Sunday Dinner, Devo and Prayer

We up to teeny, tiny, perfectly round snow flakes flying around in the air. None of them seemed to land, so we won't count it as the first snow.  We're wondering who will win the snow guessing contest.  It is noticeably colder today. 

The highlight of the day is when everyone gathered from dinner, a devotional and prayer. Josiah and Jamin were able to make it out this week. 

He's won Bella over

Jamin, Bella, Bre, Izaak

Alex and Josiah

Gideon

Cory share the word today as we continue to work through the book of Philemon 

Michael, Cory, Arielle

I continue to look for easy meals to serve a big group.....What do you feed a crowd? We've had roast and all the go withs, meatballs, potato bar, pasta, tacos and cobbler today.

Driveway Skiing

The weather took a decided turn this fall morning. 

I have learned  I need to squeegee the water off the deck each day to prevent it  freezing in odd patterns. We are loving this deck. I can't imagine why the previous owners never installed it. We sneak out early in the morning to watch the stars and northern  lights, in the summer I sat and watched the sunrise on the mountains with a cuppa tea,  and as a family we watch the sun set over the mountains. There's a magical hour here. This morning the deck surprised us. 

Michael and I ran across to the next town. I hadn't gone grocery shopping last week. I spent hours in Walmart, as he spent hours at Lowes. It was painful. I console myself with the thought we are supporting the local economy.  While we shopped, the kids cleaned the house and played Settlers of Catan. 

Boo shopping on Saturday; Yay - gorgeous drive. 

Back at home, Stacia and I put away groceries, grated cheese and carrots, divided large packages of hamburger to 1# portions, looked up a friend's Cobbler recipe, and baked one for tomorrow's dinner.

I also finished up the kids' fall work samples for our umbrella type school. I love that I can send them electronically.

Jamin and Cody arrived at the house around the same time we did. Cody seems to like running around out here. He never leaves the yard (unlike Yuuki who has scouted out each feeding dish in a 1/2 mile radius).

Earlier, we had gravel delivered. We spent quite a few days spreading it. Then rain came....and we ended up with the washboard effect throughout the driveway before we could level it all. Today, the goal is leveling the driveway.

It wouldn't be a Gherkin project if it didn't have a twist! Michael and Izaak created this little "spreader."  It didn't take long to realize driveway skiing was the best way to level the driveway....

Here's a video of the action 

The driveway really is MUCH better.  Michael also removed a rotting/splitting piece of wood from a section of gravel in front of the house and replaced it with a railroad tie which he felt needed to be moved. 

We were happy Jamin and Cody stayed for dinner - and tried a bit of the cobbler. It was a productive week and we are set for the upcoming week. 

New Tricks

The season is certainly changing. We haven't had snow down here, but we can see lots of it on the mountains around us.

We are losing 5 minutes of sunlight a day. This was our view this a.m. at 0830. 

Alex and I are the first one's up. I'm learning how to light the fire and keep it going throughout the day. It's tricky as some of our wood is wet. The first day we had it up to 80* in here - and it was HOT.  Today (the 16th) I kept it right at 70* - probably helps that it was 20* outside. LOL

This was a good day to make yogurt.....except I kept messing up the timing. I was relieved that it all worked anyway.....evidently it's not quite as touchy as the recipes say. LOL I need to post the recipe, so I don't lose it.

We ended up with 4 Cups of Blueberry (Michael's request), 2 Cups of plain - sour enough for sour cream and 2 Cups of Vanilla (my favorite - goes great on my oatmeal and with fruit and granola). Two new tricks - keeping the fire steady and making yogurt in the Instant Pot. 

THIS is a #WYFF - I think I'm going to have to change this simply picking a weekly photo and having a #WYFTW or something..... LOL 

Kitchen Organization

While the others worked outside, I turned my attention to the kitchen. I have a LOT of space in the kitchen - at least it SEEMS like a lot after two years of full-timing in the RV. I have empty drawers, and others with one item in them...Stacia has her own supply drawer.  This is all fine with me. We have determined we don't want to simply collect things to "fill the space." We liked living simply and want to continue to do so.....

In the RV I knew where everything was....I spend a lot of time looking for a can of what not, or the gadget someone has stashed in a new drawer. I, also, have a lot of willing helpers to put away groceries....but I want to be able to quickly FIND things....and so Stacia and I spent a day with the label maker.

Snacks above, bread supplies, pasta and rice below

Baking Center - Stacia's domain

Canned supplies 

I need to finish the cupboards and move on to the pantry. I ran out of energy! 

Full Woodshed

This is Michael tackling two more cords of wood - after our "split and seasoned" wood was delivered. What folks don't know, is some days Michael resembles, and feels, like the tin man. His muscles are stiff and won't move as he'd like them to move. Today was a stiff day. He also did not feel well - at the time (I'm writing on the 16th) we weren't sure if he was catching my bug, or if it was related to meds. We suspect strongly it was meds at this point. But he wasn't feeling well. The boys have spent every afternoon splitting wood to get us to where we were when we ordered two cords of SPLIT wood. The plan was for them to spend this afternoon helping stack the wood....because a "wintery mix" is predicted.  The boys had to do school.....but the wood needed to be splitted.  I strongly suggested Michael spend the money and rent a gas splitter. After some thought, he did just that, and set up in the morning.

He and the boys were able to split 2 cords of wood, and stack it all,  in one afternoon! We beat the "wintery mix."

The last piece is split! 

A full woodshed. This is the result of much work by Cory, Michael and the boys, Izaak, Josiah, Jamin and Jared! I think, if you visited our  home in the past couple of months, you were likely to help cut a tree, split some wood or move it from the back to the driveway. LOL  We had thought 1/2 of the woodshed would be seasoned and 1/2 from the  dead trees on our property. Seasoned wood, we are told, must dry at least 6 months. By the time we burn the new stuff, the stuff we cut should be seasoned - or such was our plan. Much of the stuff we cut  is going on 2 months now. 

As we burn it we seem to be finding the 1/2 which isn't seasoned - hopefully the seasoned half will show up quickly. ::snort:: Maybe none of it was seasoned. We'll look for another man to buy from next year....OR....

We may get a permit, cut our own wood, and rent the splitter next year!  These guys may even be able to make some money selling it.

This would be a good time to publicly say that we would not wish for Michael's physical challenges, but we are so amazed and humbled at how the kids have stepped in to help. All of the kids, but the younger three especially.

Preparing for Winter

When I'm not sick - I get to snuggle with Gideon whilst Bre showers. He's becoming very interactive and smiley. When I'm sick I watch him from behind a telephoto lens. ::snort::

The snow is all around us now. We are still snow free in the Valley.....

 The bare mountain is the one we see from our dining and living rooms....the snow is down lower on other mountains....but it seems to be protected from the snow. 

I LOVE the fall colors, with the snow....

Our big news of the day is that we found a spot to buy two cords of birch/spruce. We're told 1/2 of it is seasoned and it's split. It was immediately apparent this was NOT split. ::sigh:: From a Christian businessman too. It's on Craig's list so we can't really leave a business review. He did give us a bit of money off, when Michael said something....but we would have gotten the OTHER wood that WAS SPLIT  if he'd told us the truth.....

Well - the bottom line is we now have wood - we just need to split these 2 cords. 

We Do Windows

Everyone is working on home projects. Alex and Nolan finished washing the outside windows....

 Yuuki likes to go on the deck - and she immediately jumps on the rocking chair and looks longingly back inside. She's never content WHERE she is. She certainly needs to learn to live fully present. That'll Preach!