7 Random Things

1. Expect the unexpected.

That's what I've learned over the last 18 months.  Once again, the Lord has shown us that our plans are not His plans. HA!  As we were preparing to move to another rental property, a very strange and bizarre thing occurred. I'll spare you the details, but basically, the sale of our rental house was put on hold until spring, and a bidding war ensued to keep us at our current house.  We were fully prepared to move out to a cheaper rental, so the landlord drastically lowered our rent to the point that we would be saving thousands of dollars over the winter if we chose to stay put.  This would help us with our heating bill, and would also help us to save money for our next move.  We were flabbergasted!  It's a huge relief to not have the expense and stress of moving again, and we are so thankful to be staying put for the winter.

Honestly, we could not have lined up the sequence of events that led to this rental reduction in a million years. We're still scratching our heads as to how it all came about.  Isn't that just how the Lord likes to operate?  

So it looks like we'll be living in our house with the white picket fence for a little bit longer.  I feel a sense of relief knowing that we'll be here until spring when the housing market picks up, and builders start building again.

2. Here's a bird's eye view of the fall leaves.  This year, the colors weren't as spectacular as they've been in years past, because they hadn't  quite hit their peak before we got a hard freeze and a snow that just turned the leaves an ugly shade of crunchy brown.

3. We went to our local ski resort to get the kids their season passes, and had the opportunity to take a lift ride on a gorgeous autumn afternoon.

A view from the top.

4.  We have finally finished replacing the pole fence at one of our lease pastures. It separates the pasture from a yard, and cows in someone's yard = trouble.   It took around two hundred logs that were 13 ft. long.  We're so relieved to have that crossed off the list.

Now we can move our weaned calves and dry cows over to the pasture.

We took the old logs from the fence, and cut them up into firewood for the elderly couple who lives in the home.

5. This month's 4-H sewing project was fabric pumpkins.  We made football shaped patterns in 3 different sizes.  Then we cut out 5 pieces for the little pumpkin, 6 for the medium, and 8 for the large pumpkin.  We sewed the football shaped pieces together and stuffed them.  We added a stem, leaves, and a bow to complete the look.  I cut my stems quite a bit shorter after I took this picture, but you can get the general idea.

P.S.- For all of those gals like me who don't have a craft store within a 3 hour radius, you can buy cheap pillows for $2.50 at Walmart, and rip them open for the stuffing.  It's the exact same stuff that you buy in the craft department, but WAY cheaper.

6.  Thanks for all of your prayers for Miss Kitty.  She had a surgery last week to close up the abscess and she's healing nicely.  She's back to her spunky self so I think she's feeling much better.  She gets her stitches out in a week, and hopefully that will be the end of this saga.

7.  My favorite pic at the vet's office:  It makes me laugh every time I see it.  :)

Learning to roll with the unexpected,

Nell