Then and now

We are trying to get a handle on our digital media this year. Abi is going to be filing it, little by little, on a big media sponge thing up in the attic. I don't know what it's called, but it's got all of the photos we have ever taken, just about. So, here are other things we've worked on since we've been up here.


Here is our front yard during our first year. We arrived in June and again in August. We moved in two very long trips!

The yard was all grass up to the highway, and a sandy, dirt path led from the driveway to the house. Actually, upon excavation, we found that it had once been a brick path. The brick was under the sand.


To make use of the great, south facing yard, we put in a garden -- large by our experience. Larger than the square footage of our house! Our dear friends from church, Dave and Joanne, came with their rototiller to help us. The vision was for rows bordered by grass (to minimize sand tracked into the house. Who knows, maybe it did help! ).


Dave B. shows Solomon the ropes.


The kids marked out all the rows and selectively sprayed Round Up. Then they carefully measured and staked out the fence posts and fence. The result: a perfect parallelogram.


Since we were outside almost all the time, we decided to make a path to the house, and other popular destinations. Our awesome neighbors donated a bunch of stone and brick that they didn't need. Sarah was our engineer. In fact, she did nearly all of the work herself. But Susanna and Hannah did help.


Before we knew it, we were farmers! Our first year garden did really well, praise the Lord! If you click on this picture, I think you can see the stone path, and all the mis-matched yard furniture!



The Great Zuchinni Uprising. "Oh, you mean you're supposed to pick 'em and eat 'em?"

Meanwhile, inside the house....



Here is our living/dining room soon after we moved in. The first thing we did when we arrived was rip all the carpet out of this room. We really enjoy the big picture window, which we call "the flat screen".

We had lots of free standing furniture, which was routinely rearranged. In fact, we had lots of boxes of stuff, with absolutely no place to put the contents! We had an idea to build built-in cabinets and shelves on either side of the window, connected by a storage/window seat and overhead shelves. This was Zak's first oak project.


Here we are a year plus later, in one of the many versions of the dining/living room. The table was hauled in an open U Haul trailer behind the bus from the Mexican border -- it's a piece of plywood, with various maps all over it, covered with clear vinyl.


Here you can see the nice base cabinets, and the formica countertops, and a hint of the roomy storage/window seat. It has been a BIG blessing! We really needed the space.

In the foreground, the new tables, which Hannah decoupaged with new maps. We made two tables this time, which can be pushed together, or separated (for extra seating around, when we have company).

Well, there's a bit of history.