Volunteer Tuesday

 Of course my first job was to check on Oliver to see how he fared with Madiera and her colt. They were all sharing the shelter munching away on hay when I arrived. They were fed their grain and Madiera promptly took Oliver's grain so the grain buckets were moved as far apart as possible. Oliver on the left and Madiera and her colt all the way to the right. 

That worked although I'm sure Madiera and her colt ate their grain faster than Oliver but at least he got plenty before that happened. I had enough time to get a few things done in the big barn before heading for the walk. Ruth was a minute late so Diane and I started without her and got almost to the bottom of the hill when we heard her yelling so turned around and walked back up to join her. She told us we would need to help get her van out of the ditch. We walked to Joan's house then started to the main road when we saw Mark coming AND Ruth's van. Mark turned around and we all walked down to the van.

It was really stuck but thankfully the cement blocks Mark put down stopped the car from rolling into the ditch.

He walked up to get the small Kubota as there was not room to get past her car with the big tractor or the skid steer. 

Joan helped get the chain on the car trailer hitch.

Diane put the van into reverse while Mark pulled backwards with the Kubota.

We were surprised to find the cement was stuck in her wheel well and the van still not able to drive forward.

Joan was able to get the bottom one moved then that freed the one stuck up into the wheel well.

Diane drove the van up to mom's to fill the tire with air. Ruth, Joan and Mark put the cement pieces back in place to prevent anyone else from going off the edge. When we got to mom's house Ruth showed us her set up for their trip to Utah. She and Fedi will be driving the van out West for 2 weeks. She has installed battery operated lights and a fan. On top of the van is the solar panels to charge the batteries. At the back of the van is a portapotty. They have a small pantry of food and even have a bed built for the front seat for their German Shepherd Farkas. 

Some of the time they will be sleeping in the van but they also have a tent packed if they decide to stay more than a night or two. The van is packed and they are ready for camping. Jacob arrived with Chelise so Joan took a ride back to her house with Jacob. She gets to watch Chelise her newest grand daughter today. Mom and I left for the Berean office. We had a wonderful time there sending out Bibles, processing studies and visiting with each other. When we finished for the morning spent some time eating cake, drinking coffee and laughing. Today we had so much laughter. Below are some pictures of that office this morning. Marvin found a brand new box of letter openers at a thrift store down in Alabama. When he pulled that out everyone cheered.

Those openers get dull quickly when one is opening thousands of pieces of mail each month. Skip was making hundreds of copies of the studies for the Peoria county jail this morning. It was great to have Kathy back after her shoulder surgery. She had lots of letter writing to do, not that we saved all the hard ones for her while she was gone. WE DID! Shame on us but Kathy does the best job writing letters, much better than the rest of us. 

Mom was given the job of stamping the return address on 500 envelopes while Shirley ran them through the postage machine. Thankful that these ladies are willing to do these jobs. 

Vonnie was stuffing envelopes while Shirley and Sharon were busy processing the studies.

Below Vonnie is getting ready to send out the Bibles for today.

Sharon and mom finished their jobs a little earlier than the rest of us so sat down to have cake and coffee in front of us.

We soon joined them. Skip loaded the Bibles into mom's van before eating his cake. What a blessing it is to work at this office with these people each Tuesday. Mom and I stopped at the Hanna City post office on the way home to drop off the Bibles and gave Kathy, the post mistress, the left over cake. This afternoon Anna came to finish cleaning the apartment. I went to the barn to fold table cloths, pretty red and white checked table cloths. I now have 8 rectangle and 10 rounds of these thanks to my niece Rachel. At 2:30 Mark and I drove to a farm 3 minutes from our farm to pick up 10 bales of straw. We put some in the hay rack and stacked the rest. 

Dan stopped in with some logo designs, we settled on one of the first ones he designed with just a few modifications. 

For supper tonight I had to cook the tongue I had put in the fridge to defrost a couple days ago. It was so huge it hung over the edge like some prehistoric eyeless fish.

I had to fold it to get it into the pot.

That was put to boil so I could remove the outer rough layer.

After it was cooked I made a gravy to add flavor. It taste like beef but needed gravy. That was served with sliced peppers, cottage cheese, avocado and a watermelon for dessert. 

Mark wants to stay up to watch the debate but I'm not sure I want to listen to either person. I'm thankful this is not our home. I'm looking for a city with a true foundation, a home in the heavens not made by hands, Its designer and builder is the LORD of the ages, He prepared it for me before the world began. If you are like me you are singing those words as you read them.