In April 2001, Dad (me) went to Vermont for a week to help Andrew spruce up his geodesic dome house. But first we go for a walk, shown here. Before we got home it got dark and started snowing harder. Amy took the pictures above.

Amy invented a board game named Amphibian. It's based on the lives of real amphibians and amphibian researchers. After dark we played this delightful game until we were too tired to stay up any longer. I learned about the "vernal pool" and now hope to find one in real life. The next day Amy drove off to college in Keene for some days.

Our major project was the kitchen. Below is a picture a couple weeks after Dad left. Most of Dad's week was spent working from the stove to the white wall. Since the old yellow stove was about 25 years decrepit, the first thing we did was to pick out a nice new stove with a self-cleaning oven, bring it home and haul it up about 70 steps (and haul the old one back down). We also purchased two kitchen cabinets, one with one drawer and a bin, the other with three drawers. You can think of this being the two cabinets along the wall to the right of the stove (although actually, they got shuffled around). Dad assembled the cabinets and drawers while Andrew refitted the gas stove for propane and installed it.

The next day was Dad's biggest job (grunt, snort). It actually doesn't look like much. Notice the unfinished oak flooring under the table next to the wall. Previously this space was under decrepit old cabinets (torn out) and there was no flooring there. Andrew sawed the oak planks and Dad nailed. This oak flooring now goes (under the new cabinets) all the way to the window.

The next day Andrew showed Dad how to make recycling bins. Andrew made the first one. They did the second together, and Dad made the last two, including the stylish handle grips. You see two of them under the counter right of the stove.

The last two pics show the new oak flooring better and they also show the cabinet island and wall shelves that Andrew built after Dad left. No house pics are complete without a little human interest. On the left side of the room next to the fridge are some new shelves for dishes.

Not shown is behind the white wall. We had the wall board off and we replaced the noisy composter exhaust (phew!) pipe.

Do you see the white plastic pipes at ceiling level above the island? These are for the upstairs bathroom. There are lots of angle changes on these pipes. Dad glued and passed up to Andrew who attached.

We shoveled the snow and ice off the front deck. Andrew did lots of sawing out there. Then I took his picture below. I should have taken it earlier in the day before all the snow melted off the tree branches and it lost its "spooky" look. Did I mention that being in the dome house seems a lot like living in a tree house? Amy kindly gave me her study/bedroom for the duration of my stay. A fantastic view from the bed!

The last day that Dad did any work was a huge bonfire outside in the driveway below the 50 steps. We dug out a huge pile of wood scraps that was partly frozen together under a pile of snow on the slope. We had a roaring (and I mean roaring) fire going all day. We had a nice picnic with some smoked fish. While things were slack, we chipped some ice to make the driveway drain better.

The next and last day, we went snow shoeing. Dad is disappointed he forgot to bring his camera. The most spectacular shot would have been Andrew standing on top of a 10' tall rock making the bank of the stream on his land. Later we drove around the extended neighborhood past Huntington Canyon where many people died in a particularly enticing stretch of white water.

Amy arrived back from Keene just in time to find the fancy restaurant "Blue Seal" we had planned on dining at was closed for two days. Instead we ate at the "Bridge Street Cafe" which (reputedly bad for pizza) turned out to be unexpectedly fine. I had decided to purchase a Richmond Vermont tee shirt and found one at a variety story. It had wise-acre words on it that displeased Andrew and Amy who dug up a much more tasteful tee shirt at their favorite lunch spot, "The Daily Bread". Altogether a most memorable week.