Weather contrast

Yesterday we hit 100 degrees and today is even hotter. I was watching some eagles here. There is ice on the nest and snow, it is really cold there. There is in Iowa and that isn't that far away. In the meantime we need some moisture, preferrably in the form of rain to help our fire fighters. Vast areas of Texas are burning wildfires and they aren't making much headway agianst them. Pray for rain...

Boat work again

Well I am making progress but not fast. I do have the interior painted and the next step will be to install the decks and hatches fore and aft and then paint the rest of the topsides.

 Then I can turn it over and work on the bottom. The bottom work is mostly sealing and painting. Once that is done we mount the hardware, make a sail and it will be ready to go. I also have some network work to do at church so that may pull me away for a while but should not take too long.

Discipleship - A choice

This morning I met, along with a group of men from our church, for breakfast and Bible study at a local cafe. We do this every Thursday and it has grown to be a very special time of the week for me. Today was my opportunity to lead the study time and before getting into Acts 19, I started with some comments about the bigger story that encompasses Acts, part of that being the model that we see there for the making of disciples. Paul poured himself into several, who in turn did the same to build up the church. The last command to the church was to "make disciples". As Jesus called the twelve to discipleship, each of them made a choice to follow Him. It was a choice of total committment, a life choice that would change them completely. The goal of the diisciple was to be so like the teacher that there was no difference. This involved life change, a change of lifestyle for that one who chose to answer the call and become a disciple. Discipleship didn't end with the closing of the New Testament era. That last command hasn't changed for over 2000 years, we are still called to be disciples that make disciples. The choice is ours, what will we do?

Making Progress

Well I am making progress on the boat. I have a lot of the sanding done and old paint removed. This is very tiring work. I have the framing done to support the decks and to provide watertight compartments fore and aft that will aid in righting the boat if (when) it tips over. You may guess correctly that I have owned several sailboats before and all but one were susceptible (very likely) to tip over if the wind was very strong. I suspect this one will also be the same. I still haven't ordered the sail material nor the few pieces of hardware that I will need to make it sail but soon I will. The boat will be painted in nearly it's original colors of red and grey. The outer hull will be red and the interior and deck will be light grey. The spars, mast and boom, will be red and the oars will be grey. It should be an attractive craft when done. I have no idea how long that will take but hopefully by the first of June or so.

We have a couple of trips coming up in May and June which we are looking forward to. Our granddaughter Kaylee will graduate from highschool in May and we will try to attend the ceremony. That makes you feel old. We also plan to travel to Michigan this summer when Martha's mom will be 90. We also are excited about that.

Doves again with a picture

Well this morning they were at it again and there were probably 15 - 20 birds in all that were trying to get on the feeder. Some decided to feed on the ground but even then they flew back up and tried to find a space on the feeder rail once in a while. It was almost comical to watch. Here is another picture.

Thanks for stopping by,

Doves

This morning I was watching the doves trying to eat at the bird feeder. The feeder is small and really intended for small birds such as sparrows or wrens or maybe a cardinal, but doves are generally too large to get footing on the rail. They can do it but they have to stand sideways and perform some acrobatics to get down there from the roof or the perch. This morning there were about 7 doves trying to get to the food, 4 of which had managed to get themselves on the rails and were able to reach the food. The others were on the roof or perch trying to figure out how to fit in the remaining space. They would even step on another dove's back trying to get to the food. Since they could not get a grip on another dove's back, they slid off and fell towards the ground. Their wings caught them before they hit the ground and they would fly back and try again. I think that is the first time I have noticed them stepping on one another to get to the food.This went on for about 20 minutes before I moved to get the camera and they were frightened off. It never fails when you want a picture, they stop doing whatever they were doing that you wanted a picture of.

Last week at the creek

This room was our main project for the week, getting new floor covering down in the dining room. You can see quite a few pictures at my Picassaweb site. The link is in the right hand column and down a ways. Before we could begin this though, we had to repair some broken pipes. For the second year in a row we have had a hard freeze that lasted a while and we experienced a few broken pipes. This took all of Sunday and part of Monday. Once that was out of the way we began in earnest on the floor. It took most of the week to get it finished. Another project was to complete the doors for the master bedroom. These are folding doors and have been  waiting for me to get around to installing for a couple of years now. This was the trip that got it done. The picture at the bottom shows the completed doors. There are still a few details in the dining room to complete but they should only take an hour or two and then the back half of the house will be complete. We have two more major projects to complete inside the house. One is to replace the kitchen countertop and sink and the other is to redo the floor in the main front section of the house. This will involve removing an existing wood burning stove and ripping out the old carpet, tile and underlayment. We will put down new underlayment and then lay the same sheet vinyl that we have used in the bedroom and dining room.

There are still plenty of outside projects to work on, so we are not even close to being completely done. If we ever do get to the point of being "finished" it will probably be time to start over. The coastal environment is harsh and requires constant work to keep up with the wear and tear that occurs.

One note of interest was a dove that had a nest right above where I needed to work on the pipes. They often build nests in the lower framework of the house. This one happened to have babies in the nest and was unhappy with us working so close to it. We did manage to get the work done without damaging the nest or touching the babies. Hopefully she is happy now that we are no longer disturbing the area.