#27-Kolt

 

I can’t stand not to show everyone these darling pictures.  He doesn’t appear intolerant to anything here.  Can’t wait to hold him, but when?  Now he doesn’t look like any of his brothers, just like himself.

January 27, 2015

 

Things are going along about the same as last post.  We are now a force of four couples of missionaries.  The new couple is from Wellington, by Price, Utah.  She is a retired teacher and he is a retired truck driver for the mines near Price.  She will work in the K-3.  They are together in the elementary building which is partially closed-not enough students.  The other half of the elementary is in the top floor of the high school, with the Jr. High.  Sis. Christiansen and I spend our mornings in the High School building and the afternoons, in the Elementary building.

Here is a picture of what we have been doing.  We recruited another outlet for our projects-the Childress Nursing Home.  We are also using towels for the bibs or aprons.  The second quilt is on it’s way to Florida for Kolt.  Think he will like it?

 

On Saturday, we were at the temple with Brother White.  Keith was responsible to help him be endowed for his father and then have his parents sealed and then be sealed to them.  Brother White is a very picturesque person-tall, white haired with white borderline handlebar mustache.  Looks like he should be a Texan.  He is not too frail in body, but pretty frail in mind.  He is about 80.  Anyway, when they were about to go to the veil, Keith noticed that Brother White did not have his father’s blue card, but a temple one.  So in the name issue booth, Brother White must not have given the officiator his father’s card and received a temple name card.  Brother White is also diabetic, so we were concerned about his health.  We were a little frantic and were afraid he would be sick and disappointed.  Things worked out okay though.  The family history director of the Branch took him to the break room and bought him snacks from the vending machines and then to the baptistry to watch the Branch youth baptism.  He ended up being a witness.  In the meantime, Keith and I hustled into the next session and Keith was endowed for the father, then we all gathered for the sealings.  I don’t think Brother White even realized what had happened, and we sure didn’t tell him.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

 

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.

January 7th, 2015!

 

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. 

Christmas Week

 

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.

My week before Christmas

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!

            

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.

The week before Christmas

 

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?