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!