Wow....hello Sunshine! Haven't seen you for a while....a long while. We are so excited here in WPA because we are experiencing an all out January thaw! Hallelujah! Haven't been to the camp since fall so we are planning to take advantage of the extended thaw and go up Fri. night do some work on Saturday and home for church on Sunday. Hoping that the lane is navigable as it seems to be either mud or ice this time of year. I hope to post some pictures of our latest improvements to the place when we get back. See ya!

It occurs to me as I sit at my desk today that true joy is the fulfillment of longing. Receiving or achieving the object or experience one has been dreaming of which is quickly superseded by more longing and the more intense the longing the greater the prize when it is realized. I've always felt sorry for those for whom things come too easily. Where then is the joy of achievement? Today I find myself longing to be at the cabin. I was just there and here I am plotting the next opportunity. To follow up on last weeks entry. We did a little bit of everything that was on our work list and added a couple of projects that were not. We did not finish everything completely but came very close hence the longing to return. I do think that for the first time we felt satisfaction as we drove away knowing that from this point forward real progress will be made or at least progress that you can see and feel. The roof was sealed where needed, the chimney pointed and sealed, the front door was changed out and a good bit of insulation installed in the front room, outside a lot of scrap metal was collected and hauled away and things that needed to be burnt or trashed were. We felt as if we left the forest a greener and more forest friendly place than before.

Wow! Where did the summer go? I can't believe my last post was pre Memorial Day and now we are looking down the barrel at Labor Day. The summer was a whirlwind of Dan Jr. getting married in June. Dan Sr. having thyroid surgery in July followed by the annual work the the NW Mission Conference then finally a week at the beach in early August which btw was AWESOME! Dan Sr. and Kristen are back in the classrooms teaching already and Dan Jr. is waiting for those sub calls (please say a prayer he gets a permanent teaching job...thanks) Okay so here we are a year after taking on the camp project and we are anticipating an early fall and winter...leaves are already changing in the PA Wilds and the temps at night have been in the low 40's! Last week-end we removed the old behemoth kerosene and coal/wood burners making some much needed space and replaced the coal/wood with a simple wood burning stove (thanks Rob & Renee) which should give us quick heat and some lovely ambiance. We have a load of insulation to take up this week-end and we are planning to seal up the leaking roof, re-work the stove pipe to accomodate the new woodburner, finish the wiring in the front room, install a new breaker box and insulate the front room....whadaya think? Will we do it? We have a long week-end and plan to hit it hard.

Okay I admit it....I am such a loser when it comes to frequent posting....I will try to do better and start posting more pictures. Update on the cabin---Son Dan and and friend Josh have started the re-wiring project and bracing up the pitched roof from within...we should be able to start insulating and installing the tongue and groove soon...can't wait! DH Dan and I drove up on Sunday afternoon to check out the progress and decided to spend the night and return home on Memorial Day for the family cook-out. We really needed some down time at the cabin but honestly we were kinda overwhelmed by all the work we could see needing to be done and not enough time in the schedule yet to get to it. Also fellow campers up the lane from us were partying in a very big way....lot's of loud music and game celebrating which was okay til the fighting started. This being our first summer up there we are hoping that this was an unusual week-end for these folks! You may remember earlier posts about the Squirrel Wars...well the squirrels have kindly vacated the premises and moved on to a more natural habitat, however as we settled down for the night in our creaky iron bed that we have come to luv we soon detected that we were not alone, snapped on the light and illuminated a large BAT! Hilarity ensued as Dan moved quickly into MacGiver mode and created a Duck Tape on a double duck taped pole removal weapon kinda thingy that didn't work. We finally said phooey let's go to sleep and hope for the best. Our son said a tennis ball in a tube sock will bring a bat down when they try to grab it and get their little talons stuck in the sock....anybody tried this method?....does it work?

My nephew Phil is graduating from "Fire School" tomorrow. I am so proud of him and his brothers Dave and Mike. They are volunteer firemen in their community. They respond to fires and accidents and drownings year round, day and night no matter what. They also participate in community education programs to promote safety. Dave is also attending school to become an EMT. Good job guys. I love you.

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge
to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others
at whatever cost. Arthur Ashe (1943-1993)

Happy May Day! Today is one of those dreary days in a string of rain and gray skies...sigh...but every morning now the scene outside my windows as I stand there with a steaming cup of coffee is greener and the blossoms are incredibly beautiful. The rain seems to slightly shroud the beauty so it doesn't hurt our eyes or our souls with it's magnificence. It makes me very reflective...can you tell?...after a long hard winter when we begin to doubt that anything will ever come to life and bud and grow again, there it is...the wonder of creation, right in front of our eyes! I often wondered why Moses could not look at the face of God without being destroyed. I think now that it is for the same reason the rain shrouds Creation's beauty lest we be completely transfigured and transported from every day experience and can no longer function in the mundane. By the time the rain ends many blossoms will be on the ground and those still hanging on will be slightly wilted and then it will be safe to look again. Happy May Day!

Spring fever has hit us like a ton of bricks! Drove up to the cabin Saturday evening to watch the meteor shower from the hill overlooking the Ranch. We thought it would be the best location because the Ranch has open hills for the horses to graze and little to no light to interfere with the starlight. It was a little cool but we snuggled up with blankets on our beach chairs so that we could recline to enjoy the show and to our amazement we saw four yes 4 meteors! Well not the spectacle we were hoping for but it was the only clear night on the weather calendar during the meteor showers from April 16 til the 22nd the best night predicted to be the 22nd but clouds and work precluded the possibility of being up there then. However the weather was dry and mild and it was the first time since we bought the place that we went up just for fun and no work! It was a brief stay as we had our future daughter-in-law's bridal shower Sat. morning and Dan wanted to work on his outdoor fireplace at home while the weather was nice but still a very nice respite from the work week and a sneak peak into fun times ahead this summer!