All good things

Hello to all from the sticks

I have blog fever today since we are at the library and the kids are doing school I'm going to endulge.  So many great things have happened since my last blog that I really want to share them.  Unfortunately we have not been able to take any pictures.  The batteries in Tasha's camera died when it got really cold here.

First of all, I feel really happy here.  Natasha said it on Sunday.  She said that Tom and I fit in here really well.  We have found a wonderful church.  Tasha and I got to go to a women's breakfast, which allowed us to get to know the women in the church and connect with them.  It was such a great time and the sharing was incredible.  I shared what I had shared with you last week, and it seemed that everyone was experiencing a similar lesson.  Natasha actually surprised me the most.  She said that she was beginning to like it here.  She loves the church.  The girls (well more like young ladies) seek her out and talk to her and she feels very welcomed by them.

This is not a picture of their house but an example of a timber frame like it

Friday the family was invited to dinner at a couple's house.  The mother and daughter run a horseback riding business together and Heidi, the mom, invited me on a leisurely trail ride.  That was canceled due to a lame horse.  But we went to dinner nevertheless.  Their home is beautiful.  They also built their own home and did the same thing as us, camping out on their land.  The only difference, the house is still not finished.  It took them 10 years to get to this point.  They have no walls in the bed rooms upstairs.  No, it is not going to take us 10 years!!!!  3 at the most (inside included and electricity).  They are also completely off grid, which is our goal too.  We spent a wonderful evening with them.  The kids had a blast, since they already know each other and get along really well.  Sean and the youngest son, Glen, hit it off very well already.  I was really touched when one of the boys (23 and 25) sat on the floor with Logan and played with the kitten together.  That is a total credit to homeschooling.

Our trees are not that big but you get the picture

When I last blogged, I had shared about the lesson in coveting I had learned.  And as always, when we learn lessons and put them into practice, we receive many blessings.  This week has been one big blessing.  To begin the week with, we were cutting the trees at the back end of our property.  There are some beautiful hemlocks up there that are the right thicknesses for our beams in the basement.  Hemlock is a lot stronger than pine and also a lot denser, therefore heavier.  Please keep that in mind.  You will see later why I mentioned the heaviness.  Also let me quantify we; it was Tom.  I was encouraging him with my kind words and wonderful food (for thought).  I am getting quite an expert at cooking on one propane stove!  You should see me heat those pasta noodles!  Julia Fairchild here I come!  So Tom and Sean, actually, had already cut those, I believe 4 trees, down and now Tom was waiting to get them cut into beams.  Our guy with the saw was supposed to come and do it some time this week but Tom thought it would save time and money, and we all know that that is important when building, if he did it himself.  So his chainsaw and him, along with Tasha and Logan, went up there and started shaping.  To all, this is an extremely muscle shaping activity.  Usually Tom can only do one a day, it is that time and energy draining.  That day, my muscle man did 2 or 3 beams, which is quite amazing.  Tasha was really happy since she got to drive the car back there all by herself.  She did very well!

We lifted the beam over the small wall

 So we had these beams which needed to be brought down to the house.  One of them, 10ft long by 10" by 10", was ready.  So my ingenious hubby had the tree of us lift one end and pivot it to get it closer to the car, and pick up the other end and do the same thing.  After huffing and puffing for about 45 minutes give or take, we had the thing on the ROW.  Then came the challenge; how to get it into the Subaru.  Remember, the Subaru now also goes by the name of truck, because it has carried everything from 2by4s to 28 sheets of foam insulation in windy weather (remember Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and tons of cement.  It is due for new shocks really soon!  This is where Logan came in to help.  We managed to wiggle the beam into a position so that when sitting on one end of it the other would go up.  Hence, Logan had a seasaw and he was having a great time with it.  Again, we huffed and puffed and finally shoved the beam into the trunk of the car.  Notice it is still a car!!!  Logan leaned on the end of it to keep it from falling out and Tom lay across it too and off we went down the ROW, very slowly!  Once at the house we decided that there was not way were were going to carry it from the car to the house.  And now the faithful little thing became an off roading vehicle.  I carefully maneuvered it over rocks and stumps as close as I could get.  At this time we needed Sean as well, and he came to help us get the monster out.  That took all of our strength.  We were about 20 ft from the back of the house so again, the maneuvering began.  Physics is really cool when it actually works!  We got it as close as we could and then we had to lift it over the 3 foot wall.  Impossible you say.  Not so, says my Tom!  With levers and lots of huffing we got it into the basement where it rested on cinder blocks awaiting shortening and mitering.  But that was a job for another day.  We were done for the day after that!    

The kids at the top of neighbor's property 

 Where was Sean, you want to know?  Poor Sean was in his engine.  Last time we were up here, he discovered that his head gasket was about to go on his truck.  Because he now has to be very careful with his cash, trucks cost a lot, he just couldn't afford to bring it to our mechanic friend in Chester.  Also he really didn't want to drive it.  So he took on the huge job of fixing the head gasket himself.  A trained mechanic needs about 12 hours to do the job.  He is not a trained mechanic.  He worked on it for 5 days, straight.  God be praised, because He really helped him out and even provided the weather for him.  We were supposed to get nasty weather yesterday, while he was finishing the job, and after fervent, and I mean fervent, prayer it turned out to be beautiful and cool.  He finished the job yesterday but when he turned the truck on the engine was knocking.  His lesson, I think, is several fold.  First, I think he is again being taught patience.  And then God is teaching him how to rejoice in his trials, because they will come.  He is teaching me that too because it is really hard to watch Sean struggle with this truck.  But it is a great lesson and he is learning it slowly.  He was in a great mood on Monday and Tuesday.  Today, not so much.

Aww, Anne, you must right about now be thinking.  This is nothing.  What is all that excitement about?  I am not done, yet.  Please be patient.  (Is there a lesson in this for you too?) On Sunday after church, the same guy who offered us the house in NH, which we still might take up on again, told Tom that he would be by on Monday to help with the backfill.  That was going to be a huge job because, well we just have a wheel barrow and shovel, so it would have taken us several days and a few bottles of Arnica ( an herbal pain reliever).  We were really thrilled.  At the same time another couple came up to us and offered us their house also to come and crash, if we needed it.  We will take them up on it, because it is getting cold.  They have a prison ministry here in Springfield.  So Monday came around and no Chris.  Later on in the afternoon he came and brought his tractor.  We had to start with making the gravel around the foundation a lot thicker to allow for really good drainage.  We just ordered a dump truck of gravel and I am thrilled to tell you, that gravel is now in its proper place.   Around the footing of the foundation.  It took Chris 3 hours to finish that job.  He didn't want any money for it, so that is a huge, huge blessing.  He was going to come back to backfill with sand but that would take at least a day or so.  He said he was available next week.  After looking at our backfill, he confirmed that we have really great dirt and that there is enough to backfill three times the amount.  God provides again.  The most exciting event about this tractor thing was that in the end, the men grabbed the remaining beams and they are now resting snugly in our basement.  Actually Tom is shaping them as we speak, I think.  The only sad thing I have to report is that while backfilling the gravel, our raised beds got destroyed, run over, demolished,..... or any other such word you want to use here.  It made me really sad because of the hard work that went into them.  But there is always next year! 

And now for the piece de resistance:  the hugest blessing of all!  We were at youth group last night, a wonderful time always, and of course we were the last to leave!  In the course of the evening we told the story of the heavy beam, and Roger, our host and mechanic, offered us his tractor to use for several weeks!  I still don't know what to think about that, I am so thrilled.  Here is the deal.  If we have that thing for a few weeks we will be able to: backfill, scrape the septic mount and prepare it, dig the trench for the septic pipes, dig the holes for the septic pipes, and put up the beams and rafters without killing our backs or trying to figure out how to lift them up.


I want to say that all these things didn't happen by circumstance or luck.  There is someone looking out for us, and He cares how we live our lives and wants to be part of that life.  Tom and I could not have put the huge amount of sand at the back of the property.  We could not have moved people's hearts to offer us their services or their equipment.  When we humble our hearts to the greatness of our Father, He is faithful to help us out.  That is one of the blessings I have in my life.  Have an awesome week.  Stay warm and don't think of  cold, white fluffy things.  It is in the forecast for tomorrow.  Think warm thoughts, think warm thoughts.


An update: PRAISE THE LORD, SEAN'S TRUCK IS FIXED!!!!!  And he did it on his own (mostly and of course with God's help) and with the encouragement of us.  They are going home.  We are staying here, and that is another story!