Life has been busy!

Hope you don't mind reading a bit; I haven't posted anything in a little while, so it may be a little longer than normal. But, if you have as much snow and cold as we do, you might just be sitting in a warm house - then maybe this post won't seem so long . . . By the way, there are some really good pictures of the kids at the end of the post - so I hope you'll look at all of it.

We took one of our occasional trips to the Repeat Boutique in Wheaton, IL. As always we came home with a van load of clothes, shoes, books and etc.

The following video is of me making Christmas presents for family and our church people. Tim Kelly shared the idea with me. It is an unglazed tile with stamp and ink.



We had a our Christmas program at church on the 19th of December; an hour of vocal solos, duets, trios, quartets, children's choir, harp, flute, trumpet, and piano (solos and duets). For an assembly of our size, I think that our church is blessed with much ability and willingness.

Our family traveled to Missouri for a one day Christmas get-together on the 23rd of December. We only get all of us together about every 3 years since my sister and her husband are Missionaries in Mexico. The picture is of 4 generations - from my Grandma Deatrick to my younger brother's new born daughter Emma. I won't name every one with the front row, back row, left to right method . . . that would really make this a long post.
21 grandchildren if you are counting (7 of them are mine).

Work is getting done slowly on the garage. I have built the stairs (a new experience for me), finished the upstairs storage room, and just today finished cutting an inch and a half off of the header so that I could get our new van in there.

I will say that cutting a 16 foot frozen 2X12 with a "sawzall" is quite a chore. Believe me, it took much longer than this 20 second video.



Speaking of the new van. We have been looking, waiting, and praying for a newer van with a specific kind of seating for about 4 years - but especially for about the last 4 months.
We found this one and purchased it between Christmas and New Year's day; I bought it in Moline, IL - about a three hour drive. It is unique in that it has no bench seats; it is a 10 passenger van that only has "captain's chairs." The center aisle and individual seats should make traveling much more family friendly.

We had Christmas with Carol's folks (Grandpa and Grandma Bumgardner) and as always enjoyed the day spent with them. I don't know how we managed to miss getting a picture of them, but we can prove their presence by the stockings that they always give to us . . .

The Christmas season was very enjoyable; the kids made a ginger bread house with all of the necessary materials provided by a family in the church. Carol and Kara both enjoyed a birthday on the 10th of January. I went to Camp Joy with a couple of our deacons for a retreat with Dr. Ed Nelson - 87 years old and going strong.

We have had at least 3 feet of snow this season. The "great blizzard" was a little underwhelming in accumulation; 8 and 1/2 inches instead of the "up to 24 inches." However, we discovered that the reason that we didn't get as much as predicted is because the sleet mixed with the snow and compacted it - it was a very heavy and hard snow, especially when it came to shoveling. The following picture is of Joel (at 85 lbs.) standing on one of the drifts up against our church building; the next is in front of one of the snow piles. The other is in front of our house.

In our Christmas letter I wrote of Gardner "shaking violently back and forth." This is a sample.




Finally, we had our family portrait made in December. I'm going to post several of those pictures on here (it is legal; we bought the cd.)
Joel

Laura

Grant
John
Josiah (this was very interesting; he is normally quite shy, but seemed to love being at the studio and getting his picture taken. He could hardly wait until the others were out of the way so that he could have his turn.)

Kara

Gardner


I know it was long, but I think most people like looking at pictures and there were more pictures than there was writing. "A picture is worth a thousand words."

P.S. It looks like the AIBCI has finally sold the old hospital building - our original church building. Lord willing, it should be sold by the end of February.

I'm thawing . . .

The weather men are all talking about the "deep freeze" that the mid-west is experiencing right now - they got it right this time (last week they predicted 3-5 inches of snow and kept raising the forecast as the accumulation exceeded it - we got almost 9 inches). It got up into the teens here today; I am eager to finish my garage - especially putting the floor in the bonus room upstairs, so I decided to install the garage door today so that I could get some heat in there and warm it up so that it would be above freezing and then I can build the stair well without wearing gloves.

When Joel and I put the door up today, the thermometer that we had in the garage read 10.1 degrees. Having the door up, immediately made it feel warmer because the wind was gone.

So much has happened . . .

My last post was the 4th of November, so I guess it is time to give an update.

November 11th - finished sheeting the roof of the garage.



November 15th - Stephen's birthday (my younger brother is 33) and I'm putting shingles on the roof of the garage.




Here are a few more pictures from the 15th.

Our neighbor, Lynn Ingold, took this one. I can only imagine how many more steps I would have to take without Joel's help.


Carol has kept me supplied with hot chocolate or coffee (and conversation).


I thought the following picture that Laura took from the ladder was interesting because it makes it appear as though the pitch is much steeper than it really is.


November 19th - finished the roof, all accept for the cap (which was on back order). When I finally did get the cap and got it on, it started snowing just a couple of hours after I finished the shingles (that was on the 3rd of December).


Joel ordered some piano books with some money he had saved. He has been very diligent with his piano and has progressed very well in just under 5 months of lessons.

November 21st - my Mom wanted an updated picture of all the grandkids.
Left to right:
John (5), Josiah (4), Grant (7), Gardner (5 months), Joel (10), Laura (9), Kara (2).


Thanksgiving week.

We went to Missouri. My folks were in N.C., but we stayed at their house and spent Thanksgiving Day with my Aunt and Uncle and family as well as my Grandma Deatrick. My friend Tim Kelly and I took a historical field trip to the grave of Nesbitt Nelson (an old Baptist pastor) and then found the original site of the Fox River Baptist Church - it is now under an exit ramp off of Highway 27 (called "Avenue of the Saints" and going from St. Louis to St. Paul) - knowing that the original church location is under the highway kind of gives a new and interesting interpretation to Avenue of the Saints. The Fox River Baptist Church was started by Jeremiah Vardeman in the 1st half of the 1800's. That church in turn started the 1st Baptist Church of Wayland (which is the church that my Dad now pastors).

December 8th - the school year is progressing for the older ones; all of them are growing (Joel is 15 pounds heavier than he was at the beginning of the year).


Kara is getting over a black eye - kind of yellowish now; she was a participant in some "rough housing" and met a chair up close - she is like John though, she only cried for about 20 seconds. I'm sure that you all are surprised that we ever have rough housing in our home. We had scheduled a family portrait for the next morning (to put in our Christmas letter); obviously the family picture has been postponed.


We took a trip to Lincoln on Tuesday (the 7th). Carol's Aunt and Uncle live there and have let us store some things in their garage. We had a surprise snow storm on the 3rd and 4th and got almost 9 inches of snow (right after I finished the shingles). Many of our winter clothes and all of our Christmas decorations were down there. We had a good visit and supper with them. We also picked up our little walker. Gardner's legs aren't long enough to reach the floor, but he still seems to enjoy it - and life.




Yesterday I went to Alton with a man in our church. He had a dental appointment and I went searching for information on John Mason Peck - the pioneer church planter in Illinois and Missouri. I was the only "tourist" at the "Loomis House" which is the first building that was built by Peck when he started the Rock Springs Seminary in 1827 (later Shurtleff College and now the SIU Dental School). I discovered much more about Alton, but unfortunately, didn't find any more about Peck than I already knew.

This afternoon, Joel and I finished putting up the vapor barrier on the front of the garage and installed another window. I had already put in the downstairs window and the "people door" (as our neighbor has gotten us in the habit of calling it :-). As soon as I get the big garage door installed, I can put heat in the garage so that the siding won't be so brittle. For the garage door, the instructions say that it takes 9-12 hours to install it (not including the opener) - I hope I can beat that expectation, because I seldom have 9-12 hours at a time to work on it.

These pictures are from today. You can see Joel in the upstairs window; he is standing on a crate that I put in the rafters so he could help hold the window as I fastened it from the outside.



It was warmer today (up past 40 after several days in the 20's with nights down to single digits); you can see the hem of Laura's skirt is wet from where she had been in the snow.



One more video of Gardner.




Until I get more time and pictures . . . :-)

Levi

Pheasant Hunting

Carol bagged her first wild game today - a pheasant. Unfortunately it was with the van on the way home from the dentist.


The pheasant made the ride the rest of the way home inside the grill. Much of the habitat for the pheasants around here has been harvested; so with bean fields and corn fields all cut, the game is out and about a little bit more than other times of the year.

Updates . . .

We found out this morning that Carol will have to get braces back on her top teeth. They were taken off too early and there still isn't enough room for the implant.

Josiah turned 4 on Saturday, the 30th. I thought this video was pretty good; I've not seen any of our children blow out candles like this before.




Update on the garage:

I had all of the materials delivered from Menards. Unfortunately, they sent me the trusses for another man whose last name was "Deatrich" - 18' trusses won't span 24' walls. So, more than two weeks later we are still waiting on the right trusses; they are supposed to be delivered today. We do have all the walls up and are ready for the arrival of the trusses.

One of the jobs I had in the kitchen at ABC was checking in the food delivery truck. This was about the same - checking to make sure that everything I paid for was actually delivered.


I could tell right away that there was not space for a 12' room in those trusses.


The kids have moved most of this gravel pile to the entrance to the garage.


However, we've had a few spills with the wheel barrow, so I have to push it sometimes.


Here is a little of the construction in progress:



There is still delicateness in our home, thanks to Carol.

The walls are up!



One of the men in the church is in construction; he had several of his guys come over and help me last weekend. That is a patch on my eye; I had to have part of an embedded nail removed from my eye (nail guns are nice, but they are also dangerous).

Ready for the trusses!


Regarding my eye:

I may have to have more work done on it. Since I thought it was just dust, I didn't go to the hospital for about 30 hours - so I have a rust ring around where the piece of the nail was was (I did get a tetanus shot and shouldn't have to worry about lock-jaw :-). The eye doctor is giving me a week and then may have to clean it out some more - I'd rather not, it is an uncomfortable procedure.

The concrete is finished . . .

The title of this post might be an overstatement . . . but I'll get to that in a little bit.

First, I love this picture of me and Gardner taken one morning last week as I was going out to work. Children have such a genuine cheerfulness!


I finished the forms on Saturday. The kids helped move piles of dirt, hold the tape measure, chase tools, drink Gatorade, and just help keep me company. The video is of Joel using the compactor since the garage is where the garden used to be.



The strings are all coming together in the center of where the garage will be. They are from each corner and both sides - it seems as though everything is still square with the forms finished.

Laura noticed that the string was pink and asked if I wanted to keep the rest of the roll (she wanted it since it was pink). The string was to make sure that we had the right depth for the concrete. Laura helped me shave off some dirt from the high places.


Monday was a long day. I was outside with Joel and Laura shortly after 6 am, we had to get all the tools out, put down the plastic for a vapor barrier, put gravel in the bottom of the footers, and then back fill the forms (so the concrete wouldn't push them out). I went to pick up some of the tools and supplies before the first concrete truck arrived at 8:15. The kids had to be back inside at 8:00 for school, but they sure were watching all that was happening.

Bro. Mest, one of the men from our church, came and spent the day helping with the project; I couldn't have done this without him.

Below are a few pictures and video of the happenings.

The fun begins . . .


Fortunately, the truck had a 22' reach instead of 16' as I had originally been told. So, with the swing of the shoot, we could get the concrete to every corner of the forms.





Time for the screet board . . . it is the rough leveling. We used a couple of 14' 2X6's nailed together - you slide it back and forth across the top of the forms to make sure the all the holes are filled in and the high spots are leveled. It works like an old fashioned buck saw.








Laura wanted to show some of my new tools - usually, with a project, I'll get some new tools . . . :-)


Gatorade is an essential part of this kind of work . . .


It is also rather common to get things in your boots when you have your jeans tucked in to them (I'm cleaning dirt out of my boots). We were one yard short, not by miscalculation, but by truck capacity - so we are waiting for the final yard of concrete. Our neighbor, Dick Meyer, stopped to chat for a little bit. We have really good neighbors all the way around.


After the concrete was all poured, then it was time for the bull float - it is a 4' magnesium trowel with about an 18' handle.





Truck #2. The weather was almost perfect; it was a little cool and overcast - although we did have to keep picking out leaves - I'm sure there are some that are now a part of the "fiber" mix that was in the concrete. You can notice how the bull float has helped to smooth the concrete.






The final video is of me using the power trowel. There is definitely a learning curve with this machine. I had watched Clarence Moore use one at ABC and he made it seem to just glide back and forth across the cement. On this job, it was more like me getting jerked back and forth across the cement. Finally, I learned how to steer the thing by either pushing down or lifting on the handles and letting it steer itself; it still wore me out even after I figured some things out on it.

The edges did not finish as well as I would have liked. I couldn't get as close to the forms as I should have and I didn't stop to hand trowel when I should have - but that is only a cosmetic issue and the floor plates will cover most of the edges. A professional wouldn't have made those mistakes; when they "finish concrete" it is totally smoothed - when I "finish concrete" I have completed to task!




Overall, I'm very pleased with the result.

All of my building materials are supposed to be delivered on Friday, so we'll get into the kind of work that I'm much more familiar with in just a few days.

Tonight I let the kids roller blade and bike ride on the concrete; I recorded it, but it was too close to dark to be able to see.

Oh, I must again remind you of all the support that Carol is behind the scenes!

On the church front, we are now in the process of nominating our first deacons. I'm thrilled that God has brought us to this point and look forward to having Godly men working in this ministry. Things are going as well as ever and we are so blessed to be where God has placed us.