The Family Who Works Together

We still have lots of projects going on around here.  I thought I would  post a few pictures of the actual work being done.  Devin is finishing up a couple of rogue shutters this morning and is sanding and painting the swing.

Yesterday, however, we left our home projects and went down to Lauren's and helped her move in to a FEMA trailer. You can read about the tornado that hit her house here.   I wish I had taken the camera with us so you could see what is left of the house.  Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised with the size of this trailer.  It has three small bedrooms provided with full sized beds and metal floor-to-ceiling closets.  It also has a large bathroom that is handicap accessible which means there is no tub only a huge shower.  The hallways are very wide, so she may be able to have bookcases along one of the hallways (if she thinks she can keep some monkeys from climbing on them!)  The living area consists of the dining room, living room and kitchen.  It is small and comes furnished with metal table, chairs and end tables, a hide-a-bed sofa and club chair.  The kitchen has metal cabinets but also has a full sized fridge, stove and microwave.  It is fresh and clean, so that is a great blessing!  It will be a change from their large home, but they needed to down size anyway!  Please continue to remember them in prayer.  There is still a HUGE amount of clean  up to be done and some big decisions to be made regarding her health issues and deciding where to go from here as far as buying/building a new  home.  They are both extremely thankful and grateful for the Lord's mercies and for many who have offered physical and monetary help.  It would be so very easy to sink into despair when you see the difficulties that must be overcome, but positive attitudes prevail!

Kaelan is priming the porch railing.

Jackson worked hard on the primer as well!

The next day the real painting began.  Kaelan is smiling here, but she still has paint all over her arms, legs and feet!

Jeff took over for Jackson.

Aaron was a hard worker.

The three beds in the middle to upper part of this photo have lots of compost in them are are doing really well.  Now we have cucumbers blooming in the first bed here along with onions.  Above is our lettuce bed that has been wonderful and beyond that are garden peas that we will be harvesting in the next week or so.  Just waiting for the pods to plump up some more.

While the others were painting, Jordan was adding more compost to some of the beds.  This morning when I checked a few of these tomato plants had tomatoes on them!

Blossoms from the garden pea bed.

Squash blossoms!  We have about 6 kinds of squash in the garden this year.  I hope we have a great crop!

Our two mature blueberry plants are so heavy with berries that Jeff had to stake and tie them up!  

We have a huge bed with mint.  I love mint tea!!  

On the deck we have lots of herbs and some more tomato starts.   Here we have two pots with lettuce, a can with 3-4 heirloom tomato plants and a pot with chocolate mint.  We have many more cans and pots with a huge variety of herbs that we hope will do well and can be moved to permanent beds later.

Jeff and I spent a few moments dreaming together about what we would like to do on our little homestead in the future.  So many plans that will require sacrifice and hard work.  We realize how beneficial this is to our own character and to the character of our children.  Putting up fences, cutting down trees, clearing land to garden, planting, weeding, hoeing, mowing, painting, canning, and just the day-to-day work required in living the "simple" life builds confidence, patience, diligence, obedience, orderliness, attentiveness and so very much more.  We are so grateful for the training ground that the Lord has blessed us with and for all these precious children he has given us to learn and work with.  We are all learning and working together!

  

Check out other gardens at Smockity Frocks.