Well it looks like my site has been pirated;
that’s what happens when you get on “real quick” before work. Speaking of work,
I didn’t go the first three days this week because I was taking care of my poor
sick dog and then I had a little school work to do. When I got to the job site
today you would think I had missed a month instead of a few days.

Here I am, a girl on a construction site and
incontestably the least competent there; it had even been observed by
one of the fellows that when we (Stacie and I) were on the job site it
seemed more like a social event than work. Yet all six guys expressed
their gladness in some form or fashion at my return today. All I do is
come, paint, call tools (especially screwdrivers) by the wrong name and
joke about the pay benefits of being related to the boss; my brother
even paid for my lunch today!

All I can say is, thanks to those who make it such a
great pace to work; my dad, brother, uncle, two friends and dad’s
worker. I never thought work could be so much fun and it makes my dad
so proud when we all work with him. Thank you Lord for all of your
benefits.

Due to the the drought conditions our area had been under a burn ban
for over six months; due to the nature of my dad’s job, he has a lot of
scrap material to burn; the sum of these two facts produced quite a
pile of lumber that we torched yesterday when the ban was lifted. Katie
searched the pile for any good scraps before we  lit it.

                
One match made a modest start….        
           ….which quickly turned
to a conflagration.

                         
This ain’t your average country bonfire. We sprayed the fire constantly
with water; it was quite a fight and I’ll admit there were several
times that my heart beat faster as the flames leaped higher. This was
in a clearing in the woods about 50 feet from our house.

Even with all of our firefighting efforts, a dead tree nearby caught
fire from the heat and dad had to cut it down with a chainsaw.

           
           
           Towards evening
everything dies down a bit.

Deciding to get some more good out of the fire I switched from fire
warden to homesteader and baked a cherry pie in the Dutch oven.

“It only takes a spark to get a fire going” And
what a fire that can be! Your “fire” can be hot enough to ignite those
who are dead around you; don’t get upset about things sent to dampen
your enthusiasm, God might send it to keep you from destroying the life
around you in your excitement.  And remember that even slumbering
coals can produce good things. “From
the ashes a fire shall be woken, from the embers new life shall spring,
renewed shall be lives that are broken, as our service we give to the King!”

This morning the poor dog wasn’t any better; in fact, her temperature
was even higher and it had dropped down to 40 degrees during the night!
Poor kid, she sits there shivering, but she’s really hot. After church
I checked on her and saw that she had moved from our main porch which
was in full sun to the side porch which was in the shade. She did drink
some water this morning and maybe a little more this afternoon.
I don’t know what’s causing her to be sick, it just kind of happened.
Dad and I spent time on the internet trying to figure it out but we
have no clue. If the fever hasn’t broken tomorrow I’ll call the vet and
see what she says. Thanks so much for your sympathy.