Happy New Year!!

Happy new year to everyone!

We spent new year's eve working on drywall at the addition job...

At the beginning of the day the boys got started on the sheet-rocking.

For the first half of the day I was the supervisor/mudding guy.

Mudding is the best part, in my humble opinion. I don't know why I enjoy it so much, but I do.

So, we had a contest to see if I could keep up with the mudding as the other guys hung the drywall.

It was a pretty even competition for a while... until Dad arrived in the afternoon and started helping :)

Then I started getting behind :)

All in all, though, we had a really great time!

I ended up loosing to the drywall hangers... 

I was about 1 hour's worth behind them, in the end...

Great job guys!

We're working a half day tomorrow, so hopefully I can catch up then!! :)

We came home and were greeted with a tasty snack-supper.

The girls and mom prepared all kinds of goodies for a new-year's celebration.

A couple random shots...

After supper, Sam had something to show Dad on the computer...

And the girls were still munching :)

Tonight Emily and I decided to stay up and usher in the new year... everyone else is going to bed!

After work tomorrow we're having a skating party at a local fish pond, with a chili supper afterward at church. We're all really looking forward to that :)

God's blessings to you all in the new year- may your lives grow closer to Him and deeper in consecration to His service and kingdom!!

-nate

One job down... several to go!

As goes this time of year, we have been right back into the thick of it with work. 

We took about 2 1/2 days to build a deck and install a few windows in a house about 15 minutes away. 

Simultaneously, Dad and Ben worked at another job, putting insulation in at the big addition.

Unfortunately, all I had was my phone's camera.

But, this is the deck... around lunch time the second day.

It continues to be COLD. Yes, COLD.

Saturday (after we finished work on the deck and windows) we went over to the big addition to unload the drywall... ah, yes, lot's of weight in there :) 8', 10' and 12' sheets.

Can't wait to start mudding all this stuff- it'll be fun :)

Also on Saturday I helped my cousin Ben pull his car home- his serpentine belt broke, so the car wouldn't run. I rode in the dead thing and he towed with his pickup :) We had a grand time :)

Today the church service was a blessing. I had the opening devotional and preached out of 1 Corinthians 13, talking from what God has been speaking to my heart this week: having true, God-given love in our hearts. Then Dad preached about what it means to call one's self a Christian.

Well, it's getting late, so I'd better close. Lots of drywall to mud tomorrow :)

God's peace be with you!

-nate

A favorite quote...

Some of you have undoubtedly seen me post this quote before, but I am greatly encouraged by it and wanted to share it with you again.

It was very instrumental during a difficult time in my life, a time when things just didn't make much sense and seemed impossible.

Perhaps you're going through something that doesn't make sense, something you can't explain, something that (to all human reasoning) just couldn't ever turn out right- dear one, this is the time to trust Him; this is the time to wait on Him; this is the time in which you can prove Him and find Him faithful... Remember that we are not promised a bed of roses as Christians- actually, reality is that, we will probably have more trials and tests on earth than people outside the kingdom of God... but what we have (the thing the world doesn't have) is the wonderful assurance that He knows all and will see us through. Don't be discouraged- trust Him and be encouraged!

"One of the greatest elements of the Christian's life is that of FAITH: it is that thing which trusts and holds on to the will and promises of God, no matter what circumstances and emotions try to dictate and always leans, trusting, upon the caring arm of it's God, for He "knoweth all things"- Anonymous

Let us continue entrusting our lives to Him, as unto a faithful Creator and believing in His goodness and purposes...

Peace be with you all, dear ones!

-nate

The cold sets in... the days progress...

Yes, it's been COLD here.

But, the days continues nonetheless...

Yesterday Josh, Ben and myself worked on "the siding job" (as it's wont to be called) in Griswold, installing facia, gutters and window trim.

Installing the facia on the east side of the house.

Josh did the aluminum bending for the day; inside the trailer he had a space heater rigged up, so he kept pretty warm most of the day :P The rest of us... well.....

Today we started building a deck in a little town nearby, called Elliot.

Lunch time... I'm examining the ingredients of the pretzels we consumed...

Ry, contemplatively munching on some sort of sustenance.

The temperature here has been in the single digits at night, then usually "warming up" to mid twenties during the day. It makes working slightly laborious working in thick and heavy coveralls and coats, cumbersome gloves and frumpy hats. But, at least we're warm- for the most part :)

The next few days we'll be running like crazy- we need to finish the siding and deck within the next week, then drywall and mud at the addition job... :-/ As usual, we're behind on work. I'd really like to have someone explain to me how that happens- but it does. Maybe we schedule too much in too short of a time? :) Oh well. It's nice to have lots to do.

Well, it's supper time now. 

God bless!

-nate

Christmas eve...

Christmas eve found us waking up at the crack of dawn to go to... WORK.

 Yep. That's right- we had to work on a holiday.

But that was ok- it was enjoyable to try wrapping up several large projects the day before Christmas, so it was worth it. We got to the job around 7:30 in the morning and did our best to finish the following:

1. Insulate the inside of an addition

2. Put a steel roof onto the same addition

3. Clean up the inside of the addition after insulating

4. Tearing a hole in the wall of the addition, joining it to the exiting house

5. Going over to another job and cladding 10 windows

6. At the same job, putting facia up

We got all done except 3 windows and the facia on the other job. The boys did a fantastic job working hard. It made relaxing today even more worth it :)

On the way to work-

I was late because one of our work trucks had a flat tire :P

Ah, yes, the first job...

The boys were hard at the steel roofing when I got there.

Inside the basement was nice and warm.

My cousin Ben, opening a new bundle of insulation.

By 3pm the roof was done!

Our work trucks...

On the way home at night...

Butchering, working and caroling!

Yesterday was full of activity- first off, we had a cow delivered to our house in the morning and butchered it... the Chupps and some Pratts came over to help and we got it quartered before lunch time...

Dad, skinning the beef...

Don Chupp helped for a couple hours.

...and KK watched :)

After that we headed over to the roof job...

Unfortunately the sun was too soon in setting... we had to hurry to get done.

The boys worked hard but we only got metal on the porch roof...

Once 5:30 rolled around we packed up and went back into Griswold for some caroling!

We had our big dump trailer hitched up to our truck and lined the edges with hay bails. Almost everyone from church came, so we all packed in there and drove around, stopping at various friends' homes and singing for them. I won't say we sounded really good, but I think people were blessed by the old fashioned caroling! Wherever we stopped, we gave people cookies and tracts.

After singing and freezing, we got back to church and enjoyed hot chocolate, coffee and tea :) We had some good fellowship and went home with full hearts...

Tonight we're having an early Christmas celebration at Gram's house... Ry and Kels are going out to NE for Christmas day, so we're doing our celebration with them early. I'm looking forward to it; family gatherings are always so fun.

Well, it's almost time to leave for church, so I'd better close :)

God's blessings to you all!

-nate

Snow! (Updated with video)

(Updated with a video at the end)

Last night a "blizzard" came roaring in from the west. Today we're just taking it easy around here; nobody went to work and we've just been enjoying time with each other :)

Abi, taking a picture of Dad, sleeping :)

After the "blizzard" last night, the boys and I went out to town.

You can see that the "blizzard" actually wasn't too bad :)

We got about 3 inches of snow, if my estimations are correct...

The blowing wind is the worst part.

We followed a plough truck on the way home.

Me, driving...

KK, riding, making a funny face :)

Josh was the photographer.

An older Chevy truck that followed us for a while...

Nice touch, Josh, taking the picture using the mirror :)

Here's a nice little video of us driving along...

A few different things...

Good evening to one and all, dear ones!

Tonight I lay on our couch, awaiting my fate- there is a flu bug going around here and my stomach is feeling a bit rumbly tonight, so I have been quarantined to one select area, in case I am a carrier. Exiled in my own home, a blizzard wind roaring outside the window, I await further symptoms to develop. Thus, my evening dwindles shorter and shorter my the hour, by the minute, by the second, until the time for bed comes; whether or not I will go to sleep in peace or struggle in the throes of sickness into the early hours of the night, I cannot tell... only time with reveal my fate this evening...

:)

Anyhow....

Today we got the J-channel up on a siding job we started on last week, so once this blizzard blows its self out and we get dug out we'll be slapping siding up. Hoping all that goes well...

In other news: we purchased a replacement truck for our old, green F-250 we had. The new one was purchased with cash and windows- we traded some work for part of the price, which was a great deal. I say it's a "new" truck, but it's about 11 years old, so it's not really "new" per se...

Bible study was cancelled tonight because of the blizzard, otherwise we'd be there right now, singing and then listening to Ryan preach on the last chapter of the book of James. We've been going through that book as a church, and tonight was to be the final study. Ry is really good at Bible studies, so I was looking forward to it. He'll do a great job wrapping the whole study up. Can't wait...

I'm ordering a new charger for my camera. The other day (after some digging around in a bunch of my junk) I found the extra battery, but still no charger. Hopefully I'll have some pictures for you after I get the charger again :)

Well, that's all my fevered mind can think of to write about right now...

God bless you all! Peace be with you!

-nate

Back again...

After much delay and business, we're back on track here on the blog :)

The time in Haiti was wonderful- makes me want to spend more time there, but we'll wait on the Lord for that...

As of right now, we're really busy with work, but I'm hoping to get some blogging going again. My camera's charger is lost, the extra battery with it, and the remaining battery is dead :( So, no pictures for a while :)

We're going out to NE this weekend to do some caroling and fellowship time with the Smiths. It'll be nice to see their family again... haven't had time with the guys since our tent meetings right after I got back from Haiti, so it's high time to see them again :)

I'll see how much blogging I can do on the road tomorrow. Should have plenty of time to write. Hopefully we'll have good safe travels... it's always nice to have that :)

God bless you all...

-nate