Let There Be Light Already!

Bald is beautiful!!

Especially when you are in the attic and its dark!

Its awful hard to make out what is going on!  But when he finishes with all of those wires he stuck up there in the attic we will all be able to see much better in the dark!

When You Can't Reach It...

Looks innocent enough, right?

Wrong!

No one was harmed in the patching of this roof.  The soon to be fourteen year old had the time of his life under the watchful eye and hand of his father.  His mother lost a few years off her life as she stood by to watch!

The Art Lesson

Among all of the comings and goings and bustings and buildings, we still manage to have school.

This year I've decided to make art more of a priority.  All of the boys have great potential, however, art is one thing that has always ended up on the bottom of the list and isn't usually practiced because of that!

This particular day was absolutely beautiful.  I taught my kids how to do 'blind countour drawings.'  We practiced several times on this day and even little Grace got in on the fun!

She is drawing all of the leaves she sees.  Note that these are not leaves of three, just leaves of one!



Mass Destruction

Yup!  I've managed to find something else to destroy at our old house on the hill in NE! 

This is BW.  He and Ruth Ann, our wonderful neighbors, came up on this particular afternoon to help me clean up the after math!

BW has a really cool tractor, my favorite actually.  John Deere 4020.  Don't ask me why, cause I really couldn't tell you!  A tractor is a tractor.  That is what I think, however, the 4020 sure has my attention!

Sometimes there is a lull in the progression of things in the house.  I can't do anything until the man with the brains and the muscles gets back from his trips and gets things moving for us again!  I get a feeling of satisfication, too, when I can go outside, work on something AND finish it and feel like we are actually making some progress!



This area that I cleared out has poison ivy growing in it.  It was teasing me.  Since I don't even have to touch the stuff to get it, while it thrives, it is a constant threat to me!  I react in the worst way!  This spring and summer has been the the spring and summer of the itch (and blisters and secondary infection... etc.).  I decided that if I was careful I could get rid of some of the threat around the house and if I got a little bit, at least it would be more likely that I wouldn't end up getting another awful reaction.  

Well, we got the stuff all right.  There is still quite a bit more to remove.  I reacted.  Horribly!  But I'm doing much better now.  We removed several trees that were getting rather established, still have some more to remove that are a little more than I can handle (plus there is still a bit of IVY left that I'm not feeling much like messing with right now)!

Meet Ruth Ann!



I know it is hard to see the flower bed with all of the debris laying around.  My plans are for roses right here.  This bed faces south and is offered quite a bit of protection from the cold north wind! 

I love roses!

Its Raining, Its Pouring...

You better not be snoring or ya might get hit on the head!  We are still slowly but surely busting out the last of the plaster and lath!  On this day, however, we figured out we could pile up the lath much faster outside if we opened up the window and threw it all out!

We are so Blessed!

With a little bit of time on my hands I've decided to sit down and play catch up!  It has been a very busy few months!  Time sure does fly!  We have been able to make more progress on our old house on the hill in Nebraska!  We are in contract with 100 acres of the farm in MO and have the 40 acres with the Orchard and business listed for sale.  We've been back and forth between both places, cleaning and packing in one and destroying and rebuilding in the other!  What more can I say, but that we have been blessed, and I'm always thankful to have a pillow to lay down my weary head at the end of the day!

I'm also thankful for my incredible better half,  big helpers, all four of them, and cherry red mustaches!

June Through July! My, Does Time Ever Fly!

June started off with me already up at girl's camp!  This year I was asked to help with camp by serving as a stake first level specialist.  It was a great learning experience!  And as usual, it was great to get home.... and get some sleep! 

Camping in Missouri is so different than what I grew up knowing to be camping.  First, there isn't any green grass where I've camped... and especially, there is no such thing as mowed grass!!  Even though it isn't rugged, surrounded by evergreens, with the air lacking in oxygen, it is really pretty!  The girls opted to try cooking turkeys in our reflector ovens, and everyone cooked biscuits and muffins in the reflector oven boxes next to the fire. 

I had wonderful youth leaders who managed everything sooo well!! 

It was a wonderful experience!

All work and no play makes Jane a dull girl.  It also makes Jack rather boring too.  One Monday evening in June, we packed up hambugers and ran up to Nine Eagles on an impulse.  It was a good impulse and we had a great time!  The burgers were great, the water was fun, and the sunlight was perfect for pictures!



By the end of June we managed to complete the downstairs bathroom in our Nebraska house.  Just in time to show it of to my parents, and Grandma!  We hadn't seen Grandma in six years and this was Gracie Anne's first time meeting her.  After she warmed up she had so much fun talking to Grandma and showing her all of her toys!



This is a bloom from the old rose bush next to the front yard gate.  They do have some charm to them!!



Here is a shot from the gate up the road.  Tim is getting the mail.  Our wonderful neighbors, Ruth Ann and BW are so sweet to think of us and mow the strip of grass next to the road!



While the Grandparents and Great Grandma were here to visit, we squeezed in a quick trip to Nauvoo.  It was a beautiful day along the Mississippi!

We also had an amazing experience to rescue this little puppy from off the middle of the highway.  He was starving to death and couldn't stand for more than a few seconds at a time.

We cleaned him up, fed him and named him Gilligan.



However, within two weeks it became apparent that Gracie Anne was not yet ready to be a dog owner.  A strange "sibling rivalry" came to be and the two were at each other constantly.



A friend of ours helped us find a new adoptive home.  She places rescued and abandoned animals.  She interviewed lots of people and we decided that a young couple who lives 1/2 mile from a dog park would be the best dog owners ever!

So we all cried, said our goodbyes and sent our Gilligan on his way.  We were told that the first meeting was beautiful.  He ran right up to his new mama and crawled up into her arms.  We miss him terribly, but we just know that Gilligan is in good hands and is being loved and spoiled rotten!