Summer Sequester and Celebration in 2009

I came back from this trip in June with a cold I got from my granddaughter. This turned into bronchitis and I was sick for most of the summer

Our house in the summer. Maple tree on the left and window A/C

Starting in August, we put in a geothermal furnace. When we moved here in December 1973, we had the original furnace - central heat had been installed around WWII. The furnace was working pretty well and we had an attic fan to cool the house in the summer. But I thought we should replace the furnace in the summer when we were not using it, and that a geothermal unit was the way to go.

So we got estimates and on 4 August, they started digging the thermal wells.

Bob watching the trenching

They dug the trench right across the driveway

Trench

so we were isolated in the house. They put in five wells starting in the front yard, and across the driveway to the back of the house

Well diggers

Machinery to put in the wells

Threading the hose into the wells

Controls for the new furnace

Left old furnace that burned oil. Right new geothermal heat pump

Left - old water heater that was here in 1973. Right - new geothermal water heater

Filling in the trenches

Driveway after the geothermal people got finished

After the furnace was installed, Bob had the big maple by the front porch taken out - he was afraid it would topple onto the house in a hurricane.

Tree man in the bucket truck

Maple

Cutting up the maple tree

Cutting off the stump

We bought a native magnolia called a Sweet Bay to replace it

Sweet bay

and had the yard landscaped. (i.e. re-graveled the driveway and laid sod)

New driveway from my bedroom window

Progress - Left - house with maple tree and A/C. Middle Maple tree and A/C gone, Right - after landscaping

We didn't use the boat at all this year and we hauled it on 5 October.

Barnacles on the prop because we haven't used it

Our 50th wedding anniversary was in June, but the children got together to give us a party and they decided to have the party at the time of the Oyster Festival which is the 3rd week in October. My oldest daughter told me:

It was a group effort. E organized the food. I found the
place and did the invites. B did the pictures. Rob showed up

Our daughter E and her youngest child came as the advance woman. While she was here, we went to the Solomons Maritime Museum,

E, our granddaughter and Bob walking in

Finding a shark's tooth

Dressing up as a colonial child

Watching the fish

and we drove down to St. Mary's City. Before we went to St. Mary's City, we drove into Glen Mary Farms where she had kept her horse

And we went by the house of the scarecrow man. Each week the scene in the garden changed - sometimes the scarecrow was working with a horse - on this day he is using a saw horse to cut wood for the fireplace

Scarecrow

When we got to St. Mary's City, we went to the museum, and then up to the reconstructed Great Chapel

Great Chapel

Photo on display of finding the lead coffin

Walking with the re-enactor

Tobacco flowers

Drying tobacco

Re-enactor in the garden

At the Oyster Festival I found that I could not walk across the fairgrounds without stopping and sitting down to catch my breath twice. This was a concern.

Afterward, we had snacks and cake at Corbels.

Our daughter B had made a slide show of the photos of the last 50 years, and my sister gave a speech.

My sister in front of the slide show screen

And of course we took group photos. The only one missing was one grandson who could not get off work.

Unfortunately, my sister who took the photo had her finger over the sensor so most of the photos are out of focus

I went to a cardiologist who said there was nothing wrong with my heart. The lung doctor said I had only 85% aelvolar function so I started going to pulmonary rehab.

Our next trip was January 2010 - a Celebrity cruise out of Baltimore.
Then in June I took my next oldest grandson to Yellowstone and Hawaii

The next trip was our cruise to Alaska