House Raising T-Shirts

After much ado, trying to find an honest printer, dealing with vector software incompatibility, etc. - here are the house-raising shirts I designed. I had lots of helpful suggestions, and Caleb designed the beaver holding the hammer which adorns the front. Thank y'all!

-Tricia Ann

Our Trip to the North Pole...

...I mean, Illinois.

Last week, we took a road trip to Illinois for a wedding. On the way, we stopped in Indiana to visit our dear friends at Stonewall Farm. We had a great time at their house. We talked about farming, theology, movies, and all kinds of stuff. They fed us plenty of wonderful homegrown food. We were only able to stay for one day, and we were sorry to leave.

On Friday morning, we headed on to Illinois. We took a couple short-cuts, so it took longer than we were expecting.

It snowed a lot, but the roads were pretty clear.

Daddy drove.

Jacob intently played a game, and acted as DJ.

I took some pictures and looked out the window at the scrolling cornfield scenery :)

And guess what...I saw a tree!

Mom read to us and tried to keep her feet from freezing.

Huh.

Yep. It says 5 degrees. And this is at NOON! Brrrrrrrrrrrr!

We arrived at our destination without accident. When we piled out of the truck, our host came out on the front porch and greeted us with, "Welcome to the Himalayas!"

Everyone likes to hear Aunt Trish read.

The wedding was scheduled for 10:00 Saturday morning. We got there really early to help out, but the folks from the church already had most everything under control.

Laura played with Jonas so his mom could do other things.

I didn't take any pictures during the ceremony...I just wanted to watch and enjoy it. Besides there were plenty of photographers.

The bridesmaids and groomsmen ;)

There was an abundance of wonderful brunch food at the reception, and lots of pretty ladies to serve it. Here are Melinda and Grace.

Colton and Raquel

"Clean shirt, new shoes; and I don't know where I'm goin' to..."

Someone was kind enough to remember their brethren visiting from the other side of the Mason-Dixon.

Grace the lovely bridesmaid with Laura her lovely friend.

Sam and the other groomsmen decorated Colton's get-away car. ;)

We departed for home on the Lord's Day after worship. It was a wonderful trip.

-Tricia Ann

Planting Time - Already!

Can you believe it? Last week, we cleaned out the greenhouse. We washed everything off, repaired benches, buttoned up holes, etc. And today I planted the first seeds of the year. In the beds under the benches I planted a whole bunch of leek and onion seeds.

Gimli likes to help me in the greenhouse. :)

Snow!

We got about 4 inches of snow this week. It was so pretty. I recently got a new camera - a Nikon D90, and I LOVE it! I had fun taking pictures in the snow. The pictures I took with my old camera usually needed tweaking...these required none. We did go sledding, but I didn't take my camera with me.

I don't know if y'all have met Hoss yet. He's our Pyrenees puppy. Yep, a great big puppy. Don't let that innocent look fool ya.

Here's our house now. Notice all the doors and windows! The front porch is finished too.

Here's a view out one of the front doors.

~Tricia Ann