We've had a lot going on since last update. I've been weeding all the landscaping beds in preparation for new mulch to go in at both properties. It's always fun when you can really see the results of your work afterwards. These beds really needed some attention. The mulch arrived this past week, but only enough to cover about half of what we needed to do. We'll have to get one more dump truck load to finish up. (The camp has a small dump truck that we use for different jobs such as this.)
Last Wednesday, I took a day to get my driver's license changed over as well as registration and inspection. The DMV office in Wellsboro is only open on Wednesday which makes it very busy and very slow. Having to get title, registration, and inspections done all at different places took most of the morning and afternoon. I also did a few errands for other staff members while I was in town.
On Thursday I took a day off, so that we could head down to Bucks County near Philadelphia, to see my grandparents. Bill and Dorothy Rickert are both in their low to mid nineties and stay in an Assisted Living facility. We are now only a little over 3 hours from where they live, so we hope to be able to get to see them a little more often. Mom and Dad were meeting us there to visit for the afternoon. When we arrived, we ate lunch with my Aunt Jane, who lives only about 5 minutes away from my grandparents. After lunch we had a great visit with my grandparents. We are so thankful for the Christian heritage of our families and especially for their faithful prayers for us throughout our lives. The kids really enjoyed seeing their Great-Grandparents as well.
We headed home that afternoon to prepare for my Mom and Dad coming up the next morning to stay over with us through Monday.
There was also a school group of about 70 fifth and sixth graders that were spending the day on Friday at Three Springs, doing all sorts of activities and games. Exposure to the camp through school trips opens doors for the kids to come back during the summer to hear God's Word and the gospel.
It was a lot fun having Grams and Grandad here with us for a few days. Mom's hip replacement surgeries went really well, and she is getting around great and is even back on the bike. She and the kids rode their bikes often while they were here. Since we had nothing booked with the Inn with it being Mother's Day weekend, we were able to spend most of our time playing outside with the kids or going down to Three Springs to enjoy the farm life there.
We took a little hike to show Mom and Dad the Wilderness Cabin also. It was great weather every day. We even got to spend some time with our neighbors Ken and Sue Heyler. We had gone over to introduce them to my parents and to let them see the dairy barn on Friday evening and on Saturday evening they came over to visit with us. This was the first they had initiated a visit so we were very pleased that they felt comfortable to come over. We had a nice visit with them.
Mom and Dad got to come to church with us on Sunday, where they were able to see several folks they knew from their years of directing a week of camp here at Three Springs. That is the connection after all, and how we knew about Three Springs and the work going on here.
Monday brought a new week of work and continued good weather. We began excavating a new lane at Three Springs Farm, which will connect the barn and our parking area, allowing our tractors to access the barn area without having to travel through the busy areas of camp. This will be safer for everyone. The top soil that we took away from the lane area will be used to create the terraces for our greenhouse. I was helping drive one of two dump trucks that took the fill material from the lane and hauled it to our greenhouse site.
I finished off the day cutting grass there at Three Springs with one of the other staff members. There is plenty of grass to be cut now, and I am enjoying being back on the mower. Mom and Dad left Monday after lunch to head back to Harrisburg to spend the night with my Mom's sister Marion and my Uncle Glenn. They traveled back to Conway on Tuesday. We are very thankful they were able to come for a visit. Kathryn did a great job all weekend cooking for us, which I am very thankful for. We did go out for dinner on Saturday night for our Mother's Day celebration.
We did have to host on Tuesday for a group of 18 ladies from a quilting guild from nearby Wellsboro. Quilting is very popular here in the North, which I can understand with such long winters. One of the ladies who heads up the quilting group was previously on staff here. They made 13 quilts to donate to camp for different beds that were needing new bedding. It was a blessing to have them do that for us and also very interesting to watch these ladies work. They all brought their sewing machines with them and really had them singing all day. They were very organized and very quick with their work.
On Wednesday I spent much of the day pressure-washing decks and gazebos here at LHI. There are plenty of spring clean-up chores still to be done since we've had such a late start.
All the kids are healthy right now, thank the Lord, and are really enjoying being able to play outside now. We are all looking forward to Kathryn's mom and sister Margaret coming along with Kathryn's grandparent's Julia and Bill. They will be with us next week, Lord willing, helping us celebrate Audrey's fifth birthday. Wow! Where does the time go?
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