"Oh, I'll Get By with Alittle Help from My Friends..."

Ah, yes...the prayers, the encouraging words, the time given...our friends have been such a blessing throughout our lives and our many adventures.


This time...this adventure...is no exception!  We've had friends praying us home from New York for years, actually, but over these last few months our friends, both those in PA and those in NY, have sent encouraging cards, posted inspirational messages to us on social media, cooked us meals, temporarily stored our farm equipment for us, helped us both pack and unpack, and now, some are even volunteering their time and talents to bringing this little horse farm...our new home...back to life!


I am so incredibly grateful for the special friends God has placed in our lives that words cannot express.






This weekend our son, Nate, and our good friends, the Rabes, joined us for demo work and we got so much accomplished.  Simply having that sweet fellowship time with them would've been enough, but this!  What a HUGE blessing! Don's sense of relief Sunday morning was quite evident as we surveyed the work completed - we finally feel like we're getting on top of this thing!

We are just about ready to move into the next phase of the project - bringing up the drop floors and raising the roof.  The desired result is to have all rooms of the house on the same plane, no more two steps into this room, one step into that one.  And, 9 ft. ceilings throughout.

These teens worked very hard!

We're still working out the financing, though, which means we can only take small steps forward for the moment. Knowing a venture capitalist would be handy right now, but since that's not the case, we're working with the...ehem!..seriously slow-poke... bank.

We pulled out some cabinets that are still in servicable shape.  I'm thinking we may paint them up for the garage!


Interestingly, some of the drawers were FULL of canning supplies and kitchen gadgets.  In fact, some kitchen gadgets were still in their original packaging, never used!  I'm going to take some time this week to go through it all and see what "treasures" may be hidden within...

A few more pics from our work this weekend:

One of four truckloads removed just this weekend!  Several others were removed previously with help of another good friend!

As I sit outside near our smoldering charcoal grill, creating this blog post, I am drawing in deep breaths of sweet-n-smoky summer evening air, and listening to the  throaty, almost husky, song of some bird hidden within the trees...

...Mmmm...the smells of summer!  My favorite time of year...such fond memories invoked...

I made strawberry jam with my daughters, niece, nephew, sister and mother-in-law this week...

A neighbor mowed and baled our hay this weekend - another distinctly summer scent...

And, the scent of honeysuckle, multiflora rose, and all the lovely blooming things, both around the farm and the back roads we cruised along on the motorcycle today!

What's your favorite summer scent?  

Not sure what this week's gonna look like. Rosie has finished her school year, but Grace wants to keep going through most of the summer so she can graduate by December 1.   Both girls are seeking part-time work right now.  (Can I just say, I hate these on-line applications!  So impersonal!)                                                                                                                                                        

I did apply for several part-time jobs last week (bank teller and receptionist positions at this point), so now I just wait to hear, I guess.  Placing this whole "job thing" in God's capable hands, cause I certainly don't know what else to do!

And, I plan to study an hour or so a day to brush up for my PA cos exam next month.

(The maple syrup apron I'm wearing in this photo is a special gift from a special friend...a great reminder of our 3 years sugaring and selling maple syrup and candy!)

Stay tuned for an update next weekend, Folks, and thank a special friend today!