Weekly Update for 3/20 - 3/26

Well, I know last week I said that the weather had made a turn towards spring, but it made a u-turn this week back towards winter. I feel like I'm a season behind everyone else! Last Sunday night and into Monday brought a mix of freezing rain and sleet that pretty much wiped out any kind of outside activities for the day. I was scheduled to take a load of our hay down Monday to the auction where I had been before, but due to the weather we decided to try a different auction on Tuesday. That left me the day to catch up on getting my taxes done as well as help keep the kids for a while for Kathryn to give one of the intern girls a voice lesson. They are going to barter voice lessons for some babysitting, which will be nice. We have really missed not having both of our parents as well as aunts and uncles available to keep the kids for us some.


　


　
This auction was a good bit bigger than the first auction I had attended. There was just a lot more of everything - anything you could think of that folks could make a dollar off of. There was every kind of animal including sheep, goats, cows, pigs, turkeys, ducks, guineas, rabbits, pigeons, quail, chickens, and probably others I can't remember. They also were selling fresh produce, baked goods, fresh meat, and homemade crafts and quilts. Also spread out through different areas were tables and booths set up like a flea market or huge yard sale for people to sell whatever old tools, guns, or antiques they may have. I told Kathryn that we needed to go back sometime with the whole family just to see everything and use it as a field trip. Our hay brought a pretty good price of $165/ ton. (We had about 4 tons on our trailer.) Although there were a good number of Amish and Mennonite farmers there, our hay was bought by a lady who had a horse farm about ten miles away. We agreed that she would buy another load in a couple of weeks, which I may end up taking then. It was a good trip with good fellowship and conversation there and back with Nate.

Tuesday night I was able to go and play basketball with some of the interns, staff and people from the community at a community gym in Morris. It was fun playing basketball again, since I had tried to refrain from playing in the past due to risk of spraining an ankle when I was self-employed with my lawncare business.


　

The kids also enjoyed having another opportunity to sled and get outside with daddy to play!

　


　
Kathryn has been working on some special music for church. She and a few of the musicians had a rehearsal this week. I think they enjoy doing some different things as well as the weekly praise music.

We had a ladies retreat this weekend at LHI from the Wellsboro First Baptist Church. There were 18 ladies here for their first time. Our whole family was there to greet them and make them feel welcome. I think everyone enjoys seeing the kids, and the kids really enjoy being over at the mansion. Audrey asks us often, " Are we hosting tonight?" Since this was a ladies retreat and I was definitely outnumbered, Kathryn did most of the serving and helping set up for the meals while I stayed with the kids. It's good that we can alternate a lot of the responsibilities. The ladies had a great time and are planning to bring their husbands back for a couples retreat soon. Pray for us next weekend as we have a much larger group of ladies - around 50 for a three day weekend. That will definitely max us out and make for a long weekend, but that is why we are here . . . like it says in TSM's mission statement, "t o assist churches who desire to achieve maximum life impact in people of all ages, by providing quality facilities, dedicated staff, Christian community, and exceptional programming, leading to encounters with God."

Life at home is always lively! Clay is really walking well and is into everything. It takes someone watching him at all times and monitoring what he's into. Sometimes he volunteers his help with whatever you're doing, whether you need it or not!

　
Audrey and Duncan really do a great job playing together, and even had a play date this week with two girls about their age from one of the families on staff. They have great imaginations and are always building forts or packing their toys for trips to China or somewhere. As hard as it is to get things done around the house these days, we are very thankful for our family and know that we will look back with great memories on these days.

There are a couple of areas of need that I would like to share with you. One is that the camp does not own an edger. For someone coming from a lawncare background and now in charge of heading up the grounds maintenance here, I would really like to buy an edger for the camp. There are plenty of sidewalks and landscaping beds where I believe a nice straight edging job would add a lot visually. The cost of a nice edger will run about $350. The other area that I can see the possibility of an improvement is adding a Frisbee golf course at the Three Springs property. The property has plenty of space for at least a nine hole course to start. This would give kids or those retreating an extra outdoor activity that anyone could do. This has been used very effectively at other camps that I know. The cost of materials to build the baskets and to purchase some discs for nine holes will run about $600. If anyone would like to partner with me in helping the camp in these areas, you can earmark a check for "Edger", or "Frisbee Golf" to Three Springs Ministries, 874 Linck Hill Rd, Morris, Pa, 16938.
Thank you for being a part of our lives here at Three Springs Ministries. We value your prayers and involvement. If there is anyone that you know that would be interested in what is going on here with us and at Three Springs please pass on our blog address,
Have a great week! The Rickerts http://www.rickertreports.blogspot.com, or our e-mail address, http://www.rickertfamily5/@gmail.com

Tuesday night into Wednesday morning we received another 8-9 inches of snow! I told you winter was not done, which everyone else had told me as well! Digging out was a little easier this time with the help of a snow blower that had gotten repaired since the last snow.

Tuesday morning, Nate Frey, one of our staff who heads up the farming for Three Springs, and I headed down towards the Middleburg Farm Auction about an hour and half south of us.