To Care and Not to Care

Oh wait! There's more! I believe I said there would be 2 videos in the last post, but there was only 1. Oops. So here is another Strategic Tool Implementation video demonstrating the, uh, push barrel. And because of the genius contraption of the Push Barrel, our backyard patio is almost finished! We acquired a ton of flagstone (for free), in which included a lot of good, hard work and the guys using their spatial skills. Jay built a fire pit too. (In which we may or may not be burning all sorts of "scraps" in...) Perfect for roasting mallows. Amy, our resident master gardener/green thumb also has made our garden quite the bountiful feast! (Well...and the 6 truck loads of aged-manured we dumped and tilled into the dirt!) On 1 pepper plant alone, she counted 15 (15!) peppers. One night, myself, Amy and Debbie had a washing, dicing, blanching and freezing party. We had turnips and rutabagas come out of our ears. So with a little help of Elton John and some old sch...

So...we apologize for not keeping up on our blog. Summer caught us by surprise. It seems like summer always catches me. I look forward to it so much and then it's suddenly here. Time to do everything we can think of outside! Taking advantage of the warm NW summer nights, occasional hot days and outings with friends and family. This summer, our home was filled with a lot of laughter and a lot of hard work. Work of the deep kind. Work on ourselves that comes along with living with others, work on our character. It gets fleshed out  in our daily interactions, strengthening us while we continually tell the Lord that we are so glad we can be secure in Him. There is another kind of work too. Physical work. Active work. When the talk suddenly becomes reality. (We're doing this!) A couple weeks ago, we (suddenly) found ourselves painting our house. And let me tell you, the odds were against us. The paint store (who shall remain anonymous) gave us interior paint instead of exterior pa...

We have our basement bathroom framed, wired, and plumbed,  so we needed a pair of wall covering experts,  magicians with the tape and knife, entrepreneurs of nothing in particular but everything all at once.  John and Kaylee Kraut,  you make Deutschland proud.  In this installment of Strategic Tool Implementation (STI),  John and Kaylee show us how to cut a perfect circle with your eyes closed, left handed, while humming nickelback songs. "Look at this photograph..."

Well, it's been awhile. Too long since my last post. Not to say nothing has been going on worth blogging about. But lets be honest, I'm not the most avid blogger and I let things like hanging pictures on the wall, seeing my friends and staying up till 2am reading the Hunger Games take priority. Anyway, lately I've let a certain house project get under my skin. There are these wooden sliding doors that we've been working on to eventually go on a track system that Jay & Ben installed between the family room and kitchen. It's gonna be sweet when it's done. But it's not done. You see, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into with these, ahem, doors. They need to be sanded, painted, sanded again, painted again, the holes left from the slats we took out filled w/ filler, sanded again, painted again and eventually lacquered. Now I am generally a pretty patient person (as most of you know) and it takes a lot for me to really lose my patience. What...

Sometimes it's like this:        Many of you have asked what this experience is like... and I don't know about the other member's of this coop, but summing up what this experience is like seems akin to solving a Rubik's Cube... I know it can be done but it doesn't make me want to start.  So instead of trying to say all of what this is and has been;  I will try to say what it sometimes is. Sometimes I get up and the coffee is made for me, I go to work and come back - the house is cleaned, dinner is cooking, Top Gear is playing in the Family Room and the shower is free with ample hot water ta-boot.  All this is true, but so is the inverse: Sometimes I get up to a pile of dirty dishes that I didn't finish the night before - we're out of coffee, work goes long and when I get home I realize that the drain the driveway is clogged (again) there are no plans for dinner, the laundry is piled up and bedtime (ya we have those generally speaking) ...

Now that miss Amy is an RD,  she has oodles of free time.  Which now is devoted to lists, food, and projects.  Projects like beating the crap out of tile walls.

In Strategic Tool Implementation (STI): Karate,  Ben demonstrates how to strategically implement a karate move in the building industry.  In  Strategic Tool Implementation (STI):  Hammers, Janell and Kaylee Show us the power of hammers and the powerful powers that power them. Today, we tore the crap out of the basement.  walls, ducts, wires, lights,  it all came down.  well,  mostly we have to thank Janell and Kaylee for that.  And Ben worked the sliding door/wall upstairs, and we finally got it to a point of near finished-ness.