June 3-8
Our good friends (and business associates) Doug and Val Logue (American & English - recently married!) stayed all
week and were a God-send, helping us during long days with staining, varnishing and cleaning. We could not have
done it without them - many thanks!
By Friday we were "ready" (just about) for the carpets. After working like
Trojans until late on Thursday night, the expected carpet layers did not turn up until noon on Friday, and were
still working when the England soccer game started on Saturday at 1:30, when the family had gathered to watch the
game "in comfort". We still enjoyed the game, with England beating Argentina!
Immediately after the game, Ben & Kevin installed the beautiful King-size log bed
they had built. Jenny had found excellent mattresses and box springs for both guest rooms downstairs. So now we
can also "sleep" our guests in comfort! (don't all rush at once!)
  Ben, Jennifer & Owen (our
grandson!!!) then left to drive home, but 20 minutes later, Ben was on his cell phone giving us a graphic
description of the now-famous Glenwood coal seam fire - which had started around 1 pm, unknown to us. After a
lengthy time stuck in traffic on the bridge over the river in the center of Glenwood watching flames leaping
50-100 feet in the air to their west, they finally turned back and returned to our home. That night they, we,
Kevin & Joelle (a friend), and Doug & Val ate an Indian dinner and listened to news of this frightening fire that
came so close to burning the city of Glenwood Springs.
Doug and Val succeeded in returning to their RV in the campground in Glenwood
Canyon, only to be evacuated at 2 am that morning! Sorry you had to go through that, Doug and Val, but we are glad
you are well and back home in Phoenix.
June 10-July 27
With so much done there's still lots to do, but Ben is now very busy with his thriving business (Holy Cross Carpentry) and he is using Kevin's
services more and more.
We continued to make good progress against tight deadlines (with more and more
guest scheduled to arrive - we love it!!) - on the deck, downstairs and staining the logs outside (slowly but
surely).
 One highlight was the arrival of a beautiful old chair from Jenny's
family home that had needed rebuilding and restoring. The work was done wonderfully and generously by our good
friend Jud Rogers in Plano, Texas - he returned the chair to perfect, but antique condition with many hours of
skill and loving care.
 During this
period we were visited by our great friends the Harries and Taylor families from Dallas, Texas. When Rachel and
Simon were here we were still rather unfinished, but they are flexible to a fault. By the time Dallas and Veta
came with Lindsey and Craig we had almost completed the downstairs - in fact, all of the inside of the
house. The last baseboard went on in the main guest bedroom minutes before they walked through the door!
We are really enjoying the outdoors - in spite of a record heat wave this summer
- so the patio furniture has been a boon.
August to November
This summer I finished staining the deck and little else. I took much of the summer off and returned (part-time) to help Jenny with our business. We travelled a lot, and had many visitors (this was great). Around mid August I even found a piano for Jenny on Ebay (!) - a 1933 Howard baby grand by Baldwin in Ashburn, Virginia; we wanted an old one with history and character and it's perfect. But it was finally delivered on November 16th - shipping a piano cross country is more involved and tedious than we thought. Thankfully the owners (David & Margaret Boyes) were very patient, even after they'd bought and taken delivery of their replacement. Now it's here we are delighted, especially Jenny who has missed her piano for exactly 5 years.
 The same day, Russ Craig arrived to plant 12 pinyon trees - he was also delayed and delayed, and when he finally arrived I wasn't available to "supervise". After some time digging the first hole with a small back hoe, he was at the front door saying "I dug through the gas line!" and sure enough Jenny could here a loud hissing noise from the top of the drive. '911' worked and within 9 minutes a fire engine, fire truck and a guy from the gas company had arrived. He successfully capped off the line and had it repaired by dusk. Amazingly, Russ (who does this for a living) had not requested a (free) "locate" where the utility companies come out and flag the location of the pipes. The next time .....
Well, a week or so later, after the "locate", Russ and Eileen (his wife/assistant) were back and planted 10 of the 12 trees - the other two wouldn't work as they were right where the utility pipes and cables run underground - oh well!
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Now that we are "in" both upstairs and downstairs, this website will note only significant improvements, and give
Current Updates on "The Daly Homestead", rather than the (hopefully useful) detail I've given since the beginning. If
you've followed our progress, we want to say "thank you" for being with us. We hope you
will come to visit in person and see the results of our labors.
God bless,
Take a "virtual tour" of our log home - it's fun!
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