God Provides (Part 3)

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are they not much better than they?

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

Matthew 6:25-34

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The morning after we picked up the sawmill, we all made a trip out to the land specifically to deliver the newest treasure.  After all, we couldn"t leave it on the truck and trailer forever! : )

Looking at the conglomeration of pieces, it doesn"t look all that easy to get it back together in the right order, but apparently there was a system. : )

When we arrived at the land, there were animal prints everywhere.  Dad and Ray believe it to be wild hog prints.  They said the hog smell was in the air.

Setting up camp is not the favorite part of the whole process, but obviously very necessary. And in this case, it was only a one night stay. Yuck. : )

In Tennessee, the sawmill was loaded with a track hoe, but out here, it was off-loaded by hand. At first we were wondering if that was possible, but where there is a will, there is a way!

That is a monster of a saw blade!

A very necessary part of work out in the heat.

Then came the big, heavy part.  After racking their brains for a solution, they decided to pull it off the trailer with the van.

Not tight enough!!!

Here it goes . . .

Now, Daddy, we know you're strong, but you're not THAT strong! : )

They'll try anything!

Thankfully, there was only one piece that broke during the whole process, and even though we'd rather it still be in one piece, it's not that big of a deal to get it fixed.

The motor was extremely heavy. Really, it's a miracle they were even able to do all this by hand! The Lord certainly gave strength!

Tweak a little here and tweak a little there . . .

Cranking it up!

And she"s running!!!!!

Two of the happy onlookers . . .

Gotta text!

We marvel at the Lord's provision!  He is SO good to us!  And the sawmill looks like it just belongs there!  Just like an old home place. : )

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I just had to share this!  "Nina" is the nickname Sara gave Christina when she was small and couldn"t pronounce her name, and it stuck.  So when we were on our way home and saw this . . . : )

God provides! (Part 2)

"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:19

 Last Thursday, Dad, Ray, and I finally made our way up to the Tennessee mountains with a truck and 18' trailer to pick up Ray's sawmill.  Boy! did we have one excited guy!

Travel was fair . . . if you call the rig we were driving (with an empty trailer which made the ride very bumpy) + curves + transfer trucks fair travel. : )  A little scary at times, but we survived . . . I think. : )  The fun part came when we passed Pa Paw and Ma Maw up in the mountains.  We were SO not expecting to see them up there!  What a surprise! : )

 This was my first time in this neck of the woods.  They had warned me that the roads were narrow and curvy, but I wasn't quite prepared for this.  It is supposed to be a two lane road, but I think they missed something somewhere . . .

 . . . especially when viewing the tires on either side.  Hope nobody's coming the other way!

(By the way, we had just come off a road about this width that was paved and had a mountain going straight up on one side and straight down on the other . . . and a little more traffic.)

 But it was all worth it!

Then came the next problem.  How in the world do we back the trailer in????

 There was no room to wiggle around.  It was either run into the mountain or fall off the mountain (which we came very near doing) in this case.  Thankfully the man who owned the sawmill had a trackhoe and was able to position the trailer as Dad backed it in.

 A look of concentration . . .

 This way, Dad!

 Now a look of relief! : )

 Some of what we're hoping to see in the near future . . . SAWDUST!!! : )

 Dismantling the sawmill took quite a while.  They tried to take it apart in as few pieces as possible so that there would be more of a likelihood it would go right together at its new home.  Pictures are worth a thousand words, so since a manual didn't come with it . . . : )  Yes, there are plenty of pictures to consult. : )

 The trackhoe was a tremendous blessing!!!!  Loading it would have been nearly impossible without it!  Piece by piece, the sawmill was loaded onto the trailer.

 Did I mention that this was supposed to be a two lane road???? : )

 Now, if this isn't a blade, I don't know what is!

Once we got everything loaded and tied on and checked and tied some more, we started down the mountain.  It was dusk, and we had a LONG trip home ~ especially since the load made it impossible to travel any faster than 60 mph at the most but 55 mph at the average.  We made it home at about 1:15 the next morning.

But it was all worth it . . . right? : )

Happy 4th of July!

In New York harbor stands a lady,
With a torch raised to the sky;
And all who see her know,
She stands for liberty for you and me.

I'm so proud to be called an American,
To be named with the brave and the free;
I will honor our flag and our trust in God,
And the Statue of Liberty.

On lonely Golgotha stood a cross,
With our Lord raised to the sky;
And all who kneel there live forever,
As all the saved can testify.

I'm so proud to be called a Christian,
To be named with the ransomed and whole;
As the statue liberates the citizen,
So the cross liberates the soul.

Oh, the cross is my Statue of Liberty,
It was there that my soul was set free;
Unashamed, I'll proclaim that a rugged cross,
Is my Statue of Liberty.

~ Neil Enloe

"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

John 8:36

God provides!

Ray is extremely excited over something . . .  Is it the overload of work he's had lately, or the absolutely squelching hot days, or -- no, it must be his new sawmill!  That's right.  After about 2 years of waiting, watching, and praying, the Lord has provided the perfect one just for him in just the perfect timing!  We are all excited with him because that means he can begin milling the lumber for our cabin.  Yay!!!  He wanted pictures posted so that everyone could admire his beauty.

Now we just have to clear off a place for it on our land and transport it from TN.  It won't be a hard ordeal as long as we take plenty of pictures while dismantling so it will get put back together correctly. : )

Good News!

 "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever."

Isaiah 40:8

The second weekend in June found us traveling out to our land once again.  Boy! has it been a long time since we've been able to plan a work trip out there!  A much-needed work trip to be sure!  There is some exciting news . . . but you'll have to read all the way to the bottom to get it. : )

We got some pictures of a certain type of creature that we'll be getting to know up close and personal once we get moved out there.

 Horseflies!

 Did you say you wanted a closer look????

 Here he is!  Isn't he a beauty?!?!

 Yup . . . he's a mean one, all right.  Thankfully Ray bit -- oh, I mean hit -- him before he bit Ray! : )

 We spent the morning clearing a trail down to the creek.  Didn't want any unexpected snake sightings like we'd had the day before . . .  We think it was a water moccasin.  There are six types of poisonous snakes native to NC, and all six species can be found right there in that area.  Eeeeeek!!!!!

Are you ready for the good news???  This is the last pile to be dismantled, and only this one and one other have to be burned before we start on the next project!  Praise the Lord!  The end of the tunnel is in sight!

 But we have to remember they are dismantled one stick or log at a time . . .

 With a few breaks in between. : )

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!