Archive for March, 2009

March 27 – Snow

Friday, March 27th, 2009

Sometimes, I include things here that will document what I should expect next year so that I don’t start thinking spring too early. This is one of them.Thankfully, the next day it was all gone. I’ve come to call this, white rain.

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Spring Brings Back the Sevens!

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

Last year we named a rafter of turkeys, that came by the house almost daily, the Sevens family because, well, there were seven of them. (note: a rafter is a group of turkeys). They became the ‘Sixes” two days before Thanksgiving when momma, the largest and fattest turkey mysteriously disappeared. We have to assume that one of our neighbors had a great bird for the holiday. But a miracle of sorts has occurred and there are now seven of them again. None as large as momma but we’re not picky. Today is the first day we’ve spotted these beasts and I’m sure they’ll come around several times a week until next winter. This is a shot of #4 and then #6, #3 and #2.

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Winter Bad, Idaho Great

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

Now I remember why we moved here.  For 11 years I worked in the basement of our town home in Streamwood, IL. Long hours, no windows. There were days when I had no idea what the weather was like until I emerged from the cave. I took this shot from my new basement as a reminder of why we moved here. Yes, winter stinks at times, but God’s beauty shines. Click the image below to see the full shots of this sunrise in Cocolalla.

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Signs of Spring

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

This is cool. Yesterday, we got our first confirmation of spring. Here’s a picture of what it looks like in our yard:

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Snow is finally clearing, sure, but the amazing thing is not what you can see, but what you can hear. Somewhere out there in the yard is a frog croaking. It’s 40 degrees out there and you can hear a very cold but clear croaking. I found this amazing since there’s 8 inches of snow in some places. The sound is coming from below the tree in the middle where the snow as cleared.

Below is a picture of a “bird house”. Some, including the manufacturer, would call it a purple martin house. However, in my zeal to benefit from a great deal over the internet, I didn’t realize that purple martins don’t migrate here. Doh! I also didn’t realize that this wonderful “bird house” comes unassembled and has a million parts. Doh! Hopefully by the time you come to visit us (Hint!), we’ll have it up in the yard.

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Click image to enlarged view of our new “bird house”

February 1 thru March 18 — NOTHING HAPPENED

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

I wish I had things to report but to be perfectly frank, we were just going through the day to day watching snow melt. OK, maybe a few highlights:

Jenny got a high profile project from a publisher. The author (Joel Rosenberg) specifically requested her assistance with a study guide for his latest book. And another publisher recently sent her a new editing project. In these difficult economic times, these are really helpful.

The hosting business is being hit by the economy as well. We both welcome prayer in this area to make the right choices with our money.

I continue to chair our sports program at church. Many kids here are home schooled and the sports teams (soccer, basketball, volleyball) is not only for credit but also a lot of fun to watch on winter days. Go Thunder!
I was nominated to join the board at the Cocolalla Lake Bible Camp here in town. I hope that being involved in camp once again will be as fun and rewarding as it was when I was serving at Christian Family Camp in high school.

Look even Lucy is bored.

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