Sunday, November 11, 2018

Fall 2018

I was thinking that it has been awhile since I've posted anything.  I started looking through my phone and found a few pics....

In September, Ericka & Dwight both left for Rosedale Bible College.  Dwight went as a student and plans to be there all year.  Ericka went back on staff.  She is the RD in the girls dorm and is also helping out with the Bridge Program.  In this program, students are 1/2 time students and 1/2 time involved in an internship program in a field/organization of their choice.  Ericka is helping oversee the intern part of this and is involved one-on-one with the 9 girls in this program.  This is a paid position.


As of June, Darryn is living in Columbus in an apartment with a friend, and started working for Miller's Furniture in Lancaster, OH.  They also have a store in Plain City.  It is a high end furniture store that sells custom Amish-made furniture (mostly from Holmes Co).  Think dining room tables and bedroom suites in your choice of wood, color, style, etc.  They also sell mattresses and a line of couches/chairs that you can choose your own fabric.  If you goggle Miller's Furniture Lancaster Ohio, you can see some pictures of the store.  He seems to be enjoying it and says he now knows what an "undertone" is when looking at colors.

He said he has currently sold the ugliest couch on record.  
Red paisley couch with cowhide pillows....

Why is he in Columbus, you might ask?  Well, you see.... there is a certain girl, by the name of Danae Mast, also living in Columbus that he really enjoys hanging around.  Her home town is Grantsville, MD, but she has two siblings living in Columbus and that is where she ended up in college too.

Renae is a junior and Devan a freshman at Greenwood Mennonite School.  It's very different to be down to two kids here at home.... and sometimes one or none depending on their varying activities.


And just for fun here is one of the two of us enjoying a night at the beach on November 7 for Jolene's birthday.  It was a beautiful 65* day!  Sorry, all you MN family!!  I heard you have snow that will stay!


Monday, August 27, 2018

Delaware State Fair

In case you didn't know, we have a few head of cow here on our small farm.  This year we had 4 calves.  We have a friend who takes cows to the fair every year and he invited us to take one of our calves along with his.  This also meant that we had to get the calf broke and halter trained.  Renae said that she was interested in doing this so the weeks before the fair, Renae spent every morning and evening working at training one of our calves.  She was doing this at our friend's farm along with other kids who were training calves.

On the first day of training the calf stepped on her foot 3 times!  She was too timid to tell anyone and the next day she got stepped on again.  Her foot had so much swelling, bruising, and was painful to touch that she ended up at the express care center.  Thankfully nothing was broken.

The calf had to be at the fair the whole time so that meant going down every morning and evening to take care of the cows.  It made sense to us why so many people set up campers there.  On the day of the "showing," Renae showed twice.  The first time she was judged for showmanship with other kids in her age group.  The second time she was showing the calf against other calves in the same breed and weight class.  This calf is a Simmental  breed and weighed around 460 lbs.

Leading Sadie (the calf) into the ring.

Trying to get her lined up.

They use the stick to get their feet "set"....

.... and then they rub their belly with the stick to keep them calm.  


We are happy to say that the calf got 2nd out of 4 calves in the class and Renae got 4th for showmanship in a class of 9.  For first timers, we were very pleased with these results! 

Thursday, July 19, 2018

June 24

This was a special day.  There were 10 people from our church that wanted to be baptized.  One of them was Dwight.  Since it was warm, they all preferred the outdoor setting at our pond over the indoor baptistery.  Thankful for kids that are choosing the ways of Jesus!




His friends, Ryan & Austin, were also baptized.

Monday, July 9, 2018

Mt. Evans

On our last day in Colorado, we drove up Mt. Evans Scenic Byway.  If you ever have a chance to drive this, do it.  It is west of Denver just off of  I-70.  This road boasts that it is the highest paved road in North America.  The road is actually quite terrifying and not for the faint of heart.  I'm not sure that I, Jolene, would not have been able to drive it.  However, it was really neat and very amazing to be up so high.

The one edge is shear drop offs.

The driver really needs to keep eyes on the road at all times!

It was neat to drive through the different ecological systems. 
They say some of these bristle cone pine are more then 1500 yrs. old.

Summit Lake, above the tree line.
It's hard to see, but there are people fishing in the water.

The alpine plants were fascinating!

Bighorn sheep grazing near Summit Lake.

Looking down from Summit Lake to two more lakes.

These two were in a group of mountain goats near the top.

More goats at the top.  Note the elevation.
The structure in the background used to be a restaurant years ago.

They seemed very used to people.

This is what we climbed to get to the very top.  
There was a path that zig zagged it's way up the side.

Hard to read, but this marker says 14,258 ft.


Summit Lake below.

On top of the world 

We were thankful for a beautiful clear day!

Can you pick out the road?

They blend in so well.  This was a bachelor group.


We also saw a huge herd of elk (hundreds) "playing" down (way down) in a snowy field.  They were pretty small specks.  Unfortunately, they were at a spot where there was no where to pull off and zoom them in with the binoculars.

As cool as it was, it felt pretty good to get back down to lower elevation and a normal road!!  If you have vertigo issues and a fear of heights, you may need to close your eyes at times (unless you're driving!)  Ha!

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Winter Park/Fraser, CO

The last three nights in Colorado, we rented a condo in Fraser, near Winter Park, which is a ski resort area west of Denver.  We had to cross this Continental Divide to get there.


Since is was the off season, it was very reasonable.  The place wasn't fancy but did have 3 bedrooms and 3 baths and was perfect for the 8 of us.  Over the roof tops, this was the view from our deck.


The altitude here was around 8500 ft. and the first night Lyn struggled with altitude insomnia.  It's not fun.  All of us were feeling tired and needed to chill the first day.  We did play some racket ball, enjoyed the pool & hot tub in the clubhouse, and enjoyed a bit of fishing.



The 2nd day there, we felt up for another hike.  We went on the Jim Creek Trail until the snow blocked the trail.


And on our last morning, we had an unexpected surprise stroll through the parking lot past our condo.

Just out looking for breakfast, I guess.


Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Cousin Time

By the 3rd day, this gang from sea level and flat terrain was ready for a day of rest.  We found some great yard sales, played some frisbee golf, and had time for just hanging out and playing games.  I failed to get a picture of the Perplexus ball which seemed to always be in someone's hands.




We drove to Loveland to check out a discount grocery store and another store named Scheels which was the largest sporting goods store we have ever seen.  It had a Ferris Wheel inside (which a bunch of us rode on) and a very cool fish tank.

This was only one end.  It had 2 arches/3 pillars.

We met Elena's furry (??) friend, Berry, and let him (her?) enjoy a few moments of freedom.  


So adorable!

Thanks so much, Freed's, for letting us crash in on you for a few days!  We really enjoyed seeing where you live and where you go to church and spending time with you!

Joy & Shaun
Elena, Landis, Greta

Rocky Mountain National Park

We also were able to spend a day in Rocky Mountain National Park.  This is just over an hour from Joy's house.

The first hike was to Alberta Falls



From there, we hiked to Bear Lake, Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake.


An elk close to the trail.

The chipmunks were very tame at Emerald Lake.

Sisters..... the water wasn't very "emerald" on this day.

More sisters....


After the hike and a packed lunch, we drove along the Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitor Center.  This was a road that kinda made you queasy at times but the views were amazing.



The visitor center sits at 11,796 ft. above sea level.  Devan hiked a short distance up higher to be at the very top.  The temps went down to 53* at this spot. 


The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament shows his handiwork!  The mountains and the hills will break forth with singing.