A little splattering of white....

All five of us worked on painting the plywood in the shop this morning. By lunch time, we were half done with the shop and several of us had quite a few little white polka dots all over our faces and hands/arms! We were using rollers (a couple on sticks to reach the higher areas), and 'though those are nice, they do splatter little drops of paint in every direction! I'm not sure how far the rest of my family got out there today as, after noon, I headed for work in town. Dad headed for Bismarck then to return the scissor-lift. Mom, I know, had a session here at the farm for a client. The boys were going to work on moving everything from one side of the shop to the other so we could paint the other half...... I'll try to get pictures tomorrow---before I get my hands all painty again! :)

A kitchen full of food....

....Yep, that's what I came home to tonight after working in town!

My mom picked up the Azure order on her way to Bismarck this morning, then bought a few more things at Sams this evening. Apparently, she got home late and so carried everything in and set it in the kitchen to put away tomorrow. Thus---the kitchen FULL of food! Yes, I am very thankful for it too. :)

I spent part of the morning out in the shop, helping put up the last of the plywood sheeting. Mom brought the trailer from the Rent-All place home so the guys can take the scissor-lift back in the morning. It looks like they were able to do some painting in the shop too, as there are paint brushes and trays in the kitchen tonight as well. :)

And that was our day, as much as I know of it....

I will leave you with a thought to ponder from my favorite flip-calender:

"God never puts any person in a place too small to grow in."

PS. The coyotes just started howling like crazy. It's so nice to be safe at home....

Another full day away...

I got up early this morning and headed for Helen's Daycare to watch the children so she could go with her husband to Bismarck for appointments. Another lady came and took over at 1:40 so that I could quickly change and drive into town (Helens' house is a few miles out of Napoleon) and be in time to work my PM shift at the nursing home. I'm pretty tired tonight and am glad I can sleep in a little bit in the morning! :)

The others worked out in the shop again today. They said that if they have one more good day, they should be done with the sheeting and then can take back the scissor-lift. Then they will put in a small door on the front side of the shop; insulate the large shop door; paint all the sheeting white; move their bench back in place............ There still is lots to do, but we are grateful for the progress that's been made---safely!

I will leave you now with the "Good Clean Funnies" joke of the day.

It's called: Live and Learn

Psychiatry students were in their Emotional Extremes class.
"Let's set some parameters," the professor said. "What's the
opposite of joy?" he asked one student.

"Sadness," he replied.

"The opposite of depression?" he asked another student.

"Elation," he replied.

"The opposite of woe?" the prof asked a young woman from
Texas.

The Texan replied, "Sir, I believe that would be giddyup."

More shop progress....

I didn't take pictures today, but we did get a lot done in the shop once again. All 5 of us worked in there for most of the day, so we were able to get more insulation up; we got the guys' work-bench cleaned off most of the way and pulled out from the wall; took down more plywood from the wall so as to be able to put insulation behind it; then we put up more plywood over the insulation. :) We were so busy, we didn't even play pool today!

It snowed about 2 inches worth of white stuff this afternoon and evening. It's beginning to look a lot like Winter!

Well, it sounds like Dad's about done talking on the phone with his dad, so we'll be finishing our Bonanza here shortly before heading for bed...


Yep, he's done. So, good bye friends, and good night.~

Recent pictures of the shop project:

The following photos are from yesterdays work.

Dad took this one of my brothers and I on the scissor-lift......


...and in this one, we're actually working. :)

Jacob swept up all the wood chips/dust from the floor before we set up the pool table.

I never realized there were so many pieces in a pool table! Here, Dad and Andrew are tightening up the stand:

Then, they tried to make the outside frame more square than it was before....

Jacob, working on bolting in the "Slate".

Andrew, mounting the ball return...

After all that was screwed and bolted together, we put the stand on top and attached that. Then all 4 of us carefully tipped the table right side up.

Andrew vacuumed the table-top carefully while Dad leveled it out...

...and then we played a game before chores. :)

We played several more games this afternoon. Mother came out after a while and won a couple games.... :)

What joy it is to be a part of a fun family!

Shop success...

After helping Mother with house-cleaning a bit, I headed out to the shop once again to help my dad and brothers with the insulating project. Today, we finished putting the sheeting up on the West half of the shop! It looks so much nicer than it did before---plus it's so much warmer as well. We did get a good deal of wood dust in our faces as we pounded pretty much upside-down on the slanted part of the ceiling. I'm so grateful for the scissor-lift though, as I can't even imagine trying to pound nails in while standing on a ladder or a make-shift scaffolding....

To celebrate the progress that's been made, we spent about an hours worth of time setting up the pool table (in the shop). It was all in pieces as the guys had needed to take it apart to get it up the stairs of the gentlemans' basement.... Once it was rebuilt and leveled out nicely, we played one game----------and quickly realized how much room we have for improvement. I ended up with the lowest score, a total of 3 points. :)

It is so fun to play games together as a family. I'd love to hear of your favorite games to play if you have a moment to write!

It was a full day away...

...and right now I'm thankful for a nice, warm, soft, comfortable bed to rest on each night!

I left the house this morning at 8:00 and didn't get back until 11:00 tonight. The reason? I was taking care of people--large and small!

I watched and cared for 10 small children at Helen's from 8:30AM to 1:30PM (so she could attend her aunts' funeral), then headed straight for the Napoleon Care Center (the nursing home) for an 8 1/2 hour shift. It got to be a long day, but I always really enjoy spending time with the children, so adding that onto my regular work in town was not too burdensome. :)

I am tired however, so shall retire shortly!

Good night.~

Day #30!

Well, my dear friends, can you believe that the "30 Days of Thankfulness" are up? I can not, and, well......do not, as I believe every day should be a day to give thanks to the Lord for His blessings (and blessings-in-disguise). Why stop at 30 days, right?

The official "Thankfulness challenge" is done though, as tomorrow is the first day of December and November will be officially over! Thank you to my dear friend, Rachel, for inspiring others to give more regular thanks for the things we are grateful for. :)

I am thankful tonight for the safety my Heavenly Father has granted us over the years as we do many dangerous jobs here on the farm!

I am also grateful for my earthly father and mothers' protection of our safety: spiritually, mentally, emotionally......., as well as their looking out for our physical safety...

For example:

You saw in my previous shop-project post the method we were using to get the insulation up in the walls (by way of a brave young man on a very tall ladder, and a very long stick/broom). Well, the ladder worked ok for that job, but when it comes to hammering up plywood on a slanted ceiling, a ladder does not sound like the safest thing to be standing on!

Soooo, my dad decided to play it safe and rent a scissor-lift for a week so we can finish up this project in a much safer way. Hooray! :)

When the guys went to Bismarck this morning, not only did they bring home more plywood and the lift, they also came back with a dream-come-true tool chest that they'd bought (which will come in very handy as they clean off their workbench in the next few days), and a (free!) pool table that Jacob saw an ad on BisMan for... The table does not have any cues or balls with it, so the boys are now keeping their eyes open for those items. Mother grew up playing pool with her dad, so she's really quite good and will probably beat us all at it! :)

But, back to the shop...

Millie and Lady seem to be enjoying the new warmth of the shop as much as we are! (That's the wood stove to the left of them.)

FYI: When working with insulation, it is a very good idea to wear a mask! See all of the dust I didn't breath in?

After part of an afternoons' work, we now have almost all of the West side of the shop insulated! Double hooray!!

Well friends, it's been lots of fun telling you about the things I'm grateful for these past 30 days. It would be even more fun, however, to hear from you!

I'm sure you could tell me quite a list of things!~

Little people say the sweetest things, sometimes!

A man, in a hurry taking his eight-year-old son to school,
made a turn at a red light where it was prohibited.

"Uh-oh, I just made an illegal turn!" the man said.

"Aw, Dad, it's okay," the son said. "The police car right
behind us did the same thing."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Little Johnny's mother was having difficulty gulping down
the birthday cake he had made for her as a surprise. When
she was finished, Little Johnny happily exclaimed,

"I'm so glad you like it, Mommy. There should have been 32
candles on the cake, but they were all gone when I took it
out of the oven."

Day #29~

I am so very thankful tonight that God provided such nice weather (nice, for the end of November, that is!), as we worked our calves this morning/afternoon. Towards the end of the day, we were getting cold and our fingers were getting numb, but it could have been a LOT worse, so we are grateful! Hopefully next year, we'll get this job done a bit earlier in the year?

Anyway, thank you to those of you who prayed for us as we worked! There were a couple injuries (Jerome got kicked in the hand by a cow and Dad on his shin by a calf), but the bruises are on the minor side of things, so that is a blessing.

Here are some of the calves, needing to be worked...

We were also so very grateful that Jerome came and helped us! Here he and Andrew are waiting for Dad to bring the next calf up the alley way. Andrew's main job was catching the calves and he did a great at it this time---not missing any of the 121 calves we did!

Dad brought the calves up from the small pen at the end of the alley... ...and then banded them. Jacob kept the bander loaded and handed Dad the special knife when needed. We band the bull calves in the Fall, as we've learned that they grow better as bulls than they do as steers.

Mother and Jerome were the main shot-givers, although Jacob and I filled in when necessary...

"Caught'cha!"

I had the job of writing down the calves #, color, gender, etc...; mixing up more vaccine as needed; and tagging any calves that needed a new earring. :)

We have 3 baby calves that were born this Fall sometime. They were too small to catch in the head-gate, so we caught them by hand and "Worked" them. This little guy was quite spry and, though it probably didn't take 3 of us to hold him down, we (my brothers and I) all did so anyway!

Jerome and Jacob, checking out my record-keeping system. :)

The calves on this side of the corralling are "Done".

And now, we can scratch "WORK CALVES" off our to-do list, for another season.