This past week has been spent getting ready for our Reformation 500 trip to Boston.  Whew!  It is not easy getting 11 people, a tent and trailer, and all of our animals set for a trip like this!  We are currently in the midst of the last minute organizing and cleaning up so our place so our animal keepers have a clean place from which to work.

We have waited all week for the insurance adjuster to call and come take a look at our van.  We needed to know if they were going to take responsibility for the front end suspension.  We were told last Friday it would be 1-4 days.  Well, he called this morning, Friday, 1 week later, at 8 in the morning.  When he examined the van, he said that the tire that was hit was 4″ further back than the other.  That might explain the shuddering steering wheel I was dealing with when I parked the van and officially took it out of service last week.

My prayer all week was that we would not have any curves thrown at us which would prevent us from taking the rental van on our trip.  My prayers were answered this morning. When we got the word, Ashley and I both looked heavenward and said in unison, “Thank you, Lord!”

So, Lord willing, tomorrow at 4 a.m. we will be heading for New Orleans LA to spend the night with some friends for our first night on our journey.  Then we will head for Chattanooga TN where we are going to spend the second night with some other friends.  Then over to the East Coast where we will meet another friend who lives off of Long Island on Tuesday morning.  And then into Boston Tuesday afternoon.  At least, those are our plans!

We are so looking forward to the Reformation 500, seeing parts of the country we have never seen before, learning much about our heritage and the men, women, children and martyrs who played such important roles in bringing the Word of God to the common man, being a part of the re-enacting team that will help to make this event even more special, meeting friends and making new friends during this week.

Rick is scheduled to fly home on Monday morning to be at work on Monday afternoon.  The rest of us will be driving home, but we’re not exactly sure of our route yet.  We’re trying to decide whether we can fit the Creation Museum in Kentucky into our trip home or not.  That decision has yet to be made.

We are so very excited of God’s provision of work and finances that have made this trip possible.  Not to mention the provision of reliable transportation for this long trip.  Thank you Lord for your abundant provision.  Jehovah Jireh….the God Who Provides!

We would greatly appreciate your prayers for us as we travel.

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All gone!  Remember the 47 boxes of cereal we bought on clearance for 50 cents per box?

The 47 boxes of cereal lasted us 5.5 weeks.  We officially finished them off on Wednesday, June 24th.  That works out to 8.5 boxes a week.  That actually took us longer to get through than I had guessed.  Though I didn’t keep track, I know that the majority of the cereal was used in the first couple of weeks.  After that, the novelty of this pretty plain jane cereal lost its appeal and it went from breakfast of choice to breakfast of necessity in the past 3 weeks.

We also used a couple of boxes to make some rice flake marshmallow treats too.

It was fun while it lasted!  God gave us a fun memory of His provision of cereal!

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Introducing:

Three Ladies and Martyrs of the Reformation

Meet Them at the Reformation 500 in Boston!

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down until we are supposed to leave for the Reformation 500 in Boston.

The past 2-3 months have been craziness here.  Once we made the decision to trust God to get to Boston, our phone started ringing and jobs started coming in.  On top of that Rick started his new job at Boeing, bringing in some much needed finances but also bringing with it a new and different schedule every couple of weeks and juggling logistics to get jobs that are bringing in money for the Boston trip finished before Boston.

The girls have spent the last 2 1/2 weeks madly designing, creating and sewing beautiful costumes for their characters, Lady Jane Grey and Anne Vaughan Locke, both ladies of the Reformation.  They’ve spent much time researching their characters, learning their accents (well they’re trying!) and learning how to use their characters to teach the conference attendees about their time in history and their love for God and His Word.  They’ve attended several meetings to learn how to re-enact.  They’ve been through one dress rehearsal and re-enacting with and in front of an audience.  And they’ve lived to tell about it!

Then, the kids were in that accident 3 weeks ago, which has added a new twist to our journey.  The first time I drove the van after the accident, I told Rick that it wasn’t driving right.  We realized that the oncoming truck had hit the rear of the front driver’s side tire.  We thought it was just out of balance and alignment.  Maybe a bent wheel.  But we knew there was the possibility of it being something more significant.  We were waiting for the police report to come in and an adjuster to see the van before doing anything to fix it.

The van was driveable but it was a bit rough in the steering wheel.  On Wednesday, I headed to town in the van after not driving it for several days.  Once I was out on the highway, I knew that something was seriously wrong.  The steering wheel was really complaining in my hands, shuddering back and forth.  Once I got to the nearest big town, I stopped to see if I could get a quick alignment and balance and see if that fixed it.  The auto shop didn’t have room in their schedule but did send a mechanic out to the parking lot to do a safety analysis on the van.

“Ummm…….Ma’am……..your van is not safe to drive.  The tie-rods are slopping around and rubbing on a radiator hose.  The accident?  Yep, that could definitely cause what I’m seeing here.  You should not drive this van home,” said the kind mechanic.

My mind started running through my options.  Larissa won’t make it to Reformation 500 Character Re-enactor’s training…….or the Reformation 500 prayer meeting that night………The boys should be off work anytime and they’re only 5 miles away…….How am I going to get home????????Rick has just started his 2nd shift work so he’s not available………..Do I dare drive the 5 miles to where the boys are?????????How will we get to Boston????????????

And the questions and logistic planning went on in my mind at 100 mph……………….

I did end up slowly driving the 5 miles to the boys’ work.  Their work is out of the house/office of friends.  So, I parked the van, told the boys’ of our plight and change of afternoon/evening plans.   I called the girls who were at the Re-enactor’s meeting and told them that we weren’t making it there or to that evening’s prayer meeting and to head on over to where we were ASAP.

I called on rental vans only to find them to be $150/day or $700/wk.  That’s not an option, especially since I don’t have any guarantee that the insurance will cover it.  Then our friends, the boys’ boss, offered the use of their Explorer that is their extra vehicle.  Yeah!  A plan!  Our friends fed us dinner as we waited for the girls.  They also took the kids dirt biking and 4 wheeling which was a special treat for an unplanned afternoon.

The next day was spent calling the insurance companies and trying to get things on track.  They agreed to get us a rental van.  Their cost?  $55/day!  So, now we’re driving a rental van, but our van is still parked at our friend’s house/business and has not been seen by an adjuster.  And Boston’s only 6 days away.

We have no idea if the insurance company will try to get out of fixing the tie rods or if they will readily accept responsibility.  We have no idea how we’re getting to Boston just yet.

So, we’re continuing to prepare for Boston, finish the re-enactor’s costumes, pack, prepare the animals for another to feed, and make plans, and praying, praying, praying that the Lord will make a way for us to get to Boston.

Rick was able to get his vacation time approved at his new job so he can go to Boston too.  We’ve purchased his return airfare so he can get back to work on Monday rather than later in the week when we would get home.  Now, we just need to finish our jobs, pull in the rest of our finances, and have a vehicle in which to get to Boston and back again.

We are doing what we can do and leaving the rest in the Lord’s hands.

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While we were all dressed up for our family evening out at the Symphony, we took advantage of the opportunity and took some pictures before the program began.  It’s been 16 months since the last family picture, so it was time.  Everyone’s growing up so fast.

May 30, 2009

The lighting is not the best and the green walls are casting a green shadow on us.  But, we got the picture taken!  Lord willing, we will take more family pictures in Boston.

Sisters

Father and Daughter

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We were given family tickets to the last night of the San Antonio Symphony by a customer.  What a special treat!  We didn’t book any work for our special day.  We had a leisurely morning at home getting a few necessary things done.  Then we headed to town where we went out to dinner at Carino’s Italian Restaurant with some friends as a special treat for the family who has been working so hard since work started coming back in, and to celebrate both Rick and Ashley’s birthdays.

We had a great time of the 3F’s, food, fun and fellowship.  Our waiter was especially entertaining and did a great job serving our table of 19 and didn’t skip a beat when 6 more showed up late in the meal.  The older boys were thrilled that they were having an all you can eat salad and pasta special.  They actually got to eat their fill and kept the waiter busy!

Then we headed over to the Majestic Theatre.  Wow!  What an ornate, colorful theatre!

Our tickets were in the orchestra section, row T, so our seats were spectacular.  The last piece of music played was “Pictures at an Exhibition.”

This was not the Orchestra we saw, but this is the piece of music that we listened to.  This was especially meaningful as the beginning piece was the piece of music I walked down the aisle to.  How sweet of God to give us the gift of symphony tickets to this particular performance!

At one point in the evening, Callan, Ashley and I looked over at Boo in his daddy’s lap.  He was tapping out the music on his daddy’s hands.  We all were having more fun watching him than the Orchestra : )  He was totally enthralled with the music.

I was surprised that all of the children stayed awake through the entire evening.  Moose Bear was headed that way once or twice, but I kept asking him if he could identify the instrument that was making this sound or that sound.  And there was one piece of music, sorry, I don’t remember the name, that sounded like little animals scampering through the forest.  I would ask him if that was a squirrel or a skunk or ????? That kept him interested and awake.

We had a wonderful family day and give a hearty “Thank You!” to our customer who so blessed us with these tickets.

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If you haven’t yet read the post on our almost head-on accident, you might want to take a gander.

Picture this white van with our 4 older children going this way, another truck, in their lane going the other way, and a semi truck in the lane where the small truck should have been, all rounding the same curve at the same time.

Now picture the three vehicles sandwiched with our van on the grassy shoulder.  The Lord’s timing is so remarkable.   This almost flat grassy shoulder that our van ended up on was preceded by a drainage area and followed by a very steep slope.   Had the timing been any different, they would have rolled the van.

Here’s the pictures:

See the black dent/line on the top of the side panel?

That’s from the oncoming truck’s side view mirror.

Just Another View

The Mirror’s Final Position

The Shattered Side View Mirror Form

The Oncoming Truck’s Windshield Collapsed and Shattered the Mirror

With an Unshattered Driver in the Reflection

Thank You, Lord for Your Protection…..What a Difference a Few Inches Makes!

Oncoming Truck’s Side View Mirror that Dented the Van

The Oncoming Truck Blew this Tire on the Semi He was Passing

While Sandwiched Between the Semi & Our Van

While Our Van was on the Other Side

The Semi was on This Side

We are ever so thankful for the Lord’s sovereign hand of protection and mercy upon our family in what could have been a devastating accident.  We sing praises to His name!

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Our family celebrated two birthdays in May.  The first was Ashley’s

The second was Rick’s.

The cake tells how old he turned : )

Now for a story.  There once was a daddy named Rick.  He started a new job that required him to shave off his beard.  You see, beards don’t allow safety masks to fit tightly on one’s face.  So after 10 years, this daddy had to claim a new look.  He figured that his birthday was the perfect day to make this change.  “What better day to look younger?”, he said.   : )

Ashley the Barber

The Before Picture

The Point of No Return

No Turning Back

Who IS This Clean Shaven Man?

And now for the history of it all.

Ten years ago the Lord gave a mommy and daddy their last little baby girl.  She loved to twirl hair in her chubby baby fingers  (and still does : ).  She would happily hold onto the hair of everyone who held her.  But, her daddy didn’t have much hair.  Only his mustache, which he’s had since before he was married.  But that just didn’t suit her fancy.  Every time her daddy would hold her she would squirm and fuss and then he would feel bad.

One day her mommy suggested to her daddy that maybe, just maybe, if he grew a beard and supplied her with some hair to hold, that she would fall in love with him too.  So he did.  And she did.  And he’s worn his beard ever after.

Until now.   Big sister did the dastardly deed.  She shaved off all of his hair, except for his mustache.  That might have been too much for this family to handle!

On this day, this daddy’s three youngest children saw their daddy without his beard for the first time.  It was rather a big shock to them!  And the two children above them, saw their daddy for the first time that they remember, without a beard.  And the three above them were still rather in shock.  And even the oldest daughter and the mommy had to take some time to get used to the new him.

After a few days, his family has gotten used to his new look.  But not used to the new pokies that come with no beard.

The End.

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Then

My sweet little just turned 2 year old

Grandpa Ringer is the only non-family member he would let hold him….and he was still suspicious!

Grandpa Ringer wearing Boo’s coonskin hat to make him more comfortable

Now

Now, He’s a Young Boy

The Sweet Look

His Questioning, Studious, Furrowed Brow Look

While I miss having a baby, I love the sweet little boy he has become.

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Due to a technical glitch (not renewing our domain address on time!) we were offline yesterday. But, we’ve got that all squared away now for another year.

So…..It’s back to our regular programming! : )

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Sunday night I found myself in the trailer without my phone.  I was too tired or lazy or both to head back out to the tent to get it, though it nagged at me a little.

Monday morning, Rick left for work first, followed by the 4 older children heading to work and dress making in our friend’s bunkhouse.   When I arrived in the tent I found 3 missed calls and 1 message on my phone to call Rick who was in his training class at Boeing.  I called and was surprised to have him answer.  It was then he told me that the 4 children had been in an accident on their way to town.

Everyone was ok, a little damage to the van, but only by the protective hand of a God who showed mercy upon our family.  It could have been oh so much worse.

Ashley drove the 4 miles down our dirt road, turned onto the main country highway, got up to a 60 mph speed (speed limit is 70) rounded a corner and found herself head on with a semi in the opposing lane and a truck passing the semi in her lane.  All 4 thought it was going to be a head on collision.

Thankfully, the shoulder of the road was wide and clothed in green grass.  Some sections of shoulder on this portion of road is rather steep, but praise the Lord, this area was not steeply sloped or they could have easily flipped the van.  Ashley swerved onto the shoulder, sandwiching the offending truck between the van and the semi.  The truck hit the van panel above the driver’s side tire, collapsed the hinge on the side view mirror and smashed it to pieces, and left a few “skid” marks down the side of the van until the truck suddenly seemed to be pushed off of the van and into the semi popping a tire in the process.

It is amazing how an inch or two could have dramatically changed the outcome of this accident.  I had asked the children to take the van Monday morning so I could have the F-350 truck, which they have been driving, so that I could haul our steer to the butcher with the truck instead of the van.  So, at the time of the accident they were driving the van and not the truck.

Had they been driving the truck, the inches I mentioned above would have been much different.  The truck has a large deer guard on the front which extends the width of the vehicle by several inches.  Had they been driving the F-350, there would most definitely been a much larger collision with possibly much different results.  Also, the truck is not as responsive as the van so in addition to the wider vehicle, Ashley most probably would not have been able to maneuver it off of the road as far as she was able to move the van off of the road.

No one was hurt.  The damage to the van is minor compared to what it could have been.  They were late to work, but they did make it in.  There is a spirit of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord for sparing their lives. And there is a wonder and rejoicing that God has something that He wants each of them here on earth to do for Him.

We are ever so thankful to the Lord for His gift of mercy to our family.

His mercies are new every morning………

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Ashley celebrated her 26th birthday!

This past year was an action packed year for Ashley.  Last May, Ashley and Callan alternated every 6 weeks in California to care for my bedridden grandmother.  Ashley was first to travel to California and spent her 25th birthday there with long time friends helping to make her birthday a special one.

She worked on many projects while in California:  sewing, research, reading and a writing project, to name a few.  She cared for my grandmother and interacted with the hospice nurses that visited every couple of days.  She looked in on my grandmother’s neighbor who turned 100 last October.  Then she would pack to come home, maybe see Callan at the airport for 5 minutes or so as one was arriving and one heading home.

Once home, life kicked into high gear and she had to quickly integrate into our fast-paced life of living in a tent and going back to running a home without all of the modern conveniences most of y’all are used to.

This was her life last year until January when my father decided to put my grandmother in a small home care facility.  Both Callan and Ashley, after 8 months of seeing each other on the fly at the airport, were both home together and our family was acclimating to having both of them home at the same time.  That meant we had to find a home for all of the “stuff” that had made Ashley’s bed it’s home.  We had to make room for everyone’s clothing again.  And we had to get used to all being home at the same time again.

That didn’t take long as our busy schedule just didn’t allow for it.  There was food to fix, dishes to wash, children and animals to care for, work to be done and more…..

Most recently, Ashley has been helping a friend’s family who adopted 2 small children and then had a baby too.  The older boys have been working in this family’s business so Ashley has been driving them and then being a Mommy’s Helper to our friend.  What a blessing it has been for her to serve with the perk of holding a brand new baby again.  We all miss having a baby in our household, so it is a special day to help someone else with their new little one.  The blessings that come with serving : )

This year, Ashley’s birthday started out earlier than I’m sure she would have liked : ) but it was worth it, I’m sure.  She and Callan headed for our friend, Lourdes’ house, where Callan and Lourdes had conspired to fix Ashley a surprise breakfast.  Another friend joined them for breakfast too, which added to the surprise.

After breakfast Lourdes, Callan and Ashley headed to town where they spent the day shopping for material for their character costumes the girls are making for our planned trip to Vision Forum’s Reformation 500 Celebration in Boston in July.   It sounds like she had a great day of scheming, creating, coordinating, dreaming, fabric play and success in finding what they wanted for the best buys for their creative sewing adventure.   Many thanks to Lourdes and her mom for helping to make Ashley’s day special.

Larissa fixed Ashley’s favorite dinner of Fettucine Alfredo, which was a tasty end to a fabric filled day.

Friends ~ Kelly & Ashley ~ March 2009

Friends & Sisters ~ Ashley, Elizabeth, Callan & Anna Sophia ~ March 2009

Happy 26th Birthday, Ashley!  Now……on to the sewing!

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At the beginning of the year, our family sat down and talked about some goals for 2009.  One of them was to get a milk cow.  Check.  Milk cow purchased.  Milk cow delivered bull calf.  Milk cow provides milk.  Fresh milk, hot chocolate and pudding in the cooler months,  ice cream and yogurt making in the warmer months, cheesemaking learning commences and lasagna with homemade cheese begins.  We are blessed to have our Phebie.

Another goal was to go the Reformation 500 in Boston in July, to celebrate the 500th birthday of John Calvin and the Reformation.  Check….or so we thought.

We had money in the bank then and we didn’t foresee 4 months of very little work draining our bank account to the gasping point.  Our hopes of going to this event seemed bleak.  We really didn’t see how we could pull it off.  We pretty much resigned ourselves to not going.  sigh……….

But, then our hopes were revived.  We prayed that if the Lord wanted us to go that He would provide what we needed to go, both finances and logistics of animal care and time off work.  We knew this was a huge prayer and if it happened it was going to be totally the Lord’s doing.

The phones started ringing and work started coming in.  We had almost 4 months of little work and financial drowning from which to recover.  Replacing pantry and freezer items had slowed to a crawl in the prior months and food needed to be purchased.  Other things had been put off that could no longer be put off.  But the work has been coming in for which we thanked the Lord.

The older girls committed to being Reformation 500 characters in Boston and the planning of Reformation Period gowns commenced.  Some dear friends offered the girls their bunkhouse turned sewing room to our girls so they could make their gowns in a secure place, come and go as they could and leave their sewing projects out where little hands were not there to bother them.  They knew there was too much of a risk of little hands, chickens or goats harming a project too large to put at risk.  And, these friends are some of our closest “neighbors” within a decent driving distance in Texas terms and also strategically placed near where the guys have been working so logistics work well.  Thank you Del Family for the blessing you have bestowed upon our family!

Then Rick was offered the job at Boeing.  The job comes preloaded with vacation because he is considered a rehire having been vested at McDonnel Douglas, whom Boeing purchased.  But the HR person couldn’t tell him if he would be able to actually use that vacation time so soon after being hired.  It was up to his manager.  So, he asked if he could speak with the manager.  Umm….they didn’t really know who his manager might be.  They’re hiring him, but they don’t really know for which position?  Welcome back to corporate America!  They took his phone number down and said they’d give it to his manager if they were able to determine who that manager was going to be.  We never received that call.

So, on Tuesday, Rick started his job at Boeing.  On Thursday, Rick found out who his manager is, hasn’t met him yet, but knows his name.  We’re slowly receiving pieces to the puzzle.  He still doesn’t know anything about vacation time though.  But, the Lord knows what His plans are so we do what is placed before us each day and leave the rest to Him.

The creative juices flowed designing dresses with historical significance.  The fabric hunting, shopping and scrounging commenced.  And on Tuesday, the cutting out began in our friend’s bunkhouse.

On Sunday, a family that went to the Jamestown Celebration and had some children’s costumes that were outgrown, so kindly offered us some costumes for our three youngest.  This was so timely.  Our little boys had been discussing what they were going to wear and came out with some very interesting outfits that they thought would work just beautifully!  Ummmm…..the rest of us got a hearty chuckle out if : ) Let’s just say that we’re thankful they have real costumes to wear!

The family has been busy working every job we can get to that has come our way to get our financial feet back under us as well as to be able to make this trip to Boston.  It is a blessing to see everyone pull together for a common purpose and be willing to work hard clearing brush, washing windows, painting houses inside and out, cleaning houses, rebuilding patios, construction work, handyman work, fixing machines, house and horse sitting, warehouse work, office work and aircraft mechanics.  What did I leave out? It’ll come to me after I officially post this : )

So, in Rick’s terms, we have set our sails towards Boston and are trusting the Lord to fill them with the winds needed to get us there, if that is what the Lord wills.

Anyone else planning on going or wanting to go?  If so, head on over to In a Shoe for a coupon/freebie.  Tell them that Plymouth Rock Ranch sent you!  Then, let us know so we can be sure to meet you in Boston!

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We came to an understanding with our Jersey, Phebie.   We feed her, she gives US the milk.  Or, so at least we thought we’d come to an understanding with Phebie.

Enter Thief #1:  DeCalf, Phebie’s 2 month old bull calf.  He learned how to sneak drinks through the fence, of course, with Phebie’s help.

We moved Phebie out of the one pen we have so she could roam and then let DeCalf have the whole pen to himself.  This worked and we had milk again.

Enter Thief #2:  Stowaway, a 4 or 5 mo. old heifer that came through our hot wire fence, adopted our herd and now won’t leave and go back to her own herd.  I’m sure she’s from a neighboring rancher who hasn’t and probably won’t miss her.  We’re not sure how to find out who she might belong to except to pass the word to the neighbors we know.  So far, that hasn’t worked and Stowaway is still here.

When we put Phebie out of the pen to free-range, we had milk for a couple of days.  And then we didn’t.  We thought that maybe DeCalf was sneaking milk through the pen fence like he had the pen’s temporary dividing fence.  Then we discovered that Phebie had adopted Stowaway and she was getting our milk.

We thought about trying to get this thieving Stowaway outside of our hotwire fence, but she is skittish and wouldn’t leave the cows.  We thought about trying to lead all of our cows outside of our hotwire fence with Stowaway in tow, but then we’d risk our cows making a run for it.  Then the kids decided to entice the cows into the pen where DeCalf and our little Alpine buckling are living with a bucket of grain.  The cows dutifully followed the grain into the pen.  The girls shooed our cows out and whalla!  Stowaway was away from Phebie’s milk.

The one pen we have was now getting crowded.  But, we had milk again!

Enter Thief #3:  All of a sudden, Phebie had no milk again!  But we discovered our 3rd milk thief.  SirLoin, our 18 mo. old steer, was chasing behind Phebie and drinking her hind quarters dry!!!  Poor Phebie was being chased all over by this huge milk snatching bovine.  SirLoin found himself in the pen as well, so now we’ve got milk!

That is, we had milk until SirLoin had enough of captivity and jumped the fence, leaving behind many tell-tale red hairs on the fence.  The girls went over to milk Phebie and found this big lug chasing her around draining all of her milk!  arghhhhh!  I went to my phone and called the butcher.  As soon as we can locate a trailer in which to haul him, he is going to become SirLoin Steak!

Having 3 bovines and 1 caprine in the pen is costly, as now, instead of all of these animals free-ranging, we must feed them.

Hopefully, we will find Stowaway’s proper owner so she can go home and we can stop feeding someone else’s animal.  And as for DeCalf….he’s going to find himself with a weaning ring in his nose so he can’t steal our milk anymore.  Then he can free-range all he wants, just not on the milk.

Once these three things happen, we will have our milk thieving problem solved!

Except for maybe the doeling that the girls are using to nurse on Phebie to help her learn how to let down on the stanchion and keep her from withholding her milk from us.  I sure hope we’re not training another thief!

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Looking back over the last 14 months since Rick was laid off from his unmanned air vehicle composite shop manager’s job, we are so thankful for the Lord’s hand of provision.  We have had times of plenty and times of leanness.  Times of thankfulness and times of dependent prayer for provision.  Times of exhaustion from more work than we could handle and times of wondering how we were going to pay the bills.  Through these 14 months, the Lord has provided, for which we are so very thankful.

With the presidential election looming last fall, we watched as bid after bid was denied as customers were getting cold feet about spending money.  Then the phones just went silent after the election.  We know that we are not the only business who experienced this.  We have talked with many small businesses that have experienced the same thing.  We also see the evidence of it in large corporate businesses whose stock has greatly dwindled.  It has been a tough economic year.

Just as we were at the end of our finances, the Lord provided some warehouse work during November and December and into the first week of January.  We worked as a family and were able to get our emergency fund back into place.  The Lord knew we would need it as the phone calls  for handyman work were still ominously silent after the first of the year.

It wasn’t until mid April that we started getting a few phone calls and little jobs in here and there, just as we were again wondering how we were going to pay the bills.  Then, all of a sudden, we had more work than we could get done.  The boys started working for a friend with a window washing business, whose silent phones had also started to ring.

And, it rained, so our past mowing customers started calling wanting their yards mowed.  Rick reconstructed a patio roof.  And we’ve had 3 painting jobs in the past month or so and have added 2 housecleaning customers. It’s amazing how the phones can be quiet for so long and then so many calls come in at once and our time is not our own any longer!

During the time of silent phones, we were out trying to drum up work and I was putting out Rick’s resume wherever we found a good match, and sometimes a not so good match.  Those phones were fairly silent too.  He did receive a couple of ridiculous offers that we didn’t pursue.  Then Rick received a call from Boeing in response to a resume I’d sent in.  It’s been a long process, but he started at Boeing today as a C-17 aircraft structures mechanic.

It’s been 15 years since he’s worked in a large corporate setting on the C-17’s.  He worked C-17 Production and Flight Test in the beginning phases of the C-17’s life.  After 15 years of being out of corporate America, many of which were years of self-employment, this will be an adjustment for him, I’m sure.  He’s making less than he did 15 years ago in the same position at McDonnel Douglas, whom Boeing bought out.  That’s hard with 11 people in our family.  But, just as the Lord has provided for us since Rick’s lay-off a year ago March, He will provide what we need now.

The good news is that he’s being hired as a rehire because of that buy-out.  And the commute is an easy one.  This will give us a base income from which to work, which we need at the current time.  Lord willing, there will be much room for advancement in the company and/or opportunities for overtime.

We will continue to work on marketing and building our business.  We still don’t know which shift Rick will be on, but their shifts are scheduled such that he should still have a few hours a day to set up and manage our business work and continue to try to grow and develop it.

We prayed and had hoped that the Lord would grow our business into a family business that would support our household as well as the future households of our sons.  That may still happen, if it is the Lord’s will, in His time.  It is our hearts desire that Rick be able to work with our boys and our family as a whole.  This isn’t possible at Boeing but is possible in our business as Rick manages it in his off hours and trains the boys to work independently and hopefully make it their business in the future.

I know that Rick will make an excellent aircraft mechanic at Boeing working on airplanes which he loves, and pray that he will be a shining light in a world that so desperately needs the hope of Jesus.

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Have you ever thought about how our country got to where it is today, spiritually, morally and financially?

I encourage you to take a moment and visit Doug at Thoughts on Market for some insightful thoughts on how our Country got into the mess we are in today.

Thank you Doug for your encouragement to be about doing the work the Lord has put before each of us.

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Alpine goats are much more of a mountain goat than Nubians.  Makes sense as Alpines are from the Alps and Nubians are from Africa.

Our Nubians seem to like their feet on the ground and their nose in a treat.  They are people friendly and always looking for lovings.  The little buckling, who really needs to be wethered soon, has picked Rick as his friend.  Rick’s thinking about keeping him as a buck.  He’s so friendly and sweet……now……that he doesn’t have the heart to wether him.

Our Alpines want to jump up and off of everything they can find to climb.  One Alpine doeling decided to try the hood of our van, which is sloped.  She was able to nap there for a minute or two until she slid off and had to find another place in which to nap.

On this day, Galloway decided our landscape trailer wheel well was her chosen place to nap.  Doesn’t look comfy at all to me!  But, to a goat…….

The Life of a Spoiled Goat!

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Back in April, we questioned President Obama’s claim in Turkey that the U.S. is not a Christian Nation.

On May 6, 2009, Representative Randy Forbes had this to say about our Judeo-Christian Nation’s heritage:

Thank you, Representative Forbes, for standing up to President Obama’s incorrect statement and boldly proclaiming the truth about our Nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage.

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The guys have been having to get up at 5 a.m. and be out of the tent by 5:45 a.m. to get to their jobs.  This makes our usual breakfast mode of operations of oatmeal or homegrown eggs obsolete for them.  We’ve tried to have easy-to-grab breakfasts ready for them, but we’re having a hard time staying ahead of the huge amount of on-the-go food we’ve had to have for their breakfasts and lunches lately.

Our old standbys have gotten old really quick and the troups are starting to complain about the same-ol’-same-ol’.   My creativity button is evidently broken, or it never worked to begin with, but I’ve been having a hard time coming up with different travel type meals that don’t need to be heated up.

The children compiled a grocery list for me with many things I generally do not buy because of the expense.  Like individual yogurts, store bought tortillas, chips, oreo wannabees, cereal, etc.  The cereal was placed on the list by Ryker both because he likes cereal and it makes for a quick grab-n-eat breakfast and snack.  He knows I do not buy cereal unless it is on sale for a stupendously terrific price or we absolutely positively must have  it for a quick breakfast and don’t have time to fix something ahead of time.  Cereal is a special treat around here.

I chokingly placed 2 much smaller than years-gone-by bags of cereal in my cart wondering if the $7 of cereal would last more than one morning.  But, it gave the guys some variety and they asked for it so I did it.  And then the Lord abundantly provided.

I found 2 carts of unknown brand cereal marked down to .50 cents per box!  Multi-Fit Special Flakes!  In very large boxes!  Or should I say, normal sized boxes from days-gone-by?  And no high fructose corn syrup, though it did have sugar in it.  I had no clue what this cereal tasted like, but I didn’t think that the children would really even care since it was cereal! I had one of the girls return the 2 bags of cereal for $7 back to their aisle and just grabbed one of the carts full of this no-name cereal.  I left the 2nd cart full of no-name cereal, not wanting to be selfish and hog it all!

Heads began to turn as people watched me push this cart with many, many boxes of cereal in it through the store : )  We got to our check-out line and the little girl in front of us started glaring at my cart of cereal.  She whispered something to her mother and continued to glare.  I’m not sure what was up with the glare.  I was expecting curiosity, or raised eyebrows, but not glares!

I expected the checker to make a comment, but she didn’t.  I had a checker last week totally aghast that I would buy 8 lbs of tomatoes!  What in the world was I going to do with EIGHT pounds of tomatoes?????  Pico-de-gallo, of course : )  And they were on sale for .49 cents per pound so I had been tempted to buy a lot more!  The aghast checker may have had breathing problems if I had!  But, this checker took my grocery cart full of .50 cent cereal in stride.

I pushed the cart out to the van watching heads turn as I walked past other shoppers on their way in.  When I got to the van I asked Ryker if he’d been praying for cereal?  He had a big grin on his face.  He hadn’t been praying, but he should have been!  The Lord blessed him anyway.

The children in the back of the van  asked me where we were going to put all of this cereal and I told them to make room for it somehow and that I’d left another basket of cereal boxes in the store so be thankful they didn’t have to find room for even more boxes of cereal!

Ryker jumped on that one.  “Why didn’t you get it ALL?????”  I told him to open a box, try it out, and if he wanted to go back and get the rest of the boxes, he was welcome to do so.

So, we opened the box.  Everyone sampled and decided it tasted like Rice Krispie flakes or Rice Chex that were flat.  I handed Ryker cash and he went in and bought the other basket full of cereal.  We laughed as he exited the store and heads turned to see if that cart was really full of cereal : )  I wonder how many more heads we would have turned had I purchased both of those baskets of cereal all at once?

And, we did manage to fit it all in the van.  Some children had to get in first and then we piled it in the aisle blocking them in.  And, then we had to unload the cereal before said children could again get out of the van.  But, we managed.  All the while thanking the Lord for the provision of cereal and easy special breakfasts of Special Flakes for not so much money.

Here’s the picture of the cereal pyramid that Ryker built with his blessing of cereal:

Any guesses as to how many boxes of cereal we purchased in all?

This morning was a thrilling morning.  CEREAL for breakfast!  Special cereal for breakfast!  With our very own Jersey milk to top it off.  Some added honey and raisins, others bananas and still other added all three.

Now, for the hard question:  How long do you think it will take us to finish off all of this cereal?

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Kimberly in Idaho!

Kimberly chose “The State of Parental Rights in America” from the new Reclaiming the Culture additions.

Kimberly:  I need your mailing address today so we can get this DVD shipped to you ASAP.  Please email me at family @ plymouthrockranch dot com with your mailing information.

Congratulations Kimberly!

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These powerful excerpts of Voddie Baucham’s true, wise and heart penetrating words are a must see and hear……….

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Vision Forum is announcing the release of  5 newly released Reclaiming the Culture DVDs:

• You May Not Take Our Guns (DVD)
• The Devolution of Law (DVD)
• Top Ten Questions About Genesis and Creation (DVD)
• The State of Parental Rights in America (DVD)
• Christianity and Science Fiction:  Reclaiming the Genre for Christ (1 DVD & 2 CDs)

This expands the Reclaiming the Culture set to a total of 14 DVDs.

From May 8-15, 2009, this brand new group of DVDs is available at 33% off the regular price of $78.00.   For a limited time you can acquire them for 45.00 OR you can buy the entire 14 DVD set for $99.00.   That’s a savings of 53% off the retail price.

Along with their new release, we’re offering a giveaway of one of the above new titles to one of you blessed readers!  Here’s the rules:

1. Leave a comment by May 14, telling us which of the newly released Reclaiming the Culture DVDs you would like to have and why.
2. If you have a blog, you can enter twice, by blogging about this giveaway and linking back to this post.  Leave a second comment with your blogpost url.

If you’re having a tough time deciding which one you’d like to win, click on the above individual links and watch a video preview of each one.  Come to think of it, that may just muddy the waters if you’re like me.  Then you’ll want one of each!

Oh, wait!  They’re on sale right now!  You CAN have one of each!  And, if you’re the chosen winner, you can have an extra copy of your favorite to share with others!

Winner will be announced on May 15th.

Ready……set…….GO!

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Because we have many children, we are often asked if we are Catholic or Mormon.  We always respond, “No, we are Reformed Baptist.”  Then the questioner becomes puzzled and they respond that they know what a Baptist is but they aren’t familiar with what Reformed means.

In this video, R.C. Sproul Sr. explains the root of the definition of Reformed Theology.

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Though I had not intended to go into our small little town today, I found myself there, none-the-less.

Just before I headed out for town, a friend called and in the course of our conversation she told me her husband, a helicopter EMT, was working at the base in our little town today.  Since I was heading to town, she suggested I stop by and let the boys see the helicopter her husband flies in.

So, we conducted our business, called our friend, and he graciously showed the three youngest the medical evacuation helicopter.  The children were thrilled!

The Bug’s Eye View

The Decorator View

The Entry View

The EMT Seat View

Today’s visit at the Air Evac Lifeteam base was a fun one.  It is our fervent prayer, that we never have to meet this helicopter under other circumstances.  But since we live in a rural setting 25 minutes from town, it is nice to know that this service is available.

Air Evac Lifeteam has a $60/year membership for a family of 3+ members.  Seems like a small price to pay to know that should we have a life threatening accident or illness, an EMT Helicopter would be on it’s way.

I love impromptu field trips and flexible friends : )  Thank you, Dan!

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A couple of weeks ago one of the children breathlessly ran into the tent saying I HAD to come and see!!  Now!!!!  This is what was so very exciting:

Darby, our Plymouth Rock Ranch Hound, Up in an Oak Tree

We all know that cats climb trees.  But the children had never seen a dog in a tree.  So, in addition to her talents of chasing, hunting down and retrieving every rock on this property, Darby has added tree climbing to her doggy resume.  And we have LOTS of trees to climb!

What Galilee Thinks of Dogs in Trees!

Boo Looks Pretty Impressed Though!  He KNOWS he has a special dog here : )

Darby, Well, She Doesn’t Think it’s Anything Special : )

Darby, the Wonderdog w/Her Biggest Fans

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The Fascination of Li’l Boys and Frogs

Just don’t look at his Li’l Boy dirty fingernails.  Focus on the frog : )  Just yesterday I complimented him on his clean fingernails at church.  That may have been a first.  I make no guarantee as to the cleanliness of his toenails.  None whatsoever!  This is the one who has leather-soled feet and runs on all kinds of surfaces, including rocks.  The rest of us like to wear shoes.  Not him!  Clean toenails?  Absolutely NO guarantees there!

Remember our weather day spent holed up in the utility shed with a ready to kid goat and lots of laundry?

This Was Where Moses Spent Sat That Day

He thought it was a great adventure!

One Tired Moose Bear After a Long Day

They are so angelic when they are asleep : )  When they’re awake, they’re catching frogs and working on getting their finger and toe nails really, really dirty.

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Kittens!

Happy Devoted Mama Calico

Contentment

Pile of Colorful Sleepy Fluffy Fur

Naps over…….Playtime!

He’s Tough : )

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I’m rather late in saying a virtual Happy Birthday to Ryker.  It was a crazy week, the week of his birthday.  But better late than never : )

Ryker turned 17 years old.  My how time flies!  Since moving to Texas, Ryker has turned into a man, and a Texan man at that!

During his birthday dinner, Rick went around the table and asked everyone what they appreciated about Ryker.  We tried not to duplicate answers but the resounding answer was Ryker’s work ethic.  Ryker is a hard worker and willing to work hard.  I know that’s redundant, but Ryker is well known by all for his industrious nature so it’s not really redundant.  It’s just a well known fact.

Being a hard worker also causes him to think about how to work smart.  He’s always thinking about what tools would make jobs go faster and be more efficient.  He fixes machines like this one to make hauling small loads easier:

We were given the lawn tractor, which wasn’t running, as well as the trailer.  Ryker had visions of fixing and selling the tractor, until he fixed it and realized how it would make chores like moving rocks, hay and grain, around here go quicker.  So, for now, we’re keeping his resurrected tractor. Besides, it works perfect with the little trailer we were given!  Someday he hopes to have a full-grown tractor : )

He’s also fixed a riding lawn mower for our landscape maintenance jobs.  This picture was taken in the middle of it’s rehab.

He rigged up a hanging rabbit shed out of his hog trap that was on his list of things to fix.  Sorry, but I don’t have any photos of that one yet.   He built a tool storage shed.  Here is it’s skeleton.  It’s since been finished, put in place and stocked.

And he built our milking stanchion, among many other things.

Ryker is the one who picked out our unique Plymouth Rock Ranch Hound, Darby.

Darby is, hands-down, the best dog we’ve ever had.  After discovering a poisonous coral snake in our yard prior to moving to PRR, we decided that getting an alarm dog had moved up on the priority list.  We went to shelters and started looking.  We originally went to the San Antonio Shelter looking for a Bernese Mountain Dog.  But, much to our disappointment, that dog had already been adopted.

Ryker went into the shelter, spotted Darby, got her out of her pen and sat down in a chair.  She hopped up into his lap and curled up in a little ball.  I knew that was the end of our search.  Their two hearts were bonded.

We don’t know for sure what mix of breeds Darby is.  Our guess is border collie and brittney spaniel.  She herds rocks like a border collie and she points and flushes animals like a brittney spaniel.  She could also have some farm collie or english shepherd in her as well as she is an excellent farm dog.  If anyone has any further insights, we’d love to hear them!

Darby loves the animals, especially the baby animals.  She has a motherly instinct that we wish she could have put to use on her own babies.  Being a shelter dog, that won’t happen : (   Darby is a terrific alarm dog.  Her keen sense of smell and hearing keeps her busy at night barking the predators away.  She does a tremedous job but is in need of a helper and protector herself.  We’re looking and praying about that one.  You can read about her encounter with feral hogs here.

Darby loves everyone here, but she gave her heart to Ryker in that shelter chair.  She greets everyone with a wiggle and a smell to see where we’ve been when we come home from an outing.  But when Ryker comes home, it’s a special greeting.

Ryker is spending more and more of his time searching out the Scriptures and learning the things of God as he grows into a man of God.  He researched the subject of the Sovereignty of God this past year when the young men of the church all researched and exposited a Proverb.  Ryker worked hard on his research and exposition, but he was ever so thankful that his name was not called to actually deliver his exposition before a live audience.  The sovereignty of God at work in Ryker’s life : ) as speaking is not one of his most favorite things.

Just prior to his 17th birthday, Ryker received the gift of getting his braces off!  We still do not have a photo to share of his new smile, but it is coming.  Now he’s learning how to speak with retainers in : )  He’s not too fond of them as he says it makes him whistle when he says an “s” kind of like the gopher in Winnie the Pooh : )  Up until now, he’s had the Winnie the Pooh nickname of the Woozle.  I think that’s going to change to Gopher, who whistles when he talks : )

For Ryker’s birthday dinner, we BBQ’d grass fed steak, mashed potatoes,

corn, broccoli  and his favorite desserts, raspberry swirl frozen cheesecake

and chocolate pudding cake.  We’d been saving the steaks for a special occasion and when our freezer decided to not keep things as frozen as it should, we needed to cook some steaks.  Providence would have it that this happened the day before Ryker’s birthday, so he got his favorite meal, besides bean burritos : )

Ryker has been a blessing to our family in many ways, but in this past year, he has blessed us all with his hard work and willing and giving spirit.

I Corinthians 10:31

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Happy 17th Birthday, Ryker!

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We’ve been coming to an understanding with Phebie, our Jersey cow.  We feed her.  She provides us with milk.  It’s really very simple.  We’ve had to come to this understanding because she’s decided that her milk is for her little piggy of a bull calf and not for us.  Especially since we started separating the two at night so we would have an abundant supply of milk at the morning milking.

Phebie’s way of objecting is to withhold her milk.  Literally.  The girls take her over to the milking stanchion and get maybe a gallon of milk.  The first few days I wondered if she was getting sick as reduced milk supply is a sign of illness.  But, we caught on to her.

After getting that first gallon of milk, the girls started taking her back over to her pen to let DeCalf start to nurse.  THEN she would visibly let down and back to the milking stanchion she would go.  Then, this is what we would end up with:

These are 1/2 gallon jars with a total of 2 3/4 gallons of milk.  Nice going girls!  You tricked another 1 3/4 gallons of milk out of that sweet little withholding Jersey of ours!

Pretty soon she’ll figure out that we’ve outsmarted her and this little game will end.  At least we hope that is the case!

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I had a hard time getting my fuzzy brain to work correctly on our Saturday morning workday.   I was overwhelmed with fixing our goat issue (read here and here).   Plus we had several families coming over for a workday at our property to help us get some things in order for which we needed manpower. My mind was scattered, had much information sparking through it, I was tired, and we had much to do.

The preparation to have many people over hadn’t happened due to my being busy with goat issues, Callan being busy with goat issues, and work coming in.  The work coming in was a good thing.  The goat issues - not.  It takes alot to just keep our tenthold operating on an even keel.  But when we have several crises in a row, entropy quickly takes over.

We all got up and tried to pull ourselves and our place together in order to host our friends for the day.  It was a task.  Living in a campout situation on an every day basis, being in order is always a task.  But today’s job of pulling things together was especially tasking.

We grabbed coffee and hot chocolate but no breakfast.  That would just be another time consumer and mess to clean up and we weren’t prepared ahead of time with something easy like banana bread like we would usually try to do.  We did feed and milk and doctor the animals.

And then Ashley and Callan  started on pulling food together for the day.  We usually try to have food that can be prepared ahead of time.  But, with the events of the past few days, that didn’t happen.  We were way behind our food prep schedule.

Leah, the sick goat, looked better this Saturday morning.  She was no longer shaking when she stood up but was still weak.  She was very interested in food.  We were cautiously encouraged.

A friend showed up with his bobcat and set to work moving cut cedar into a burn pile.

Then his family showed up and set to work in the outdoors and the kitchen helping us pull the food together.

Then more friends showed up and started beautifying our driveway by picking up and moving rocks.

Then more help showed up that started cutting and hauling cedars and weed whacking old, long, dry grass in the pasture so the rains could bring up new grass for the cows and goats to eat.

And more friends showed up and finished making a rock planter in the shape of a star.

One which we’d started long ago and not gotten back to finishing.

And still others cemented in animal pen posts in post holes that were drilled out a year ago.  Others brought food.  Others washed dishes.  And the list goes on……

We are so thankful for the body of Christ who came together to serve one another.  The work we did was hard to measure as there were many people working on many different projects so the effect was not cumulative.  But, the work that was done was the type of work we needed a lot of hands to accomplish and not take weeks and/or months for us to accomplish alone.

It allows us to move forward and onto more tangible tasks like getting the garden beds up and the hoop houses over the garden beds.  Getting a pasture planted for the cows and goats.  It allows us to see the lay of the land where we’re contemplating putting a house that was previously occupied by lots of cedars.  It gets us closer to having another animal yard.  And so much more……

We ate home butchered turkey enchilada casserole, fresh fruits and veggies, pico de gallo and chips, cornbread, salad, brownies and homemade fresh cow milk ice cream.

Those who were outside working were showered upon for a short while.  Some came in.  Others said they welcomed the shower.  Then it blew over, the rain stopped falling and we resumed the workday amidst the mud. We were thankful that the majority of the rain waited until 5:30 a.m. the next morning.  The cloud cover and moderate temperatures made for a perfect workday environment.

The little ones enjoyed the animals:  baby goats, chickens, turkeys, rabbits and cows.

Some walked the sick goat so she could get out of her hospital trailer.

All in all, we had about 50 people, besides our family out to Plymouth Rock Ranch on our Saturday workday.  What a blessing our friends bestowed upon us, sharing their time, tools, resources, hands, backs and muscles to aid us in our quest to take dominion over our 20 acres of Texas Hill Country. Thank you one and all!

Cousins

The Sentry : )

The Power and Ease of a Bobcat

The Hungry Jaws of a Bobcat

The Power of Fellowship

Little One in the Country on a Mission

Getting there with the Soldier’s March

With a Little Twist Thrown in….in True Coghlan Fashion : )

Straight into the Arms of Dad

The Faith of a Child to Trust that His Daddy Can Do Anything…..

Including Tossing a Big Boy Over His Shoulders….Mission Accomplished!

With the help of friends we were able to accomplish much.  It is that much more sweet when done with the loving help of friends and families and sweet fellowship.

By the end of the day I was convinced that, barring something unusual, Leah, the sick goat, was going to make it.  We have a long road of getting the animals mineral levels up to where they should be.  But, we’re learning and I’m so thankful to have a resource like Linda to mentor me in this process of learning to care for the flock that God has given us.

Proverbs 27:23

Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.

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