Logs, Logs, Beautiful Logs

Once we decided to build a log home, we could never look at trees in the same way again. A stand of nice straight trees looked like a house to us. So to see these beautifully straight logs arrive yesterday was hugely exciting. The logger could not make the turn onto our road.

We had to hire another fellow to unload the logs at the end of our road. Thankfully our wonderful neighbors allowed us to stack them on their property.

                           

After the first load of thirty logs were unloaded, they had to brought up to our home pad one log at a time, carefully balanced by one lifting strap.

                          

The logs are now on racks next to our homepad ready to be peeled. Well close to a third of them anyway. Our logger was supposed to bring two loads yesterday, but his skidder broke down. It looks like it will be the end of next week before he is back in business. The Lord is giving us plenty to pray about for Billy.

                         

Today Blane and Blane, Jr. are clearing a few more areas to rack some more logs and I am sure they will peel a log or two. 

New Baby Girl

We welcomed Whitney Makayla Grace into our family today. She is a doll, only about 5 lbs.

Logs are Being Cut

Our logger, Billy Harris, has been trying so hard to get our logs cut, but the weather is not cooperating. When the temperature is below freezing, his equipment will not start. He only has about a fifth of our logs cut now and he has surgery on his arm in a few weeks, which will put him out of commission for at least a month. He says he will deliver to us as much as possible before his surgery and the rest after he recovers. That will give us something to start working on for now. We are going to be running at least six weeks behind our original schedule before we even start. Oh well, so goes the house building business. All things in God's timing! There is so much that is totally out of our control and I think God likes it that way. Each day has enough troubles of its own, doesn't it. In the meantime we are waiting for a dry Saturday that is above freezing to finish the outdoor playground. Hopefully sometime before April. We have been spoiled by the dry warm winters of the past few years and it is hard to lay low for these many weeks. I plan to have a few raised garden beds and want to make a compost pile. It is hard to wait when I have no idea when I can get started. We also want to have chickens and need to build a coop. Again now are the days of planning and dreaming and hoping and praying. We plan our days but God directs our paths. We look forward to seeing God's plans for our family unfold.

Adoption

We have begun the process of adopting Benjamin David. He should be officially ours in about 90 days. He is such a sweetie and we couldn't imagine our life without him.

The Snow of 2009

Gabby inside their igloo.

The simple life got even simpler this weekend as we lost electricity for four days. The Snow of 2009 as it will inevitably be known as, was absolutely beautiful. The 14 inches we got was too much for a lot of trees to hold. Limbs and trees were brought down all over the county, knocking out electrical lines and blowing transformers.

Staying warm was not a problem with our Kerosun heater and cooking on our Coleman cook stove and turkey fryer made cooking not a problem. Our wonderful neighbor brought us a basket full of home-canned goodies including applesauce, blackberries, blackberry jelly, and Pink-eyed Shellies; and red potatoes and deer meat. We have been feasting!

It was great having Dad home for 5 days. Dad helped Blane, Jr. build an igloo, pushed Gabby on the sled, cooked outside, melted lots of snow for flushing and kept the Kerosun filled and burning.

Blane, Jr. took lots of pictures with his new camera. We hope you enjoy them!

The scene from our front window.

The swing was grounded!

Kiki liked the snow but not for very long.

This is the side of our shed.

Our car.

A Winter Wonderland

Being a Mom

Today I had a child phsycologist tell me that if I am ever without children at home, which would be a very long time from now, that she could use me in her office. Once before a Child Developmental Coordinator said she wished she could hire me to teach parenting. It makes me feel good that even though I don't have a degree, being a Mom for over twenty years has been a good school master and there is great value in what I do. It was interesting that she picked up on the fact that I am a teacher, which many would say that I am not qualified to do either, but I have been homeschooling for 17 years. Some things I have learned through research, other things by networking with other moms and many things by trial and error, but all things by the Holy Spirit.

Hot Chocolate