Kitty!

That’s what Madeline exclaimed when she saw this sitting in our driveway last weekend:


That, I have learned, is a major difference between boys and girls. While little boys dream of growing up and driving cranes and dump trucks, little girls look at something like a Bobcat and all they see is the cute kitty on the side.

So let me back up a little bit. Daniel is in the process of building a fence around part of our backyard. His parents generously offered to sponsor this project after seeing just how scary a few dogs that run around our neighborhood can be.

Also, our property is backed by the Harpeth River. I love it. We have a private spot with a swing down by the river, and it serves as our personal retreat center. However, the potential danger of it does scare me a bit now that we will soon have kiddos running around the yard.

For a while I have been wanting to build a fence around a portion of our yard so that the kids can run free without me feeling concerned about the river or the dogs. I am super excited to have this project in the works.

Our backyard has a lot of bumps and hills, and we have wanted to smooth out some of the problem areas as long as we have lived here. Daniel decided that now is the time since he is preparing the land for the fence. Last weekend he rented a Bobcat to do the grading work. It also had an auger attachment that allowed him to dig all the holes for the posts in no time.

It worked out nicely that it just happened to be Father’s Day weekend. Daniel loved every minute he spent “playing” on the Bobcat. He, too, was once a little boy who dreamed of driving heavy machinery. I guess you could say that this weekend was a dream come true.