Life Goes On

The "quiet" life continues. I keep on writing. I've worked on my HVAC newsletter this week. The client I work for may actually be getting more people interested in a few months as he coaches some people on marketing. We'll see.

An old client emailed about writing articles again. So I'll do that until better paying jobs come along. I sent out some marketing letters and I need to work on my websites.

The huge tree trunk got it's roots ground up on Monday morning. It was a nifty radio controlled machine about the size of a hippopotamus. It was very maneuverable and he just ground down stump and roots. We were left with a HUGE mound of dirt and chipping. We loaded some onto the pickup and dumped them into the garden for mulch.

At the same time, Tom fired up the tractor to move the tree trunk. He cut it into 3-4 foot sections and then carted them off to the area where the grand-kids were building a fort. We tried to put them upright around the parameter. The tractor was as bit uncooperative and for some... we were just glad to get them over in the area.

This week Tom went to our Midway house and replaced the floor in the bathroom. The toilet was tipping backwards. Apparently there was as very slow leak that rotted the top layers (two of three) of the floor. We bought some vinyl planking-- our new favorite flooring-- and Tom installed it. But this flooring was glued down. The glue was slow to get to the tacky stage, and so the flooring took longer than he'd anticipated. He went back at least 3 times to get it all done.

Last fall I responded to a phone solicitation to go to an all-inclusive timeshare in Mexico. I paid a "good deal" amount for 5 days and airfare. I wanted to try one out. There was a bit of a hassle as the "no presentation" became a "yes, there is a sales presentation to sit through." and the "You have to be under 65 to go" became only one half of the couple needs to be under 65.

But I wasn't hearing back about being contacted for the air fare. My emails went unanswered. Phone calls just rang through. Then... phone was disconnected. Before this business went underground, it referred all business to... and unrelated business. So they know the turf, but aren't at all responsible for making good on any of the promises made by business #1.

It looks like I have the reservations for the nights... but not the airfare. And at $1400 for airfare, that's twice what I paid for the whole deal. I think I'll cut my losses and remember to never respond to phone solicitations again. Never. Again.

Friday Tom and I rode in the van the ward uses to go to the Temple. As usually we left at 5am and got to the temple for the 10am session. We enjoyed two sessions. Some people did sealings or baptisms. We left about 3pm and got home about 8:30 including a stop for dinner. It's a long day, and we enjoyed the conversation in the van with the 9 other people.

Saturday I had a meeting with my Relief Society Presidency in West Plains-- about an hour drive. We are planning our spring women's event.  It had been a while since we'd gotten together and it was so much fun. We got lots of ideas and really got a lot accomplished.

On to the New Year

Peace and quiet. It's finally come. At least for me.

This week I had almost no appointments, no places to go, no deadlines.  It was quite nice. I spent some time working in front of the fireplace. I caught up on some things.  I've been "nesting" a little and trying to clean up, straighten up and organize.

Tom organized the craft closet. My goodness! It's beautiful. He bought some bins and tubs from Walmart and separated the beads from the paint supplies, the crayons and markers from the play dough, the games from the puzzles, the mittens and hats from...well, everything else.

I suppose a quiet week means that I really did nothing that was particularly interesting to anyone else.  I continue to work on a Newsmax renewal email series. I'm starting work on my HVAC newsletter for spring. I've been uploading old letters at my www.letterstomissionaries.com website. I have not done any thing to my www.teenstyleu.com website-- but I keep meaning to.

I reconnected with a man from Mali, Africa I met at the PLF live event. He has an interesting concept.We are overrun with technological advances, but advances in people-- their brains and skill sets-- are not keeping up. His goal: To bring about that transition in people of all nationalities so they can be more successful and resourceful. I have given suggestions for his project and may actually work on it some.

Monday Tom and I went to see the Hobbit III. I liked it. In preparation we'd watched one and two recently. Tuesday Tom went to help a family finish remodeling their house. He came home white with drywall dust. Thursday Friday he went to Deborah's to finish their bathroom remodel. I think he got it nearly all done. There was a loose tile on the floor he needed to replace, so Deborah will need to grout that when it dries in a few days. But the old window is out, the new window is in, and all the bath surround tile is complete.  Here is a photo of the old bath.

 New tub surround.

 Mirror still needs putting back.

Saturday Tom took the church youth over to a member's house to rake leaves. Then, after he came home, he cut up parts of the tree trunk still sprawled across our front yard from the septic era. Our septic has been working fine. But we still want to get tree and roots away from the leach field.

Tom cut up the trunk in about 4' sections. Then we used the tractor to lift them onto the bed of the pickup and drove them over to the fort the kids had worked on. It sounds a lot easier than it actually was, as we have a cranky tractor. We want to try to make them an upright parameter for the fort.

Today was church. It was really a spiritual feast. I posted my Ahah! moment for the week in the previous post. My goal is to understand the why behind my actions. Why am I praying?  Why am I looking at facebook? Are my actions building the Kingdom of God?

Facebook has some justification. I discovered Adam and Savannah were going to Pocotello Idaho for his "residency" this summer. So I guess it's a way to keep up with family. To keep you up to date as well, Jonathan and Kristy put in an offer on a lovely house in Mt. Vernon, MO. They are moving forward with inspections. While it's scheduled to close mid March, that is lambing season and they will not move until end of May-ish, I think.  Here are two pictures of the house:

Here is the kitchen with the curved countertop and brick floor.  I love the tile behind the stove.

My Ahah! Moment

This week I had an Ahah! moment.  Or maybe it was an Ahah! process.  Anyhow, I thought I'd share it with you.  It started out listening to Bro. Randall Ridd of the YM general presidency.

When Bro. Ridd was in seminary as a young man. They were supposed to read the Book of Mormon. The teacher had a chart and for each chapter students read, they got a gold star.

He fell behind in his reading, and was embarrassed that he didn’t have the gold stars. So he started reading the Book of Mormon. He read after class and in the evenings and finally caught up.

“What did I get from my reading?” he said. “You might think I got a testimony. But you're wrong. What I got was gold stars.”  That was his desire. That was WHY he read. He said, “I read the right book for the wrong reasons.”

As we keep the commandments we might ask, WHY are we doing it?  Are we doing it with “real intent”?  That is, to learn and follow the will of God.

Why do we go to church? Or pray?  Or keep any of the commandments?   Because we’re supposed to? We might do them to please our mission president or our parents.  Then that is our reward. It doesn’t make us better or more spiritual people, because our reason for doing it is earth-based.

We lose out on great blessings. What might be better reasons?

1. to learn God’s will.

2. to please God.

3. to get spiritual strength to overcome challenges of life.

4. Because we love God and want to become like him. 

What other good reasons can you think of?

If we keep the commandments for these reasons, we have “real intent.” We’re doing it for the right reasons.  The Lord will fulfill these desires and in ADDITION—the mission president and parents will be happy.

So think about the WHY of your actions. Why are you going to church?  Why do you pray?  Why do you do each of the things you do? (listen to music, video games, argue… and so on.)

President Benson had a guiding question for every discussion or action brought before him: What’s best for the Kingdom of God?

What would happen if we asked that question before every action we took: How will this build the kingdom of God?  What’s best for the Kingdom?

This is why doing is not enough. This is why just being obedient or going through the motions are not enough to take you back to the Celestial Kingdom. You need to act with real intent. You are promised the desires of your heart.

When those desires are people-focused, you get the blessings people can give.  When they are god-focused, you get the heavenly blessings.

I think I need to evaluate and re-evaluate the why behind my actions—both in and out of the church.  Am I seeking what’s best for the Kingdom in what I do?  Am I just going through the motions… or actually trying to find God’s will and follow it?

At the end of the day…  after we’ve put in all that work…wouldn’t it be sad to earn only man-made gold stars, and  not Eternal Life?

I pray that we all will to the Lord’s work with real intent that we may receive the blessings He wants to bestow on us.

Bath Remodel and house hunting

Last week the house emptied out after New Year’s Day. Kera and family and Miranda and family went home on New Year’s Day. Deborah and family left early on Friday. We got to keep Samantha and Steven while the rest of the family went to Springdale to close on their house.

We kept them until Sunday when we drove to Springdale (after church and tithing settlement) and got there about 8:30. Steven looked at the clock after we told him we’d get there at 8:30. He subtracted the time in his mind and we got a running tally. “ Two hours and 33 minutes…  Now it’s two hours and 31 minutes…. We have two hours and 29 minutes…”  After about five minutes of that, we suggested he just tell us every 15 minutes. But what a smart 6 year old to be able to figure out time like that.

Deborah and Ian signed papers for the house on Friday and got all the utilities transferred that day. The ward moved all their belongings from the storage unit into the house and garage on Saturday… amidst a misting rain. By Sunday they had beds set up and the essentials in place.

Monday Tom hooked up the washer and dryer and then began the bathroom demolition. It had only a bath and Deborah wanted a bath/shower combination. The days run together. I think it was Monday that Deborah and I went tile shopping. She found some tiles she really liked at the Restore—from Habitat for Humanity. They have bits and pieces of things from furniture to fittings, vanities, blinds, counter tops, etc. We also found a nice vanity top for the bathroom. They didn’t have all the tiles we wanted, but we thought there were enough for the tub surround and one side of the wall.

 We bought one and then looked for floor tile to match and bought a sample of that. We went home and got an agreement it would blend with the paint and other fixtures. We also chose picked up a tub and managed to get it into the back of the van!

Tuesday, Tom put in drywall and greenboard, and we went back to Home Depot and the Restore to get the tile.

The plumbers came at noon and set the new tub and also moved some of the plumbing to fit a center sink instead of a on-the-left-side sink.

As soon as they were done we started tiling the floor. Since the floor was cement under the linoleum, we were able to put the floor tile right on that. Deborah chose long wood-looking tiles and they were very attractive. Then we had to stay off the floor in order for them to dry.

 Wednesday, Tom started tiling the front of the tub surround. I also grouted the floor and they moved the vanity base into the bathroom. Then Deborah and I went to ½ of ½ to buy long sleeved clothes and pants for some of the children. They had a nice variety as Wednesday is the first day of mark-downs.

We discovered that we’d bought a 47” vanity top to fit on an 48” vanity. BUMMER!  It was Corian and very nice, too. So we figured a way to off-set it just a little and build a tile shelf on the wall end that matched the height of the backsplash. That first day of tiling seemed to go slow.  I know that laying the first level line is the hardest. But we had to start at the tub front top. Then when we got to the tub edge, we had to tile down to the floor and include a trim piece of the flooring as a baseboard. We didn’t know how big to make that until we saw where the whole tile pieces on the wall came down to. So it was sort of create-as-you-go. But Tom did a great job.

Thursday was more tiling. Oh!  I forgot to mention that it was freezing outside- literally 11 to 25 degrees outside. There were ice cycles dangling off the tile cutter. Tom kept having to boil water to pour into the reservoir used to cool the blade to keep the water in the pump from freezing.

 This was the bathroom, pre-grouting.  Tom got further than this-- back and back side half way up,before he stopped on Saturday.  The window needs to come out and an new window put in.

 Thursday evening Tom and I went out to dinner at Five Guys as he drove me to Neosha, MO to meet up with Kristy to do some more house shopping. She had seen one house on her way down, and then got a hotel there. Friday early, we started looking at houses. I think we saw 5-6 that day. Some of them were nearly an hour apart. The Amish house that I thought I’d love, I really didn’t. One in Bolivar I though met all Kristy’s criteria, but somehow didn’t give either of us the “I have arrived” feeling. One in Walnut Grove Kristy really liked. And we both liked the Victorian house in Mt. Vernon.

We had a whole next day of properties scheduled to look at on Saturday. But all of them would require building or extensive renovations. And none were as good a value as the three favorites. So she called Jonathan to see if he could come down and look at the three houses.

Kristy and I stayed at a hotel in Springfield and Jonathan got up early, loaded all the kids in the car, and made the trip down. Kristy and I looked at one house in Nixa—close by—but it was very dated. And when you looked at the value for price, the others were much better buys.

So we drove to Bolivar with the realtor and his wife and  met Jonathan and kids there. This house was occupied, so the kids had to be circumspect. As Jonathan and Kristy drove over the land, the kids and I explored the pond and spring. It was fun land for kids, and the house was nicely built. I liked it.

Then we went on to the Walnut Ridge house with its huge rooms and 12’ ceilings. It had a wonderful kitchen/family area and good view of nice land… but it was too ostentatious for me. On second viewing, Kristy agreed.

The final house was the Victorian one. It was my favorite, and in the number evaluation Kristy did, it came out on top there, too. It had a great kitchen/family area. The bedrooms for the kids were all circled around a fun play area and they looked like princess bedrooms with bay window and turret ceilings in some of the rooms. It had the woven fencing they were looking for and a barn close to the house with three stalls and a workshop.

Oh, it also had 40 acres, a playground, a play house and a pool. Plus 5 bedrooms and an office for Jonathan and a room that could be made into a movie room... and places for food storage.

Tom spent Saturday tiling some more, than drove up to Mt. Vernon to pick me up. He was late… but we were late getting there, too. He had a chance to run through the house before we all went our separate ways. Jonathan and Kristy decided to spend the night there and go to church at the ward this house was in.

We drove home—stopping at Aldi’s for food and Pizza Hut for dinner. We got home close to 10pm. We had to unload all the tools, food, and luggage from the truck. Then we glanced at the mail, lit a fire in the fireplace to warm the house, started a load of laundry, and crawled into bed.

They predicted ice on Sunday. There was some on the roads. Our ward only had sacrament meeting and there were 51 who attended; people were encouraged to use good judgment on whether they could get there or not.

Jonathan and Kristy found their church canceled. But they were able to meet the bishop and visit for a time with a high council member who had lived in the area a long time. He was able to talk about the “personality” of the different locations where they had looked at houses. He raises cattle and gave them some very good tips on hay and forage.

They are thinking about offering for the Victorian house. I think it’s a great family house and they will enjoy living there. It’s about 3 hours from us. So much closer than the current 8-9 hours. Hooray! 

Septic problems

The day before Christmas, the tub backed up and the downstairs toilet gurgled when flushed. Not good signs.  Tom ran a hose down the cleanout.  It went “almost” to the septic tank.

So it was digging time.  He dug up one lid.  I thought there was a handle on it… and had him dig more and dig up the second lid.  No handle on that one either.  So he opened the first lid.  The septic tank level was high and the inlet was clogged with TP.  After getting a little of it moved out into the tank, the rest came gushing out.

But why was the tank level so high?  We called to have it pumped… but their truck was in the shop.  We said we could wait until the day after Christmas. We had three adults and 5 kids in the house at the time.  We tried to conserve… but teaching little children how to wash their hands without having the water on full blast can’t be taught in an afternoon.  They tried.

Then Friday after Christmas we checked the tank level again.  It was higher still.  We got no answer from the folks with the truck in the shop, so we called Smitty’s and they came right out.  They were very nice. They pumped the tank.  Then they said… we think the problem is with the outlet. 

How to fix that?  We had no idea where the leach field was.  We’d looked, but never saw the typical strips of green that mark the fields.  They could suck the leach lines out and see if that worked.  They tried.  But only got a small amount out.  Either the lines weren’t full, or there weren’t much lines.

They tried sending a probe down the line to find the junction box or where the lines went.  It only went about 40 feet until it met an obstruction.  That was just in front of a huge sycamore tree.  They dug and found a line… because it had gravel, they assumed it was a leach line, not a line to the junction box. The line ran nearly under the tree.  Clearly the sycamore tree had been happily sucking the juices from the leach line.  I expect the line is full of roots.

The baffle in the septic tank had eroded.  The solution was a “T” on the outlet with a short piece of pipe going down into the septic tank.  This would block any floating solids from making their way into the leach lines.  Smitty’s could put one on for a small fortune or Tom could do it for nearly nothing.

We chose the second option.  Here are some pictures of the operation.  Remember, the tank had been pumped and it was EMPTY!

That afternoon Miranda, Dan and family arrived.  Then on Saturday Kera and five children arrived and on Monday Andy and Nathan came up.  So we had 22 people in the house…and a questionable septic.  Smitty’s said the average person used 100 gallons a day, including showers, washing machine, dishwasher, etc.  So with a 750 gallon tank, we should refill it in a day. Then we would know if the leach lines were working or not.  It actually took about 3 days to fill.

We did need to take care of the sycamore tree so we gathered a work force.  Dan began with the tree chopping with Tom’s assistance.   After a huge V notch in the side they wanted the tree to fall, they started sawing the other side…and sawed and sawed.  The 16” blade was a little small for the job, but ultimately it worked.

 going....

 Going....

 Gone!

 This is a hidden picture.  Can you see the two workers in the middle?

I had a willow tree I hoped it would miss.  It sort of did.  At least the trunk is still standing. They immediately went to work trimming off branches.  Then everyone pitched in.  Some playing on the tree.

Most cleaned up the twigs, leaves, branches and logs around the tree. It truly was a group effort. And after a few hours, we were down to the trunk of the tree.  We hope a ward member will come and get it for firewood.  We already have plenty of oak and it really doesn’t burn all that well.

 The trunk was big enough for everyone to climb on.

 Everyone helped.... except for one small child who threw himself on the ground in a temper tantrum.

But it was balanced out with a delighted Charlotte who climbed up there all by herself!

We did take time for games and food.  Lots of food!  It was so fun to see all the cousins playing so well together.   I love it when family comes together.

 We tried to conserve water.  And we had no septic problems the whole time the family was there.  That was truly a miracle.  Tom kept the lid part way off the tank so he could check the water level.  The night everyone left, we had five inches of rain... it topped off the tank.  Sigh.  We drained some off... and then left.

I assume it had a chance to leach out and the tank is fine now.  However, we'll have to get someone out to grind up the stump and then try to figure out where the leach lines go.  They've served us well for 14 years.  I expect they will continue to do well for us.