Merry Christmas Y'All

As we celebrate Christmas today, remembering the reason for the season, we pray that you and yours will be blessed with the peace of God, be touched by His hand and be filled with the joy of His presence!  He is Emanuel!

It's a Wonderful (ly busy) Life Pt.2 September Memories

In September we had a lot of things going on!  Early in the month we celebrated Dad's birthday.  All of us guys birthday's fell on Sunday this year, and with many responsibilities at church we often have rather abbreviated Sunday afternoons and so we actually finished celebrating Dad's day 3 weeks later when we also had another little event for me.  In between those days Grandpa Potter turned 81--and he's still putting up square bale hay and cutting wood!

One Sunday afternoon the colors and light was so nice out we couldn't resist the opportunity to take a few family photos...here are a few of the best.

A bit dark, with squinty eyed subjects, but a nice setting :)

Of course trying to do anything without the dog is difficult at best! ;)

A little different angle cuts down on the squinting!

Anybody want to try a different spot? :)

There were a lot a pretty days and many pretty scenes and flowers as well.  I really love the fall...its in my top four favorite seasons!!! :)  The days start getting cooler, and you can start to feel a nip in the air that warns of the coming winter....the trees start to change color--with each passing day new blazes of glory appear....the garden produce in coming in at top production with the harvest of root crops, squashes and melons, tomatoes and peppers....

Four O'clock flowers

Seedum--one of my favorites

We had pretty good year for gardening--the melons never amounted to a whole lot but we had squash, squash and  more squash.  Several rows were from volunteer plant and seemed be a cross of a couple of varieties from last year--delectica and acorn; quite good.

We had quite a cart-full of goodies one day when we were trying to get stuff gathered in before the frost.

 We got a bumper crop of peppers this year too!

The hot peppers we made into Mexican Restaurant Salsa -- it is really good.  (Ever notice how a lot of things you make or buy to use at home is always restaurant style...and at the restaurants everything is home style? Is it just me or does most advertising play off of discontentment?

The fields are so pretty during the fall too, with the onset of fall so many thing seem to reach their full potential.  These next pictures are from earlier in the year; you can just start to see a hint of the color show to come

Between the trees...

Across the road

Looking towards "the farm"

The clouds almost look like mountains!

The fall colors this year were pretty spectacular at times, but Dad and I thought that we've had years that far surpassed this year--it seemed that the leaves fell off almost as fast as they changed color.  Still there were day when the colors were just gorgeous; like this day right after a rain storm:

And once again I'm out of time.... so the rest of September will have to wait.

So until next time, may you rest in God's Peace!

Matthew

It's a Wonderful (ly busy) Life Pt. 1

It is hard for me to believe that the Christmas season is upon us already!  It seems like just a week or so ago that we were basking in the summer sun and sweating up a storm--now we are bundled in our wool socks and coats and coveralls when we go out...  Where does the time go?

This is actually from this time last year, but it looks pretty similar!

We are thankful though for the time that God has given to us to enjoy this last several months; I guess that's why you haven't seen us here: we've been busy living life!  But I do want to chronicle a few things here, and so starting from when we last left off in July....

It was a pretty good year for blueberries around here...we picked a few...buckets-full.  We froze some, ate a bunch fresh and made some into blueberry-banana muffins :) YUM

Our pre-freeze drying rack!

I think we got about three 5gal pails of berries this year.

August was a fairly uneventful, steadily busy month.  We had Jonathan's new piano arrive and he has had many many hours of enjoyment from it--either playing or tinkering with various inner workings.  It's a bit more crowded in the living room now, with two pianos, but the possibilities for dual piano duets are vastly improved!

With the daily chores, mowing every single week (thanks to wonderfully regular rain showers :) and a few church activities the month flew by with hardly so much as a how-do-you-do.  Our supply of pictures for August is dreadfully slim :(

And that's all the time I've got for tonight, so I think I'll throw this much up there and try again another day....

Remembering that we have been called according to His purpose and rejoicing to bring Him glory,

Matthew

Kickstarting Abundance (59 hours left) and other musical news

http://kck.st/131wUiK
88
5 1/2
~ 600
500
2001

Hi folks, it's me again, and I'm excited about some musical happenings that are occurring around here.

Let's start at the top: 88 keys, 5 1/2 feet long, around 600 pounds, selling for $500, at 2001 E Grand River Ave. It's a Baldwin baby grand piano, and I pick it up on Friday (or rather, the piano moving company does.) Mom found a classified add in the local paper from a Unitarian church that was downsizing (good thing), and had no more room for the piano. It seems they didn't (or don't) know what it is really worth, which could be in the neck of $5000 (if everything is in as good a shape as it looks). I was expecting a rusted old piano that hadn't been taken care of at all. What I found was an instrument in pretty great shape that has been tuned every six months on schedule and was played primarily by a professional musician (a band instructor at the local public high school).

Baldwin is one of the best pianos made (behind Steinway and Bösendorfer, perhaps), and this particular instrument was built in one of their best periods in the 1950s. Definitely a used model, the piano is a bit beat up on the frame, but that doesn't affect the sound at all. The fellow from the church thought that they probably bought the piano new in the 50s, so it's probably had one owner.

To conclude, it's a definite gift from God. The very fact that the price is so low and the quality so good, and that I was the first to look at it provides for pretty unusual circumstances. And the fact that I have a piano budget right now, which brings me to B):



I've got 59 hours to go as of now, and am over half way in my funding. By the end of the day on Saturday, I need to raise about $850 more to complete the project. Checkout the current funding levels right here:

Kickstarter projects that are funded past 40-50% are funded 95% of the time. So I have high hopes, but it's going to be an uphill battle for the next two days.

Lots of folks have been extremely generous in their contributions, and thanks to everyone who has already contributed.

I am accepting offline donations toward the goal as well, so if you prefer to send a check, let me know as soon as possible what amount you're able to contribute, so I can put it toward the goal before Saturday.

If you're not able to pledge toward the project, sharing it through Social Media and other contacts right now is very valuable as well.

And I covet your prayers! That's all for now!

- Jonathan

A Blaze of Beauty

American Beauty Bush that is!

 Busy ants working to get the Peonies open:

A Sedum by a pudding stone:

 

 And a few roses:

For some this will evoke a certain response "_____ da wabbit!" ;-)

The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;

    he is their stronghold in the time of trouble.

 The Lord helps them and delivers them;

    he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,

    because they take refuge in him. 

The Appearance of the Iris

Colorful, Elegant, Stylish: the Bearded Iris

 Pretty, Athletic, Determined: the Clematis

The flowers appear on the earth,

    the time of singing has come,

and the voice of the turtledove

    is heard in our land. 

Song of Songs 2:12