On the way to Texas

We enjoyed a short visit with Mom and Paul at Langenburg and then went to Brandon to spend a couple of days with Jake and Rita. Then headed down across the border, an easy crossing in the scheme of things, and drove through North Dakota. We stayed at Mitchell, South Dakota, the first night. Monday we drove through the rest of South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, so we made a lot of miles! Tomorrow we will take it easier.

Here at Ponca City, we “shopped” at two motels. We ended up staying at the Quality Inn, the second one we stopped at. The price was higher than I wanted to pay, but when I inquired as to whether there were many more motels down the way, I was not impressed to hear her say, “Yes there are many that way, but you really should stick to this side of town, as those are the type that there could be a mouse in your bed, or blood stains on the walls.” It did work though – we decided to take a room here. And a lovely room it is. We’ll see tomorrow how bad or good the motels look down the road. . .

Just checking in. Will write again later.

Finished addition/Going to Beaumont, Texas end of month

October, 2009 Finishing renovation and getting ready to leave for Texas

Our “sun room” was coming together quickly. Now it was time to paint the walls. We made a feature wall of the common wall to the house. We painted it a “Gold Sunset” color, then sprayed white texture over it, and John trowelled down the texture, allowing some gold to show through. Despite the fact that it initially reminded John of “an old grain elevator where the birds had flown in and crapped on the walls for years”, we have had good comments and are happy with the result. We can always change it if we wish.

Then instead of buying new paint, we threw all the paint we had stored for years together and ended up with a warm beige color and did California walls – sprayed them with the mud and then painted over them. They REALLY look nice.

Next it was time to do the cathedral ceiling. This was a challenge because of the heights (two of them). However, John managed to set up the scaffolding with his ladders and an old conference table we had laying around from Sanderson Balicki. He did one half of the ceiling at a time. We had decided to go with marble ceilings, as we didn’t want regular textured ceilings. First he had to paint the ceiling with oil base paint on top of the primer. Then while it was still wet, he lit a cone of tarpaper on fire and smoked the ceiling. What an awesome sight!! Then he did the other half. It turned out beautifully!

The beam was painted plain white.

The following week, we hired a young man to lay the cobblestone lino and the room was looking great!

As soon as the lino was laid, we brought up John’s A & W table and chairs so we could sit and have our coffee at the window.

He then worked on building the large coat closet at the entrance. We decided to put our leftover laminate in the entrance, as I could not find lino I wanted for a price I was willing to pay.

It was a long deliberation as to exactly how the stairs should be built, but our neighbour John Vansil came up with an idea we hadn’t formerly considered, and we went with his suggestion. The stairs look very nice, and both the kitchen and sun room can be accessed from the landing.

We bought some pantries from Walmart and Jysk and John put them together to store all the things that I had in my former pantry.

Ted came over one evening and said he was here to help John put on the window casings. They didn’t quit until all 6 windows and the door were done. That made quite a difference as well.

That the left the stair railings to be done. We found some spindle rails at Habitat for Humanity for $1.00 a piece (compared to over $6 each at Rona) and painted them white. John built the railing and although it seemed to close off the two parts of the room, we are getting used to it and it looks lovely.

Had our “housewarming” party with a few friends and family over on Saturday night, the 17th, to thank them for all of their help.

Monday morning, we are having our A & W coffee friends over and then we can put our minds to getting ready to leave for Texas on Wednesday morning.

September, 2009

Three brothers and wives - reunion



September crew



Mom even helped me wipe down the siding...

September, 2009

After Jake and Rita left for home, it was time for me to pay some serious attention to my mother in Langenburg. I left Shari in charge of the home front and keeping Dad and his crew stocked for coffee breaks. Mom and I had a wonderful time together for a week. We did a lot of things and enjoyed our one-on-one time.

By the time I got back home, the windows were in and the siding underway. Work continued the last two weeks of August. Our house is a dreadful mess, but the new sun room/entrance is just awesome. I enjoyed shopping for the light fixtures and floor coverings.

We decided to take time off to go to Brandon for a little family reunion with Jake and Rita. George and Mary drove out in their BarbieDoll camper, as John calls it, and we all enjoyed a very special 5 days together.

We had been trying to convince my Mom to take a little holiday too and come to our place, and she finally agreed. We brought her back with us when coming home from Brandon. Our lifestyle is definitely a lot more active than hers! Building going on, grandchildren coming and going, meals to prepare, always dishes to be done… I think she really enjoyed it, but was very happy to be getting on the bus to go home after a week and get some rest!

Saturday, Sept. 12, Darren came over and helped John put the drywall up on the high cathedral ceilings in the addition. Then he had some help from Kevin to do the walls over the next week, and before long I was able to tape the upper level while John and Kevin finished the siding on the long wall outside. It was really nice that Mom was able to be here for Darren’s 34th birthday on September 15th.

We even had a doozy of a hail storm while she was here. The thunder cracked and lightning flashed for about an hour, and then around 4:00 a.m., the rain came down in buckets, and then came the hail. Some of the hailstones were almost the size of golf balls. Our metal roof certainly amplified the sound of hail coming down! I thought I would be able to salvage my beautiful tomatoes, but they ended up rotting before they ripened. What a shame! The cherry tomato plans were loaded.

On the 21st of September, we marked the 10th anniversary of John’s heart attack. How those 10 years have flown by!

On my birthday, Bob and Alice and Ben and Mary came and brought farmer sausage for supper. Later, some of the neighbours came over as well. We had a lovely day.

We heard from MDS that we were assigned to Cheek, Texas for November and December this year. Our RV Park is on I10 at Beaumont. We have become quite familiar with that area so are pleased to be returning, and to learn that our Project Director and Office Manager are friends we have worked with previously. We look forward to working with another couple from last year, and to meet another new couple this year. We have to be in Beaumont by October 31st, so will be leaving home on October 21st, so we can stop in at my Mom’s for one night, and visit Jake and Rita in Brandon for one or two nights before we cross the border.

Finally we got some decent weather. The temperatures were up to 80 for a couple of weeks and we really enjoyed having a taste of summer anyway.

There is still plenty of work to do before the addition is finished, so the push is on to get the painting and ceiling done. Our neighbour, Kevin and his wife are going to Las Vegas for a week so he will not be available to help, and Ted is helping his son do sileage.

It has been a busy summer. Some people enjoy doing renovations and choosing decorating colours and stuff like that, but it is NOT my idea of fun. However, the end product will be worth the aggravation.

July and August, 2009 (supposed to be summer)

Old Farts, Jake and Rita, almost look like they're having a good time!



Len and Nettie, plus another MDS volunteer we have worked with in the U.S. - Bruce from Medstead, Sask., who dropped by to visit and put up a TJI rafter or two...



Len and John dealing with the old electrical mast, a real thorn in their side



July was a busy month for us. John started working on the addition to our house. The plan is to build a 12 x 28 room where our sundeck and porch were. He has not been satisfied with the stability of the back porch for several years…

He removed the old sun deck and started working on the footings, with the assistance of our young neighbour, Kevin. Soon Kevin’s neighbour on the other side, Ted, was over “inspecting”, and before long, he was helping as well. They ended up pouring the cement in pouring rain on a Saturday morning. Darren came over and helped. Kevin and Darren wheelbarrowed the concete into the forms while John screeted and made sure the concrete went into the 10 foot sonotubes.

We were delighted to get a telephone call from Len and Nettie, our MDS co-workers from southern Manitoba, saying they were coming to help for a week. They parked their motorhome in our driveway and were a Godsend with all the work that was accomplished that week.

On the weekend of the 28th, John and I attended my High School Reunion in Langenburg . It was wonderful to see so many friends I hadn’t seen in years and years. John enjoyed it as well. My Mom was happy to have company if only for the weekend…

Then it was back to work on the addition. John’s brother, Jake and Rita, from Brandon arrived on August 4th and stayed the week to help as well. We had a wonderful visit and they contributed to the progress of the construction. It was a great week, with Kevin and Ted helping and even our neighbour, John, came from across the street for one morning. We were thankful for Darren’s help to get the last metal up on the roof at the end of the week. Coffee breaks were a great time of visiting and teasing – kind of reminds us of being in Texas!

Correction

I was looking at my last couple of blogs and saw the picture of the garden shed which I had posted. Something didn't like right, and I realized that this was the garden shed I saw and had taken a picture of so John could see what I wanted.

The garden shed that he built is much nicer than the one on the previous blog. I am attaching a picture of the garden shed John built. I LOVE IT!

Happy Canada Day!

Blog July 1, 2009

Just thought I’d check in to our blog after some more travels, and say Hi to all who are checking it.

Keely’s singing the Friday night before we left for B.C. was very nice. She did well and the audience enjoyed a new “act”. It’s always great when a person with talent can get a chance to use it!

We drove to Creston, B.C. to attend the graduation of Christy and Rod’s youngest daughter, Ceira Musil, leaving June 14th . Shari figured it was time she had some holidays TOO, so we packed up her and the dog (now that we only have one dog) and off we went. We visited over night with some friends at Strathmore and then spent the week at Gray Creek with Christy and Rod and family. Their other children came home as well. Bryce is in Victoria and Chelsea in Calgary. Daniel is working at the golf course at Crawford Bay, so he is still living at home. We enjoyed Granny’s “Bed and Breakfast”. Rod’s Dad passed away in February this year, so that ended their daily trek to Creston to take Virginia to see Joe!

Unfortunately, Ceira had broken her ankle while playing soccer at school on May 4th. She had to have a pin put in on one side and a steel plate on the other. She was still on crutches in her grad dress, but she had picked a lovely short grad dress, so that was no problem. She used wrist crutches and I swear she glided down that aisle on the arm of her escort as smoothly as anyone who was walking fully on both legs!

The graduation was lovely. There were only 12 grads so it was a small-town affair. You couldn’t tell by the hor’doerves served at the tea though – they were pretty hoity-toity! In addition, the main speaker to the grads was Peter Duryea. He is originally from L.A. (not La Ronge, Sk, but Los Angeles, CA) and the son of actor, Dan Duryea. His own claim to fame was being on the pilot episode of Star Trek. He is now older than we are and “a local”, running the Tipi Camp up the lake for many years. He gave an excellent speech, addressing each of the grads on a personal level. It was just great!

Then, as the 40th anniversary of Harry Haberstock’s tour of duty as Pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church which we attended while in Creston 20 years ago, was not until June 28th, we traveled down to Sandpoint Idaho to visit Peggy and Steve again. This time last year, John framed their new house and put on 4 x 8 metal siding. This year, they were able to purchase the windows and John and Steve put in the windows, a huge beautiful garden door and two other doors. Unfortunately, that job necessitated taking all the siding OFF as they went, installing the windows, and then putting the siding back on. However, the job was completed in the 4½ days we were there.

Shari had to obtain her passport in order to travel in the U.S.A. and Abby dog got her “passport” too – a paper saying she had her shots… She sure was a good dog – traveled well.

It was neat to see old friends at Pastor Harry’s anniversary celebration. Christy and Rod attended with us, but it was rather boring for them and Shari. She didn’t remember anyone. In addition to church friends, the community was there, and we were able to say Hi to people we had known through John’s business in Creston. The fellow who owned Creston Builders commented that John was the only guy who left Creston without owing him money!!! Of course, after over 20 years away, there were more faces we did not recognize than those we did! Our good friend and former neighbour at Kuskanook, Bryan Daybell, the retired principal of the high school in Creston, was the M.C. and he did an excellent job, as usual.

We only made one stop on the way home, to have coffee with Cathy Dietrich at Fort McLeod – John was determined to drive straight through and so we did – arriving home at 3:30 a.m. as daylight was breaking.

Rodney sent 8 tomato plants home with us, as he had a bunch volunteering in his strawberry patch. They survived the trip home and have transplanted well - we will see what kind of growing season we have and what kind of tomatoes we end up with…

In the morning, it was quite a shock to see our yard totally overgrown. They had rain just about every day we were gone. Thankfully, Darren managed to find one day when it didn’t rain and he mowed our lawn. My brand new gazing ball was sitting on the sun deck and it looked kind of strange – on checking closer, I found that the rain had washed all the finish off the outside, and all that remained was a clear glass ball. I don’t know whether they don’t “make them like they used to” or whether there really is acid rain and it took the finish off!!! Kind of scary…

Our Gizmo cat was VERY happy to have us home. Now he comes running at the first sign of the possibility of attention!

Shari and I enjoyed a sunny Canada Day at the Park with Darren and kids. Jeanie had to work. Then in the evening, it was finally dry enough to mow our lawn. I had also spent some time in the morning pulling more weeds. Now our yard looks much better!

Unfortunately there was a tornado touch down in North Battleford area. A couple of farm buildings were destroyed, but no one was hurt or killed, thank heaven.

John will be starting on the footings for our addition this week. I will not be able to handle being here for the demolition work (our back porch has to come off completely, so will be going to my mother's or ANYWHERE ELSE next week!!! I really hate to see my sun deck come down, but that's the plan.

June in Prince Albert

Figured it’s about time to get back on the blog.

Coming back to Saskatchewan weather has been a big let-down! Our furnace died the end of May and we have had to use up all our wood in the fireplace in June. The evenings have been so cold that the fire place has required 80% of the time. This week, John went hunting for auxiliary electric heaters, it was so cold. Bummer…

We have had one or two days of nice warm weather, but then it cools off again.

John’s first project for the year was to replace our old metal garden shed. I had seen a very special “shed” in Saskatoon where he was measuring up windows and advised him that was the kind of garden shed I wanted. Living by the motto, “Happy Wife Happy Life”, he catered to my wishes and now we have the most beautiful garden shed in the neighbourhood. I found a small skylight at a garage sale in Langenburg, which is now in the roof of the garden shed. We also found two very nice 8’ wooden pillars at the Co-Op Auction, along with odds and ends of vinyl siding. Then at the CWL Annual Flea Market, I found a very nice new piece of vinyl flooring just the right size, for a whopping $3.50! The sign on the front of the structure says “IT’S JUST A GARDEN SHED!” I love it! In due course, our antique wood cook stove will be displayed on the end of the deck – I can hardly wait.

My sister and mother had a garage sale in Yorkton this past weekend, so I decided to go and help them. It started out on a bad note – my brother’s little Pomeranian, Kaylee, bit my Mom’s right index finger badly the first morning, as she tried to take Zoey’s dish of soft dog food away from her. Had to take her in for 8 stitches! Kaylee has always been very territorial about food, so basically Mom is taking the responsibility. Everyone acknowledges that had John been there, the dog would not longer be with us!!!!

The garage sale was fairly successful in that we got rid of most of Mom’s stuff that had been stored in Thelma’s garage since the last garage sale when she moved into her apartment.

Our old maroon van was acting up, and we came across a very nice one owner “little old lady driven” 1999 Plymouth Voyageur for a reasonable price, so decided that it would be more reliable to drive to B.C. for our granddaughter’s graduation on June 19th. We were advised of a computer problem involving the automatic door locks, by the previous owner, and figured we could get it fixed. It seems that is easier said than done. We tried two computers from auto salvage and neither one worked. So we may just take it with the door locks trying to lock every few minutes. It seems to run well despite the glitch.

Shari got her passport in time to come along with us. We will be traveling to Sandpoint, Idaho where John will put in Peggy and Steve’s windows, and she sure didn’t want to have to stay in Canada while we go “south”!! We have an extra week after the grad until our pastor’s retirement party at the end of June, so figured we could help the Farrells show some progress on their house for this year in order to keep their building permit in good standing.
This weekend on Friday evening, Keely, our 11 year old granddaughter, is going to sing at a Gospel Jamboree at Living Waters Bible Camp. She’s going to do “In the Highways and the Hedges” and “Let the Sun Shine In”. I’m sure she will do very well. She is very excited! Is growing up way too fast!! I had thought we could license the motorhome and take it out, but we stopped in to view the facilities recently, and there is not a lot of space for parking, let alone camping.

When we get back from B.C., John, with our neighbour’s assistance, will be taking down our sundeck and the back porch, and building an addition on the back of our house. I’ll hang around for a few days, but when the “tearing apart” of the porch happens, I’m out of here. The demolition is too hard on my constitution, and my being here would be hard on John! I’ll come back when the roof is on and the walls are up.

Well, I think that’s all the news to date. Hi to everyone who is checking this. I might let a few of you know that there is something new to read…

Hope y’all have a fine summer. Hope we have a summer at all…………the way things are going…