T'was the month before Christmas......

*Twas the month before Christmas*

*When all through our land,*

*Not a Christian was praying*

*Nor taking a stand.*

*See the PC Police had taken away,*

*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*

*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*

*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*

*It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say*

*December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.*

*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*

*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*

*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*

*Something was changing, something quite odd!*

*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*

*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*

*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*

* At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.*

*At K-Mart and Staples and Penney's and Sears*

*You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.*

*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*

*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*

*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*

*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!*

*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*

*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*

*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*

*Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*

*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*

*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*

*So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'*

*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*

*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*

*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holiday !*

Please,all Christians join together & wish everyone you meet during the holidays a

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Jesus Christ is The Reason for the Christ-mas Season!

Wood Ministry.... and our folly

We've been busy the past week or 10 days... we've been blessed with awesome weather that has allowed us to work outside!!
We got the south side of the cabin completely sided!!! Only the east side remains "naked"... we may get it done yet before it gets too cold/snowy to work! We bought more aspen tongue & groove (6") to finish the kitchen walls - and still we're about 5 board short of being complete. We haven't done any finish work on the cabinets (doors & trim) but some friends from church have lots of aspen in their home & we were inspired by their cabinet doors & will most likely copy them! We also bought 8" tongue & groove for the living room... most of 2 walls now have T&G up about 4 feet - and drywall above that.

About the Wood Ministry... some gentlemen from our church decided to help out the community: 1) by cutting down dead trees (fire mitigation) or trees that threaten someone's home and 2) by giving the wood to those in need. While we're not "in need", trying to get the LOVE SHACK finished has taken up the good weather days we would have otherwise used to cut our own wood. I approached these men last Sunday about getting some of their seasoned wood & making a donation to help defray some of the cost of for their gas & upkeep of their tools, etc. Yesterday after lunch Jerry, Skeeter & I went to pick up a trailer-load of wood -- about 1 1/2 cord. Everything went great... until just before we were about to pull onto the highway. Jerry thought maybe we should strap down the load. Did I mention the sun was setting - quickly!! We stopped & got out to strap the wood down... and noticed the trailer was sitting funny. Upon further examination we discovered that we not only had a flat tire... but it was completely off the rim. UGH! Nothing like being in the dark with a trailer load of wood 15 miles from your intended destination. Jerry called AAA - they don't fix "utility trailer" tires. Hmph! So......... this morning we got up early (it was about 20 degrees!) and went to where we had left our trailer of wood. We figured we'd make three trips to get all the wood home -- we couldn't possibly jack up the trailer with all that wood on it! So.......... three pickup loads later the wood is home -- just in a big pile, not stacked -- and the trailer still has NO tire on it! We tried to change it but the hub must be glued... oh, Jerry says it's probably welded not glued :o)... onto the axel and the spare tire is also is on its own "hub"... so there sits our trailer. Hopefully we can figure out how to deal with this as we use the trailer a lot!
Better days are ahead I'm sure!

Franklin... the Woodstove!

Last Thursday we were in town getting mail, doing a bit of shopping & ran into our friend Hal. He & Jerry got to talking about our respective building projects (Hal's building his own place too). Jerry mentioned that we were needing to get the woodstove hooked up so we could spend the winter here & Hal said he'd be out the next morning! WOW!!! The next morning Hal arrived about 10:30 - he & Jerry worked on getting the piping & chimney hooked up. By 2:30 we had FIRE!!! We asked Hal how much we owed him - he said he wasn't working for money, that he wanted to BLESS us!!! WOW again!!! We truly were blessed... and blessed him with some cash to help him with his building expenses!!
Anyway, Franklin the woodstove has been hooked up & keeping us warm for a week now! Our latest concern is having enough wood to get thru the winter. Other than that we're enjoying the heat very much considering the cold (below freezing) temperatures we've been having. We're still having issues with the propane kitchen stove... so we've resorted to cooking on the woodstove. The Original Slow Cooker. Dinner is not ready in a half hour... a pot is put on the stove to cook as soon as we finish breakfast & it's ready to eat by late afternoon.
Last weekend & early this week - before the snow - we picked pinon nuts off the trees at our place. One certainly couldn't earn a living doing this. Very tedious & sticky. Jerry thought we should just pick up the ones that had dropped on the ground but there are so many deer - um - droppings under the trees that I decided it was better to pick them right out of the cones. We soaked them in salt water overnight then roasted them on the woodstove. Pretty tasty most of them.
We got maybe 3" of snow at our place. It was beautiful watching it come down in big, fluffy flakes... and then Skeeter went out in it & now our pretty snow is full of giant dog tracks. Oh well. There will be more snow!

First Amendment Rights

For a while I had a blog on MySpace... people were reluctant to "join" just to read what was going on. So I found blogspot. Using this service has been a good experience for me. No one is required to "join" just to read... or leave a comment, as it seems that can be done "anonymously".

Facebook, however, is a different animal. One is required to join in order to gain access to "friends" and "groups" and "fan clubs". One also has to "request" friendship. I suppose this is a good thing. I'm curious as to how some people find "friends". For instance, I received a "friend request" from some man I do not know. I sent him a FB message asking if he found my name in a FB group... he responded by saying he'd found my name in his friend's list. Strangely enough... after scanning a few of my FB friends' lists... this man is not among their friends.

I've discovered several groups on FB that have the same political & religious views as I have... and found them to be enlightening & interesting although somewhat controversial compared to the views of many of my "friends". Since we've been in Nebraska, the weather's been crappy & I've been sick - I've spent more time than I should online reading some of these things. I've found many of them interesting & thought, in light of some discussions I've been in with "friends" on the opposite side of things, I thought I'd post a few of the articles to give an different view.

Unfortunately, I guess First Amendment Rights only apply if you share "their" views. I suppose this is really nothing new, huh? Thankfully, I can still post here without getting too much flack.

.:There's No Place Like Home:.

I'm SO ready to go back home to the cabin!! The living room is FULL of boxes packed with all the stuff we're taking back with us! What a nightmare!

It's been nice being in Nebraska... even if it's for longer than we had originally planned. I've been able to see a couple girlfriends from college, another friend who had moved to the East Coast and have 24/7 access to internet to play on Facebook - which may or may not be a good thing. Facebook is an interesting phenomenon: a place to keep up with family, friends - old & new, former co-workers, etc. Also interesting is the amazing information one can find on Facebook - things one would generally not look for (mostly political and religious). It's a great place to share views & discuss world issues... although it sometimes gets a bit heated. It's still a fun place to "hangout" online.

We've probably missed the changing colours of the aspens. It seems the weather in Nebraska has skipped fall (although the trees are beautiful) and is closer to winter weather. It snowed last weekend and has been cold & damp... and gray! Not my ideal weather by any means. Jerry's wondering how I'll do with the winters in Colorado... I guess the way to find out is to actually spend a winter there.

Friends here are still wondering why in the world we'd want to spend winter there.... I guess what they don't understand is ~ THAT IS home for us... the place here in Nebraska is more of a second home, a place to sleep when we're back visiting without having to shack up with our kids or friends.

We got a call today from some friends in Colorado saying they'd stopped by our cabin & we weren't there... they hadn't seen us in a couple weeks... wondered if everything was okay. They also told us that everything looked "normal" at the cabin - so that's a good thing! Great friends everywhere!

We are SO grateful for our friends here. When we're in Nebraska they make sure we're fed and entertained... and provide us with a place to bounce ideas & concerns, a shoulder to cry on and much love & laughter. They are icing on our cake!

Pictures of the cabin...

FINALLY!!! A few pictures of the cabin! The kitchen counter, the drop leaf table we made and the pantry... and the exterior of the cabin - so far. We still have to put wood trim around the windows & door... and attach the 1x4 boards (battens) between the 1x12 boards.
We've been in Nebraska for almost 10 days... 10 days we could have been working on the cabin... but we came back for a wedding, to see family & friends and have a garage sale (can you believe we STILL have stuff to get rid of?!)... hopefully the days will still be warm enough for us to work outside when we get back.

September Update or Where has the summer gone?

Summer came & went!!
The weather has been uncooperative off & on... what's new with that? The weather determines what project we work on at any given time.
We've enjoyed the humming birds... we had about 30 (give or take - it's hard to count because they move so darned fast)... but before we left we were down to three. We got SO much enjoyment out of watching them.
We got LOTS done this month... including getting most of the cabin sided with 1" x 12" spruce - stained cedar. We'vve not gotten the windows trimmed yet - but hope to have that done before winter!
We built base kitchen cabinets & decided to build a counter rather than use a "store-bought" one... using Mexican tile we purchased at a garage sale. Although we didn't have enough to do the whole counter top, backsplash & the front edge of the counter (and after a trip to Taos to look for something suitable) Jerry came up with the idea to build a wood frame around the counter & fill in with the tile. The backsplash is just tile set on the back edge of the frame. We used 1" x 4" to frame & used it on the front of the counter as well. I have to say... It looks REALLY nice!! I have enough tile left over to put about 2 square feet of it behind the kitchen stove -- figured it would be easier to clean grease spatter off tile than it would off aspen tongue & groove! We also built upper cabinets, faced the bottoms of them & the four visible ends with leftover aspen. We added 12 volt lighting under the upper cabinets as well!
We bought an RV size (25" x 18") kitchen sink on ebay rather than use the stainless steel sink we brought - it was just too big! I used the remaining big pieces of aspen T & G on the kitchen wall that is shared with what will be the pantry/coat closet. I was 4 pieces short of finishing! Rats! Jerry attached shelf brackets to the back of that wall (in the pantry) and cut up pieces of left over plywood for shelves.
We got ahead of ourselves when we did the counters (as long as we had mastic) and put down the tile on the floor of the hearth. We lived with it, looked at it, wondered how to do it... for a couple weeks... then a friend of ours told us he had a tile wet saw! SCORE one for us!! We finished the rest of the hearth (2 back walls) in an afternoon. We had left over pieces of tile (cut) and not enough of the 12" tile left to do any size entryway... so I broke those cut pieces with a hammer & will use those to make a mosaic with the left over 12" tiles as a "frame".
We also built a back door out of 1" x 8" spruce (exterior), 1 1/2" solid core foam insulation (center) 1" x 6" pine (interior)... and stained it cedar as well. Have to say the end result was quite nice! We bought quite a bit of the 1" x 8" spruce... so we used the remainder on the bathroom walls - completed one and most of a second. It looks very rustic... much like an old outhouse might!
We've been patiently waiting for stovepipe to be delivered so we can get our woodstove hooked up. As temperatures dropped (this past week we had lows in the mid to low-20's) we began to wonder if the last two pieces would ever arrive... and of course just before we got ready to come back to Nebraska for a week... they showed up! Guess what we'll be doing when we get back?!

Well... we're back in Nebraska for a few days. Friends got married last nite... having a garage sale Thursday/Friday/Saturday this coming week! Lots to do in a short amount of time as we have to get back to finish getting the cabin ready for winter.