pictures

Mary's dad's shed after a morning of work 

(we put up the wall, not just hung the 7 tools on it!)

The man who almost had the pleasure of having his butt slapped by my hand! 

(and yes, I, Jesse, took this picture, with the help of my special pass to get right up next to the 

stage - Thanks mom!)

Our pile of oak, safe and sound in the shop waiting to be processed.

A sample of before and after the planer

Said Planer (the newest edition to the growing woodshop!)

Said growing woodshop - at least one wall of it.

This picture is a bit old, the heater in the bottom left of the image is now hanging in the top left, and there is a home made dust collector on the shelves that are behind the router table. I will try to get a more up to date picture soon, but lets face it, soon may be a month or two from now!

The tile floor in the bathroom, as we were grouting it.

The tile with the grout applied (right word?)

The bathroom, with trim and the new vanity/sink 

(It isn't actually hooked up yet, but it does look good!)

The bottom half of the dresser we chopped up to make the vanity - it will have an upholstered top when it is finished

And for good measure, a nice shot of Dante taken out at Mary's parents house. 

I know there is no real frame of reference for how big he is, so you will just have to take my word for it, he is big!

Until then - 

Well, It has been quite a while since the last post, and a fair bit has taken place. We have probably spent more weekends away from home than actually in Shen. Oh well, it has been nice seeing a bunch of people again. We had the privilege to help Pete and Carissa move into their new apartment, dump a load of lumber in the middle of highway 163,  see Andy off to Korea, visit with Amanda for a weekend, help Mary’s dad get a bit further on his shed, go backstage at Lifelight, almost (yes, sadly only almost) slap Michael W. Smiths rump (in a congratulatory way, not disciplinarian like), see Jeremy in Sioux Center, spend time with Jess in her new digs in Sioux Center, and visit with Grandparents.

            Aside from all of that, we have managed to get some work done on the house. We finally have curtains up in our bedroom, the bathroom is coming together with the new tile and vanity/sink. The wall paper in the dining room is slowly coming down, and my shop is shaping up nicely. Mary also made a bunch of peach jam from the fruit off our tree, and we have made about 5 gallons of apple cider so far, with the help of Andy and our industrial juicer that we cobbled together from an unused washing machine. The unused drier is now in parts, with the blower assembly serving as a dust collector in my shop.

            We also bought a bunch of rough-cut oak that will eventually become our kitchen cabinets with the help of my new planer! If anyone is looking to purchase a planer, I would highly recommend the Ridgid. So far, it has been an excellent piece of equipment!

            On a slightly different note, Dante is still getting bigger. We took him with us up to LifeLight, and he rode in the back of the Jeep like a champ, which was encouraging. Soon though, he probably wont even fit in back of the Jeep. We will cross that bridge when we come it I suppose.

            We also bought a baby grand piano. Well, actually it is a pile of pieces that hopefully will all come together again to be a baby grand piano. It is a bit of a project, but it is mahogany underneath the puke yellow paint, so it should be pretty once it is refinished. Mary has promised to re-learn how to play it so it won’t just collect dust. Who knows, I might even try my hand at plunking a few notes, but don’t hold your breath.

            I think that is about all that has been going on, other than the usual work stuff, but that is boring, so I wont put you to sleep with that. Oh, one exciting thing that most of you probably already know, but I will share anyway, Mary found a job. She is working at a print shop here in Shen, doing graphic design work and the like. She works between 20 and 40 hours a week, and is really excited about it. The sad thing is, she has been working for 2 weeks and has already met more people than I have in my 4 monts with Pella. Oh well!

The Beast Grows

Some of you have been requesting pictures of Dante. As I am always one to please, here they are.

A more sedated pup

The lazy version of Dante never lasts long!

And he likes to cuddle with his dad!

A picture with his mom

Two weeks ago, at his first visit to the vet, he weighed in at 28 pounds. Yesterday when he went back for his second round of shots, he was 40 pounds. Basically, he gains a pound a day.
~Until next time

Settling

May has left us and June is marching on. Time moves so quickly when life is busy, but the business is sweet as well. A week was spent in Pella for training and more enjoyably for spending time with Mary's grandparents. Thanks for the food and fellowship. Luckily for me, the training was shortened from three weeks to just one, which means that I get to spend more time at home with Mary and dante.
Speaking of Dante, he is growing like a weed. We had to go out and buy him a larger crate. It was the largest one that petsmart offers, and it is huge.The small cage on top was the temporary one that we started with. We were hoping for a month or two before he out-grew it, but it only lasted 3 weeks. If you know anyone who wants a cage, we have an extra one!

Bedroom
We have also been working on the front bedroom. The closet was in pretty tough shape
so we knocked down all of the paster, re-insulated and hung new sheetrock.
after some tricksy mudding and a new coat of texture, the room is looking pretty good. Now we just need to get some moulding up and paint and it should be done, for now. The floors will wait until we can do them all in one shebang.

Fruit
It has been the stormiest spring on record for this area, and one good thing about all the rain is that the fruit on our trees are growing like mad. (So are the raspberries! Dont worry papa, we will let you know when they are ready for the pickin'!)

Some apples

And some Peaches

Some Grapes (Yes, some did survive the vine move)

Some Pears

Some Choke Cherries (we think!)

And some of the raspberries.

Well, more has happened, but it is getting late and bed is calling. I will try to post again soon with some more snapshots of our southern life.
Until then ~ Jesse

Why the lack of posts

Here is the reason why my posting has been so scarce as of late. This project has taken up most of my life. Not that I am complaining. It has been fun, rewarding, and most importantly, educational!
Anyway, this is just a little clip of Andy's and my senior design project working. Looks pretty mundane, but it took forever, so be impressed. For more info on the project, come to the design presentations on Wednesday, May 7 at 7:30PM (something like 18 hours from now) in S101. Should be a rousing good time. Make sure you are on time though because we present first and you wont want to miss a minute!

So Soon and Yet Not Quick Enough

It has been a while since the last post, so I figured it was about time to give a quick update (not that there is much to update about). Mary and one of her friends from class went down to paint the living room a few weeks ago. Other than that, not much has happened down in Shen.
On the Sioux Center front, We are just about done with school, which means moving time. Moving time means packing, and me getting to drive a really big truck. I am pretty excited about that!
In the two previous times that Mary and I have moved, and now this time, it has never ceased to amaze me how much stuff two people can accumulate. We have so much that we have started going through and getting rid of the stuff we don't need. Fortunately for us the purging of unneeded things happened to coincide with an electronic recycling drive on campus and a used clothing drive at our church for some missionaries in the Ukraine. Even so, a big truck is needed to move all of our stuff. I know this because being the nerd i am, I calculated the cubic footage of all of our furniture. I did not go as far a making a CAD drawing of how everything would fit (sadly not because I didn't want to, but rather my trial version of AutoCAD ran out. So sad: not the trial running out, but that I seriously contemplated drawing it up!)
Anyway, we are picking up the truck next Thursday on our way back from picking up our puppy! Then we pack on Friday and officially take up residence in Shenandoah on Saturday.
Now just to get through this week and finish exams the next.

Oh, here is the living room painted: (the wainscoting is just primed yet)

And Here is a picture of our puppy. It was taken a few weeks ago, but you get the idea!

Until next time
~jesse

Spring Break Blitz

What a week! Mary, Matt and I packed up the trailer and headed to Shen last Saturday and spent the rest of the week livin' it up HGTV style. Mary and I had compiled a list of tasks we wanted to accomplish throughout the week, and with the help of handyman Matt we got it all done and more. It also helped that Pete and Carissa were able to make it down later in the week. One of the things we accomplished was to disassemble old fireplace mantle, frame in new chimney, build new mantle. Check out the images of the progress made.

Old mantle off and preparing for the new chimney cover.

Puttying the drywall on the new chimney.

Starting to build the new mantle.

Bracing the panels that are glued to the side of the fireplace.

Panels cut for the front.

Final product before paint (looking a bit hodge-podge)

Final primed product.