Camping and new residents

The newest fun thing to do on the farm is camping out. Papa did some bushhogging on top of the mountain, and then Jeff, Collin & Jordan finished clearing off a campsite and made a fire ring. They have camped out twice and are still working on making improvements to the site so that it will be ready for their cousins to enjoy with them.


Meet the three new residents of Ton Tenga -- Laverne, Ethel and Doris. We know that at least two of them are "with kid", so our animal population continues to grow!
cc

Small changes, new pictures





It's been pretty quiet around the farm since Larry and Cheryl have been visiting Jeremy and Kimberly and the girls for a couple of weeks. The dogs have been constant companions for me and I think consider themselves my helpers when we feed the cows. The view of the house is from the back pasture that hasn't been fenced yet but Larry has been working on clearing. I've also included a picture of the new section of the driveway that has made the ascent to the house a bit less precarious.

The welcome sign at the start of the driveway is finally hung – thanks Danny and Cayson! I've cut okra several times and appreciate it even more now. It can even be kind of pretty, eh?

AJ

Is anyone still reading?

Finally some new pictures of the the house and some recent pictures of the family, including Granny's recent visit and Jordan and Collin's trip to Pine Mountain with Larry and Cheryl.

Workers were here today to frame the driveway for concrete to be poured hopefully tomorrow (see picture). Otherwise, the changes around the house and farm are not as noticeable, so maybe that's why we haven't posted in a while.

Included is a picture of the half bath faucet. That's probably one of the top things people comment on the most.

We've had lots of rain recently so one of our pastimes is watching the storm front move across the mountains and wondering if it will reach us or pass over. It's beautiful!

AJ

We're Back

We had a wonderful time visiting our kids and grandkids and getting to know our newest granddaughter, Emma. We didn't find my passport, so I flew to New Orleans to get a new one, had a great overnight visit with Madelyn & Mike, and left from Atlanta only 3 days later than originally planned! Thanks for your prayers! We're home now and working hard to get settled in the house. Check out our progress --






Moving In

Here's Larry, carrying in the first piece of furniture and then sitting down to enjoy the great room -- for about 30 seconds!




We've been working hard, trying to get moved in before we leave for Amman & Beirut to visit our family. I'm supposed to leave tomorrow for Beirut; Larry flies to Amman on Wednesday. We realized last night that my passport is missing! Larry has his primary passport, but his 2nd passport is missing also. They're not in the place where we always keep them, and we have been going through boxes, drawers, suitcases, purses and everything else all day, trying to find them. Please pray with us that mine will turn up in time for me to get on the plane tomorrow.
cc

Finished!

The house is finished -- except for a few little things -- and we started moving in on Friday. It's a big mess right now, but we took some pictures between the cleaning and the moving in and wanted to give you a tour of the finished product. We'll post more pictures when we get a little more settled.

Great room, kitchen and dining room:




Master bedroom and bath:





Downstairs:



The loft:

Update

Right after I finished the previous post, Larry called to say that we passed the inspection! Thanks for walking with us through this and praying for us. There's still a lot of finishing up to do at the house, plus a lot of cleaning and packing to be done before Friday.
Maybe some of you haven't heard our best and most important news -- Emma Grace Cox was born yesterday to Kimberly & Jeremy at 3:00 pm EST in Amman, Jordan! I tried to post the picture they sent us, but it didn't work. We'll try again later.
cc

Inspection

Things are pretty crazy around here, but I wanted to give you all an update concerning the inspection. The inspector came on Monday and came up with a long list of things that needed to be done or corrected, some of them reasonable, many of them definitely unreasonable. It's pretty hard to get everything right when you don't even know what the codes are, and even if you did know, I'm not sure it would help, because they keep changing them and adding to them. Anyway, Larry/Dad, Ron & his crew have been working just about around the clock since then, trying to get everything ready for them to come back today (Wednesday). Please pray with us that everything will pass so that we can begin moving in on Friday.
cc

Progress

We're making progress! You can see some of what Larry & Jeff accomplished outside on Tuesday:


The 100 year old barn wood looks great in the guest bath:

The stairs up to the screened porch are almost complete. You can get a glimpse of Larry on the porch, moving at his usual speed!

Stonework on the concrete wall is almost complete. This wall is a wing off the poured concrete basement wall and connects to the natural stone wall.

A view of the railing in the loft -- almost complete.

We had hoped to have the final inspection tomorrow, but their office is closed tomorrow for Good Friday, so it will be Monday before the inspector can come. Gives us a little more time before the inspection, but less time between the inspection and our departure for the Middle East.
cc