Back to School

Well, Katherine went off to school on Sat, Aug 22 and started classes last Wednesday. I started class today. Yes, I'm going back to school. I'm going to go to Lancaster Bible College and do their degree completion program and then continue on and will end up with my Masters in Marriage & Family Counseling. It should take me total of about 4 years to finish. Ultimately I want to work as a Family Counselor (not so much the marriage but work more with Teenagers, parenting, etc.) and I also hope to serve in disaster relief. It's going to be a busy next several years but there is no time like the present so off I go to school. Actually, I think I will be able to do all of my undergrad classes online if I choose so I'm really happy about the flexibility. I'm really pretty excited about it all.

Love ya,
Beth

Lighting strike

We had lighting strike our house not once but twice last week...On Wednesday night, during a bad storm it blew out our living room TV. Was on, then went off and then can't come back on...On Thursday night when I got home, Gary said...well two more TV's ....and counting. Here it took our little TV (that I had put on top of our broken living room one--real redneck style)!! and also Brad's TV downstairs...also Brad's Xbox, Gary's old playstation, Brad VCR/DVD player, our telephone device (our phone is on Vonage--through our internet), computer modem, and something in my computer. So we didn't have a phone til yesterday...that was long..and no internet on my computer til today...that was long...Brad's watching tv on his computer...Gary's tv still works or we would all be crazy!!!....But we are getting by...turned it into homeowners but that also takes awhile and is a process...it's amazing how much you count on those "electronic" things and don't really think you do til you don't have them...

Other than that...not much is new...Looking forward to the reunion...

Swimming with the sharks, or Hammerhead

Had a small accident yesterday at work. Nothing serious, just a trip to the local acute care clinic for 1-1/2 hours and eight staples.

We were tearing down a chimney. One of the men had placed his hammer on a wall, which I didn't know about. I walked underneath it to move a stepladder, and...Voila! You see the results. Needless to say, it spoiled a good bit of the rest of my day. I'm OK. It caused Cindy more trouble than it did me. Have to go back in a week to pull the staples.

You'd think a person would learn after all these years.

Surrounding Landscape

A few picture of the area around the house. And our modern outhouse! teehee

Foundation Is Done

The foundation walls came last week so Shadow and I went up on the weekend to inspect and take pictures. Actually I was getting him out of the house so potential buyers could look at it--we had two couples come to look.

Progress Photo v.2

This is a pretty good shot of the job I've been working on. Got it on the run. Met the city inspector yesterday afternoon--passed with flying colors, just a couple small items to tend to. Glad it's this far, maybe I can take a breather.

I have also included a couple pictures of a large garage we built in the spring. The owner has room to store three cars inside with working area for another one, a half bath, and a 15' x 36' "man cave" in the back, complete with pool table, juke box, pinball machine, beer tap, and work table for his model airplanes. Drywall ceilings with knockdown, beadboard panelling, AC.

Nice!! Man, what you can do with a little bit of money. I'm going to be doing some extra work for him a little later on this year after it cools down and get some of that.

Progress Photos

We have a well, we have stone and we have drain pipes. Foundation walls will be here on Friday. Shadow, the supervisor, does not like it. He was much happier when the hole was full of water that he could play in! All he has now is a couple of small puddles.

I've been doing something out of the ordinary for the last two weeks...working.

Actually, that's not quite accurate because I'm always working when I'm on the clock, but I've been framing a house addition for one of our jobs. Since the company has cut back, it's become part of my work. It's been tough--temperatures in the 90's, high humidity, sweatin' like a pig from 8:00 on, dog-tired at the end of the day, barely able to drop my tools and drive home. I must be getting used to it, though, because Thursday and Friday weren't too bad. We've got it almost done. One more day should just about wrap it up.

Couple problems to overcome:

1. Dimensions of the concrete slab were wrong and the slab was poured out of square, which meant I had to cut it back. Half a day.

2. Plan design was wrong. Supposed to be 7" difference between height of existing beam and new beam, but actually was 12", which meant that the trusses, girder trusses, and bearing wall were all wrong. I had to lower the girder trusses and bearing wall by 5", which lowered the ceilings, which lowered the trapezoidal transom window heights, which had been ordered and now won't fit, which means that we had to re-order. Not to mention that this was the most complicated truss design I've ever worked with. Took me twice as long as I expected, but I've got it on the run.

I've got nothing to complain about though, because I was there with the architect looking at the elevations and had full knowledge of the plans before we started. Should have caught it, but...

Oh, well, it's turning out quite nicely and I don't expect to have any more trouble with it. I sure will be glad when it cools down, though. Don't want to go through another summer here.

September reunion

Hello everybody. It is time to think about the reunion. So here we go, it will start Thursday, Sept 10, and last until Sunday the 13. We will be there Thursday morning. Please ask your family members who might be coming and for how many days so we know about food. You can bring tents and campers but there are no hookups for them. The cabin has fourteen beds and some couches. It has a gas refrigerator and cook stoves and ovens and grills. The water and lighting are run by a generator so bring lanterns if you have them.

This is what I came up with for a menu. It can be changed or added to, please help me out.

Thursday night supper - hotdogs, hamburgers, and salads

Friday morning - eggs, sausage, toast, oj, etc.

Lunches - I thought everybody that wanted to could bring sandwich stuff and snack foods or whatever

Friday night supper - I thought taco salads and baked potato bar with all the goodies and dessert

Saturday breakfast - french toast, bacon, fresh fruit,etc.

lunch whatever

Saturday supper - bring your own steak for the grill, salt potatoes, corn on the cob, and dessert.

Sunday breakfast dounuts or danishes, leftovers, etc.

Please bring your own drinks, and the water is not drinkable there so bring that too

Hope all can come looking forward to it.

Please sign up for what you want to bring, or add anything that you think we might need.

Please let us know who is coming.

Love you all, Bobs