Gonna be doing casework for 7 counties....

The regional chapter of the Red Cross I volunteer with has been added 18 or so more counties to their district so our local office is being set up to do the casework for 7 of those counties. I am so excited cause I have wanted to do casework for a long time and here's my opportunity.

Today there were three of us doing the training. Hopefully there will be several more added so we can cover the area without spreading ourselves too thin.

We will do the follow up after the DAT team has went out at the time of the disaster and met with the client.

Brian was our instructor and he's a great person to do the training!

We will then come along behind the DAT team and make sure the clients have had their initial needs met and make sure there is nothing else we can help them with before we close out the case. We will be making referrals for places that can help with those things out of our area. So part of our work will be getting to know these 7 counties and what is available in each of them to use as referrals. Places we can direct clients to for additional food, clothing, household items, medical needs, eyeglass replacement. Things like that. Doesn't it sound exciting!! I love helping people and this will be a great opportunity for me to do that. I love volunteering with the American Red Cross!

So, before setting up our new office, we had to move out the old. Life is like that. The old needs to go many times before a new work can begin.

This was a very old, antique desk. And very HEAVY!! We're actually faking it! Turned it up on end and put it on those little slider thingy's and with BRIAN'S help, slid it right out the door. The new desks had to be brought up from the basement. Sounds like a lot of work but our office is located in a bank building and there is an elevator available. Do you know how interesting it can be to move a desk and get it in an elevator with two people without incident? Unfortunately, I backed my butt up against the little red button and set off the elevator alarm. Nothing like making a grand entrance!

Brian and Valerie are checking out the computer wiring that was left from the previous occupants. By the way, we get two laptops for our use. Won't that be great?

What a good day this was! Accomplished a lot, had fun doing it and now ready to get down to business. We take over officially on Saturday Aug. 1. And we're excited!!!

It's 11:00 at night and I'm making Salsa...

I started out this morning early by calling my extension person. I said "I've got 40 cups of chopped tomatoes and I need to know how much vinegar I need to put in the batch. Is there a formula I can use?" I don't think she was impressed! It seems you should make it in smaller batches so don't do this much at a time. I had to guess at how many cups of peppers and onions I had added and that didn't help much either. But she did figure it for me. I thought it tasted a little too vinegary but she probably erred on the safe side.

Anyway.... I had 30 pints of Salsa and now I am up late doing the water bath thing. But everyone seems to like the Salsa. So maybe it will be worth it. I can't eat it because it does bad things to my ulcer when I eat spicy stuff. And I put jalepenos in this batch. Used the same recipe as the one on my previous post, except I am now going to water bath it instead of freezing it.
These will look nice lined up in my pantry. I'm rapidly running out of room in there!

Here's my little flock...looking good.....

This is Raquel Welch my little Silkie chicken.

Chatting down at the watering hole

"You looking at me?"

I love watching the guineas.

They were mothered by these silkies. I read that guineas normally will roost in the trees unless you raise them with something like these silkies who teach them to go into the chicken house at night. Very interesting.

I was told these are Mallard and Peking ducks. Don't you just love ducks. And to think I almost got rid of them cause they were so messy when they were little.

And this is John Wayne. Unlike the real John Wayne in the movies, here the "ladies" don't like him . Guess they need to watch some old western movies and see who they are messing with.

Hanging close to momma.

I enjoy going down to my own little "farmtown" and watching the goings on and hearing the crowing and the clucking and the quacking.

My favorite Tiger Lilies are blooming

Don't think you can see it in this picture but there are little droplets of water hanging from the petals. Beautiful in a 8 x 10 size. Might have to frame this one.  My mother had these flowers blooming in our yard when I was a little girl and I always thought they were beautiful! I always smile when I see old fashioned Tiger Lilies...

Love my flowers!

The well's up and running ...pumping water....

The boy's Poppy  got his pump and is ready to get the drilled well that was on the property when we bought it up and pumping water. We want to be able to water the garden and the chickens with this water rather than using the Consolidated Public Water that we are on.
He painted the inside of the well housing and also added a light socket so we could plug in a heat bulb in the winter.

Notice he had lots of help.

Putting the new pipe down the hole with help from our son-in-law Steve.

Had my daughter Rachel on the 4 wheeler pulling a rope.

Enjoy this picture because as soon as she sees it on here she will take it off.

Here's a close up of what the pipe that went down the well looked like.

The finished product. Everything's all done.

Put the temporary top back on. Before winter we'll have to build a insulated cover of some kind.

This switch box is located in the shop. In case I ever need to turn it off or on I guess.

Now we have water up at the barn....

as well as down at the chicken house and garden area.
This is what I call "free water". Guess it wasn't free to get the well up and running, but now my water will be free coming from the well.

If hard times get any worse, I think they are already here, having our own water supply will be a plus. So if you too have a water supply on your homestead, get it up and running, for goodness sake. I'm glad we finally did!

Old Fashioned Baptism....

On Sunday evening a group of friends and family gathered down at the pond to baptise two of my granddaughters as well as some other children.



My son talked to the kids about the importance and significance of baptism.




Grandpa Frank also helped Kevin baptise his grandchildren. They'll remember this forever won't they?


Here is Emilia being baptised.


Then came Katrina. There were several other kids baptised but unfortunately my camera chose that time to run out of battery so I had to stop and put in new batteries. I think there were 6 kids baptised all together.


We even made sure there was a special spot reserved for our special friend "Mrs. Laura" as the kids call her so she could get a good view of the kids being baptised. We love her very much.



We got a quick shot of all the kids that were there. This is the next generation being raised up to serve the Lord. And most of them are cousins!

Guess what the next question the kids asked following the baptism? What better way to cool off on a hot day.

And my daughter-in-law provided ice cream to add to the fun. Here's my grandson Caleb diggin in.

Doesn't this remind you of an old-fashioned summer day just like on "The Walton's " show. I loved every minute of it all!

Loved this picture .

Here's my youngest son  with my youngest grand-child Kaden. I am pretty sure he is licking the top of his head instead of kissing it. Boys!
Baby Kaden was really taking all this fun in. Isn't he precious? He thinks that is his name.


Played a little football--young and younger!

Showed a little muscle. I'm pretty impressed myself. Can't say that boy doesn't work! He's got the proof! Good friends having good times together! That's what it is all about!

Hope you all had a great Sunday too! Enjoy life with your family and friends, take time to laugh and make memories together. Have no regrets!