Wood Shop Progress

With the exterior of the wood shop complete, the interior can now be started.  

Insulation came first.  I cut a lot of pieces of insulation and Pat tacked them in place.  Once that was finished he ran the wiring for the outlets and lights.

Next came some very heavy pieces of drywall.  Ten and 12 foot pieces are heavy!

Once all the drywall was in place came my job.  I did all the taping a mudding and sanding.  If this would be inside my home, I would have taken more time and done a better job.  But this is a wood shop and it was good practice.  Pat wanted it painted this week so I didn't have time to go back again and again and mud and sand it a few more times.  

Since this photo was taken, the primer and paint have made their way to the walls.  It looks good.  Not great, just good.

Judds Concert

On October 8th we attended the Judds concert.  When I first heard that they were doing this farewell tour, I wanted to go.  Then weeks later, Naomi took her own life.  I wasn't sure I wanted to attend a Wynonna concert, but decided she would probably give a pretty good show giving homage to her mom.

It was a pretty full house and I wondered about that little stage at the back of the concert hall.

Martina McBride was the opening act!  Two headliners in one!

She was fantastic!

I enjoyed her songs and her performance.  Wynonna used her as well.

See that box on the far right side of the screen?  That's how Wynonna came into the concert hall.

She then came up on some kind of a lift and sang to all of us in the cheap seats.  She went down the same way she came up and then walked down the aisle to the stage surrounded by her entourage of security.

She had another woman with her that sang Naomi's parts and even though she wasn't necessarily next to Wynonna, it sounded like she was. 

She has an amazing voice.  I never really recognized how powerful it is via the radio.

She sang the Granpa song which I waited all night to hear. 

I recall seeing people at concerts using lighters to make the lights in the audience.  Today people use their cell phones.

There were some video montages but the highlight was having Wynonna sing and the video fading in and out of Naomi singing with her.  It was very touching.  

It was a long concert as we didn't get home until midnight.  But it was so fun to listen to great music!

 

Blood Donations

Pat and I have donated blood many, many times over the past years.  Typically we donate in Gresham but this time we will be gone on a vacation when the blood drive happens so we went over to Bowler instead.  Pat bleeds quickly.  He had his bag filled in just over five minutes.  

I take longer as I began giving double reds since we've been home from our mission.  Double reds take much longer.  The blood is drawn out, spun to take the red blood cells out and then the plasma is returned along with a bag of saline.

This happens twice and thus the name.  It makes my lips tingle or more like buzz.  I was told tums will take care of that so this time I brought a few along.  It helped a lot.  I did get chilled as the saline and plasma are cooler than my body temp.  It didn't help that I was under an air duct blowing cold on me.  I feel like I am blessing lives of people I will never meet by doing this small act.  I'll continue as long as I'm able.

 

Beautiful Fall

The autumn has been marvelous!

The colors were so vibrant!

The trees seemed to hold onto their leaves much longer than normal.

The maple in our back yard showed off it's colors. 

It is so interesting that the yellows are down low and the reds and oranges are higher in the tree. 

I love the dry corn with the backdrop of color.

These are the trees that Tracy and I see each day as we take a walk.

The beginning of the colors started right here in the Cerveny driveway.

I always loved fall.  I suppose because that is when I have a birthday. 

But birthdays don't mean anything anymore and I still love fall best!

 

Warmth

We've had a long autumn but strange with it's weather.  Some 70's and even 80 degrees but then also some really cold days.  Cold enough that it paid to light a fire in the pellet stove.  

We've been waiting for pellets to go on sale at Menards and they hadn't yet so we checked things out at Fleet in Clintonville.  They had them on sale for one last day and we got them.  It took us three trips to Clintonville to pick them up but we are ready for winter!

 

Applesauce

My apple trees didn't do much this year but then since we didn't prune them, I didn't expect that they would.  I picked the fruit from the Sweet Sixteen tree and then went over to the Transit and picked the apples off of that tree.  I believe those are Macintosh.

I got one crate of each and decided that I would make sauce out of them.  I got 14 quarts plus at least another quart that I left in the fridge.  No sugar added!  I will enjoy this sweetness.

 

Novitiate

Shawano county always has a "Miles of Art" day at the beginning of October.  This year they held it at the Novitiate.  It was touted as "tour the novitiate."  

Erin and I went before the first session of General Conference. 

We paid $10 to enter.  There was wall to wall vendors in the open part of the main floor.  Which by the way, was not very big.

There were vendors on the front porch as well.  There was also a room where large vinyl posters hung which told the history of the mansion as well as the parts that have been razed.  

Needless to say, we didn't "tour" anything.  The exterior has been sand blasted and looks beautiful.  A new roof has been put on and the window frames are in place.  Still, it is just a shell.

The real beauty lies in the river behind the mansion.  

I understand why the original owners/builders of this property built it in this location.

It was a beautiful day and I love the sound of rushing water!

A lot of people have rafted this place or floated the river.  

Erin told me that when they floated the river, they got out at the top of the rapids and put back in on the bottom side where the water is calm.

How can anyone deny the existence of God upon seeing such natural beauty?  I certainly cannot!

 

Eddie’s Dresser

In the late summer/early fall we went to look at items listed in an online auction.  There was the cutest little dresser that I thought would be perfect for Eddie or even for Cierra to store her paint and craft supplies.  We bid up to $35 but it sold for $40.

In the mean time, Pat went to an in person auction and purchased this dresser for $10.

It is quite large and not very pretty.  

I decided I could paint it and make it look nicer.

The first thing I did was to take the veneer off of the top.  I tried several different techniques but in the end the heat gun was the only thing that worked.  I sanded it as smooth as I could get it and then stained it.  

I kind of like how there is so much character in it.  

Then I sanded the rest of the dresser, primed and finally two coats of paint.  The handles needed something so I painted them a different color.  I love how it turned out!  It should handle his clothing for a long, long time.