Those long, tired, summer days

I am ready for chilly nights, pumpkins, crisp apples, a fire in the wood stove (an installation of the stove), rain (yes, even rain!!), wrapping up in a blanket and drinking hot tea.  I am most especially ready to have this house finished and unpack and put our lives back together again.  Did I mention, I am ready to unpack...and get our lives back together again?  And part of having "my" life back together is getting back to crocheting and working on art pieces.

Clearing out the blackberries for hot wire.

The animals are helping by devouring every green leaf put into the burn pile.

Can you see where the tree line is cleaned up?  This is technically not our property (but I did ask permission to clear it along the fence line).  We love this little patch of trees.  It turns into a pond once the rains hit and there is a natural spring under the big cottonwood tree (on the right).  We want to set up a web cam/trail cam to watch the creatures that visit throughout the year.

So...Alec accepted Christ!!!!

If you would have asked me a year ago if I would have a 24 year old young man living with us (and that I would be living on a 14 acre farm, in a remodel, in crazy chaos...I would have said, "no, I don't think so!!".  But, when this property became ours, I knew that I just wanted it to be the Lord's.  I wanted it to be used for His purposes.  Within a month, we had Alec living with us and for the next 6 months, we tried to show him Christ's love, we tried to be patient and loving and filled with grace and zero judgement, we answered his questions, we tried not to be pushy, we tried to let the Lord work.  The Lord showed Himself tangibly to Alec in many ways and we marveled as we watched him inch his way down the diving board and stand there at the end, toes off, trying to decide if he should jump.  In the end, the Lord called to him, and on his knees he went, in the middle of a field, just he and the Lord, and he gave himself over to Christ.  
Celebrating with the angels!

 My parents came over to congratulate (and we all went down to the field where Alec gave his life to Christ.)


The animals of course joined us...

I love alpacas!

Sunset...from the bottom of the property.

Tractor rides

Watching the field disked and limed (at least I am assuming that is what they are doing).  I have really enjoyed watching the farmers work these fields over the past 6 months.  

Early morning drive out to Silverton.  I may like grass fields even more than flower fields.  The flower fields are stunning when they are at their peak but the grass fields change all season long and the golden color is one of my all time favorite colors. 

 Phil and I have tried to be very intentional about taking time with just the two of us.  We have had several Home Depot runs at 6:30 in the morning and a couple of breakfast outings.  It has been so nice to have Alec here so we can leave for a couple of hours in the morning and know that when children wake up and we haven't gotten back yet, someone is there.  

Our last meal out, Phil had to take a work phone call.  I found it quite hilarious that I was eating breakfast while he was sitting right outside with his food cooling.

Phil saw me taking selfies and was trying really hard not to bust up laughing while on the phone (speaker phone).

The day after Alec gave his life to Christ, the whole sky lit up with "Sonrays".  The day before Alec gave his life to Christ was the eclipse.  We serve an awesome God...I have seen the work of His creation more than ever just being out here on our farm.  










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