FOURTH OF JULY FUN!

JULY 4TH 

was a busy day!

First Allie and I got ready for her little bow making party (for baby girl Riley coming in September)

and Eric and Jesse played in the 

Father-Son golf tournament out at The Fort!

In the afternoon we went to Blake and Cherie's for some swimming and food!

Cousins are so much fun!!

If only Lauren was here!! (And Dalton too)

Notice our little 

Star!

Baby boy just couldn't quite make it for the 

                                              FIREWORKS . . .

He was so tuckered out that the noise and light did not even rouse him!

JAMMING!!

 Well, there has been quite a lapse in my blogging, but I'm back at it with the latest project.  Making JAM!!

My friend Margie (who also happens to be my daughters mother in law) has a couple of plum trees and they were ripe for picking!

Joni, my neighbor, Margie and I had such a fun morning making 

JAM!!

First we ha to chop them all up!

They were such a beautiful color!!

Then it was time to cook them down a bit.

 Then we added sugar and pectin and cooked it until it was nice and thick!

Meanwhile the canner was starting to 

boil 

and 

steam 

with nice hot water!

The lids were ready!!

 The mason jars were so beautiful!!

Yea for Kerr!!

We kept filling,

and filling,

and filling.

 
Yummy!!

Plum Jam!! 

Oh, and one more thing,
LUNCH!!

Carmel!

Allie and Jesse took some time this weekend in Carmel.  I stole these off of her blog because they were so cute!!  Such fun looking at the seals and listening to them make noise!

Don't you just wonder what he is thinking as he looks out over the ocean??

 Love the little smile on his face . . . I can just hear him saying "Wats dat?"

 Such a sweet little face with those big eyes!

 So glad the kids get a chance to pull away and enjoy the coast!!  

Easter

A couple of years ago we started going to Allie and Jesse's house for Easter . . . its usually so nice in Fresno this time of year and we like to do pizza's in the pizza oven!!

Time for the ladies to start chopping and preparing pizza dough! 

Becca, me, Allie, Margie and Aris all dolled up in our aprons!

Jesse making sure the oven is nice and hot for cooking the pizza's!

Great Grandma and Grandpa eating pizza and checking Jed's monitor . . . he was napping and great grandparents want to see their baby boy!!

Oh how we missed Lauren - so I included a picture of her from just before Christmas last year.

THE HUNT

Jed decided to be happy once he realized he was not going to win the battle of the hat . . . it stayed on!!

I just know I can get BOTH of these if I try hard enough!

Ohhhh . . . wats dat??

Ummm . . . this water is better than any egg I found!!

I love my papa!

Gama and papa with little man!

Water, Water Everywhere!

It will come as NO surprise to learn that 

Little Man Jed 

LOVES his WATER!!

(Seems like every other  blog post is about Jed outside playing in the water!)

We are so happy to have some nice weather to play outside in.

Since grandma loves to water her garden . . . its a perfect fit!!

His mommy (Our daughter Allie) was hanging out and snapped these pics!

Since Jed is growing so fast, he needs to be watered too!

Such fun!!

We could do this all day long!

 More please!

 Such 

a 

HAPPY

BOY!

I hope he will enjoy watching these tomatoes and the other veggies grow!

(And maybe he will not be too picky this summer to eat some too!)

So much fun!!

Family Christmas Picture . . . Better late than never!

I never did get around to blogging anything about Christmas this past year . . . but I did want to share the FAMILY PICTURE!

We had such a great time, but sure missed Bruce and Melissa who had to stay back in Hawaii for work.

Although they were missed, you have to admit that Hawaii is not a bad place to be for Christmas!!

In the Yard With Mr. Jed . . .

Last week we had some nice WARM weather!!  Hooray!!!  

And someone was delighted to be outside!!  

I think Jed would live outside with a bucket of water and a hose if he could.  

That boy just loves his water!! 

 I could not resist snapping a few pictures that captured his PURE JOY!

He just had to check out the dog water in every way possible

including stepping . . . .

 And seeing what it felt like to drink . . . . Grandma snapped a quick picture 

and then had to gently "redirect" 

I just could not have that little boy drinking 

out of the dog dish no matter how clean the water was!

 Luckily the hose was a good distraction!

Such fun . . . I can't wait for summer!

Jed also "helped" grandma plant a little in the garden . . . 

don't you jut love this little face . . .

what are you doing mema?

Thailand # 2 - Water and School

Our team worked on several projects while we were in the village.  We did medical care, worked with the agriculture project, helped finish a new water tank, and helped begin the foundation for a second school building for the upper grades, and worked on child sponsorships with the teachers - including visiting each child that is sponsored.  Additionally, one of our team members installed new winches on two trucks and fixed the cement mixers.  Lastly, Bryan Acosta worked along side Lanna Coffee, Thailand on roasting, marketing and other general coffee stuff as it pertains to Lanna Coffee, USA.  All in all a very productive trip!

CLEAN WATER

We take so much for granted here in the states . . . like clean water thats safe to drink!  In the hill tribes of northern Thailand, this is not the case.  Here is a picture of clean water coming to a village for the first time . . . and a picture of a mom washing her child which is part of the water projects that ITDP does. Along with bringing clean water, they teach villagers to use squat toilets and wash themselves and their children and drink only clean water.

Filter

Digging!!

Water holding tank.  

The filter has one form and the water tank has one form that they use to make 5 rings - one on top of the other. The finish you see now hides the "rings" and after it dries, it is painted white and then the teams will usually put a cross or a verse on it.  Many man hours go into the water project.  From the prep before teams get there, to digging trenches for the PVC pipes from the spring to the filter to the tank and finally into the village.  Villagers and teams work side by side to accomplish this goal!

Water flowing into the filter for the first time!

SCHOOL 

This is the second school house being built and will house the upper grades.  The SDCC team and our team along with the villagers dug holes for the footings, bent rebar and tied together the rebar foundations.  By now, they have probably built the forms around the rebar and are ready to start pouring cement. I've also included some pictures of the school children!

 Every morning we watched the children line up, raise the flag, say a prayer and then march into school.  In the lower picture, you can see the beginnings of the foundation for the building we worked on. It will house the upper grades and they eventually hope to go all the way through high school.  You can also see the village of Debusillica in the background.

The children are very respectful and orderly and the teachers seem to be doing a great job.  All of the classes are taught in Thai so that the children will be able to speak their country's language as well as their village language.   

The villagers always help with the work.  To the left are a couple of Karen ladies helping to dig the holes.  These will serve as the footings and both The Well and SDCC teams helped to dig these holes.  It is hard work to do by hand as you can imagine.  

I cannot remember how many holes, but there were quite a few!!  After the holes were dug the rebar posts were tied and put into the holes and they used empty water jugs as forms to cement the footing posts in place.  (I am not sure if I am using the correct names for these footing/post things - so for any of our architect friends - sorry!!)  Below, you can see the footings taking shape and you can see the rings on the rebar that we spent hours bending and tying on.

 All of the rings that held the rebar into position had to be hand bent.  We spent many man-hours bending cut rebar into three different sizes.  This is all done by hand with a crow-bar looking tool with a notch to grab the rebar and nails placed on a board.  If you did it in the right order,  and bent it to 90 degrees, you could make a perfect ring.

 A couple of years ago we had the chance to buy a cement mixer which helps the work go so much faster, still, you must pour the initial slurry into a pit and then mix buckets of rock into it by hand.  Many long hours mixing cement by hoes and shovels made for sore backs and arms and tired workers!!

 I was able to get out of the clinic a couple of days and bend rebar!  Yea!!

More to follow!!