Who needs a Horse?

Yee Haw!  Ride'em Cowboy!

I can help too!

We see you now taking our picture AGAIN!

During chore time, my daughter had a great little helper.  She began training him, picking up where I left off.... when to push the button and how to hold the hose.  You can see from the pictures that he does have a lovely wooden rocking horse but prefers mans work:  controlling and dominating a moving, whirring machine. 

You can also see from the pictures that our daughter loves her work as well.  She is cheerful and eager to pitch in wherever needed.  She leads quietly by example and noisily when romping and playing with her siblings.  She loves to read books and sometimes I call her, "Belle" because she reminds me of Beauty and the Beast.

Can you believe that I actually miss vacuuming my living room?  I do.  However, it sure is fun taking pictures and recording what is happening in the lives of my loved ones...

Today our friends from Sequim, Washington, are coming to visit!  Also, our friends from Grants Pass, Oregon arrived in town yesterday and they've been celebrating their 10th Wedding Anniversary by touring Alaska.  We are SO looking forward to seeing all their friendly faces and sitting in the warmth of good memories, visiting, relaxing, working, and sightseeing.  I might not even have time to blog!   Don't worry if I don't post for a few days, I'll be back...

Chicken Coop Building Part II

What a nice chicken you are, let me pet you...

Can we bring it in, please?

Big sister takes all my fun away!

A few minutes ago someone opened this window up and little sister stuck her hand out to pet our lone chicken.  The hen's new roost is now the back of a camp chair.  A few minutes later, the dog came tearing through the open door and ran around several times on our almost white living room carpet with muddy paws! 

We just noticed that the old stove pipe is leaking this morning in two places:  upstairs in the kids bedroom and downstairs in what is supposed to have been the bathroom.  It's a good thing we have friends coming to visit from Oregon and from Washington.  Lord knows we need it about now!

If I had any energy left today I'd probably sit down and have a good bawl put I need to conserve my energy for something more creative like figuring out how to fix the stove pipe issue and how to keep five children occupied during week after week of rain... WAIT!!!  I see a patch of blue sky, there is hope!!!  We have had rainless moments through out some of the days these past few weeks, but it hasn't been many...

Yesterday, the children finished the building of the redneck chicken coop... except it didn't contain the chicken like we'd hope as you can see from the above pictures.

Look to the right of the outhouse to see the leafy branched roof of the chicken coop.

 In the above picture, I am rescuing my baby from taking a hatchet, with the blade protected in a leather sleeve, of course, and giving it back to it's misplaced owner.

Hauling branches we cut away from our power lines yesterday
 to put over the coop today, while typing this TOMORROW?

Look how strong I am!  I can haul big branches too!

So can I!  He's only 18 months old, but knows how to work!

What a blessing to have little ones that like to work!  They are creative and enjoy doing it too!  What a blessing to be able to blog!  It could get out of hand, but I believe it is also keeping me sane and positive!  TO GOD BE THE GLORY in it all!

Chickadee at our Recycled Bird Feeder

Eating crushed sunflower seeds, not root beer.

Fly away quick, some one's trying to take a picture!

This was the easiest bird feeder to make!  You can order the plastic feeder part from "My Father's World."  All it takes is a clean 2 liter and you've got a feeder! 

These little chickadees really are friendly.  I'll dig up a photo of them landing in my husband's hand and feeding!

Summer Sunset

View of the sunset from out our front door...

We are surrounded by all sorts of trees and see a small patch of sky.  Our sunsets look so different because we never see the horizon from our vantage point.  The sun is still setting very late in the evening and the angle of the sun rays makes for some very unique colors and lights around the clouds.

Much like the picture of the sunset, we all view from a different vantage point at various locations around the globe. Is the earth still the earth? Yes. Are we all viewing the same sun? Yes. The truth is fixed. It never changes. How we view ourselves in light of the truth should always be changing. The truth should never change. It is not going to evolve into something that better suits our sinful, selfish selves!

Who made this summer sunset possible?  Let's thank the sponsor of this program...

"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:  for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:  all things were created by him, and for him:  and he is before all things, and by him all things consist."  Colossians 1: 15-17

What's the point of preaching and teaching? 

"That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."  Colossians 2:2-3

How can we possibly discern truth from error in this crazy world that we live in today that enjoys evil instead of good, and says of the good, that it is evil!!!???

One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is Colossians 2:8.  I must add a couple verses previous because they are the key to preventing spoilage:  and I'm thinking there's an awful lot of spoilage going on among people here on this earth...

"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:  rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.  And ye are complete in him..."  Colossians 2:6-10a

How to Build a Redneck Chicken Coop

First, find a great location, near the summer outhouse...

Next, enlist some great help...

Add a great boss...

 We've all decided that the free range chicken may no longer freely range.  We've had it with the only by product it leaves behind, which by the way, is not an egg.  We're beginning to think we might have a rooster except that it doesn't crow.  If it doesn't start laying some eggs soon, it will be chicken stew!

The older children and I cut and slashed some spindly trees to make a roof like structure over the existing chicken fence.  We are hoping the chicken will not be able to fly out from under the triangular shaped roof.  It's an experiment.  Surely we could get some credits for geometry or something!

This machete is really sharp!

Look, mom, one slash took this branch right off!

Put that hatchet DOWN!

That's better, right on the target!

What an Alaskan girl she's turning out to be...

Except for the sour berry she just ate...

It was REALLY REALLY sour!