!

We purchased a large trash can to drain the water from the washer. Then we put a sump pump in the can, connected a garden hose, and VOILA-- we're draining the washer and watering the lawn!

While we're excited about that, we are also pumped about our new 75' clothesline. I'm happy as a clam! :)