I have switched from Cook to Painter.  Also ScissorLift Driver (woohoo!).  Sandy and I spent all day yesterday and today up on the scissorlift priming the wood trim around the 'windows'.  They're not exactly windows - it's more a long stretch of see-through fiberglass sheeting with an equally long stretch of squares set in front of it that give the appearance of lots of windows.  Driving the scissorlift was lots more fun than priming!  Not sure what we're going to do tomorrow - we have 3 more squares to prime, and then all of them need painting - but they might be spraying texture and paint on the big wall, which would pre-empt us, I think.  If they do it.  Maybe they'll just spray in the kitchen area.

I also finally refound my pedometer and re-remembered about Walk Across America - and have started out on the Oregon Trail again!  This time, I'm determined to get farther than Wyoming!  Doing good while I'm here - after we leave (I think that will be Monday?  Or maybe Tuesday...), things could get worser fast.  Here, I /have/ to walk around.  ;)  

It made it up to 15 today.  Heat wave, no?  I think it's cold from the ground all the way up - the snow that falls is light and airy and icy; and stays in its separate crystals even on the ground.  Makes for even more beautiful - at night, every facet glints at you - every time you take a step, imagine a thousand tiny stars dying and being born again.  Absolutely gorgeous.

Dean told us about his travels today - Liked one thought he heard at convention in Australia:  The waterpots in John 2 were empty.  But they were upright, and they were available.  We might feel sometimes like empty pots, but if we're available, God can put into us the water of his word.  And then he performs the miracle of turning it to wine - joy, peace, etc.

Yesterday, it was 28 deg in our cookhouse when John got there to start the fire.  I don't know what time that was, but when I got there at about 6:40, there was ice in the sink where the water splashes from running all night, and the towel we keep to sop up the drips was frozen into shape around the wood...

(The water runs all the time to keep the hose from freezing, fyi.)  

It was -7 out.  It warmed up to 3.9.  Today, it was a whole 7 deg warmer - made it all the way up to 12!  Heatwave!!

Makes me glad I was cooking.  ;)  I got to spend all day next to a nice cozy woodstove.  :D

(I am just now wondering... what happened to my Book Post??  I did it, honest, I did, Jen.  A couple of days ago.  And I have just now noticed that it's not there....)

So, for my part of the fun, since I have been terribly lax taking pictures, and haven't really managed to keep you all updated with fun posts... The Menu!

Yesterday for lunch we had Shepherd's Pie.  Supper was Split Pea Soup.  

Today:  Lunch was potato corn chowder (provided by Mary) and chicago style deep dish pizza (I think I may have been the first person ever to make that pizza with deer burger in cast iron frypans in a wood stove oven... ;).  Supper was a roast 'Misc. Pork Item'.  I'm not sure what it was, but it had a bone in and looked rather like a ham before it was hammed.  Is that a word?

Tomorrow - beef roast and bean paella (presuming it works; I've got the beans soaking and the roast roasting) and leftovers for supper. 

You may all drool now.  ;)

It's beautiful out.  :)  The snow creaks underfoot, and there's nearly a full moon.  Last night, it was clear - you could stand in the middle of the snow and stare up at the sky.  For a few seconds until you froze.  ;)  But gorgeous!  And during the day - when there's sun... - there are a million little rainbow sparkles everywhere.

Ok, I'm supposed to list five books I've read in the last year (I hope it means LAST year, and not this one!  Not that I haven't read 5 books this year, but... I don't remember what they were!  For that matter, I'm having trouble remember five important-t0-me books I read last year...)

So maybe I'll do this in installments.

1.  The Ominvore's Dilemma.  

This is one of the nonfiction books I promised myself I would read to balance out all the fiction ones.  That is - not this specific book; I just told myself (sternly too) to get one interesting non-fiction book with each batch of other books.  This was one of them.  It had a nice shiny cover with pictures of food on it.

It ended up being absolutely fascinating.  The author decided to follow the line from the original food object to the meal it eventually became a part of.  He did this for a fast-food meal, an organic meal, and a hunter-gatherer meal.  It seems to me that there may have been another, but it apparently didn't register in my mind.  For the first - fast food - he bought a steer, sent it to a feed lot, visited the feed lot... etc.  For the second, he spent a week working on a farm in Virginia called Polyfarms.  It is an organic, self-sustainable farm.  For the third, he learned to hunt, gather wild mushrooms and cooked the meal himself.  Along the way, he tells you everything he learned.  Highly interesting.

2.  Harry Potter the Seventh.  

I am pleased.  All of my objections (and they were strenuous) at the end of #6 were resolved to my satisfaction.  I found a few new objections, but they are minor.  ;)

3.  Um.  I'm in the middle of reading something called Salt.  Does being in the middle count?  It's quite interesting also - a history of salt, basically.   How it was used and how it was made and all kinds of things about how important it was to ancient civilizations.  

still thinking on the others. 

(Jen, I found it!)

So last night, we went sledding.  :)  I haven't been sledding for, um, so many years, I can't even remember.  The last sledding party I do remember, I spent sitting in my living room with bronchitis.  

So my only excuse(s) for not really wanting to go was that A. I was tired.  And B. I'd forgotten how much fun it was.

We had a nice bonfire, and they dragged a sled trail straight down the hill to the driveway.  But most of us just ended up going along the driveway itself.  Sandy and I tried the straight trail a couple of times, but we couldn't keep going straight along it, and always ended in a snowbank far too soon.  The driveway was just right - packed down and icy, and a long slope with a nice curve at the beginning.  After I figured out how to steer (dig a heel in the way you want to go, and don't listen to all those kids who say all you have to do is lean!), it was a blast!  If you did it just right, you could go all the way to the end of the drive, then make the turn at the mailbox and keep on down the road.  I never tried to see if I could have gotten to Leroy and Lindy's driveway (1/2 mile down) - I didn't want to have to walk back!

We didn't start until probably 7:30 - so it was dark, with just the yard light and the fire.  And not too cold - about 28-30, I think.  So you were warm enough with just walking.  I'm pleased with my new coat; all I had on was a turtleneck, no sweater or anything, and I was perfectly comfortable.

Several families with kids came - so there were at least 10 children; and most of us - and even Robert and Julia got onto sleds!  Loren mostly pushed the kids off - racing down the driveway, and sprawling on the ice as the sleds went racing on around the corner.  Donovan and Eldon built two enormous snow-people: a man and a woman next to each other.  Afterwards, there was cocoa and brownies and popcorn in the cookshack; and smores if you wanted to roast them over the fire.  I didn't stay for much of that; my bed was sounding altogether too welcoming.

Snow!  I love snow.  :)  And we've got somewhere around 10 inches of it.  I think.

Anyways, it's beautiful.  I should take some pictures, I should, and put them on my nifty little scrolling slideshow down there.

We've been painting like madwomen, with the result that by the time I actually stagger upstairs and fall onto my bed; I haven't enough energy or brain left to write any updating posts.  Instead, I stare blankly at the screen for a while, pretend to read my emails, and then sag offline.

But the painting (ok, one painting project; we won't mention the others) is almost done!  I should take a picture of that, too.  I will, I really will, but I might wait until the border is up.  Which should be tomorrow.  :)  All that's left to do is a little touch-up and a few corners and edges.  

Our study this week was Matt 6.  The thought I especially liked from last night was about the verse that says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.."  It was just said that we all probably know the importance of seeking the kingdom of God first, and we try to do this.  But perhaps we feel like we have a fairly good idea of what the righteousness of God is - and so we aren't seeking for it.  But in any given situation, we don't know everything about it - all that's going on in the background, or in people's hearts - and so perhaps what we think we know isn't right.  We need to be seeking for the righteousness of God each time, because God does know all the sides of every situation.

Test (no longer)

Erm.  Well, we're back at Ronan.  :)  I was doing a test and can't see immediately how to erase the test post, and thought that I should do a brief update in the space instead, except, of course, my brain instantly has gone blank.

So.  More update later.

Well, bah.

I am supposed to have this new program (with a gorgeous blue book icon, btw) that will allow me to type up my desired posts off-line, and then send it here when I get back online.  

Only I can't make it work.

Which brings me to the so-far-greatest annoyance about my new Mac.  Which is not specifically an annoyance about the Mac, as much as it is an annoyance about some of the software written for it.

Their help files are rotten!!!

If a person wants to know how to use a program to its fullest; how to do this or that operation using said program; what to do if certain promised operations are not working ... a person goes to the Help Menu Tab, yes?  This person does, yes.  

Only the Help Menu for the two programs so far that I have tried to make use of it in, does nothing but point you to the location of other menu items.  I type 'co' into the Help Search Box and am rewarded with a list of things starting with co.  Every single one of which is a menu item, and if you click on it, does NOTHING but show you where to find it.  

Ahem, Apple People.  THIS IS NOT HELPFUL!

And I thought Microsoft's help files were worthless, sheesh.