Dakota Dictionary

Twips [TWipps] noun.

Def. A thin slice of potato fried in deep fat until crisp and then usually seasoned. Often used in the plural.

When used in a sentence : "More twips please!" "Mommy, Daddy, more twips please!" "Dakota please don't climb on the chair to get more twips".

Goshen

From what I've heard, today is the last day for Christian Light in Goshen, Indiana. There were a lot of memories in that building. I spent 4 years working hard (with the help of great staff) to try and make that location and buisness a successful one, as a Provident Bookstore.

I still think the decision to sell the store was a good one. However, I also think the community would have supported a christian bookstore, if in a better location.

I wonder what will be done with the building? Just think, my old office area might turn into a living room, kitchen, etc?

Stairway to ???

What kind of stairway do you get when you pull together a bookstore guy, a farmer and an appliance repair techncian?

One with plenty of head scratching, what if we did this, and erasing of pencil lines.

I started the stair building process by doing some measuring, and deciding that if we could make the "rise" of each step a certain length, and we knew the height, that the length could be calculated.

Darren joined me, and we found out that my calculations were off. It didn't hold out well for length (we had a mini-step).

Linford wandered over after waking up, and gave help in the calcualtions, followed by Ervin, and Grandpa Eberly, and in the end, we have something that will work....

WOW! Here's where my optimism got me in trouble. I assumed that I could figure it out. It would take time, but I would figure it out. I did appreciate the help, and the cookies brought by Darren for a quick cookie-break, but in the end, I probably should have just bought a stairway from Musselmans.

This afternoon, I saw that there a few calculators on the Internet that could calculate the "rise" and "run"....but in the end, I tried to make it work for a specific height of steps (rise) and thus, it made it more difficult and time consuming.

In the end, it was an unusual day, but a memorable one, even if for the wrong reasons.

Tale of 3 Lumber Yards

Kristy and I spent part of our tax refund on Lowe's gift cards, anticipating the future house, and all the costs involved in that. You might know the deal, spend $90 of your refund, get $10 free for a total of $100 in gift cards.

To be completely honest, even though it's now almost 2 years later, I still miss the Menards in Goshen. They had this really cool rebate program where you got stuff "essentially" free, it took a mail in rebate, and the use of the follow-up gift certificate post card to make it free. It was a nice cycle, buy something, send in rebate to get gift certificate to buy other building supplies. Over time, I came to know where everything was located, who would know the answers to my questions, etc. The only complaint I had with them was their obnoxious jingle they played over the store system (it included banjos).

However, when it comes to pricing, which right now ranks pretty high, I noticed that Lowes isn't always the Lowest price. Musselmans Lumber has been getting our business because they have better prices and seem to have better lumber. Lowes is the classic "do-it yourself, find-it yourself" store. Sales associates don't seem to have a clue how to answer questions or find stuff, now if you can be lucky and get the department manager (as I did last night), then that's a different story...otherwise it's "yeah, that's in Aisle 12" .... okay, is that a guess, or do you know for sure.

Musselmans is set-up to serve the customer. They are smaller (obviously) and have a open office area right inside the door. It's almost the direct opposite of Lowes. For the most part, you go to them, and they get it for you. Billing and customer service are all tied together in that office area. So far, no complaints. Now let's talk after the bills come due....

Raise Da Roof!

Fascinating process...after the 2 units were set, the next step was to start "raising the roof". The workers cranked up the boom box, started doing a Jamacian dance and someone got out the "limbo" pole.

Or, the crane lifted the first piece of hinged roof in place, and the workers, instead of dancing, started nailing the "knee wall" in place, as you see in the picture. Notice on the top of the raised roof, that the "peak" is still hinged back, and will lift into place when the roof is almost finished.

Here you see the last of 3 wall pieces for the "gable" end. The 2 triangles round out the corners, and the hexagon forms the middle. Wonder of wonders, it all fit!

It was a HOT HOT day, those guys worked their butts off. We sat in the shade and watched. At least we offered them lunch, which probably doesn't happen at every job.

Up, Up, and Away

Perhaps, after seeing the basement walls get craned in place, we lost our "anxiety" over the whole process. I know I enjoyed seeing the 2 halves get moved into place. However, if you really think about it...it's just one cable-break away from having MAJOR problems. That being said, the heart rate was normal, and anxiety was surprising low.

The event drew quite a crowd. All the Zeiset cousins were present, as well as a few aunts, great aunts and grandma's & grandpas. The neighbors (not ERA) even walked over for a closer inspection.

All in all, it was an exciting day, and we were happy to walk through our new home for the first time!


I'll post pictures of the roof process soon, that was pretty cool as well.

Stones

Dakota has loved / is loving this building process. He's played in the stones, and has climbed the dirt piles outside the house. Since he likes the Bob the Builder characters, he gets a chance to see "them" in action. At least its not the "wiggles" :)

Operational Efficiency

I love the idea that, instead of making 2 trips, why not just load up to trailors and make one trip. Makes sense to me.

I think everyone should have access to a personal crane.

Cucumber Cola

I hear that Pepsi is introducing a new cucumber cola drink? At first impression, I didn't want anything to do with it, but it might be okay? What's the next step for test marketing, Europe, then the U.S?

Apparently the Japanese are buying into it.

Here come the Walls

The pre-cast guys and I had an interesting exchange. They wondered if the foundation was too close to the road, I said I thought "that" stake was the set-back. To which they replied "You think! We don't want to have come back to move the house". "Obviously" I replied. (DUH! I don't want you to have to move the house either). So, I re-measured the set-back from the road, and we were fine.

Here's a picture of the walls/crane in action.

A diversion from building

Okay....so I gave Kristy a hard time because when she and Elizabeth went out for lunch, their order took an extra long time, and the waiter/waitress asked if they wanted anything "free" to make up for the extra long wait. So, they chose a broccoli salad. "WHAT!" I said, of all things free, you got a broccoli salad.

So, then last night, Kristy made a tangy broccoli salad...and after a hard day of work in the sun, working on our house, I actually ate some. And enjoyed it! Wow! Who knew? I always called broccoli that foul weed, stemming (yes stemming) from a childhood experience with hot broccoli. Who knew cold broccoli, with the right dressing, could actually be good?

Dave at Work

After a night of staking out, Dave got

the "ball" rolling with some excavation.

Dakota did some rollin'. (he's doing his best Bob the Builder impersonation).

The Beginning

Thanks to Joe Miller for introducing me to Google's version of the blog. When we lived in Indiana, I was a big emailer of info, stories, events...as that was a great way to tell anyone who had time to read, what was going on.

I like this format better, because it is less intrusive to the reader (you come to visit me), and allows people to "catch up" on blogs, if they choose to.

So....I present "the blog".... and the pictures of our house and projects, stories, links, etc that follow.