Here we go again...

Fall is really showing its colors here and we are learning, as a family, the importance of entrusting loved ones and our family to the Lord.  As sure as the leaves are gonna change, trials are going to come and our God is faithful.  His Word gives us the wisdom and encouragement we need each day.

Lately we have begun preparations for CocoaConf PDX, including continuing RV conversion on our third bus. 

First step is the passenger compartment.  We are doing a more rugged, inexpensive and Klein-proof interior.   We learn a bit more with each project.

One important lesson is...use the right tools.

Daddy's ready!  He is a skilled craftsman, indeed.

We are building from the ground up.  The little boys are extremely enthusiastic about helping.  Today, they ripped out the original floor, and now we are building up a sub floor and insulating with, what else but, insulation!  Noah is a crackerjack styrofoam cutter.  

We are also paneling the sidewalls with leftover paneling from the blue bus.  Then we will get some floor covering...  something that looks good with school bus grey upholstery and light oak paneling.

The girls are busy fashioning some very sharp looking forest green window coverings, hearkening back to their Grandpa Bill's ingenious window covering plan for The Greenie (Chevy Suburban).

We try to use as much as we can from previous projects.  We already re-installed the very Klein-proof triple bunks.  We are keeping the previous dinette tables, but just using bus benches for seating.  The dinette tables will drop down and their surface will fit two bus seats perfect, so we will just save some of the surplus seats.  This will yield a water resistant (if you know what I mean) comfortably padded sleeping surface.

After the floor and paneling are done, we will start getting things furnished.  We have been really looking forward to this!

More pictures will almost certainly come.

The best cheesecake we've had in a long time! Pt 1

Here are some of MANY photos from our recent 10 day trip to Wisconsin! Our mission was to re-roof the old homestead for some tenants who are moving in this month. It was a whole lotta: work, fun, wonderful weather, chili, fellowship, late nights, cold mornings and other wonderful memories and character building experiences.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to reshuffle all the photos, as they get uploaded in reverse order. So keeping that in mind, you can kind of let the pictures speak for themselves! Remember, reverse order, and this is about the first 1/3 in reverse order!


Bekah hauling chairs out to the firepit for our first campfire!


Winning the prize for longest distance to come visit us is our dear brother Dan from Rhinelander, who also inspired the title of this post. This is day 3 of the tear-off.



Shingles from days gone by...


We had planned to have yogurt and oats every morning, but soon switched to chorizo and egg burritos because: a) We preferred a hot breakfast, and b) The local Aldis carries chorizo! Who'd have thought?



Chili by the campfire!


Catching up with more dear friends!


Ahhh..... fall in Wisconsin.


Little buddies, reunited.


The Dyer's newest blessing, born after our move to St Louis.


Surveying the progress of the tear-off.


Joshie was so happy to have his own work gubs.


Zak supervised the project.


The asphalt tsunami!


First efforts at tear-off were without roof shovels. Slow going!


Raking leaves.


Keep this in mind as the "before" picture of the dumpster!


The morning after our arrival. Getting down to business.


Mmmmm...what's for dinner? Chili? Yay!


The wardrobe.


Fueling up at one of our favorite stations on the route. After taking our order for 30 dollar sandwiches, the lady running the adjoining fast food restaurant shouted the staff into high gear, gave me a free soda "to drink while you wait" and profusely thanked me for our business! Not the usual response!

More photos to come!

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.