Roofin'...

Yesterday, in the late part of the afternoon, Andrew and I headed East about 60 miles to some friend's house for a bonfire/cook-out/ice cream social...  There were many friends to visit with there, so we ended up staying really late and getting home early in the morning.  Even though we were tired this morning, it was worth the fellowship!  ( I was too busy visiting to think of taking any pictures!)

 

 My parents, brothers and I were all home all day, so we worked on Andrew's house roof during the daylight hours. Over the course of the day, we got all of the old shingles (of which there were 3 layers in most places---2 asphalt and 1 layer of old, dirty wood shingles) off of the south side of the house and then got all of the chipboard screwed on. Hopefully the guys can get the tin on that side tomorrow. My mom was up there with us this morning, helping to pull out all of the little nails that rip through the wooden shingles and stay very stuck in the boards on the roof.

 Screwing on the chip-board...

Measuring for the little piece Andrew had to cut for the top....

 

 One of my friends commented that I should ask one of my brothers to take a picture of me----for proof that I was helping too.....so I did (ask Jacob and I did help on the roof all day too).  :)

 

 ....the basket that we're on belongs to Zach and I can't even IMAGINE what it would be like trying to do this work without it!!! Scary thought!

Getting the East side done...

 

Then, the middle part... That was the easiest part of anything we've done so far, as you could easily stand on it, so it was much easier to work on.

 :)

 My mom cooked us up a regular picnic meal and we enjoyed the beauty of the Autumn day, eating out of doors...

 Isn't this tree just gorgeous??? 

 Yes, it is indeed Fall....

 Little Andrew, way down on the ground (he was cutting the boards we needed and running the telehandler quite a bit, although he was up on the roof a long time too when we were ripping the shingles off).

 

Almost done for the day....

 

 "The sun is sinking in the west,

The cattle go down to the stream,

The redwing settles in her nest,

It's time for a cowboy to dream..."

 

Yes, it was a good days work and God kept us safe, so we have much to be thankful for!

 

 

 

Companions...

 

These are my chore buddies, Lady and Gingersnap... 

 

 The trees are very beautiful right now!

I enjoyed the beauty of Fall while on the road this morning.

 I enjoyed it's lukewarm breezes while digging potatoes this afternoon.

 And I enjoyed the warmth of our stove while baking pumpkin bars for supper!

 



Baby boy things...

It was fun going over to Zach and Paula's today and seeing lots of baby things setting around the house!! Baby BOY things, that is... 

 

The big day is getting close!  The girls are very excited to be getting a baby brother.  Somebody else is really looking forward to holding a baby again too....  :)

 



Wood and woods...

What would the world be like without wood?

I suppose we'd see a lot more brick buildings, huh.

 

Here, my dad is trimming the boards along that edge of the house this morning... 

 

 We're now at the part of the house/garage that requires more time, as every angle needs to be measured and the pieces of tin cut to fit...

 The guys say I need to do more roofing so I get comfortable with being up there...  I say I'd rather just be scared and help them, then be done with it! Ha!

 This afternoon, Paula dropped the girls off at our house while she went to a meeting.  Later, I took the girls over to our neighbor's house to meet the 3 kiddos when they were home from school. After Paula picked up her girls again, the remaining 4 of us went outside to explore in their "Woods"...

 

~James~

 

~Amelia~

 

 ~Michael~

We had fun exploring! When we made it back to the house, their grandma had just arrived, so it was neat seeing her again.

And after that, it was the usual supper, chores, dishes, laundry, blogging routine...  :)

 

We're so grateful to the Lord for these warm days!

Quite a project!

Yesterday morning, my mom and I went through all of the old jars down in the basement (some of which were here when we moved here) and sorted out the canning jars from the misc. jars which we'll never use.  We put the reject jars in boxes and I hauled them up to the Ford pickup. Jacob and I also loaded up all of the bags of recyclables (cans and plastic bottles from the summer) and put them in the pickup to take to Napoleon (to the recycling center there). Our main reason for going to town was to weigh at the elevator so we could go get a tote of field peas from a farmer for our chickens to eat this winter, then of course, we had to go back to town to weigh again, once the tote was full, so we'd know what to pay the farmer... 

 

 Of course, when going to town, there's lots of other things to do too (go to the bank, post office, gas station, thrift store, and my mom took Jacob and I out to eat at Ruebens---my first time ever being there!).  We did eventually make it home with the peas! 

 

My dad hauled grain to Enderlin both yesterday and today. Andrew went to Bismarck to get chipboard for his house roof.

 

After unloading the tote of peas, Jacob and I went up with Andrew to his place to start tinning the half of his garage roof that was shingle-less. While my brothers worked on the trim, I picked up most of the apples that were under Andrew's tree.  They are a long-keeping type of apple and are nice and sweet now after the hard frosts we've had.

 

 Measuring...

 My job was to make marks on the tin where all of the screws would go (so the rows would be straight across)...

He looks pretty comfortable up there, doesn't he?

 Just as we were putting the first sheet up, our parents arrived to help...

:)

 

Mom cleaned up the shingle mess on the ground... 

 

 We got that side of the garage finished before supper!

 These shingles are the worst of all of them on the house, but they're all bad...  I'm not looking forward to working on the steep part of this roof!

 The work-shop inside the garage...

 Mom finished picking up the apples off of the ground and started picking some off the tree. I like this picture of her...  She looks so happy!

This machine is SOOOO helpful!

 

~~~~~~~~

 

This morning, as soon as the barn chores were done, my brothers and I went up to Andrew's place again and ripped the rest of the shingles (two layers) and tar paper off of Andrew's garage and the small entryway. (That's my boot---proof that I was up there...)

 Andrew bought 2 tools that work pretty well for ripping everything up...

 As the hours passed, the sun got brighter, and we shed more layers!  It was another gorgeous day!

 We finished this part before lunch, at which time my brothers went west to bale hay and I tilled in the garden and made bread, which Mom later baked.

 I went over and picked up the 3 neighbor children when they got off of the schoolbus.  They helped me tape these boxes together...

 ...and we started digging potatoes...

 Eventually, it ended up being me digging while my mom picked up the potatoes and the children found worms and dug holes.  Here's Amelia with her squiggly treasures:

After spending all of that time working in the great outdoors, I'm thoroughly tuckered again, as I'm sure the others are too.  It's a good feeling to work hard though and to enjoy the end result of your labors!

 

 

So...

This day was SO full

of SO many productive things

that I am SO tired

 and I SO do not feel up to doing a blog post!

 

SO,

I'll share one of the many pictures that were snapped today,

and be off to dreamland in SO big of a hurry that I won't be able to remember falling asleep!

 

So long!



A rain day...

My dad and brothers spent the morning pulling old shingles off of Andrew's garage roof. My mom and I cut up another boxful of tomatoes for freezer-tomato-sauce and made a big pot of vegetable soup, complete with freshly cut cabbage from the garden. When the guys came in at noon, it was already sprinkling and it never really stopped the rest of the day.   So, we did inside things, like haircuts; paperwork; getting down the winter clothes and starting to switch them around with the summer ones; making fry bread to go with our soup; Andrew refilled the ink in our printer; my mom found some quart canning jars that are for sale on Bismanonline.....

 

And now, I have something to share that made me laugh at how ridiculous it is! I needed a laugh today---and if you feel the same way, check this out: http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/24-people-who-shouldnt-be-allowed-to-decorate-cakes#3kpqq1z