Racing Snow Flakes

We’re racing snowflakes here on the farm. Although our sunny 50 degree November doesn’t feel like snow, it is coming and we want a roof and walls on the addition before it happens! I’m blown away by the transformation of the farm house in the last few weeks. Like I continually say, Will and Jonathan are amazing! With fall harvest done (YAHOO!), they traded their ‘farmer’ hat for the ‘construction’ hat, which enables them to spend most of the day between morning and evening chores working on the house.  It’s almost silly how many ‘hats’ they wear sometimes. One minute, Jonathan is effortlessly maneuvering across the garage trusses like a monkey, and the next minute he is playing midwife, pulling the most recent calf into the world. Seriously…people sell tickets to see this kind of talent.

Seeing is truly believing when it comes to the farm house. In the last few weeks, we have gone from a cement slab to almost an entire addition and garage! (Check out the pictures below for the full sequence). It is really fun to see our ideas actually take shape. After the addition/garage has walls and a roof, we are REALLY looking forward to getting the kitchen and bathrooms put together! - Check out the picture below for a sneak peek at our kitchen cupboards.

We girls are also getting in on the building action. Will says they work twice as fast when we’re around :). I’m not sure if that is actually true, but I have lots of fun swinging a hammer, helping the guys find things, making sure they aren’t too serious, delivering ice cream cones, and they even trust me with power tools! ;) Sarah and I are currently trying to get the plywood on the garage walls while the guys finish up the roof. We’re having a blast learning new things together :)

As most of you know, Jonathan and I have been in the application process to spend February and March in Thailand doing mission work via teaching English. Will kindly offered this arrangement before we moved because he knows we have a heart for mission work and because winter is the “slow” farming season.  Although we are still finishing the application process, we’re excited to say that we’ve been accepted! Can’t believe I’m saying this, but we will be purchasing our plane tickets any day now! Please pray for us as we prepare for such a crazy adventure!

In other news, in the last few weeks, our family got bigger! Nope… not babies yet…. But one of my very best friends became my sister-in-law! (Having a friend marry your brother is really the way to go. I highly recommend it!) Jonathan and I had a BLAST being part of the wedding festivities and we were honored to stand in Josiah and Katie’s wedding. We are SO happy and excited for the new couple.

Last weekend we traveled to my parent’s house near the cities for our family’s 31 year old tradition of making apple juice. It was great to include friends from our old small group in the cities. Collectively, we made 327 gallons… minus what we drank :)

Thanks for reading friends!

Harvesting the last of the corn! In farming, you can rarely (truly) say….
We’re done! No more corn until planting next spring!

We filled the silo and had 4000 bushels to “spare” which we will sell when the price is right.

This was our addition a few weeks ago. Notice the beam across Jonathan's forehead.
That beam holds up the house where we took the old basement wall out.

We had a few friends from our old small group visit the farm and help on the house!
Thanks to their awesome mudding skills, we are very close to painting upstairs!
This pic was taken in the basement of the addition.

Basement of the addition...almost ready for the bathroom/laundry room floor to be put on!

Yes. We are having fun. Just finished nailing on the new floor for the bathroom!

Testing out our new floor! I'm between the laundry room and the bathroom. Can  you tell?

We have... A WALL! My washer and dryer will be under that square window.

Why hello laundry room and bathroom!
Laundry on the right bathroom on the left.
The white door inside the addition goes into my kitchen.

Here comes the garage! Pushing up the back garage wall.

Garage walls are up and it is time for trusses! Laundry room window is to the right.

The LAST truss! Doesn't it look GREAT! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

One side of the roof covered with OSV!

Some people stop to smell the roses. We stop to eat ice cream cones.

What can I say... This is Jonathan looking cute and being awesome.

Almost done covering the roof! Crazy how far it has come!

Kitchen Cupboards! SOOOOOOO exciting! They match the woodwork in the house!

Jonathan's latest delivery

My farmer cleans up WELL if you don't mind me saying so!
This was at Josiah and Katie's wedding.

Taking a break to document a memory.
It was so much fun to have friends join us for my family tradition.
We're sporting 3 of the 654 jugs we filled (327 gallons in all)