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

Choosing A Logger

After getting three bids on logs we decided to use a logger named Billy Harris. His price was a bit higher but he is very experienced and has cut logs for log homes before. He was very nice and welcomed us to come out and look at the stand of trees he had planned to cut for us. Other loggers we looked at were used to cutting pulp wood for paper mills and were not used to hauling the 40' logs we would need. Although their prices were lower than Billy's, we decided to pay a little bit more to make sure the job got done right.


The trees he showed us were almost perfect for building a log home. They were very straight with little taper on most of them. There were also some big beefy trees that we will use for our ridge pole (RP) and ridge pole support logs (RPSL).


Billy will start cutting the logs in the second week of January. As soon as we get our logs the work on the cabin will start, and hopefully will not stop until January 2011 when we are planing to be finished with the cabin.

The Home Pad

After much consideration, we decided on the best spot for the cabin would be to put it just behind the existing trailer which we will remove after finishing the cabin. We will use the well and septic, saving money to help keep with our goal of building without debt. There was minimal grading for the driveway and a terraced place for the home pad. We hired Allen's Excavating to do the grading. Except for the CAT track hoe waking the little ones early from their naps, we were excited to break ground.
Click here to view a slide show of the grading process http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jAlzugLTMQ

The Simple Life

The simple life is elusive and takes on different meanings for most. For us simple doesn't mean easy or even uncomplicated, but rather slowing down enough to appreciate and enjoying some of the simple blessings of God. We enjoy roasting hot dogs and marshmallows at our firepit while taking in the awesome views from our property. We love taking time to get down on the floor to play with babies or have a tea party with the girls. The rope swing is one of the children's favorite pastimes. Blane and Blane, Jr. love hunting, check out Blane, Jr.'s blog. We enjoy family devotions in the evenings and having great discussions instead of watching television. These are just a few and we will share more later.