Tuesday, August 23, 9:20 AM. Claire.

Good morning, Diary.

I have not been writing in you so much lately but that is not because I don’t love you. I am very busy these days helping Daddy with the horses and cows. My ankle is all better. It hasn’t hurt in a while. I help Mom with the water a lot. At first we had to carry it in buckets from the Thompsons’ pool, which was very hard because it’s so heavy. Then Daddy made a little water tower of our own. He built a kind of platform out of wood and put a big barrel on top. Then he made a pipe with a machine that pushes water from the pool into the barrel. It knows when the barrel is full and stops! My daddy is a genius. We have a water hose that comes from the barrel to the house and we can turn the knob to make water come out anytime. We had to boil it. That took forever and was bad if you were just really thirsty. Daddy put a filter thing on it that cleans it. We can’t get water or ice from the fridge anymore, but Daddy says he can even fix that eventually.

Trevor and I play outside a lot even though it is hot. It has been 100° for two weeks! The bottom of my feet are very hard. I can walk on the white concrete but not the black. Mom says you could cook an egg on that, but nobody wants to.

We like to play hide and seek but it is more fun when Garrett plays and he doesn’t usually want to. Sometimes Mom and Daddy play it with us after Bible time when it’s cooler.

Mommy is crying this morning and Daddy is staying in his office. I’m going to stay in my room too all morning and play and read my books.