Mooing right along!! ( Colossians 3:1)

We are moving right along with the renovations.   Major demo has stopped and the framers have started. Framers are doing a little more demo as they are working.  The old kitchen cabinets are finally gone.  We had been hoping to save those to use in the barn, but we were told the cabinets had been built on site and were never intended to be removed.  

So they were destroyed while trying to remove them😢.  We have found all old oak hardwoods floors throughout the whole house.  The only major damage was the termites in the living room. There were a few small spots of termite damage in the kitchen.  They have framed up the dining room, butlers pantry and powdered room and removed most of the wall that was separating the living room and new foyer.  It has made the living room look so much bigger with that wall gone. All the new framing has helped level up the upstairs flooring.  There is just one other area upstairs that is still unlevel. We are not sure how it’s going to be leveled up at this point. We met Wednesday with Keegan and the framer to determine window sizes.  I also talked to the framer about adding some transoms over a few doors downstairs.  We are meeting with  the designer and Keegan on Tuesday morning to make the final decisions on kitchen cabinets.  I have been searching high and low for the exterior doors I want.  Fitting what I want into the budget I have has been the problem, but think I may have found most of them in Cullman.  Here is a link to some videos our builder has made and put on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/p/CCylBd_DgO5/?igshid=1siv12tbmcpw

The cows were delivered on  Tuesday the 14th.  They are doing good and seem happy and content in their new pasture.  Awhile back we had tried to dam up some spring water for them, but it was destroyed almost immediately by either Lita or deer.  So we concocted a new plan.  We were given a hundred gallon water trough that had a threaded drain outlet. So we went to our favorite aisle in Lowe’s or seems to be where we hangout the most in Lowe’s.....the plumbing aisle....and found a reducer that would fit a garden hose and then found a threaded fitting to go on a milk jug and attach to a water hose.  Paul made a funnel out of the milk jug and placed it in the stream bottom and channeled the water in it.

 Now we have a constant flow of fresh, cool, spring water into the trough.  Since the water flows constantly,  there is a little trough waterfall.  This is where we always find Candy...laying under the waterfall. 

At the Skelley barn.....when we purchased this property, it had no access to it because the creek goes the length of the property by the road.  It looked as if there had been a culvert at some point, but it had washed out.  Installing a culvert was the first thing we did, but a year later a storm came through and washed it out.  We rebuilt it and when we had the slab poured for the barn someone asked the concrete guy to pour a little of his concrete on the culvert.  Last Sunday on the 12th another storm came through and about took the culvert out again.  The little bit of concrete saved it from being completely destroyed again.  So we spent the majority of that week trying to repair the culvert and restacking rock.  We then added 38 50-60 pound bags of concrete to help it withstand these Tennessee storms.  

Paul is a perfectionist when it comes to stacking.  He told me there was one little area he wanted to stack some more stone, so just for fun, while he was working on the other side, I started stacking rock in that small area.  

When I got through I said...“Paul, come look what I did.“  He walk over and when I pointed to the stacked rock he just starred and said “Hmmmm.”  After a couple of minutes, I started laughing and said feel free to restack.  He said, immediately, “Sure you don’t mind?”  Also, we finally have HOT water in the barn shower!!  Only problem now is the “Peeking Toms”  we have!😂

 

 

Paul came home to Hartselle on Thursday night. Grant had a post check up at St Jude’s in Huntsville and he wanted to attend it Friday afternoon.  He gets home, we eat dinner and then just as we sit down on the sofa for a little relax time, Paul gets a text from our bush hog guy (Marty).  He said...“Hey did you know you have about 10 head of cattle in your front yard?“  That was nothing new...cause our neighbor can’t keep his cows in his pastures, so we have come home many times to cows all over our front yard, which is very annoying because of all the damage they do and the mess they make, but even more troubling now because we have cows and ours are about half the size of his.  Paul called Marty to make sure it was the neighbors cows and not ours that was out also.  

Marty said it was mostly Charlaise cows, but there was a short stalky bull out there with them.  Our heart dropped because that sounded like Danny Devito and he wasn’t ours to lose!!  At 8:30 pm we jumped in the car and headed to Tennessee praying the whole way Danny had not got out of the fence.  When we arrived our worst fear was confirmed.  Danny got a wandering eye and left his hand selected ladies for what he thought was greener pastures.  Our ladies stayed in their pasture, but Danny made a big hole in our fence as he exited our pastures to follow the big girls back to their pastures.  We drove the fence line trying to find Danny at 10 pm with no luck.  I called Danny’s owner and told her what had happened and where he was currently. We decided Danny probably needed to go home, because we were concerned if he got out again he might get hurt.  We got back to Hartselle at midnight.  Paul got up early the next morning and headed back to TN to collect Danny from the neighbor's pasture.  Paul and Danny’s owner got there at about the same time and Danny is now safe and secure at his home in Franklin, TN.  Friday evening we had planned a quick weekend trip to visit Paul’s family and a little visit to the beach.  We were anxious about leaving before Danny got out, but even more so after he got out.  My sweet cousin who lives about 10 min from me said she would do me a head count while I was gone to make sure everyone was accounted for.

On Sunday (7-12), the day our culvert was hit with the storm, we went to a church in TN.  The preacher’s sermon was about heaven.  I have seen so many post on FB about “we are living in the end of times” and the “Lord’s return will be soon.”  My heart fills with fear when I read these and not because I don’t think I’m ready.  I think it is the fear of the unknown.  Life on earth is all I know at this point.  The pastor did a beautiful job describing what heaven was and was not.  We will not sprout wings, we do not become angels, we won’t float around on clouds playing harps, and it’s not a state of mind.  It’s a real place prepared for us.... God’s family.  The pastor made a comment that has been on my mind all week.  He said, “If God made earth in 6 days, can you imagine what heaven will look like since He has been preparing it for 2000 years!”  I think earth is beautiful!!  The oceans, hills and mountains, green grass, beautiful sunsets, the fruits and vegetables, creeks, the animals, variety of trees and flowers, all the colors and I could go on and on.  I struggle envisioning anything more beautiful, however I know and believe he is preparing us an eternal dwelling that human words could never describe its splendor.  We are given a glimpse of Heaven in Revelations 21:19-21.  It says, “The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones:  the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth Sardis, the seventh chrysalis, the eighth beryls, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh Jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.”  I think the best part of heaven, aside from being with God our Father, is that there will be no more tears, sadness, anxiety, worries, sickness or evil.  Heaven will only be filled with Peace, Joy and Praise. (Revelations 7:15-17)  We need to have a correct view of Heaven. The Bible says in Colossians 3:1, “ Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in place of honor at God’s right hand.”  Rick Warren also put out a devotion the very next day about  “The Realities of Heaven” .  So the next time fear tries to creep in I will set my sights on the realities of Heaven and not this corrupt world.