Welcome, Amelia

My name is Amelia Arden Magee. I was born precisely at 11:08 in the morning of June 4, 2011, not a minute too early, not a minute too late, determined to live up to the motto in life I thought up while in Mommy’s womb, which is and shall be: “All in Good Time!”

Here is a splendid family photo — couldn’t have been complete without me. Making a clock-wise circle from noon, my Daddy Michael, my Mommy Cathy, my sister Zoe — all admiring me (Amelia).

Right from the start the comforts of pillows and loving arms to hold me, here those of my Big Sister Zoe who, I think you’ll agree, has motherly talents and an angelic smile! I’m smiling too, but you just can’t see it.

My aunt Monique arrived in good time to keep us all company while I picked the right time to arrive, and I heard them all laughing and having a good time in the kitchen. It was such fun to listen to them, I snuggled in a little deeper and decided to see what might happen next before I arrived.

One thing they did was to show Aunt Monique all of the lovely sights of Wyoming, towering mountains and the rushing of bright sparkling water. I’m glad I picked such a scenic and wonderful place to make home!

Uncle John came too, by airplane, and spent his first evening trying to grasp the deeper meaning of pictures and words on paper, something he is always doing, and always with great success — because he knows how to pick experts to help his own understanding. Here Zoe is lending a hand in Uncle John’s unending education.

To rest up from study, Uncle John helped Daddy out in the yard. They called it “work,” whatever that is, but kept talking about fantasy baseball and fantasy football, whatever they are. I’ll have to ask Zoe to explain it to me. All in Good Time!

Finally, and in perfect time — and I timed it just right just for them — Grandma and Grandpa arrived in Wyoming to see me. And that is my story, the beginning of it. I cannot write yet, never mind the highest form of it, blogging, but I am gifted in the secret arts of telepathic communication (they say it fades as you grow) so I found a receptive member of the family to present all this to you in more or less suitable words.

Amelia Arden Magee

Post Sewer Recovery Begins

Just received--the first pictures of the post-sewer-installation garden recovery at the Magees.

Monique reports that all this took a huge amount of effort--first of all waiting for the city to finish the job with new dirt and grass seeding. But there was still time enough left over to take Katie on her first-ever canoe trip!

More pictures will follow as the garden gets finished, new decorative stone is laid to make a pleasing border, and the green turtle pump cover blends into a background of plants. But that arch! It's pleasing to behold.

In Praise of Sewers

Happy days are here again!
Water flows freely at the Magee home again and we thought we'd share a few photos of the exciting sewer connection project, completed in a matter of hours today.

BEFORE:


AFTER:









It all started when John and Monique prepared for the installation on Sunday by taking out the garden by our front door.

Yes, that is a porta-potty behind Monique...

But the night view of the porta-potty is really the best one.

Sorry for the bad angle, John! We were too focused on digging up and hauling plants to think about photos until the job was almost done.

Then, a day earlier than we expected, which made it especially sweet, the professionals arrived with a small fleet of heavy equipment. They got started bright and early (before 8:00 am)!

A big hole was dug out by the street, after removing the mailboxes. This one was for the connection to the main line running down our street.

At the same time, another of our crack installation team began the horizontal drilling work to place a new pipe underground between our house and the main line at the street. He did it with a well worn machine called a Ditch Witch.

The horizontal drilling took only one hour with the old Ditch Witch.

While not a great picture, you can see from this shot how the Ditch Witch was used to tunnel all the way from the side of the house to the street in the background, where the other members of the crew were preparing the mainline connection.

The newly pushed (pulled?) pipe was immediately connected to the main line, out at the street. By the way, there are two pipelines visible in this photo, down in that hole, if you look carefully. The larger one is the main sewer line. The smaller one, right above where our new little pipeline comes into the hole, that's the gas line... Scary!

Connection made. Now, the pipe line is in -- but it isn't connected to anything on the other end, yet...

Here comes the grinder pump, don't think about that name too long... This is a pressurized system, not a gravity fed one, thus a machine to push water up hill is needed. But, we don't much like the name grinder pump and have decided to call ours a turtle pump. You'll see why in a bit.

I must tell you, the Bob Cat driver was amazing. He managed to drive that tractor through an incredibly narrow spot by our garage where power lines and the corner of the garage. There could not have been more than an inch of spare room on either side of the tracks.

Then, there were the overhead lines to worry about...

Here it is, the Turtle Pump.

And with the turtle pump ready to be buried, there were more big holes to dig. First, to collapse the old septic tank ...

... and then to bury new piping to connect the pipe coming out of the house with the new turtle pump.

That Bob Cat got a good workout.

Here, you see the turtle pump after it was lowered into place and the connection work began.

Three different connections had to be made to the turtle pump. The pipeline from the house, the line from the pump to the mainline, and an electrical connection to power it all.

After watching all of this carefully, Anna was ready to lend a hand when the time came to start refilling all the holes.

It was all hands on deck for the refilling.

The crew and the turtle pump. See why we call it the turtle pump? These guys were great. They arrived before 8:00 am and we were connected by 1:30 pm.

We could not be happier right now. The third load of laundry has just been started, dishes are being done, one shower taken and another about to begin.

Thanks very much, A & B, for the loan that made it possible to get this done so quickly! And thank you, too, dear French gang for your cheerful adaptations to the not so pleasant water conservation techniques required during the weeks proceeding our lovely new sewer connection.

Finally, thanks to all our dear friends and neighbors who graciously helped us get through this transition in numerous ways.

We'll post another photo or two once all the landscaping is done. In the meantime, remember to appreciate the mostly invisible infrastructure that underlies our lives.

Memorial Day Memories

Herewith some pictures from Monique showing the Memorial Day atmosphere and views we all enjoyed at Wolvering Lake, where Monique and John live every day as if it was vacation day. Commentaries by Monique....

Snow in May. Well, you can’t really see it very clearly but if you look closely, you’ll see that the air is full of white, fluffy cotton seeds. Taken May 26 or 27, 2010. The rest of the pictures in this post come from May 29th. Clicking on an image enlarges it a little.

Monique with her new toy, a borrowed pressure washer. Look closely now, one chair has been cleaned and the other, not yet…

John and Lexi testing the newly hung hammock. It was a weekend of getting things ready for summer, and it was a pleasure to be able to do so in such summery weather. Lexi belong next door (there it is, up and left) and to Wendy, whose picture follows.

After a lot of yard work, nothing like a little float… Wendy and Anna floating and Lady about to jump into the lake, again.

Here's one of the back channels of Wolverine Lake. If you look closely you’ll see a duck with her little babies right behind crossing the canal behind me. They were staying in the shade (see them hiding, slightly left of center) so that a better photo was hard to get.

Water lilies and cattails on the canals of Wolverine Lake.

View of the lake from behind a wonderful old droopy tree. I was going to call it a weeping willow but I now see that the leaves aren’t those of a willow… It’s right across the lake from us on that point, past the island.

— Monique

Magee Family Display

We are connected to the Magees through Monique. A grand family reunion last summer in August provides us with a way to introduce this extended family with a group shot, but, as sometimes happens, this photo by no means equals a census of Magees. Even our rather limited survey of people we know tells us that lots of individuals are missing. But the Magee branch of fictional Ghulf Genes will serve us to introuce other such arrays of humanity, the drops, you might say, of society. First we show the picture of those assembled. The people arranged themselves, fortunately for our purposes, in such a way that we are able to capture, in an enlarged rectangle, those best known to us of those who are here present. That picture follows, with commentaries on the names beneath.

John is the person whom, in this context, we would call our John. He is part of our innermost circle since his marriage to Monique, who is our flesh and blood. Dick Nason is John's stepfather and stands immediately behind John's mother, Sheila. To Dick's left and our right is Susan Riordan, John's sister. And last, his face partially obscured (like Dick's), is Jim Magee, father of Susan and John. Not shown is Michael, Susan's and John's brother--nor the three Nason children by Dick's previous marriage, Katrina and Eric ("the twins") and Bobby. As we noted, not everyone is present--or our aging eyes can't quite see them all in this large assembly.

I would here draw special attention to Susan. She is, you might say, The Mother of Blogs. Her initial ventures into blogging (Gettysburg Family, accessible from this site), inspired John's Patioboat and then, in sequence Ghulf Genes and others, not least Michelle's Pontoon Pirates, a blog that Monique started as a summer's lark and which has sprouted like the legendary beanstalk into the French sensation. As in all family matters, it's difficult to sort out the lineages, genetic or other. But Susan is easy to identify as the generatrix of our blogging.

The setting? The Adirondacks.