Diggin' a ditch

Here's the masterpiece. We'd had trouble with this area before, and Jon had filled more dirt into this north west facing corner, and it had stopped leaking. Until the storm.

What would be the basement on any other house is the main living space in our house. So the builder thought he'd make it more comfortable (so Jon says) and build it out of wood rather than cement block. Sounds kinda strange to me, but that's how it is.

The corner you see in the picture is like this: the wall straight ahead is wood. The wall on the left is a bedroom added on later and made from cement block as you can see in the pictures below. I think the problem might be where the two materials meet. And the storm dumped such an amount of rain that the gutters overflowed and the rain ran right into the corner. So Jon spent a

couple of days digging out, and then fixing it up somehow--Kristine says it involved some mud 'snowmen' and mud angels (and I think it was a good thing I wasn't there)--and he's already filled it back up. I thought that maybe, since he'd had it all dug out, that he'd put in a back door there. It would be very handy there coming out of the laundry room. (As if we need another half-finished project around here. Isn't that what life's about?!)

This is the closet in that bedroom after he'd torn out the sheetrock and insulation.

We're putting a wood floor in this room--it's half way done at the moment--so I guess it was a good thing this happened now and not after we'd finished the floor.
















This has nothing to do with the leaking back bedroom. It just happened to be on the camera with the other pictures. It made me laugh, so I thought I'd share.

I love Chinese food. But I can't afford to eat it as often as I like, and I hate the crazy recipes and deep frying required to make it myself. So I'm always on the lookout for faux Chinese recipes--ones that don't take any odd ingredients and don't require me to do much more than stirfry.

I came across a recipe for lemon chicken that involved some lemon flavor jello. And it was quick and easy and I had most of the ingredients(except the lemon jello). So I substituted lime jello. It turned out this lovely shade of green, and it was delicious. Kristine protested loudly at the unusual color until I told her she could go without any supper, and then she ate with gusto and asked for more. And Jon gave it an enthusiastic 2 thumbs up. Maybe I'll keep the substitution.

Hail Damage

Almost a month gone by and no word from me. Don't you wonder why?



Well...just look at my plums! They were just coming ripe--and it would have been the first 'real' harvest off this tree.

The hail was golf ball size, and it went on and on. 25 minutes of being pounded with frozen golf balls will do a lot of damage to a poor plum tree. I was in shock for a while over this.



A week later I did manage to pick enough fruit off this tree to make one wonderful plum tort. The best. Too bad there wasn't enough to make a bunch and freeze them for Christmas. Sigh.














How about my tomatoes? They weren't even coming ripe yet--well a few on the outsides, but they were still mostly green. Just beaten to a pulp. What a mess. The chickens got a lot of the worst ones, but we left some damaged ones on the vine to see if they might just ripen up. No such luck. They rotted there. This disaster caused me more distress than the plums--it was a week before I could go out there without crying over it. Whew! Who knew I was so attached to my tomatoes?



We did get about 10 gallons for making tomato sauce--I was very excitted--and then I burned it. Bummer. There are a few more I can still salvage, but nothing like the 50 quarts I was hoping for.

My peppers were looking great this year. And then the hail came. Peppers with golf-ball size holes in them were all that were left. They rotted on the plant. Chickens loved them.

Our beans were done, and our fall peas had just been planted. We should be getting those pretty soon. The carrots are fine and the beets. The ducks got the broccoli earlier this spring, so no loss there (heehee).











And the squash. The winter squash were the least affected, but the vines just look horrible. The summer squash was, natually, completely lost. Good thing I already had my fill of it. How much zucchini bread can one eat? More than you think, originally, but then even that much is too much. Good thing everyone around here likes it.



These squash are just beginning to ripen now. The variety in the picture is called a 'striped cushaw' and is our absolute favorite. It has pink seeds and a pale yellow, very sweet flesh. They are huge--so 4 plants will keep us going all winter long. I bake them whole, and then scoop out the flesh and freeze it in 4 cup servings. That's enough for a meal and enough left over for pumpkin muffins or, maybe a pie.



There was some damage done to the house. Not as much as we'd thought (or hoped?), but enough that Jon's been digging trenches around it and tearing out sheetrock, and generally adding to the mess. Maybe I'll explain more later.



As it is, I guess I'd better be focusing on God's Benefits: No one was hurt. We didn't loose any animals or trees. The tornado that touched down a mile or so south of us, didn't bother us at all. We have insurance for the house. There are grocery stores we can utilize. I don't have to do all that work canning and freezing(even though I love it). We've been needing to tear out the sheetrock anyway--now the insurance will pay for it.



And that's why you haven't heard from me for so long. A lame excuse, I know; but sometimes I gotta retreat from my busy social life and do some self-care. Rest assured, I've had my chocolate and coffee and am ready to jump back in.

God's Benefits

I love the whole idea behind the 'vintage' craze. I think it's about finding things that remind you of a simpler, less busy, more community-oriented time. There's something about using or wearing something that was a common item during my grandmother's day or earlier that really makes me feel like everything I do today has weight or importance for my grand children. It makes me think and slow down enough to make each moment count.

I found a vintage devotional for Kristine. It was written by Frances Ridley Havergal in 1874. She also wrote many hymns, including "Take My Life". This 4"x3" book is called "Little Pillows--Goodnight thoughts for the little ones". But you know, there is so much meat in there that it cannot be read once and forgotten. We've been reading it each month for the last 5 months or so, and loving each little pillow as we come to it. Tonights installment in entitled 'God's Benefits' and I'll post it here as it is in the book.

"Forget not all His benefits"--Ps 103:2

If some kind friend made you a present of twenty pounds to buy all sorts of things with, would you not feel rather hurt if he thought it necessary to say to you, "Do not forget that I gave you this"? Of course you would not forget, you could not possibly be so ungrateful. But what if, after all, you had forgotten, and had all you nice things around you without ever recollecting him, would it not touch your heart if he came again and said very gently, "Do not forget"?

I need not tell you Who and what I mean. You know! Have you been forgetting all His benefits, forgetting to thank Him for them, just as if they had come of themselves? Oh, ask Him now to forgive you this sin of forgetfulness, for Jesus Christ's sake! But now that He has reminded you and forgiven you, ask Him for the Holy Spirit to help you to recollect His benefits instead of forgetting them.

"His benefits" means all teh good things He has done for you, and all the good things he has given you. Try to count up "His benefits" of this one day; and then think of those ofyesterday, and last week and all the year and all your life since you were a little baby! You will soon find that there are more than you can count, and you will begin to see how very much you have to thank Him for.

And then recollect His still greater benefits--the great gift of Jesus Christ Himself to be your Saviour and Redeemer, and the great gift of salvation throughHim, and all His promises of grace and glory!

David speaks of 'the multitude of His tender mercies,' and Isaiah tells of 'the multitude of His loving-kindnesses.' Are not these true and beautiful words? Will you not turn them into a song of thanksgiving, and say, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who crowneth thee with loving-kindess and tender mercies!'

'Now my evening praise I give;
Thou didst die that I might live;
All my blessings come from Thee,
Oh how good Thou art to me!

'Thou, my best and kindest Friend,
Thou wilt love me to the end;
Let me love Thee more and more,
Always better than before.'

Farm Life

Our little farm is a little piece of sanity in the crazy, busy world. Our 3 milking goats are producing 2 gallons a day after one of them supplies all the milk her 2 month old baby can drink.

After the baby is weaned, I suppose we'll get 3 gallons a day.

We have a young buck and a funny ewe we'll swap for another doe goat on the 28th (finally!), and we're having a lot of fun looking though pictures of the available does.

One of the goats we are milking right now should be having more babies around the middle of august(surprise, surprise), so I guess that will bring the saleable milk quantity down a little bit for a little while again.

We're getting 8-12 eggs a day from our 13 laying hens, and are eagerly waiting for this year's 20 hens to start laying (any day, now). We have 80 chickens growing in the pasture, eating their way through the weeds and sod until the target butcher date in Oct.

Our garden is doing nicely--the ducks and goose ate all the broccoli, most of the beets and peppers, and they must have eaten the corn and a few squash plants, so whatever is left by the time everything is ripe, will be ours. Two of those ducks are now in the freezer, and the goose has been exiled to the pasture with the chickens.

All of the milk and eggs and meat chicken are sold at church, and I'm sure we could sell more than we could raise. I have to turn people down every week.

There certainly are enough customers for the small farmer if only he didn't have to fight the big businesses all the time. They are able to advertise and produce a lot more, but certainly not a better product. And, of course, the big government gets in along with the big company for money reasons. In effect, if the government and big business is allowed to go on the way it does and has for the last 20-50-100 years, there will no longer be the productive small farm. There would only be the unproductive hobby farm left, and given time, the big business(wielding powerful money) will convince the big government that hobby farms and anything with any animal that might produce anything edible should be illegal for 'consumer safety' reasons. And then, they will chortle with the evil laugh as they 'earn' even more business. If you would like to know more, check out this site: http://www.nonais.org Here you can find out how to vote for the small farmer and for free enterprise in general. And now, I'll get off my soap box.

Enjoy your day. And your milk and eggs and produce (especially if they came from a small farm)

Tball and art camp

Here, finally are a few pictures from Tball:






I don't have any good ones of her batting or running the bases, but we'll be back at it on Monday. She has 2 more days of Tball, and then it's on to swimming lessons again.

This past week she went to a half-day camp for art. And this is part of what she brought home:



Her 'Fireworks' picture made by shaking a paint brush over the paper. She came home and said it would be a good way to paint the deck.

Jon's sister Sara and her family are here from Texas for a few weeks before they move to California. Their father has spent the last several weeks in the hospital recovering his health and strength and regulating his Parkinsons' medication a little better. He had pneumonia and other complications, but is doing much better--maybe better than we've seen him since Christmas--and can't keep still about what Jesus is doing for him. I'm sure his lengthy stay in the hospital is as much for the people working with him as it is for himself.

And in the meantime, Sara's two girls are just a year or two younger than Kristine; and they love playing together. Both of Sara's girls have great imaginations--Kristine's play is much more concrete and factual--so Kristine benefits is a big way through their playing together. They will be her sometime next week, and I'll get some good pictures.

All in all, we're happy, healthy and busy and hope you are too.

Working and resting

We got so much done this week! Of course, getting things done is Jon's way of telling us he loves us, and a chance for him to do what he loves--work with his hands. I need only mention something in passing, and pretty soon he's on it. I finally commented on the heat last week, so this week he put in the A/C, and sheared Daisy:

She gets embarrassed easily, so if you come over, don't mention the chopped up hair job. I'm sure she's much cooler. I think there was about 10 pounds of wool on her.

I canned up some tomato paste:

And crocheted some soakers:
They are much cuter in reality--they have a sparkly halo on them.

Kristine has been doing some wonderful coloring (Nana, Grandma, Emily and Jenna should be receiving some of those masterpieces soon) and one day last week she took the box of crayons and threw them over her shoulder:

She said "I meant to do that."

And a few minutes later, she did it again:

Last Saturday, we went out and spent a lot of $$$ at Menards, and this is what Jon did with what we bought: Before:

After:

Before:

After:

He tore out that disgusting toilet and room-hog ugly sink, sanded down the nasty texture on the walls, took off the pitiful panelling, and put a layer of sheet rock mud over everything that needed it. Then he put in the new WHITE toilet and pedestal sink. It feels so roomy in there, now. We bought the heating coils for the floor, and we have the tile and all that stuff, so that's the next deal. We still need to figure out what in the world has to be done with that big black pipe that stands almost in the middle of the room from floor to ceiling before we can put in a shower, so we're going to have to call a professional (!) for an opinion, at least. The walls still need to be sanded down again and painted--Jon wants white, and I think I'd be happy with anything other than yellow! And then the ceiling itself needs to be painted, too (it's still yellow).

And finally, the kitchen sink: Hooray, hooray. No more dripping, ugly faucet. No more spray attachment that won't turn off--you know, we had some pretty funny times with that thing--and no more disgusting crud that won't stop coming and coming out from around the base. This one has a spray option right on the faucet head, and it comes out to reach where ever I want it, AND it goes back in. That funny thing on the left of the faucet is my soap dispenser! Amazing--what will they think of next! And this one was one of the cheapest ones available (I don't think they even make and sell the one we took out!), so if you are thinking of changing your faucet, you can be sure it will be a pretty nice deal.

Kristine also passed her swimming lessons level 1, and is signed up for level 2 in July. She was pretty proud of that. They gave her a certificate listing all the water skills she now possesses, and she's read it over to me a few times and, I'm sure to Jon, pointing out the ones she's especially proud of, and also the ones she didn't realize they were keeping track of.

She started Tball, and is really enjoying it. She was a little nervous at first, until she realized she was supposed to run, and throw the ball overhand and hit the ball as hard as she could and learn to catch with a glove just like she's seen 'baseball guys' do. And, I think the fact that there is a little competition is really a plus for her. I'll have to get some pictures up next week.

I know this sounds incredibly busy and a lot of hard work, but have you noticed that when you've put in the hard, physical labor that the physical rest is so much sweeter? I was out weeding the beans this morning thinking about how restful it was. I was in the hot sun, and in the mud with sweat dripping down my face and back, but I was resting. And it was lovely. I think, sometimes, that the idle busy-ness of 'vacationing' or even watching TV tires the soul so much more than producing something with your hands to your own satisfaction. I have been reminded lately to 'do it heartily as unto the Lord', and realized that it didn't say 'if you do...' but 'whatsoever you do'. Implying that there isn't much time that I shouldn't be doing. Not in a busy way--rushing and worrying--but in a mindful, prayerful, hearty way that allows the Holy Spirit to move in me through the work.

We've been slogging our way through Hebrews at church for the last 6-8 months, and we've come to chapter 12 (finally!) and it talks about discipline, and running the race--not just to run, but to win--and setting our eyes on the goal. One of our pastors was saying that though the word 'discipline' makes us think of punishment and pain and hard work, that the point of discipline is not rules and regulations and deprivation, but freedom. Freedom from the things that get in our way of us attaining that goal. If we discipline ourselves, it frees up time and energy and resources because we aren't wasting the time and energy trying to get that short term 'prize'. And, he said, in being disciplined as a lifestyle, we find ourselves rested and always ready for whatever the Lord would have us do and say.

I'm afraid I haven't explained it very well, but it was such a revelation to me. Maybe I'll have some more understanding to explain it better later.

And, I'm afraid, that's more than enough for this post. I'm off to bed.

Whew! The first week of swimming lessons is over. We almost didn't make it...I scheduled the 9AM lesson(too early for us), and we've been running and running and still barely making it on time. Something always happens, you know, to impede speediness(this morning I broke my big 2 quart tea pot while it was full of boiling water and loose tea. I need to mop the floor and inside of the bottom cupboards again.)

Anyway, here's Kristine's accomplishments of the week:


Last year the diving board was something of a nemesis; but this year, she's jumping off as if she's done it all her life.


She's swimming a lot quicker from one end of the pool to the other. Last year she was always the last one to arrive, and often had to be towed by the teacher. Now she's almost always the third or fourth out of ten. And using all of her arms and legs. Not chatting so much. She's pretty proud of that.

Another thing she's pretty proud of is that she's undressing and showering and dressing all by herself this year. In past years, I've done it for her thinking I could keep her on task rather than gawking at all the other little kids gawking at her (it usually didn't work very well, and I was crabby by the time she was dried and dressed and ready to go). This year I decided she needs to learn to do it herself. And she's doing great! Slow, but steady dressing completely under her towel (LOL where did she get that modesty?)--I should get a picture. She told her sweet Papa the other day that it's really hard to stay under that towel, but she'd rather do that than have all the little boys (under 5 years old) stare at her (!). I guess she's growing up a little.