Wednesday--More of the Same

Wednesday's work went well, even though Duane would have liked to accomplished more. There was more tearout to do. Duane also had to take out some of the ceiling into the hallway to accommodate the stairway at the top. All of that demolition meant more plaster & lathe, more insulation, more studs cut out. The hole going up into the attic is now open.

So this Thursday morning he and Carrie began putting some sheetrock on the walls of the stairway. The first step comes into the guest bedroom. Then there is a landing, and from there the steps will be laid up into the attic. Duane intends to have the steps in before this day is done. He and Justin also plan a trip to Menards in Watertown after Justin's home from work. They have quite a list of supplies to lay in for the attic work.

Weather here has been foggy so far all day today. It is mild, just very heavy with humidity. We had some wintry mix yesterday--rain that sounded like pellets and light snow. I guess the main roads are okay, but side roads are slippery. Please pray with us for a downgrade in the forecast. We need the electricity to stay on and to miss out on freezing rain here.

(We celebrated the victory by Brown in Massachusetts!)

Tuesday--A MESSY DAY!!

What a great day of accomplishment on Tuesday! But it was a terrible mess. Duane kept tearing out the walls and ceiling for where the stairs will go, and Carrie carried boxes of wood slats and barrels of plaster down the stairs and out the door. Duane discovered insulation in the ceiling (a surprise to him), which really added to the mess as it came down over both of them in the tearing out process.

I went outside before 9:00 a.m. and started a fire to burn the slats and other throwaway wood. I also bagged a lot of bags of plaster.

Justin came home after work with some supplies in his pickup and the bags of plaster were loaded into that for later dumping in Brookings. The upstairs bathroom, hallway, dining room, etc. are all now depositories for carpenter's tools, building supplies, etc. Duane commented to me that not everyone has a table saw in their living room. I informed him that we prefer to be "on the edge" when it comes to decorating innovations!!

Today Duane is putting in supports for the stairway, and Carrie is closely observing the details of measuring, leveling, using shims, etc.

By the way, Duane said he was pooped out by 5:00 p.m. yesterday. We were all thankful! And he didn't get up until 7:00 a.m. today--a real forward step!

(to be continued)

THE DEMOLITION MAN IS HERE!!

Duane arrived here about 4:00 p.m. yesterday (Monday) after driving straight through from Oklahoma. I think he started out about 3:00 a.m. and drove in fog most of the way!! (Glad it wasn't me.) As soon as he arrived, he, Justin & Carrie started carrying all his supplies upstairs. Now our bathroom is more interesting than ever--not only is our tub filled with boxes of Christmas decorations, the floor is half-covered too.

Before long I could hear the sounds of pounding and crashing. That kept up until suppertime. Thankfully Duane allowed himself time to eat a good meal, relax and visit. He didn't start in again until 6:00 this morning! So we have a good idea of how this is going to go. He is taking out the walls of the closet where the new stairway will go. I think the ceiling will go too. It's the messiest of jobs to remove old plaster and lathe (as you know if you've ever done it).

We'll see where our progress is by tomorrow.

A NEW PROJECT!

The holidays are past; blizzards and snowstorms have changed the landscape of our town and the area in several states, and now we refocus on the promise of a New Year.

So what has occupied our past week and a half? Carrie and I have been emptying the one and only storage closet we have in our house in anticipation of converting it to a permanent stairway. That stairway will lead to our small attic, which will be converted into a kid's "hangout". This coming Monday my brother Duane will be coming to begin the project. Duane is one of those preachers who will tackle about anything and has done so many times. His experience with fixup and construction jobs (wiring, plumbing, sheetrock--you name it) will be a HUGE blessing to us. Since we don't know where or how to start, we are very thankful he has offered to come and do that for us.

I will try to do updates, so you will know about our progress. The neighborhood girls are very excited about this project, because they have been promised they will be the first to have a sleepover in the newly-converted attic. And the grandkids know of our plans, so they are excited to see what the room will become. I know at this point they can't visualize it at all. We did show the empty attic to Tori and Logan at Thanksgiving. I wanted them to see the "before", so the "after" will be very dramatic for them!

I guess today was partly prep for Duane's arrival. I ended up baking 3 kinds of cookies. We'll feed him good so he'll have energy for work!

SCHOOL CHRISTMAS PROGRAMS

It's that time of year again. Carrie and I decided we would plan to take in all of the Christmas programs in which our Superkids were involved this year. Can you imagine that with about a dozen kids, that meant 4 programs to attend? We made 3 of the 4, but opted out of one due to the distance and very cold temps. Yesterday afternoon was the rescheduled jr & sr high program at Deubrook in White. Excellent job by the choirs and bands!! We had not been to a concert there in years and were pleasantly surprised at the level of musicianship and crispness of the music. And it was fun to see so many friends and family members of the musicians that we knew. Great job--all of you musicians!!

A GREAT TRIP TO THE HILLS!!

Our annual trip to the Black Hills for deer hunting was a great time for both Annette & Justin. Justin got to hunt some with Dirk, and also with his lifelong friend, Leroy Larson. They began hunting on a Friday and Justin got a nice doe on the following Thursday. When he left that message on Nancy's phone we all set up a loud "PRAISE THE LORD!".

While Justin was hunting, I was enjoying the beauty of the area as Nancy and I shopped and took in lots of activities. We visited the fun Christmas stores--Mistletoe Ranch and Christmas Village, ate at Bully's Blends (always a treat), went to the hockey arena for Thor to get his gear for the upcoming hockey season, enjoyed meeting the young moms and their little ones in Nancy's interactive Bible study at church, worshipped with our brothers and sisters in Christ at Dove Christian Center,
took the quilt top in to the woman who will machine quilt it, and did lots of visiting!

Of course, interspersed with all of that was plenty of Grandma time. Liv got to know us better and rewarded us with good-bye hugs when we left last Saturday.
Anika and I played American girl dolls, and we played games with both Thor and Anika. I even was there to see Thor recognized for making the 4.0 honor roll this first quarter of school. Thor is already in 4th. grade. Like Nancy says, "he's nine and that's halfway to eighteen!" Yikes!

We enjoyed balmy temps in Piedmont, but it's almost as nice here right now. We were interested to see how much harvest has been accomplished during the week we were gone. There is still lots of water standing in fields all along the way in East River. We thank God! for the balmy days we are having now to help the harvest along.

Soon it's Thanksgiving. We love this season of fall weather and enjoy every day when the sun shines and the air warms in the afternoon.

A PERFECT OVERNIGHT TRIP

I'll have to explain the title. Carrie and I took an overnight trip to Minneapolis this past Thursday and Friday. Our first destination was the Mall of America. Carrie had never been there before and especially wanted to visit the American Girl store. It was great "girly" fun to view all the dolls and their accessories! From there, we did a bit of browsing, especially enjoying the kid stores, including the Build-A-Bear store and the Lego store. (Guess I am a true Grandma!) We didn't see all of the mall by far, but really had fun (a very surprising thing for me--I'm not much of a fan of mall shopping). Amazingly, the freeway traffic wasn't even too bad going from there to visit and stay overnight with our friends, Dick, Kristi, Mia & Shayla. The girls are as cute as ever and had a great time dressing and playing with their American Girl dolls with Carrie.

We had a wonderful time of sharing about things of the Lord with our friends.
Friday morning we left Minneapolis in the rain, even drove through some snow, and were thankful all of it quit before we were 50 miles out of the city. In Hutchinson I truly exercised my "gift of shopping" when we spent 2-3 hrs. in the Joann's Fabric store! Christmas is coming and there are 5 grandkiddies to prepare for!!

We arrived home a bit after 6:00 p.m. and Justin was burning branches from the big old boxelder we had had sawed down a couple of weeks before. Carrie and I grabbed rakes, added leaves to the pile and helped him finish the project. It was good exercise after hours of sitting in the car.

After making the trip, we wondered why we had waited so long to drive to Mpls.
What an easy trip--4 hrs. at 60 mph. We won't wait so long before doing it again.

What we did see all the way on our trip was thousands of acres of unharvested corn and beans. We are praying according to the Scripture where God promises seedtime and harvest as long as the earth remains. God is faithful--the harvest must be brought in!!