Paul Turns 21!!!!

Twenty-One years ago today our oldest son, Paul, was born.  Today he signed up for college courses!  He has attained the height of 6'2".  For so many years he was very small for his age and I would reassure him that someday he would be over 6 foot and he would eventually catch up to Michelle in height.  He is now a half inch taller.  Yeah!

He is loving the farm and has been having a great time pulling the sled for the kids with the ATV.

He was born under the Christmas tree, quite literally.  We had all our babies at home, and he was born in the living room where there was more space.  We have had a family tradition ever since to leave our Christmas tree up until his birthday every year.  I have always said that anybody born under a Christmas tree had to be happy!

He and JoAn were pals from the beginning.

Paul was blessed to have two great grandmas living close by.   They thought he was pretty special.

He was a real blondie as a little guy.  He was a hard worker from the time he was little.  He started going to work with my DH when he was only 2.5 years old.

Paul was a sweetheart as a little boy.

He loved outdoor activities.  He especially enjoyed our trips to Canada.

Here he is with his best pal Will.  They are still good friends!

Here is a picture from one of our last Canada trips.  We haven't been able to go back since Elizabeth was born.

   

Paul and Elizabeth are great buddies, and have been from the very beginning.  They are twelve years apart but they spend a lot of time teasing and playing together.  Paul is such a good big brother.

Paul has a good ear for music and played the violin for a number of years.  He still drags it out every once in awhile.

Paul's 18th birthday.  Note the adorable place mat that depicts a properly set table.  The kids made this for Elizabeth so she could take over their job of setting the table.

On one of our family breaks we went to Chatauqua Lake.  Paul took the pieces and parts and made and designed a hovercraft, while we were there.  It actually worked and was a lot of fun!

Paul loves to work at camp.  In this picture he was acting in a skit.  He spends a lot of time there, when he can.

Paul also has been an AWANA teacher for the last three years.  AWAANA is a christian kids club.

Here are Paul and Michelle ready to head out to a English Country dance.  They had a great time!

Paul enjoyed his years in speech and debate.  His last year he really enjoyed working with Caleb.

Here is Paul with his good friend Will taken this spring.  It is neat to see them grow up together!

This past summer, Paul spent 3 months in Canada working on an evangelistic team there.  It was a real time of maturing for him.

Paul and Elizabeth

Happy Birthday Paul!  It has been so exciting and fun to watch you grow up.  We are so pleased to see the work that God is doing in your life.  Keep working to serve Him.

Life on the Farm

Things are happening at the Red Barn Farm.  It is a quiet time of year as far as outside work goes, unless it snows.The kids have started school and are working hard to get caught up after our late start.  Thomas has been working hard on debate, as well as math and science.  This is his favorite spot to work.  

Michelle was working on her Christmas list.  Trying to figure out what she wants for the cousin exchange.  You have to pick something on Amazon when your cousin is purchasing from overseas.  What do you get the kids who have everything they want?  We are thinking of tying a red bow on the barn and calling it Christmas.

This is the window sill where all the flies come to die.  Not sure why, they come here to die.  In all the house this is the place.  No dead bugs anywhere else, but several here.  What's up with that?!!!

Elizabeth and Paul were outside cleaning up an hauling the stuff out to get taken care of.  Gotta kep the place looking good.

This is what they rigged up.

T-Bob was out monitoring the situation.  He is such a silly boy.  He had to keep shaking the snow out of his crocs.  I really am not sure why he thought that his crocs were the right footwear for working in the snow.  I thought he was smarter than that.

Paul attached the push cart to the ATV and away they went.  It was a good set up.

He was very happy to be out and about.

This is farm ingenuity.  Attach a board to the back of a push cart and all of a sudden you have a trailer.  It worked great and definitely required a lot less work.

The stark beauty of a winter day in Ohio.

Painting

I love being at the farm.  It is so calm and peaceful.... It just draws you outdoors and makes you want to stay there.  We all love it!!

But this week has been spent indoors.  Getting the house ready to move into.  We want to move in the beginning of November.  We plan to have the family Thanksgiving dinner here.

The paint looks a little splotchy in the pictures as they are still wet.

So far this week, Paul and I spent our days here painting.  We finished trimming up the girls room and we painted the boys room, including the closet.  Now they just need to clean up all the junk in the middle of their floor and they can start moving in.

Today's big project was getting the family room painted.  In real life the walls are much lighter in color than they look here.  We got 2 coats on everything, except the final cutting in.  I am really looking forward to having these rooms totally done so we can start moving things in and making it home-like.  It will be nice to have a place to sit and rest between jobs!

We are in a hurry to get this painting done before the floor guy comes this weekend.  That way any stray drops will be sanded off in the final sanding.  After he puts the topcoat on we will have to stay off the floor for several days to let it harden.  The countertops will be installed on Tuesday afternoon.  We are getting really close to start moving!  I am getting excited!!  The office is coming along also.  Most of the walls have their second coat and the trim has been painted.  I still need to pick out flooring.  My DH can install that pretty quickly.

The outside projects are small.  We have mulching and building beds for spring planting on the list.  The barn must be organized and the garage.  Need to put a drain tile in the back part of the barn.  Paul has his mower working so we are good there.  Now to sit back and plan for spring.  There will be lots of fence building and planting and other things then to keep us busy.  So much fun on the farm!

Tree Removal, Manly Man Style

Today as Paul and I wandered the farm making plans, we were trying to decide which trees need to be removed and which can stay.  We were working down a tree line and came to this little tree the end and observed that it needed to go.  Paul decided to take care of it right away!

He pushed!

He pulled!

Finally, Over it went!

He tore it out of the ground!

Knocked the dirt off!

He carried off his trophy!

How do YOU take trees down?