To all the animal lovers

I didn't think I would be writing this so soon after just posting my last blog but because of developments this week I decided to write.  I thought this week would just be a routine week.  Working hard on the walls and getting them done; going swimming at the indoor pool (and taking a glorious shower); just going about our normal (abnormal life) but I guess, it turned out to be rather an exciting week.  We were really working hard on the walls and have managed to build them up almost to the top level.  Tom and I have to make adjustments for the stove pipes and septic pipes but I think that we are pretty much done with cinder blocks!  Yeahhhh, praise God.  Natasha was a great help this week.  She has become an expert in mixing cement.  And you should see her muscles!  Quite impressive.  Sean stayed home this week to shoe and spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa.  Thank you for feeding him.  He is pretty much like his father.  Eats a lot!!!  And I don't know where he puts it.

I have to add too, and this is part of the title, that we have a lot of new pets on the property.  They love Logan and are quite drawn to him.  He has given up much of his precious blood to them.  Yes, the mosquitoes are out!  I think we have killed about 10 of them!  And they just keep on coming.  But that was not the reason I wanted to blog.  You all know how much I love my animals.  I think I have my grandfather to thank for that.  I used to bring stray cats home (who produced more and more cats) and I even rehabilitated a hurt pigeon on our balcony when I was really small.  I'm sure my mom was really happy about that one.  All my animals are very precious to me. 



Squirrel!!!!  Cat?!??!?!?!





 Now this dog that we have right now is quite a character.  He is hilarious because he is just such a goof.  His breeding is very mixed, some German Shorthaired Pointer (about 90%) mixed with Border Collie and perhaps some Lab or Pitbull.  His Pointer is the most prominent character and he chases everything that smells interesting.  When he goes on vacation to the farm the cats at my friends house also disappear until he has left.  He is part of the reason why we bought ten acres; to go running around.  So needless to say he has had a great time up there.  He loves the smells and chipmunks have become more careful.  It is quite funny when he goes after a chipmunk, they usually yell at him.  But no harm has been done by them.  I hope you can picture him, bounding happily after another animal to chase.  It is quite amusing to watch.  He is a smart dog and has to learn that there are some animals that are not chasable.  He has had a squabble already with some not so cute animals.  A month ago he was chasing what I thought to be a rabbit.  Off he goes bounding after it when we hear this yelp.  At first I thought he had snapped his leg by stepping on a log, or some such thing, but he came back licking his bleeding nose.  Feisty rabbit!!!  Several seconds after that we saw a cat sitting on the row, silhouetted against the sun.  You can be sure the pain in his nose was forgotten and he wanted a word with it.  We restrained him and as the cat turned to go its merry way, we noticed that it was not a normal looking cat.  It was a fisher cat. He had squabbled with a ferocious animal and that animal had told him to beat it.  That was a long time ago but I think Chet has avoided them since then.  He was stung by bees just the other day and even ate one.  No harm done.  Next second he was off again.



Precious litte thing.

                                         





We were coming home from our glorious shower/swimming on Thursday.  It was dark and rainy and Chet was happy to be free as we opened the car door.  We were walking back to the shed and he joined us.  He was shaking his head and we all thought that he had an animal in his mouth.  In the flashlight light it looked like he had grass sticking out of his mouth.  Tom told him to drop it but he was just shaking his head.  I heard Tom exclaim, " Oh no!" and drag the dog to the shed.  There I saw that it was not grass.  Chet had found our porcupine and it had found him.  Natasha turned on the generator and Logan held the lamp and they both prayed as we plucked the quills from his mouth.  He was really good about it, helping Tom to pull them out.  I am happy to say that all the quills were removed.  He was pretty chipper the next day and no marks were found on him.  But I sure hope he learned his lesson.



Awwww

  

 Thank you for prayers for my mother.  We talked today and she sounded chipper.  She has developed an allergy from taking the medicine to cure the Shingles and she looks and feels aweful.   We are sad they aren't coming right now but their plans are to come in November.  I don't know why!  The weather is certainly better now then it is then.  But they can help us with snow removal.  I hope you have a great day and week. 



Anne 

A heart condition and the remedy

I can't believe that the date today tells me that it is September 21.  How in the world did this happen?  It seems only yesterday that I was writing my last blog.  A lot has happened since then and God is still on His throne and in control, how awesome is that?!?!? 


I will start with our journey about 2 weeks ago.  The setting is Stonecrest Dr.  The culprits: Natasha (the protagonist), Sean, Logan and Anne.  The setting: the living room.  Picture this:  Tom, we will from hence forth call him the victim, asked his daughter to spend the weekend with him in VT due to the fact that Logan was suffering from a slight head cold and looked pretty much white, a usual condition when he has this cold.  I, call me the co-victim, needed to tend to my little buttercup, since he was suffering (RIGHT) so badly.  Sean had other plans and didn't really plan on going up that weekend.  He has been quite helpful and Tom didn't want to push him into helping all the time.  Plus he was really not himself anyway.  So Tom figured he could spend some quality father-daughter time chopping down some extra trees for beams, since Tasha really loves that.  Well, surprise, surprise but the protagonist wanted nothing to do with the plan.  She was in tears and just didn't want to go up.  Even the tempting offer to go swimming did not sooth her.  So finally Sean stepped in and decided to take her place (kind of like Christ did on the cross for us when He payed our penalty; but of course really not at all).  But unlike Christ, he really didn't sound like he wanted to go either, and was just doing it because Tash wouldn't go.  Well, if anyone knows Tom as well as I have come to know him, in the ohhh say 25 years I have know him, you will know that he don't stand around and dilly dally.  He just does his thing and if no one comes along to help, well, he does it anyway.  Call him stubborn, if you want.

So we are sitting in the living room, Tasha is drying her tears (I think they were crocodile tears) when Tom takes off and there we are.  I am fuming on the inside because I wanted to go and it seems that I was the only one who really wanted to, and because he took off!  Sean was pretty ticked because he had offered to go and once again his father took off without anyone, getting the job done alone.  And Tasha (tears again) crying because she felt guilty that Tom was going to be up there alone.  Logan was fine with the whole thing, he had his Wii.  After things semi calmed down (not really, since there was a lot of stomping on Sean and my part and sniffing on Tasha's part) we got to get some schooling done.  Sean was upset that Tom was going to be using the power tools without anyone near by, rightly so.  I came to the conclusion later that day, that I needed to be where my husband was because the enemy was having a field day with me, and I let him.  So talking to my hubby (he used his cell phone!!!!) we decided that I was to come up Saturday, with or without the older ones (still pouting and fuming, remember).  That night I had a chat with them again and I informed them that I was going up.  I just had this feeling that we all needed to be together up there.  The enemy can do a good job when we let him and when we are separated, spiritually or physically.  Well, this family was both. 

We all decided to make the trip in the morning.  And lo and behold we were not alone.  My brother-in-law Doug and his family and a couple of windows ventured up with us.  What started as a bad day turned out to be a really nice weekend.  Sean was out of sorts the whole time but he was wrestling with a lot.  I think we are all learning that this building is difficult, and that God is working on our hearts.  Today we talked about a commandment of Christ's: Be servants to all.  Well, we have to ask ourselves, are we?  Because then none of these issues will arise.  Christ is working in all our hearts, each addressing things we need to do. 

The week was a good one, and our cinder blocks arrived before they were supposed to.  The Subaru was feeling a little down, but since then it has had a pick me up.  I was glad Sean was up with his cute little truck (someone at the youth group called it a baby Ranger) because we had transportation when the Subaru needed a rest.  Actually, the Subaru was in a sort of cinder prison.  The blocks were dropped off on the driveway and we couldn't get the car out until all the blocks were moved.

While we were moving the blocks to the foundation Sean discovered a mama mouse and baby.  Thank you so much, Miss Judy, for solidifying the desire in Sean to assist little critters like that.  We didn't touch that skid at all and mama was fed some peanut butter (although Chet may have beaten her to it, his favorite treat). 

Sean worked like a wonder again, and Tasha (having discovered that she was building some major muscles) pitched in like crazy.  I was on cooking duty and scraping the top of the blocks.  We build half the walls up really quickly and were able to conduct school in our house with the walls partially finished.  It was kind of neat.  We spent Thursday building and moving the blocks to unblock the Subaru and then Tom decided to have a cold.  Very inconvenient!  How could he.  We came home and spent a couple of days recuperating.  On Saturday we were blessed by spending my father-in-laws birthday with him and the rest of the family and now we are up here again.  My parents, who were supposed to be coming this week, had to cancel due to illness of my mother.  Please pray for healing for her, since she is quite ill it seems.  The kids and I are disappointed as is my sister, since we had a lot of fun things planned.  Fall in New England is a fun time.

The remedy for a heart condition: Christ.  And I think we all learned a lesson that week.  I hope you are all well, and enjoy the pictures I am finally able to post!  There are a few that are from before we poured and while we were pouring.  Enjoy.  Anne

Some how to's and some how not to's

This week we spent 5 days straight in Vermont.  What a challenge!  I always wonder why our house has not sold, but after this week I am really thankful that it hasn't.  It is so nice to come home to a shower and civilization.  My father-in-law always jokes about us being pioneers.  It is funny to me to but really I guess we are doing something people don't usually do.  Although if you ask anyone in VT, they all built their own house and are all lumber-jacks.  It is really quite funny.  After five days of working in the sun, well, we were ripe for a shower.  Natasha was stinky, Logan was really stinky, Tom if you went near him you would pass out, and I, well, I smelled like a beautiful Lilly of the Valley.  Right, sure!  I couldn't stand my own smell after yesterday.  Ahhh, the luxury of indoor plumbing!  I have been in places around the world where people have none of this luxury and yet they live happy lives (don't ask the people they live with, though).  Yet as "civilized" Americans we can't even make it without that for long.  My daughter was hoping for a shower by Wednesday.  She did not complain outright but you could see it in her face that she was longing for this luxury.  Well, pioneers don't take showers, they bathe in the stream!  And after last week's rain our stream is flowing good.  However, I haven't been that desperate to try the stream shower yet. 

Our plan this week was to start the walls of our basement.  We decided, after prayer and calculations (I actually did some calculations in my head!), to go with the free standing cinder block wall with the surface bonding cement on the outside and inside.  The first level has to be mortared to the foundation, but the rest does not have to be (I am so glad for that).  We messed around a bit at the beginning of the week, looking at sights around the area and meeting with our new friends up the road, which was a blessing.  On Wednesday we finally got our act together and visited Tom's favorite store in Claremont, NH (30 min North from us).  Please keep that number in mind since there will be some calculations to be done.  After spending 3 hours in Home Depot, Logan even wrote about it in his daily journal, Tom had bought all the necessary supplies.  They needed to be special ordered from another store and would come within 2 weeks.  Well, great.  We still needed to be building this house.  After all, my parents are coming at the end of the month and need to be able to pitch in and help a little.  

So Tom decided to rent the F350 truck Home Depot offers its clients.  It is a great deal, the first hour only costs $20.  So the plan, it really was a great one of course, was for Tom and Natasha to take the bricks and mortar necessary for the first layer to the property in this rather good size truck.  Logan and I were to stay in Claremont and wait.  It would have been a waste to take the Subaru back and forth. Everything was loaded onto the truck; by fork lift mind you.  My husband and daughter took off, smiling and waving.  Logan and I went and did our stuff and decided to wait for them at McDonalds, on account of the indoor playground.  I also called Sean, who stayed in CT because he was shoeing this week, to inform him that his father is now driving an F350!  He was, to put it mildly, quite put off and refused to talk to me (not really but he was quite upset because we didn't wait for him to come up).  First hour passed quite quickly.  Now, remember how long it took us to get to Claremont?  That is correct, 30min give or take a bit.  Now Tom and Tash had to unload everything so give it another 15 min if they are super strong and fast.  Then 30 min back.  Now, you math wizzes out there: how many minutes is that?  That makes it over an hour.  Not a problem, we thought it would be tight time wise.  After about 2 hours I was starting to get a little upset, not to mention bored!  Finally, my cell phone rings.  My daughter informs me that they are leaving the property and she would tell me about it later.  Now I know there is a story to this!  After 3 hours I see them pull into Home Depot.  Naturally I inquired what had happened immediately.  

And here is where the how not to comes in.  When driving a truck, even a rather large truck like the F350, it is really important not to drive on sandy soil, which on top of being sandy is a little bit muddy.  My husband, and I love him dearly, decided that even though he is becoming muscle man, did not want to carry 3000 lbs around the property and so he drove to the house site.  We did this with my awesome little Subaru and drove all around the house without a problem.  Since then we have had a lot of rain.  The sand was a little slippery and Tom decided, for once in his life, not to listen to Tasha's really sound advise.  She advised him to not drive in the dirt!  She could have said "I told you so," after, but she is a wonderfully obedient daughter and didn't.  So for about an hour and a half they were trying to get the truck unstuck!  And that was not a small feat.  Tom smelled burning rubber at one time.  Of course, I had to share this news with Sean immediately and he graciously accepted my call.  He laughed hysterically and felt better that the huge truck got stuck just where his little Ranger got stuck in the fall.

Yesterday we were able to put up the first layer of our wall (hence the how to part).  It was hard work, especially because presently the sun is still beaming down on the slab, making it very, very hot and sticky (hence the smelliness).  Tom and I layed out the blocks (all right, Tom did 99% of the work here) and marked where they would be square, since having a square house would work best.  Then we marked every 4 feet and after we (actually he) moved all the blocks off the marks, Tom drilled holes into the cement for steel bars.  Those we placed into the holes and then we (yes I helped with this part) mixed the mortar and Tom began the long process of putting the mortar down, in the hot sun.  I encouraged him (from the shade) and helped him level the blocks once he finished a series of blocks.  Finally, Tom was quite done, the sun had set, and it was my turn to mortar.  That was fun.  We finished the work at 7:45 last night and wanted to go to the indoor pool to take a shower (refresh your memory to the reason why by reading the beginning of this blog if you must).  It was closed!  So we dragged our smelly selves back to the property.



As I lay up in the loft, hardly able to breathe, I recalled Psalm 23, my favorite Psalm when I can't sleep.  "The Lord is my Shepard I shall not want,.."  I have to warn you about something.  Be careful of what you are praying about.  God will give you your wants.  He is our good Shepard.  It won't be money, or power or riches(in most cases), and we won't have an easy life,  but once we have decided to follow Christ, there is a good chance that He will give us some of our wants just  because He can.  Well, years ago, before Tom went to Iraq, I had prayed about wanting adventure.  I sure got several in the last years.  So, I will conclude with this:do not tell your daughter you prayed for adventure after staying in Vermont for more than 3 days without a shower!  The outcome is..... well, I am still alive.
Have a blessed day.

Here is a picture of Logan in the loft:

Hurricane surfival kit

What a weekend!  While we were safe and snug at home, watching movies and just relaxing, people's lives were changed last weekend.  Tom and I decided to drive up north to get the walls going since this week was going to be nice and warm and sunny.  We also wanted to make sure the foundation was still covered with plastic to keep it moist.  So we set on our journey at around 11 AM Monday morning.  The highways were fine and we were making great, normal time, until we started getting a little hungry and in need of gas.  Our usual stop is Greenfield.  Gas is cheap, and there are several restaurants and a grocery store.  So we get off the highway, and come to a stop.  The roundabout was completely blocked.  Traffic up the wazoo (and no I don't know for sure what a wazoo is but I think it is a musical instrument).  Tom and I thought construction.  After spending half an hour trying to get to the gas station and then getting back on the highway, we realized that the south-bound entrance was closed off.  Getting back on the highway, there was traffic going south for at least ten miles, being diverted through Greenfield onto Rt5 south.  Hmmmm, what was going on?  Of course not watching the news, we had no idea what lay ahead.  We stopped in Brattleborro to try to use the library computer and found it closed.  But at least we got our food.  Subway for all.  Yum.  As we started further north we kept getting glimpses of the CT river.  It was churning and muddy and high.  Getting off our usual exit we decided to take a detour and watch the falls at Bellow Falls.  Usually the 100 ft drop only has a trickle going through.  We got to "downtown" and found one of the bridges closed.  Walking up to it we saw why.  The usual trickle was now a gushing, churning roaring river with waves as tall as a single story home.  The bridge was still standing but one could see that the supports were compromised.  It was quite a site!

Driving on to finally reach our destination, Tom decided to take our normal short cut, even though I was sure the road was blocked by water.  On the meadows everywhere we saw the destruction the mud and water had left.  Muddy plants, grass and trees.  My brother-in law had mentioned that Vt had lost a lot of the old covered bridges and our short cut happened to take us over a covered bridge.  It was my nemesis because to cross it you had to stay on these narrow slots and I really had to pray a lot to cross the bridge.  But I was getting much better about it.   As we approached, cars were parked along the side, people walking toward the bridge and talking with each other.  Well, I am sad to say the covered bridge was washed away by the pounding of trees against it.  It was washed down the stream.  As we stood along what used to be the road to the bridge another family approached and lamented about the loss of such a historical landmark.  They told us that the bridge was washed down stream and that they were going to look at it.  The railroad tracks on which to reach the site were safe since they were washed away upstream.  We got talking and it turns out that they live up the road from us and, wait for it...... they are home schoolers and Christians.  We had a great time, the kids got to know each other.  The boy is a year older than Logan and the girl is quite a bit younger than Tasha but that didn't matter.  They got along just fine and we exchanged phone numbers and got to know each other a little bit.  Praise the Lord, since one of my prayer was for Logan to find a friend.  The seemed to have hit it off well.

We continued driving along and found the area where the soil was completely washed out from under the railroad tracks.  There will not be any train service any time soon.  Getting to the property I was getting a little nervous, and I shouldn't have because God is always present and with us in these times, and found nothing had been moved, destroyed or touched.  The ROW is in pretty bad shape but it was like that before.  I have to think about the kind of summer VT has had.  It has been wet and cool and the ground is saturated.  There was a very small window for us to get the foundation in and we did, with God's provisions and guidance.  I was beginning to think we would never get the foundation in because the cement trucks would have gotten stuck and that would have been pretty bad.  But staying in prayer about it, God knew the timing and it was perfect.

We did not start on the walls yet.  There is still a little bit of a thinking process involved for Tom and research as to how to do this best and cheapest.  We were able to hang out with the youth and Ruthanne and Roger, wonderful couple who invited us into their home and life.  The stories that were shared were amazing.  Some of the youth were not with us because they could not get out of their house.  The bridge connecting them to the road was washed out.  Another young man had to hike down the mountain since their road has become a river.  People in Grafton and other towns are stranded and can't get out.  One of the young men stated it correctly.  "We didn't have anything really bad happen to us.  Others have it worse."  I love the resolve of the people we are meeting.  They are just going to fix it.  They aren't really waiting for help, although the National Guard and the Red Cross is helping in the devastated areas.  Everyone is out helping their neighbor.  People have lost houses down the stream.  I hope you pray for people who in some case have lost every earthly possession.  Springfield itself was not hit much.  Their dam was so low that it protected them from the flooding, but at this point it is at 79 ft, they have lowered it one foot in the last 24 hours.  The flooding at the dam is quite incredible.

As I was looking at the destruction of the roads, we drove on one which had been half way washed away, I can't help but be awed by God's power.  And this was just one day of water and rain.  I can imagine what 40 days must have done to the surface of the earth.  I certainly can see that Noah's flood was destructive.  Water has awesome power.

I remember being at sea as a little girl during a huge storm.  It was petrifying!  I hope and pray for the people up here.  There is a lot of rebuilding to be done. 

Adventure in pouring the foundation

What a beautiful day yesterday was.  We decided to take some time to get to know the area.  Sean wanted to apply at some of the ski mountains, so we took a drive around the county.  I have to say, this is such a beautiful state.  We got to go to the Lincoln family home (Lincoln's only surviving son built a house here).  What a view!!  We then strolled around town and just enjoyed ourselves.  At night we got to go and hang with youths and that was a lot of fun too, for the older kids especially.

After a two week refining process we have finally poured our foundation.  The weather has cooperated beautifully today, it was a little chilly in the morning.  We ordered the cement truck for six thirty in the morning and they sure were prompt.  Two trucks showed up and with five people working (three guys and Tom and Sean) the first truck was emptied within a half an hour.  It was interesting to watch the whole thing being poured.  So then the second truck was emptied, and as they were emptying it, I couldn't help thinking that we may not have enough cement after all.  Sure enough we ran out before we could finish and another truck was sent with only a minimum load.  By nine thirty it was all finished.  We had even poured our foundation for the pillars.  Now began the really boring part.  Watching the whole thing dry to finish it.  It worked out really well for our cement guy who was going of 46 hours without sleep.  He got to take cat naps during that time.  By 1:30 the whole process was finished.  The cement was polished and we can start building the walls tomorrow.  That is just so great.  It was nice to hear the guys talking to Tom, telling him that this was the way slabs should be built.  We have spared no expense with this thing.  The foundation is the most important thing in a house.  

It reminds me of my own foundation.  What do I rely on?  Do I trust that this house will bring me the happiness or is there more?  For me it is a great illustration on that my life should be built on the Lord God, trusting His son to take care of me, to intercede for me.  This whole process has just illustrated that so well.  

The walls are the next step and Sean is very happy that if we were to do it ourselves the cinder blocks don't have to be mortared together.  By the end of this month, who knows, we may have a basement.  Wow. 

 

Welcome to the adventure

I want to welcome you to my attempt to communicate what adventures we are having in our building process and how we are being challenged spiritually (not to mention physically).  I have had a couple of people tell me that they would love to see a blog on the whole process and so here I go.

I think that it is safe to say that it has been an interesting year.  Last year this time we were still happily dreaming on how the house would look, on what we were going to be doing with the land, and how God was going to use us up in Vermont.  Wow, did we get an awakening.  First of all, I know more about cutting down trees than I have ever wanted to know.  I have learned about tractors, backhoes and other heavy equipment, but I still have a lot to learn in that department.  As far as the house is concerned it sure changed design and form and size so many times that I was ready to throw something heavy at Tom the last time we changed the size and design.  Sean joked with us and said that every time we change the house plans he was going to charge us a dollar.  He would have made out pretty good with that!  I am glad to say that Sean will not be getting any more dollars from us as far as the house plan is concerned.  

  We are now approaching the year mark.  Cutting down the first 50 foot tree was an awesome adventure.  Having it get stuck in another tree was frustrating, but great things came out of it.  We met our neighbors and got our first taste of the Vermont way of life.  It was such a blessing for us to have help from our neighbors, both offering great, but different advise.  It showed me that even when I am frustrated God has worked it out already for my good.  I laugh because we were up in the middle of the night trying to move that tree with our own strength.  How ridiculous to try!  Isn't that what we are always doing in our own lives?  Trying to do things in our own strengths and then wondering why it doesn't work.  That tree didn't budge!  It wasn't until someone who was an experienced logger came and took the tree down the rest of the way in less than 5 minutes.  Tom learned so much from that that the next time he got a tree stuck, both Sean and him were able to take it down quickly.  When we have the right advise and are willing to listen to a master craftsman, things turn out so much better.  I am always reminded of that when I get frustrated that things aren't going my way.  It is a good lesson to learn.

  Last year this time we were still planning on building a massive 2000 sq ft house.  Then we found out that there are still taxes.  Vermont is of course cheaper than CT but, still, someone has to pay for the lousy roads that make me shutter every time my poor car hits a huge crater as we are bumping along on our little road.  So reality set in and Tom decided to go and try to beat the system!  Right, sure.  We went to designing outhouses, wet houses(for kitchen and bathroom), and individual houses for living and sleeping.  That design got shot into the wind when Logan came downstairs in the middle of the night, while we were entertaining the individual houses, crying because he wasn't feeling well.  God was so kind to show us that we were not to go that way.  So one house it was.  But would it be log, post and beam or just ordinary stick?  Ordinary stick was out.  I mean, come on, we were going to be doing this only once so we needed to go all out.  For the longest time we entertained a log home.  Our neighbor built this beautiful log home and I love log homes, so I was really sticking to that.  Tom was flexible on it.  In the end, the post and beam and stick design has ruled.  I personally would like to be living in this house by next spring if not earlier.

  Now it came to the decision on the size of house.  I really wanted a little bigger than I have here and of course was pushing for that.  Tom was praying and thinking on it as was I but my prayer was more I want this size house so please let me have it.  God is so good in His mercy to us that He doesn't just slam the door on us and say, bad, no down girl.  Through our trials we see how ridiculous we are sometimes and that He does know what is best.  In the end He grants you your wishes, sometimes.  My sister-in-law, Nichole, will confirm how devastated I was when we came up with the final size of the house of 600 sq ft.  I had to let go of my dream log home, my dream size and rely on what God had for me.  Boy that was so hard!  I struggled with that for a long time until one night, I was given the plans for the house.  We had been struggling to fit all into this small house.  We researched on the internet and came up with some really cute plans and houses.  I was inspired to plan the whole house and it came to a total sq footage of 590 or so.  I was so happy and so was Tom.  Reality is that God is so much better that that.  After giving up my own expectations I was given them right back.  That was a huge blessing, one that is hitting me just now as I write this.

  Next was the actual digging of the land to see if we could have a basement.  We were told that we are sitting on ledge.  So Tom and I planned for various ways to build the house foundation, from pillars to basement.  We were resolved to have pillars until the day we dug.  The huge equipment was brought in (very impressive) and our excavator went to work.  Boy, we had stumps and rocks of amazing size and as he dug and probed it became clear that we were able to have a walk out basement.  No ledge.  And of course the drainage around the house is quite spectacular.  There is no standing water where the house is going to go!  How great is that?  So the fact that we could have a basement meant that the house size has increased quite a lot.  As Tom was planning the foundation he kept adding on a foot here and a few inches there and now we have a house that is a nice size for our little family. The house is small enough and manageable enough for my cleaning expertise!

  Were are we at now?  Waiting on God to sell the house here in Bristol.  A few nights ago something happened that blew me away.  A couple had called and wanted to see the house.  They sounded really interested and on Thursday they came and saw it.  They liked it.  Tom and I had been praying for the right people and if possible Christians.  They walked in and we started talking and found out that the husband is a youth pastor here in Bristol and the wife works for Women of Faith.  We walked around the house in fellowship and in the end actually prayed together for 15 minutes.  They were coming back to see the house but unfortunately they were not able to afford the house after all.  It was not wasted time at all!  It had been a blessing.  After all we don't have running water on the property, nor any facilities.  So God is watching out for us here too, even though I would rather be up there permanently.

  We will be pouring our foundation this week.  Rain is causing some delay so we have had to wait patiently.  But Tom has been talking to our consultant and I think we are ready to go Tuesday.  We are blessed to have this man alongside of us during the pouring of the cement, because as the cement company stated rightly, we don't know what we are doing in this process!  So this guy has the workers and the equipment and will help along.  Next are the walls and we are hoping that he can offer us a good price on pouring the walls.  It is easier and quicker than the way we have it planned.  It has been a journey I am glad I am taking.  I have learned that I have one strong son (Sean), who can bend steel bars with his bare hands (all right not quite bare hands, he was wearing gloves).  I have a brave daughter, who has overcome her dislike and discomfort, not to mention having to do really hard work, which does not enter into her vocabulary, and a young boy, who will help when it suits him and if the work is not too hard.  God has to work on him a little more, but he has had his victories as well. He has to deal with new people and that is not easy for him.  He has to make decisions on when to say no to people and some of us are still learning that today (including myself).
  
  We still don't know what God has planned for us up there, or what we will do with our property.  But my perspective is changing all the time.  We are so blessed and I know that I can trust God personally in my future.  'Cause He has made everything, including me and my future.  I love this verse, Jer 29:11- "For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope...".  When I looked up the word thoughts in Greek it is actually an intricate weaving, a plan but so intricately weaved for my peace (which comes from Him).  So I will keep it shorter next time, I hope.  I am looking forward to this adventure and what lays down the road.  I know that it will be all right.


  Until next time, Anne