"God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives...the main aim of God in the work of grace is 'an ever deeper knowledge of God and ever closer fellowship with Him.' He may accomplish it in our lives by exposing us to difficulty and trouble, allowing us to be overwhelmed with a sense of our own inadequacy. As a result, we cling to the Lord more closely, more tenaciously - for simple survival. This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God permits heartaches and perplexities of one sort and another into our lives; it is to ensure that we learn to hold Him fast."

~Photo by Psalm~

"And when you're without it - the secret of contentment - there isn't much left except despair, or 'lives of quiet desperation," as Thoreau once put it. And sometimes the desperation isn't quiet at all."

~ by Joni Eareckson Tada and J.I. Packer~

Micah thoroughly enjoyed helping man the polls on Tuesday.

Update on the progress at the work site:

Thankfully we had several beautiful days of sunshine recently after a record of 30+ days of straight rain.

The construction of the back deck begins.

Since the windows for the house have not yet arrived, the workers have to look for other jobs to keep busy.

The deck as seen from the main level of the house...

and from the ground level.

After a brief time of incredibly warm and sunny weather, the incessant rain has returned with a will. All of the rain water pools on the OSB or runs into the basement where it puddles on the concrete floor. Yesterday we decided to try the "bucket brigade" to collect some of the water so we don't have to sweep all of it by the dustpan full out of the basement.

Peeking out of the newly framed sewing-room closet.

The raising of the final wall of the garage second story

An insider's view of the last wall being completed.

The apartment above the garage

The tiny entryway from the garage which connects to the walkway

The view from the driveway

Looking at the walkway from the north side of the property

Trusses for the walkway

The man door for the garage is seen on the left of the above photo.

Wynn happily constructs the second Eeyore box for wood scraps.

On Friday Clark delivered the steel support beam for the main level of the house.

The challenge proved to be finding a way to get the heavy beam off of the trailer with no boom truck.

Solution - chain the beam to Mr. Carl's truck's trailer hitch and have Clark drive his truck away... the problem was that at first Mr. Carl's truck was hauled away backwards along with the immovable beam.

Finally the job was completed successfully when Mr. Carl's truck was driven forward as Clark drove his own truck in the opposite direction.

With the wooden "fulcrum" under the steel beam Duncan and Mr. Carl eagerly jumped up to try the man-sized teeter totter.

We hit a big milestone when the first roof was installed on Friday.

With the roof up, at least the rain will not fall into the garage any longer.

Seth and Roger work on the roof in the rain.

Psalm at work installing hurricane (high wind) supports on the garage roof. Yes, she does realize that her hammer is backwards.

Wynn learns the art of wielding a hammer from Mr. Carl.

On August 19- 21st we all travelled to Sitka, Alaska with Micah who had been invited to perform in the White Nights Festival of Russian Culture sponsored by the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Washington, D.C. and The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He performed five piano duets with his teacher, Svetlana. Seth had the important job of turning pages for them.

At Totem Park we were able to see Totem poles for the first time.

Beach combing and searching for crab in Sitka - it didn't matter to Wynn that he still had his suit on.

On a hike in the rain

John and Kris and their family were incredibly hospitable, generous, and kind to us - they served us as tour guides, taxi drivers, meal providers, and hike directors. They unexpectedly loaned us their vehicle during our stay and we were all very surprised to discover that years ago in Kodiak they had rented a house from my parents. What a small world!

Picking salmonberries, huckleberries, blueberries, and watermelon berries

Seth

Micah

Kenton and Doug

Svetlana and Micah at the Anchorage preview recital prior to the Sitka performance.

Seth masters the skill of page turning.

One of our framers, Duncan, brought his family to Anchorage from Willow (a 75 mile drive) to hear Svetlana and Micah play. It was a real blessing to have them come.