Here are more pictures of Keith’s work. He says it is less mental than physical. He is pretty physically beat when he gets home from the bucking, rattling, jostling, etc. They do a strip 50 yards wide on each side of the pasture roads, making room for pasture grass to grow and still leave brush for the wildlife. The last picture shows where they have piled the brush in a windrow to be burned. This clearing of brush is needed for pasture and for fire breaks.
Wow, how time flies. We may have another baby by this time next week, and 
our last baby, Wynn, is getting so big and mature. Mijken says he is a good baby and sometimes sleeps through the night. We saw pictures of Adrian’s basketball games on facebook, even Bret and Jen in the bleachers. And of course, Cole feeding the masses of Jensen’s at Wendys. We are grateful that Kurtis is doing as well as he is. Those foreign missions are hard on foreign missionary’s stomachs. Lexi is back to school. Kameron is home for a couple more weeks. His mother has resorted to torture-Kameron is doing such things as cleaning the frig and the store rooms. He will be happy to be back at school.
Keith is finally grubbing. He did enjoy being around the shop and doing some maintenance, but is doing well with his new excavator or trackhoe or whatever it is. He was afraid that the learning curve would be like it was with the grader, but its is not. His biggest problem is finding out how to shut off the beeper when he goes backwards, which is all the time. Only one excavator has arrived, the other one is due today, so the other missionary, Elder Christiansen, will have a job soon. The Christiansen’s arrived on Saturday and they are from Hyrum, Utah.
I am still working on inventory and am ready to mail boot cuffs to the laurels in Erica’s ward in Cheyenne. 
I felt guilty making them until I realized that I can give them to someone besides family. Today we go back to school and Sister Christiansen came with loads of fabrics to start on more projects for the nursing homes. My biggest problem is that this laptop does not have Excell and I do not know how to use the spread sheet on Microsoft Works. It is pretty sad to be electronically illiterate.
We are out of strawberry jam, so must go to a big town for strawberries. This is like being out of milk, serious business. We plan to go on Friday. It is a big deal when you go to big town around here, the list is long.
It is hard to remember last week, except Keith did go out and work in the afternoon on Christmas day, of course. We love our presents, which included an Ipad. Lucky us. We usually get a book for Keith to read to the kids and this is the 2014 one. Can’t wait to use it on some kids. Mijken always sends clothes for me, which I wore today.
We did take several trips to town, including going to Lubbock for the temple on Saturday and to Childress for parts. We noticed that gas is $1.88 in Lubbock. Of course, diesel was still high, $2.99. Today we had Sacrament Meeting, but no other meetings because the rest rooms were not working. Last week everything went really well at our new building. We are missing a piano for the Primary, and it will help a lot when we get one. This is the Presbyterian Church. The white door on ground level is an elevator.
These pictures are of the shed the guys moved. They are supposed to install a washer, dryer, and a water softener for the trailer park here at the ranch. There are two trailers, a missionary’s and a hunter’s in the park. It is not large.
One of the highlights of the week was the miracle of our good friend, Sister Flora Nail. She is one of the branch members in Paducah. She has been so ill, deathly ill. She has passed out at church and at the Christmas Eve dinner at Richardson's, she was so sick and had to be taken home. But she was at church today and a different girl. We couldn’t believe the improvement.
It was a busy week for me, all by myself. Makes me sad that my partner in mischief has gone. She had sewn many bibs and wheel chair bags and lap quilts too, which I delivered on Wednesday. The right people were available this time, and many thanks and friendliness was there. She did ask for more bibs and sent a sample home of the style they like. She loved the colorful fabrics we had used and the pockets. I should have had pictures, but didn’t. Last day of school for a while too. Poor Nat was grieving because he couldn’t go to the AR party. He is probably my biggest challenge here.
I do have pictures of my work this week. The branch moved over to the Presbyterian Church yesterday, for at least a year, while the addition to our building is completed. Downstairs where the Primary will be is also the local food bank/pantry. The Branch Presidency thought it best for us to protect those food items from small hands, so requested curtains be made and hung. I worked in the office/bunkhouse kitchen. Our apartment is just too small for making curtains. We even found an ironing board in the intern house!
![curtains for church 004[4]](http://lh4.ggpht.com/-xpNs1rQVCeA/VJbpR1ESRpI/AAAAAAAAAm8/Ofes3C7dX88/s1600-h/curtains%252520for%252520church%252520004%25255B4%25255D%25255B5%25255D.jpg "curtains for church 004[4]")
We put up the rods and hung curtains yesterday, but going early today to add more curtains. We needed more yards in each curtain so sewed some more last night to add to these. The Primary President is out of town, so I am nervous about how Primary will function today. One counselor is new and the other one lives far away and doesn’t come a lot.
We are still here. Keith has finally finished with the grading and the Cat people picked up the graders on Friday. Keith was better at loading the machines than the driver they sent out to pick them up. It was taking the driver hours to get the graders on the trailer, with no wheels hanging off, so he needed Keith’s help bad. I’m sure having no steering wheel can be a challenge.
Keith wrote this up for Kurtis, so I will share it too.
“I have many hours to think and commune with Heavenly Father in my grader. Sometimes I think He has a great sense of humor. As I pass some way deep washouts, the thought comes to me that this rain in Texas is “holy water”. It washes great big “holes” all over.
These are some of my musings. I thought I would total up my experiences and expenses for the work I have done in three months time”:
160,000 acres covered with 900 plus miles of road
Costs I incurred:
$4,000 worth of ruined tires
$450 flat tire service calls
$3,500 fuel
$300 new blade
$350 hydraulic oil
$.50 two gaskets for hydraulic hose
$3,000 new steering joy stick
1000 hours of wear and tear on grader
$950 2 mirrors, 2 headlights knocked off by the brush
Total: $12,550.50
Maybe I saved the ranch $.50?
We are at a crossroads here in Texas. Keith should finish up grading today. It was amazing that their last pasture, which was huge, almost 10,000 acres, only took a couple of days. It was not rough, not grassy or any of those things that slow the grading down. The other grader has already moved on to digging trenches for water lines. Keith will finish the grading then dig trenches too. The rental company will pickup the graders on Monday.
We sisters will take our loot to the nursing home tomorrow. We really (I guess it is me, not we, for my companion, Sister Layton goes home Monday) need to find other projects. We need a Lioness Club or similar organization to work with. No such thing in Paducah or Crowell. We have been crocheting projects of our own and I am still working on the Vivian Cemetery family history.
This last week we had several social activities. The intern and family left to go back to Idaho on Saturday so we partied on Thursday. We partied on Sunday twice with the school faculty for their Christmas party at Richardson’s and also went to dinner at the home of the Whipple’s. He is the High Priest group leader, she is a Primary teacher, like me.
Last evening we were supposed to have family home evening with our Paducah sisters, which included fun food, but our host sister canceled at the last minute, so we took the food to three other sister’s homes and visited with them. No one is well, except our young one. One sister, Sister Nail is very ill. She keeps trying to come to church and almost always passes out or has seizures. It is scary to be around her. She is on oxygen and smokes!
Keith helped clean the scout closet and trailer for the move to the Presbyterian Church while our building is being added upon. He was amazed at the things stored in the closet. Really cool old things like a handmade survey instrument, and an old battery that could have been handmade. Also old uniforms and someone’s Silver Beaver award and uniform from way back. Luckily the scout master’s dad happened to be in the building. He is a city councilman or something like that and he took the memorabilia to a city building that has a scout collection or museum. This Wednesday the scouts are going to the Presbyterian Church to prepare it for us and all the kids, etc. Sounds like the attendance at that church is around 15. They will still meet in the morning. We will start at one and our attendance has averaged 120 this quarter.
Kiley and I are out of the doghouse for collecting the implement seats, etc. Kache too. Now Jason can sleep at night, except they will have their baby within the next month!
Keith came home with a little juniper Christmas tree last night, but we have no lights or decorations. He cut the top out of a tree rather than get a whole tree. Maybe we will have to string popcorn and make a paper chain like in the olden days.
Watch for some lights and decorations! Some simple decorations.
We had such a good time. It has been pretty quiet and blue around here since our company left. It was a long trip home for them, but they made it after two long days. Here are more pictures of our activities.
Dallie set the table including the table decorations. We started right after 12:00 noon, no complaining of starving here. This is the conference room in the office.
This is a rock tower on a hill that also has a radio tower, near the ranch headquarters. We don’t know why someone built the tower, but the kids liked hiking the hill and climbing on the tower.
After we went to the cemetery, we went to what we thought was the old Vivian town site and found the following. After we got home and found out we were on private property, some were wanting to take our collections back, but I want to find the owner and ask to buy the seats. Kache, Kiley, and I had a great time looking and wondering. Jason had to keep us all under control. He always gets stuck with the crazy women.
After dinner Keith took us to the latest roads he has been working on. I can’t tell you how steep this was. The pictures do not come close to showing the true conditions we saw. When we were sitting in the pickup at the top, looking down, you could not see the road below, it was so steep. It was scary and I will be happy when Dad is done. Hopefully they will be finished by Dec. 20, when Layton’s are supposed to leave. Dad says that what he does in not just a physical work but a spiritual one too. He feels the spirit all the time directing his work and keeping him safe.
Here are pictures of an old well or cistern Keith found, and the end of a road, at least for now.
