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.