The Rain Has Cleared

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted. Last weekend we had three days of intensive rain and after that had no internet for nearly a week. But we are online now.

With the sun, rain, wind, etc., our sleeping tent, a ten person tent that Pop bought at Walmart, has about had it. The tent has been great, but it certainly was not intended to be used daily for seven months. We have sewn it, patched it, and put plastic over it time and again. With the big rain this last week, we added two more pieces of plastic and again, thankfully, I think we are in the dry. We are grateful to God for the lessons we have learned during this time of tent dwelling. We have a greater appreciation for the weather than we ever had before. I think we also appreciate more the experiences of the tent dwelling sojourners of which the Bible speaks.

Not much work happened on the house since my last post except the framing of some more walls, but Dane hopes to get back to that sometime next week.

Dane did work on the big Ford truck. He put rails on the flat bed, got it fixed up so that it would pass inspection, and got it insured so that the Sosa's could use it to haul yerba mate for other farmers. We hope that this will generate a little income for us and for our neighbors.

The things they say........

One day as Dane was working, he kept dropping his tools and said, "Boy, I am dropping tools left and right."

His helper, Elijah, our six year old, responded, "Yeah, and straight down!"

Furthermore, Dane passed a kidney stone a week ago Friday. I think that his bouncing around in the truck as he drove it to town dislodged it. Needless to say, he is happy to report that it is over for the time being. He did say that of all the accidents, broken bones, surgeries, etc, that he has had, passing a kidney stone was by far the most painful. Ouch! We are thankful to have him up and going again.

Also, we did get back to Posadas to apply for Joseph's Argentine passport the Tuesday before last. They told us that we should have it within forty days if there are no problems this time.

Joseph got his first pair of shoes Friday. He is walking really well now and at fourteen months old, he had never had anything except socks on his feet. You would have thought he was being tortured when we stood him up with the shoes. He walked and screamed like a cat with something on its feet, but within a half hour he was used to them. If it weren't socially unacceptable because of modesty issues, I imagine someday, if left to his own devices, he might resemble the vine swinging Tarzan.

Well, we are in the midst of celebrating the Passover this weekend. Passover, the time set aside to remember the sacrificial death of Jesus, was last night and today is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which symbolizes our casting out of wicked worldly things for things of truth (1 Corinthians 5). Tomorrow will be the Feast of First Fruits, when we celebrate Jesus's resurrection and His gift of eternal life to us (1 Corinthians 15). In fifty days, will come the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given unto men. This is a special time of remembrance and Bible study for us and we have enjoyed having the opportunity to study the Bible with our neighbors Susana and Andrea.

This is a picture of the beautiful sunset and a full moon that Dane took last night before we had our Passover meal.

Here is a picture of the children sitting around the table just before we began our Passover meal.

Wow....

One big worm!

Anyone want to go fishing?

This Week in Review

This past week Dane and Javier finished putting up all the beams for the second story of the house. They also framed up a few walls. It is really exciting to see the house starting to come together. We look forward to having actual walls around us again, but living in tents has not been bad. It has opened our eyes to many things and we have appreciated all the lessons we have learned from the experience.


The week before last we got an email from the Argentina Federal Police in Buenos Aires saying that Joseph's passport application was denied because they were lacking some paperwork. Thankfully, they told us that we could reapply for the passport without cost to us, so we traveled to Posadas on Thursday to do this; however, we were asked to return tomorrow so that the gentlemen in the office could find out all that is required of us in Buenos Aires for the second application. Lord willing, this time around all will go without a hitch. We will let you know how that goes in the next post.

Here are some other pictures of things of interest from last week.

I got stung by a bee, I think, or it may have been a wasp. Anyway, my right hand has been swollen for about three days now and really itchy. The swelling is starting to go down now and I no longer look like I have a boxing glove on my hand. Since we are now raising bees, I am glad to know that I am not allergic to them.

This is a picture of a "pepino del monte." We found these wild cucumbers that the Sosa's have told us about growing near our garden fence. They are small like the size of a baby carrot, but they taste just like a regular cucumber. It is so much fun finding wild edibles. We also have wild blackberries and many kinds of wild fruit trees in the forest too. Another wild plant that is good to eat is the bamboo. If the bamboo shoots are picked when they are small, they can be cooked and eaten. We haven't cooked any yet, but have picked some and eaten them raw.

This is a picture of Abby putting the baby to sleep. He looks nearly half her size now, but she is very good with him. Many nights she sings to him and bounces him to sleep.

Well it is time to start getting cleaned up for the day. The mornings and the evenings are starting to get colder now, so we start bathing earlier.

Sabbath

Yesterday, we enjoyed our Sabbath Bible Study. We are reading from the book of Isaiah and are learning to sing the psalms in meter, which is a lot of fun. Even Joseph, the baby, hums along while we are singing.

In the afternoon, the children enjoyed their rest time and made "tepees".

The Beams Go Up

This past week Dane got the four big beams up for the second story floor of the house. We all wondered how he was going to do it since the beams are 4x12x19feet long, but he and Javier did it, and made it look easy. Before the beams went up, Dane sanded them and Javier put two coats of what they call barnise, on them. Now the guys are working on sanding and finishing all the other smaller beams. Lord willing, they expect to have them up by the end of next week, and they will move on to the walls.

Little Helpers

What a blessing to have little helpers.......



Abby the Chicken/Duck Herder

Dane's carpenter students: Elijah, David, and Joseph

Cooks in the kitchen: Sarah and Elisabeth

Laundry Helpers: Sarah, Elisabeth, and Elijah

Concrete, Swinging, and Ducks

The past couple of weeks have been busy for us. Dane, Javier, and Andres finished pouring all the concrete for the bottom floor of the house and they poured all the columns too. The final product is really nice. I thank the Lord for providing my husband and his helpers the strength to make it through those back breaking hours of labor. They are done pouring for now and will begin sanding the wood for the house.





Some of the concrete making tools became fun playthings for everyone. One day when Dane took a strap off the wood to move it, the strap disappeared quickly. The children had found the strap on the concrete and took it to the old peach tree and made a swing out of it. Also the rope that the men were using to hoist the concrete up to pour the columns became a swing and an elevator to the roof. What fun!

A few weeks ago we enjoyed some duck meat at the Sosa's and this week they gave us a male and female duck so that we could start raising our own. We are pleased with the new addition, but are anxious to provide them with some water to play in. The Sosa's assure us that the ducks are used to not having water to play in, but a duck out of water just seems unnatural to me. Anyway, here is a not so good picture of them hiding in the weeds of their new home.

The children and I have busied ourselves with our usual work these past couple of weeks. We enjoyed the chicken that I butchered, although the meat was a little tough. The children's schoolwork is going along very well too. In addition, I have added several of our email updates from 2007 to the blog, so if you are interested in rereading those, look in the archive folders for them and watch for more to be added soon, Lord willing.

Chicken

I killed and butchered my first chicken today, an old rooster! It went well. Susana was here to help me and give me moral support. I wanted to try skinning the chicken, feathers and all, instead of removing the feathers and then skinning the bird, so that is what we did.

We decided to butcher most of the chickens (one a week) that we bought from the neighbor in town and replace them with new chickens. We really don't have any idea how old these chickens are and the hens' egg production is really poor. We are only getting one or two eggs every three days now.

I put the meat in the freezer and will cook it tomorrow. I will let you know how it turns out.

Jessica