Trusses and Thanksgiving

On Friday November 29th, Josh and Laura arrived to our country bungalow just before 1pm. Katie and Andrew had arrived on Thursday afternoon driving from the Coast. After we all had a hot bowl of Dear’s famous Tomato Rice Soup with Granny Great’s rolls we headed out to man our winches to lift the center trusses. It was very cold. This building is going to be Dear’s Shop. A place for our larger equipment and Dear’s truck and other projects.

4 people cranking to cadence set by another one of us. Slowly but surely the trusses gained height. The three of us gals took turns with our crank.

We raised the trusses up to about 10 inches shy of reaching the notches where they would rest and had to call it a day. The trusses were secured with blocks of wood and chains and and straps and we came inside to get warmed up and have a thrown together meal of pasta, ravioli, and steamed broccoli. We would wait until Saturday to do the final raising.

Saturday morning after a hot bowl of oatmeal we headed out again to lift the trusses the final 10 inches. At this point Katie noticed some fraying of one of the cables. We halted and the guys put their heads together to fix the problem.

New cable was added and we manned our stations again to continue lifting but then…

…disaster! We didn’t notice that the cable on this side had frayed and after a fatal crank it snapped and the truss came crashing down landing on one of the splash boards. Thankfully the cable just swiped Joshua’s arm and no one was hurt. Now heads would have to come together again for a solution. The girls went inside for intervals to start work on our post Thanksgiving meal.

To lighten the mood we did a little jump roping. We did a lot of praying and asked God to give the guys a solution that would work for the trusses to be raised and secured. We also called on some prayer warriors to pray along with us. The girls went inside again for more Thanksgiving meal preparations.

We introduced Addy to the art of putting marshmallows on top of the buttered and brown sugared yams.

JJ enjoyed watching. Jamie took Addy and JJ home for their naps and would return later in the day for our Thanksgiving meal.

Did I mention it was really cold?

After hours and a double winch/cable solution from a different angle it looked like we were just about there.

The girls watched and prayed.

Hallelujah! One last adjustment and all went into place in the notches and it was now time to secure each end to the posts. That would take a while so the girls went inside to continue on our meal and get warmed up singing praises to God all the way into the house and for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Laura and Katie headed to Super 1 for some Brussels Sprouts and bacon to add to our meal and were happy for that short distraction after all the stress of the day.

The turkey came out brown and beautiful. Our meal together was one filled with more thanksgiving that you can imagine. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, candied yams, Brussels Sprouts with bacon, and Granny Great’s rolls. While Addy and JJ napped Jamie made a dairy free pumpkin pie to add to her apple pie for our dessert.

Before we ate our pie we were also grateful to be able to celebrate Laura’s upcoming birthday with a special gift from all of us. She adds so much care and love to our family and we are all thankful to God for her. Happy birthday dear Laura. You are precious to us.

This was a very long post but it represents two very long days of labor in freezing temperatures. There was joy, disaster, grief, perseverance and then ecstatic praise and relief for a final good result. We are so grateful for the help from Josh, Andrew and the girls. Gramps couldn’t have done it without us all pitching in together.

We were sad that Dan, Addy and JJ’s dad, had to miss out on this two day adventure.

Thanksgiving decor is all put away and I’m slowly bringing out the Christmas decor. Josh and Laura left on Sunday and Katie and Andrew left on Monday.

Three Days Full

I’m gathering the photos and my brain to be able to share the agonies and the ecstasies of the last three days. More to follow soon. All ended well but there were some intense moments where all our brains put together resulted in a success that we all praised God for. Josh and Laura are back home on the other side of the Cascades. Katie and Andrew will drive home tomorrow. Addy and JJ’s Dad is away for work and that sign was for him. He’ll be home soon.

Here we are in the Advent season. We are looking forward to some daily Advent readings for the next 24 days. I was so ready to put the Fall decor away. We have a few Christmas decor items up and when I recover from our Thanksgiving weekend I’ll put up the rest. Christmas tree won’t appear till after the 9th of December. We had a light dusting of snow today with temps not rising above the mid twenties. Brrr…

Do you have any special plans for this Advent season?

The Day After…

So Baba is guilty of a complete photo fail at JJ’s first Thanksgiving. So grateful that his mommy remembered at the last minute to take this photo and grateful for our time together with Jamie’s family over a delicious traditional Thanksgiving meal.

The next collage was taken a week ago on the “Coast”.

We trust you all gobbled up some good turkey and fixins. We sure did.

Yesterday Katie and Andrew arrived from the Coast at 1:30 in the afternoon. I have no photos of the two of them so far. The roads were great for them to travel on Thanksgiving day. We gathered at two thirty and after with plans to eat at four. Today Josh and Laura will land in Spokane at 10:30 ish and arrive here noonish. We are grateful for the time we will have together in our neck of the woods.

Happy Black Friday. Are you out shopping? We have plans to raise the remaining trusses today while Josh and Andrew are here. Katie gets to be the 4th person needed for the task. Praying that the plan works and there are no complications.

Happy Thanksgiving 2019

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Even if you don’t live in the USA it is good to be thankful!

I am very happy to report the wind storm predicted for yesterday was not bad at our country bungalow and we never lost power! Dear managed to remove the dishwasher that came with our home and replace it with the dishwasher we brought with us from Kenmore a year ago. We loved our Miele and didn’t want to leave it behind. We are gifting the dishwasher we removed to our DIL’s mom who is remodeling her kitchen. It’s a relatively new Bosch.

Gobble gobble till you wobble.

The photo above is from a Thanksgiving past while we still lived in Kenmore.

We aren’t cooking a turkey at our bungalow until Saturday. We’ll be enjoying our home having the aroma of the classic Thanksgiving treats then. Today we’ll enjoy turkey and trimmings at our middle Son and DIL’s home with her family.

Our daughter and SIL are driving today to come to our side of Washington. Praying for safe travels for them. Our oldest and his love fly over on Friday after they host a meal at their home on Thanksgiving day.

Hope your Thanksgiving Day is filled with peace, joy and love. Cheers!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (ESV):

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing,

give thanks in all circumstances;

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

God’s Artwork

I’m thankful for the beauty all around me. One morning this last week when I went out for a drive into town the Camry caught my attention. The detail of the ice on the car was like beautiful artwork or carvings.

This Saturday morning we are already at 31 degrees but they are predicting a snow flurry this morning. Sunday and Monday are the warmest days this coming week but just above freezing. The rest of the week is at freezing and below. Hope our travelers do not have any problems coming over the Cascade mountain range.

We freshened up some rooms in our country bungalow and I’ll share some of those changes next week.

I’m itching to decorate for Christmas but I’ll hold off till after Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have a tip for you. I needed to send off some Thanksgiving cards to loved ones and popped into the Dollar Tree in Colville. Don’t forget that they have a nice variety of cards all the time and some are even 2 for a $1.00. That beats the $3.99 and up you have to pay elsewhere these days. Your welcome.

I’m attaching a few photos here just to keep up with family doings. Our grands are still enjoying time on the other side of the mountains at Uncle Josh and Auntie Lolo’s house. They are coming back home on Monday.