The Bucket Brigade of One...or, Joshua comes to help his Pop

 First of all, look how pretty these flowers look around the tree!

 My guy was out in the backyard looking at all the projects needing to be done.

 Someone was pointing out all that she could find that needed fixing!

 One project was trimming this tree so it wasn't hitting the house.

Squirrels, Baxter's enemies, could climb the tree and hop on the house.

 Joshua hit the roof and trimmed the tree.

 See this critter?  It's a Japanese Beetle and they have been horrible in Colorado this year.

 We have quite a few hibiscus plants...and those beetles love them.

Here's one without a beetle!

Along with those red flowers around the tree, some marigolds are mixed in.

 Joshua made his way around to the roof in front of the house.

 He was checking out all the leaves in the gutters.

 He and his pop had a plan...

Thus, the beginning of the Bucket Brigade...

first they raised the hose up to the roof.

 Joshua was attacking the leaves...

 It was making a terrible mess on the ground below...

 So the bucket was raised...

From there, Joshua put the majority of the leaves in the bucket...lowered it...

his Pop emptied the leaves...the bucket went back up...

and this went on until we had clean gutters!

 Remember that tree Joshua trimmed from the roof?
Here they are getting rid of the branches.

Joshua...he is such a tremendous help to us!  Thank you SO much!

Joshua tackles the garage

 Ron and Erica were both in California, so Joshua came here for Labor Day weekend.

We spent most of one day thinking about what to do with part of the garage and going to Home Depot and Lowe's to look at what we could get to organize the MESS.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of this before we (mostly Joshua) started.

 He got a track system from Craftsmen.

 This was the first track he put up...and tested it by hanging a ladder.

 Look at this!  Ron's garage has never been so organized!  Some of this will not be here when the other side is done...and there's still more ideas of what to do on this side.

Mom came over and sat in the garage and watched Joshua work.  Becky came to see it and she'd love the same thing in their garage.  Mom said she could tell them how to do it because she knew exactly how since she'd watched Joshua!  

You're amazing, Joshua...

Thank you SO much!

Joshua...what would we do without him?

 Erica was out of town, so Joshua came to visit on Saturday.  There's always projects

to do.  This weekend, among other things, he put together these shelves and attempted to help his dad get a jump on organizing the garage.

 They had a good start!

 This might have you wondering.

Well, we have a problem with Yellow Jackets.  They started coming out of that crack in the patio.

Ron has tried multiple different things to get rid of them.  No luck.

 Joshua had told us not to worry...he'd take care of them.

Well, when Joshua got here, they attempted a couple of things...no luck.

Then they got this stuff that expands and seals the cracks.  You can see a little of that white in the

left side of the picture.  Well, the next day, the little critters had eaten a little hole, we think, through the white...so now the duct tape came out.

The attempt is to not let them be able to get in or out of the nest...and hopefully it'll die.  It's defiitely better...but still a few around.  

In our family room, the TV is off to the side of the room.  Joshua found a mount that lets us extend the TV out...it came...and he came back yesterday and installed it.

I don't think there's much he can't do!  You're amazing, Joshua!

Joshua

 My mom once said, 'Everybody needs a Joshua."  

She's absolutely correct.

 We are loving living in Colorado for many reasons.

#1 reason is family.

Joshua lives about 40 minutes away and we see him on the average at least once a week.  I absolutely love it...I love HIM.  He has always been a project guy...and with our new home, he seems to enjoy coming over and working on projects.   These pictures were taken April 6 & 7.  Ron was in California working...and Joshua was here working!

 He was working on the lights that shine up on the house.

 He got them all working.

 This I love.

Joshua's truck and my mom's car in the driveway.

They were both here.

 Mom lives 3 miles from me.

It's a little piece of heaven to have her so close.

 Another project:

we wanted to open the shades that are so high.  Joshua did it.

We  need to get some that we can control with a remote, but for now, we'll just keep them open.

Another project:

I had ordered a table and chairs for the patio.

The table had come...and guess who put it together? 

Yep, my Joshua.

To have family here...to have them close...to have them in our home...

I love it so much!