House Building Progress Pictures - Nov.2012

 

House Build Progress in Pictures

Bryan is back in PA as of Oct. 31st.  As you can see by the pictures, he was NOT able to get it under roof before he left.  However, the good guys of Council Mountain Construction have assured us that they will continue to work diligently to get the house under roof as quickly as possible.

These first pictures show the first snow which greeted Bryan upon his return to the job site on October 23rd.

 

 

We look forward to the house being finished.  For now, after November 13th closing on our Lititz property we will be wintering at our vacation cabin/home in Huntingdon, PA.  I'll be sending updated address info via email in the near future.

8 Weeks In Idaho - Winding Down

I return to Pennsylvania on Saturday, October 20th.
Bryan was home on business this past week, and will come back here to Idaho on October 19th to oversee finalizing house building/weathering in details, and then he will drive home with the two dogs and a load of hay to deliver in Lancaster the following weekend.

We were so blessed to enjoy a visit from Samantha this past week.  She arrived on Thursday, Oct. 11th, and boarded a Greyhound bus for Seattle, Washington early this a.m. to continue her journey.  She will also visit friends in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles + San Diego, CA before flying back to PA on Nov. 5th. We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her and catching up with her.  Here is the link to her website where she is posting on her blog as well.

 http://www.thetravelingadvisor.com

We enjoyed looking at her pictures from her time in Columbia this summer and her trip across the country so far; we ate out; we went to a couple movies; we walked part of the green belt rail trail along the Boise River on Sunday since it was so gorgeous outside;  we went to the Boise Art Museum; we did a little shopping in the city; ...it was a great time together!

Here are some pictures of the log home walls going up.  These pictures were taken on Monday, Oct. 15th.

Yesterday morning it rained super hard and long and was super windy.  It's good because it'd the first significant rain storm that Idaho's had since early summer.

I will see you all very soon.
With preparing for closing on our house and finalizing moving out of our Lititz Property by Nov. 13th, I am sure I'll "hit the ground running".  Prayers are appreciated.  Thanks.

Blessings!
Cindy

 

Moving/Living in Transition Musings

As I was out walking today, my thoughts flitted from

•  enjoying the warm "Indian Summer" weather that we've been having, and being grateful for it...
•  to the beautiful birds I was seeing on my walk, yet was unable to capture on my camera which I took along to get  pictures, [especially of the magpies for Dorris Runk who wanted a magpie picture so badly, and I see many magpies every single day];...yet the birds evaded my capturing them on my camera...
• to thoughts of Samantha's arrival on Thursday and preparation of moving the RV down to "the low country" to be closer to Boise and things to do during her stay with us here in Idaho...
• to "Wow, I only have tomorrow up here in Cambridge yet, before I fly home to PA..".
• to all the things I haven't accomplished from my list today...
• to all the things that I need to accomplish before leaving Idaho on October 20th...
• to "I wonder what time it is, I wanted to go to Bible Study for the last session before leaving Idaho so that I can say good-bye to all the ladies before I leave, and get a picture..
• to "Kelby, NO!, stay out of the grass...there are sharp burrs in there!  COME!"; and  "Man is she filthy dirty.  I have GOT to give her a bath today!"...
• to "Oh, I need to organize the Idaho addresses and phone numbers of the phone company and utility company, and contractor's numbers/info, AND I need to call the Lititz Post Office to be sure that we're on the same page as to stopping the forwarding of our mail, and to let them know when I'll be in to pick it up...
• to "That reminds me, I really need to set up a PO Box in Huntingdon, PA so that from the time we move out of the house on November 13th until we return to Idaho, (which we're not sure when yet) we'll have a postal address for our mail to reach us...

and on and on and on... my thoughts meandered regarding details enveloping our selling our house in Lititz and choosing to build our Log Home and transition our lives to living out west in Idaho.

OTHER REALIZATIONS rambling through my brain with regard to this huge transition:

THINGS A PERSON TAKES FOR GRANTED WHEN THEY ARE SETTLED:

• Having a settled address and phone number and email connections.
• It takes faith to proceed with what we firmly believe to be God's will and plan for our lives when we don't have a detailed understanding and clear "Road Map" regarding exactly what God means for us to be doing as far as jobs/ministry/income stream etc. once we finally get all the way moved out here.
• Security/ Emotional Comfort ability -Such a huge transition does not come without it's own set of insecurities and emotional drain, as we deal with the same questions over and over again...."PENNSYLVANIA!  What brings you all the way out here to Idaho?" (or if in PA -"IDAHO! Why Idaho?"  and..."What are you planning to do out here (there)?"...and while understanding these very normal, real, concerned questions having wrestled with them ourselves for the past four years when this move was first discussed, we've come to accept that it does not make sense to the average person...nor can we give a satisfactory answer. Because it isn't "normal" to move away from a place you've lived your entire life, particularly if your entire family and friends network still live there.  Dream chasing and God's affirmation of the move is often not followed through with when 2500 miles separates a person from their already established lives. And I honestly understand why. This can unsettle a person's security and emotions if one dwells on the opinions of the main stream and disregards one's own inner "knowing" and clarity of God-given direction and peace with the wrestled through final decision.
• Living Close to Family & Friends - we often take for granted.  Regardless of whether you only see those family members at holidays and maybe a time or two throughout the year, and regardless of busy work/social schedules keeping us busy... when we are established, when we live close to family and friends, unfortunately, we too often take these precious relationships for granted. 

DETAILS ONE MUST COORDINATE WHEN ONE NO LONGER HAS AN ESTABLISHED ADDRESS:

• Where to direct the mail.
• Changing Banks/Insurance Companies/Medical Providers Etc.
• Current Phone Number (s)/ Cell Service Provider(s) 
•  Internet Connections
• Current Email
• Where are we staying?  for how long?
• Sensitivity to Other People's Established Schedules and Lives + Being More Flexible & Adapting your Own Situation so as not to impose upon them.
• Mailing Address Change Cards (and in our case, more than once within a year's time)
• Striving to not forget anyone or offend anyone

Well, that's a L-O-N-G list of musings.  I'll cut it off there, and

I shall leave you with a picture of my Bible Study group that I took this afternoon, despite arriving just in time for prayer time. (About seven ladies are missing today.)  They all graciously consented to my picture taking and wrote down their contact info for me.  This is a wonderful group of women!

Updates from Idaho

Idaho Updates

We've been in Idaho almost 8 weeks now.

Here is what's been happening.

Building Progress:

concrete footer walls were poured 

Plumber has the floors ready for radiant floor heating.

The house is ready to have the log walls go up on Monday!  Yeah!

By the end of the week the walls should all be up and it will look more like a house.

What I (Cindy) have been doing with my days while Bryan is out working with the contractors on the house building project:

• Tuesday Bible Study - I've been enjoying getting to know the 19 ladies attending the Tuesday Bible Studies. We're studying the fruit of the spirit "Patience".   Quite appropriate for me given all the transitions.  This week I went for a walk and had a great visit with one of the ladies from Bible Study.  She is also new to the area and we have a lot in common.  I look forward to spending more time with Amy and building on our friendship when we return to Idaho after the holidays.
• Bike Rides -   I needed to overcome my fear of being on the Weiser River Trail by myself, so last week I rode my bike from Cambridge to our house.  It was approximately a ten mile ride.  It was a gorgeous sunny 80 degree with-a-breeze day.  And I didn't run into any large wildlife on the ride, for which I was extremely grateful.  (I did have my pepper spray though just in case.  ha ha.)
• Local Events - Bryan and I attended the new Hot Springs Pool Open House a couple weeks ago.  SO NICE soaking in the natural hot spring pools.  The owners of the hot springs pool are super nice people too.   We watched a Regional Cattle Dog Herding Competition the weekend that we went to Lewiston, ID.  Today we walked up to the little local Harvest Days Arts & Crafts Festival and then we watched a part of the Jr & Sr. High School Rodeo Competition.  Interesting!!! It is such a different world out here.
• Window Shopping for Lighting, Ceiling Fans, Floor Stone/Tile, Fireplace Stone & Kitchen Cabinets
• Arabic Class -  I sat in on an Intermediate Arabic class and hope to sit in on an 1st Level Class to gauge where to enroll should it work out for me to study Arabic at Boise State.  The instructor was very helpful. I'd love to take the Arabic classes if the timing of our return works out.
• Exploring - I've been driving all over the place learning my way around and seeing where the shopping spots are etc.  Last Sunday Bryan and I both drove to the C Ben Ross Reservoir, The Crane Creek Reservoir, & The Mann Creek Reservoir.  We saw tons of beautiful birds and over a dozen deer.  The water levels are really, really low.  Idaho has not had much rain all summer.
• Life Stuff  - Oh yeah, and I still have the day to day responsibilities of meal prep, laundry, and cleaning the RV etc.  There is so much dust!
• Agility with Kelby -  I've attended a few agility training classes and a Match at Ann Morrison Park. On  Oct. 12 & 13th I have Kelby entered into an AKC Agility Trial at the Expo Idaho center in Boise.

Bryan and I are both looking forward to Samantha's visit.  She is driving my car out for me and enjoying her own cross country trip.  She should arrive in Idaho on Thursday, October 11th.

I'll post more later.

See you all in a few weeks.

Deer in Headlights Experience

Tonight on my way home from Boise I had a much too close encounter with a very large female mule deer.  I was cruising at 65 mph down highway 95, and Bryan suggests that I turn on my high beams.  I do so and am shocked to see this deer standing in the roadway.  In my horror, I flicked off my high beams (which was very stupid of me...but I was not thinking rationally at this point); and I hit the brakes as hard as I could without losing control of my very fast traveling vehicle.  I literally reached the deer at a slow enough speed to swerve around her on the right hand side of the roadway as she casually stood there in the middle of my lane simply looking at me and then s-l-o-w-l-y she began to saunter into the other lane of the highway.  Needless to say, I was somewhat spooked after this experience.  Bryan calmly suggests that I may want to cruise at somewhat slower speeds after dark when traveling on the wilderness highway.  The truth is, had I actually hit that deer at the speed I was going, Bryan and I would more than likely be in a hospital and the deer wouldn't have survived.  I praise the Lord for sparing us!  And from now on...I will be using my high beams and traveling at a slower speed after dark.

Trip to Lewiston, Idaho last weekend

Bryan and I took a trip to Lewiston, ID last weekend.
Normally it would be a super gorgeous and scenic drive, but as you can see from a couple pictures that  I took below...the views were masked by the smoke from the ongoing fires burning out here.  The smoke has been getting worse and closer to us.  Air quality is terrible.  The locals are telling us that this has been the driest summer that they can ever remember.  We join them in praying for rain.

We drove down Lewiston Hill.

 

We walked the dogs along the snake river on some nice park paths.

 

We went through the Discovery Museum at Hell's Gate State Park, which gave detailed descriptions of Lewis & Clark's Expedition.

 

And on our drive home, we had the rare privilege of watching one of the fire fighting helicopters dip his water bucket in the Salmon River and fly back up over the mountain to continue fighting the fire.

Here are a couple pictures Bryan took.

 

 

MORE LATER.
Thanks for reading.

Sacrifices for Love

OF SPOUSE

Move to Idaho to build dream house

AND

Believe the best
But raise contest
When given test

Then let it rest
with forgiveness request.

OF CHILDREN

Sleepless nights when they are small
Fiercely protect as they grow tall

AND

As they grow
I let them go
And hope they know
I love them so

Every day
To God I pray
That close to Him, they will stay
And "Please, God, take their cares away."

OF DOGS

Commit to care for them for life
Vow to never bring them strife

SO

NO airline flight
(I prevent them fright)
Just drive, drive, drive
So they will thrive

Potty breaks without delay
"Chuck It" ball is what we play
When it's time to end the day
"Motel 6" is where we'll stay.

 

A Walk Around the Neighborhood

These are our neighbors and new friends, Sharron and Arne Pederson.
They had us over for dinner with another couple from our new neighborhood, and today, Sharon and I went on a walk around our neighborhood.
Here are a few photos from the neighborhood:

And here are some of Sharon's photos from her walk on another day:

 

Today we saw deer, elk, and bear prints and scat... two red hawks, quail, magpies, and lots of little birds that I don't know the name of.  After we walked for about an hour, we went back to Sharon's place and I took this picture of she and her husband and their dog Gigi. 

 

They are caretakers for this home, which is a retirement home owned by a couple named Hughes.  The Pedersons live here from April through October, and then they live in their huge motor home in Arizona over the winter months.

 

 

After my walk with Sharron, I took these pictures from our property. 

 

As you can see, Bryan is moving a lot of dirt.  Footers will be  poured on Wednesday and the plumber will be prepping the radient floor heating for concrete floors to be poured after that.

 

This is looking up the driveway.

 

This view is looking from the top of the driveway down to the road.

Bryan had the footers dug for pouring.

In this picture, I am standing on the place where the house will sit

 and looking towards Cuddy Mountain.

 

 

That's all for now.  Enjoy the pictures.

 

 





Two Weeks In Idaho - Update

Our "Home-Sweet-Home" During Building Project

 

We have been in Idaho for a little over two weeks.

 

Every day so far, the weather has been warm and sunny with temps in the 80's and 90's in the afternoon (but no humidity, so it feels very comfortable), and it cools down to lower temps in the evening and mornings.  Below are some photos that I took of the property and the beginning of the digging to install the septic system/electrical lines/phone lines, and today (Sept. 6th, 2012) the plumber and Council Construction were out to run the water lines from the well to the shop and house.

Things are progressing.  We should have our land line phone by Monday morning.

 

 

 

You may notice that the sky looks smokey in the above photos.  That is because our first week here, the skys really were smoky from fires in Oregon and Eastern Idaho.  We saw some burned areas.  It is very, very dry out here.  They have not had rain in over two months.  So while we do not have any humidity, it is super dry and DUSTY. 

 

ADJUSTING TO LIFE IN IDAHO:

 

We are fairly certain that we've found our new church:  Cambridge Bible Church.

It is the closest church to our home, and the people are super nice and friendly.  Pastor Roger is also very kind, and welcoming/Pastoral and his preaching these past two weeks has been very good!  His preaching style is a solid, Biblical expository style, and he throws in lots of helpful historical detail and makes great life application points...so we really do like his preaching style. I think that he is in his 60's (?).  He extends sincere interest in his flock.  I like the way he relates and interacts with his people.  And I like the way he attempted to locate our new home site from the visitor log after our first week, and he remembered our names and asked us follow-up questions the following week.  It's awesome to connect with the body of Christ 2500 miles from our PA home.

 

I've been doing lots of driving and exploring to see where the shopping is etc.  Ha. Ha.

I even took Kelby to an agility training class on Tuesday night.  It was great!  I signed up for an AKC agility dog show in Boise on October 12th & 13th.  I'll be taking her back to QQuest training classes so that we'll be ready to show.

 

Our neighbors had us over for dinner last Monday, August 27th.  It was very kind of them and it was wonderful to get to know the new neighbors.  (Sharon and Arnie Pederson and Ed & Irene Hargus(?) I'm not sure about that last name. )

I'm going for a walk with Sharon tomorrow morning. 

 

On Labor Day Monday, Bryan and I went for a long (12 mile) ride on the Weiser Trail.  Beautiful!

But I realized as we were on that bike ride that I am actually more "city-fied" than I thought I was. 

We came across a lot of varieties of birds and the signs of other wildlife were all over the trail.  Plus, since this is a "free range" state, cattle roam where they wish and so there are lots of cattle gates along the trail.  Some ranches are probably fencing their cattle in...but some ranches are probably fencing cattle out.  We rode right up to several herds of cows and it was a little too close for my comfort.  I am not accustomed to being in close proximity to such large beasts where we are sharing the same trail with no fence between us.  Yikes!  Plus there was tons of what Bryan thought was bear scat on the trail as well.  It's one thing to enjoy seeing a bear cross the road in front of my car.  It's entirely another matter to contemplate a bear walking out in front of my bicycle.  So, I have some fears to work through when it comes to walking and biking by myself in the heart of the wildlife's homeland.  Now I really do need to get comfortable with my handgun.  It will be prudent to carry it on those walks & bike rides.

 

I'll post more pictures and updates on our building project progress soon.

 

Take Care All.

Love and Miss Ya, and I look forward to seeing everyone towards the end of October.

 

 

 

 



Switching Gears

High to Low
Fast to Slow
Rat Race to Snail's Pace
Work Rush to Sage Brush
Time Punch to Endless Lunch
City Malls to Forest's Falls
Highways to Byways
Roadside to Riverside

Our out west relocation adventure begins.

It took us eight days to arrive in Idaho.
Of course, we were driving a Semi Truck and being followed by our friends in our pick up truck with our 5th wheel RV, and we stopped to visit friends in Indianna and Iowa.  And, we toured the Badlands, Wall Drug, Mt Rushmore and Custer State Park in South Dakota. We also spent two nights in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons National Park.

Amazing views!  Wonderful waterfalls and wildlife!!!  I love the buffalo!  And seeing the bald eagle catching fish was cool too.  Overall, the trip was not as grueling as I had anticipated and I really did have a great time sight seeing.
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip:

We arrived in Idaho on Monday, August 20th.

On Tuesday, Doris spent time with her good friend, Debbie and Debbie's family; I got the RV set up and cleaned and laundry done, while Bryan and Brian Runk started the work of intalling the septic system on our property.

Wednesday and Thursday, Doris and I explored the "closer" towns of Weiser & Ontario, Oregon and Mcall. 

And Friday, we all drove to Boise for dinner and to take Brian and Doris to a hotel by the airport for their early Sat. a.m. flight back to PA.

We are extremely grateful that Brian and Doris Runk, (our friends & neighbors in Huntingdon, PA) agreed to join us on our journey west.  We had a great time along the way, and Brian's help with getting the septic system installed was much appreciated!