Early June Updates and Critters all Around!
Greetings Sisters!
Sorry it's been a while since I've taken the time to post, we've been very busy with getting ourselves set up at the Missouri homestead (temporarily), carving and ministry but things are evening out a bit and I need to catch up!
I praise God that we are busy in many ways and am thankful in all things:
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
We arrived here in Missouri a few days ago and took time to get ourselves temporarily set up here for carving some orders (praise God for providing for our business). In the meantime brother Jim put in a new floor in the van:
Nothing fancy, just some plywood that I painted. There's a drop footwell and brother Jim made a piece for the backside of that and we have to get a corner piece to bring them together better. I'm painting the box that goes in between the front seats as well. It hold all our tracts and it's also brother Jim's seat when we're in the van, we just put a cushion over it. We're thankful to be able to do a little bit here and there on it, using our patience and creating more thankfulness that way. Let me share something about that.
When we first put the bed platform in the van we were running out of time for any sort of work inside so we just did the best we could with it the way it was and that's a great way to do it because as you live in it you can see where you want to make changes as opposed to doing what you 'think' would work. Anyway the floor of the van had this rubber mat that was really bumpy and wavy, not flat at all so nothing could be set on it without tipping over. So for all the time we were in it, we just got used to it and by the time we got down here and Jim was putting in the floor he asked if we wanted to put a nice floor in the area where you could see and I said 'I could care less if it's just plywood, at least it's flat! :-) So we went the economical way and that's what we did. This is pretty funny too...when we were getting some supplies to do it, I went into the paint department looking for a plain old brown paint for the floor and I asked the lady at the counter if they had a quart of discounted brown that someone returned or didn't want and she pulled out a gallon of good quality paint for $5! Now for a very inexpensive price and simple construction we have a solid floor. I'm grateful for that!
There are some other areas we want to work on inside but those will have to wait a while as there are more important things to deal with.
We've had some interesting critters here on the homestead so I'll share some videos with you. Here's a snail Jim found under the bark of a log, good thing he rescued it before he started carving!
Yeah, so when you have a house in the woods and you're gone, the creatures decide that they want to inhabit it themselves and start making way with all your stuff. Well, brother Jim's shop was broken into by some sort of naughty rascal animal and he set out a live trap to catch him. Late that night I woke up to hearing a mewing sound thinking it was a cat or something. Finally I woke up brother Jim and told him something was in the trap and he went to see and guess what it was???
A cute little fox! (He couldn't have been the culprit though.) The neighbor down the road told us that there was a family of fox living under his porch and it looks like this little one is from there. Jim text the neighbor and told him he caught one and just after he released it the neighbor sent this picture of him sitting on a log pile in our log yard!
We also have a lot of these running around...
Here's another one...
I'm not exactly sure what they are called but they are rather cute. I touched one as he was just sitting there looking at me. We're thankful for them because they clean up crawlie critters that I don't care for:-)
I tried to get a video of this butterfly moving his wings but he stopped so I snapped a picture.
On our way back here while camping out at a walmart there was a beautiful lightening storm so I caught a video of it.
Here are a couple pictures of the clouds that came in just beforehand....
It was a really nice place to park for the night with trees all over and we got to see the awesome storm rolling in, right over us and on by.
At a different Walmart we had the enjoyment of watching the street sweeper come through....it's okay when it's early like by midnight but oftentimes they run them between midnight and 4 am. This one was pretty early, like 11 pm so we didn't mind:-) We don't normally get to go to bed early when we're on the road so 11-midnight is usually our bedtime but there have been many times of later than that and it's because of witnessing, praise God!
We had to travel to an onsite carve (that's where we go to someones house and carve their tree trunk into something for them. In this case the man wanted some climbing bears and an owl but after looking at the stump we had to make alternative plans but we did have an interesting drive there. Once you leave the blacktop here in Missouri and get on gravel roads, be ready for an interesting drive. Many of them have very steep hills, ruts and washboard bumps. Traveling at about 5 miles per hour it takes a long time to even get a mile and you pray that you don't break down!
And then while we were there he let us see his Koi fish in a spring fed creek that leads into a big pond on his property.
I shot a video of the scenery right by the tree we were supposed to work on.
Because of the damage the storm did to it and the diameter, instead of Jim carving it, he's going to make bears and an owl to hang on it instead. That will make for a larger and more visible carving by his archway across the driveway. The man will pick them up and attach them himself, we look forward to seeing the finished picture. Sometimes that's how it goes, we get to a place to work and what was talked about, the pictures of the stump and such don't always go the way the homeowner was planning so we work out details that will work and everyone's happy! Here's a picture of the owl and Jim's working on the bears right now.
We are thankful for every day and now we need to get some carving done because there's a trip we have to make a couple hours south of our homestead here to drop off some commission carvings. Then on the road to Wisconsin for more orders up there! Then back down here. Then out to Wyoming. So we're busy but while traveling in between there's always witnessing going on!
I will say that it's a challenge down here in the summertime being off grid in the summer heat and humidity but it kills our comfort...which I will be writing about in my next letter to you!
Praise God for every day we have to serve Him. In all that you do...do it unto the Lord!
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men Colossians 3:23
Have a joyous day sisters!
Love in Christ,
Sister Deb
Sorry it's been a while since I've taken the time to post, we've been very busy with getting ourselves set up at the Missouri homestead (temporarily), carving and ministry but things are evening out a bit and I need to catch up!
I praise God that we are busy in many ways and am thankful in all things:
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
We arrived here in Missouri a few days ago and took time to get ourselves temporarily set up here for carving some orders (praise God for providing for our business). In the meantime brother Jim put in a new floor in the van:
Nothing fancy, just some plywood that I painted. There's a drop footwell and brother Jim made a piece for the backside of that and we have to get a corner piece to bring them together better. I'm painting the box that goes in between the front seats as well. It hold all our tracts and it's also brother Jim's seat when we're in the van, we just put a cushion over it. We're thankful to be able to do a little bit here and there on it, using our patience and creating more thankfulness that way. Let me share something about that.
When we first put the bed platform in the van we were running out of time for any sort of work inside so we just did the best we could with it the way it was and that's a great way to do it because as you live in it you can see where you want to make changes as opposed to doing what you 'think' would work. Anyway the floor of the van had this rubber mat that was really bumpy and wavy, not flat at all so nothing could be set on it without tipping over. So for all the time we were in it, we just got used to it and by the time we got down here and Jim was putting in the floor he asked if we wanted to put a nice floor in the area where you could see and I said 'I could care less if it's just plywood, at least it's flat! :-) So we went the economical way and that's what we did. This is pretty funny too...when we were getting some supplies to do it, I went into the paint department looking for a plain old brown paint for the floor and I asked the lady at the counter if they had a quart of discounted brown that someone returned or didn't want and she pulled out a gallon of good quality paint for $5! Now for a very inexpensive price and simple construction we have a solid floor. I'm grateful for that!
There are some other areas we want to work on inside but those will have to wait a while as there are more important things to deal with.
We've had some interesting critters here on the homestead so I'll share some videos with you. Here's a snail Jim found under the bark of a log, good thing he rescued it before he started carving!
Yeah, so when you have a house in the woods and you're gone, the creatures decide that they want to inhabit it themselves and start making way with all your stuff. Well, brother Jim's shop was broken into by some sort of naughty rascal animal and he set out a live trap to catch him. Late that night I woke up to hearing a mewing sound thinking it was a cat or something. Finally I woke up brother Jim and told him something was in the trap and he went to see and guess what it was???
A cute little fox! (He couldn't have been the culprit though.) The neighbor down the road told us that there was a family of fox living under his porch and it looks like this little one is from there. Jim text the neighbor and told him he caught one and just after he released it the neighbor sent this picture of him sitting on a log pile in our log yard!
We also have a lot of these running around...
Here's another one...
I'm not exactly sure what they are called but they are rather cute. I touched one as he was just sitting there looking at me. We're thankful for them because they clean up crawlie critters that I don't care for:-)
I tried to get a video of this butterfly moving his wings but he stopped so I snapped a picture.
On our way back here while camping out at a walmart there was a beautiful lightening storm so I caught a video of it.
Here are a couple pictures of the clouds that came in just beforehand....
It was a really nice place to park for the night with trees all over and we got to see the awesome storm rolling in, right over us and on by.
At a different Walmart we had the enjoyment of watching the street sweeper come through....it's okay when it's early like by midnight but oftentimes they run them between midnight and 4 am. This one was pretty early, like 11 pm so we didn't mind:-) We don't normally get to go to bed early when we're on the road so 11-midnight is usually our bedtime but there have been many times of later than that and it's because of witnessing, praise God!
We had to travel to an onsite carve (that's where we go to someones house and carve their tree trunk into something for them. In this case the man wanted some climbing bears and an owl but after looking at the stump we had to make alternative plans but we did have an interesting drive there. Once you leave the blacktop here in Missouri and get on gravel roads, be ready for an interesting drive. Many of them have very steep hills, ruts and washboard bumps. Traveling at about 5 miles per hour it takes a long time to even get a mile and you pray that you don't break down!
And then while we were there he let us see his Koi fish in a spring fed creek that leads into a big pond on his property.
I shot a video of the scenery right by the tree we were supposed to work on.
Because of the damage the storm did to it and the diameter, instead of Jim carving it, he's going to make bears and an owl to hang on it instead. That will make for a larger and more visible carving by his archway across the driveway. The man will pick them up and attach them himself, we look forward to seeing the finished picture. Sometimes that's how it goes, we get to a place to work and what was talked about, the pictures of the stump and such don't always go the way the homeowner was planning so we work out details that will work and everyone's happy! Here's a picture of the owl and Jim's working on the bears right now.
We are thankful for every day and now we need to get some carving done because there's a trip we have to make a couple hours south of our homestead here to drop off some commission carvings. Then on the road to Wisconsin for more orders up there! Then back down here. Then out to Wyoming. So we're busy but while traveling in between there's always witnessing going on!
I will say that it's a challenge down here in the summertime being off grid in the summer heat and humidity but it kills our comfort...which I will be writing about in my next letter to you!
Praise God for every day we have to serve Him. In all that you do...do it unto the Lord!
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men Colossians 3:23
Have a joyous day sisters!
Love in Christ,
Sister Deb
The biblical gospel...