What a WONDERFUL Christmas!!!!

How blessed can we be?  Ad this one to the looooonngg list of blessings.  Though our children are spread from Denver to Huntington Beach, we were able to see all of them in the same year.  We even got to spend Christmas with son Matthew and his lovely wife Cassie.

There was the last minute laundry to make sure that everything was spic-and-span.

Their arrival was a treat....

...they looked so good.

We took them on a trek to Whitewater Canyon since it is doggie friendly.

Matthew just had to feel what a "smooth" cactus felt like.  Now he is trying to pick the spikes out of his finger.

We were again blessed with a sighting of the mountain sheep only this time we had a camera with a longer lens so we could get up close and personal.

We had a gift exchange and Matthew is "modeling" his new robe.

Our friends and neighbors, at least for the next couple of weeks, joined us for a Christmas lunch.  We ate too much and had a wonderful afternoon in conversation.

But all too soon they had to leave to go back to the city.  God is so good!

Only 31 hours to Christmas!

We have officially completed our Sower Project here at Father's Heart Ranch as of today.  However, we do plan to stay here for a couple more weeks, then make the 3 hour run to Indian Hills Camp in Jamul, CA.  We plan to be there for the months of January and February.  We have had plenty to keep us busy here.  But we have also been able to make an outing to see a live Nativity.

We got to the location of the Nativity at 5:30.  It didn't open until 6:00.  There was already a line of over 100 people ahead of us.  To entertain you, they had this lady and a group of singing puppets.

Then we got our turn to go through.  First stop, Isaiah, 700 BC with a prophecy of the Virgin Birth.

We move ahead to about 4 BC and a message from Gabriel to Mary about the miraculous event which was going to change the entire course of the world.

Of course we had to have a squad of "fierce" Roman soldiers.

Mary, with child, Joseph and their faithful steed trying to find a place to spend the night.

The next morning GREAT things had happened and mankind was about to get a reprieve from his death sentence.

Move forward 2 years to the rented house of Mary and Joseph.  The Persian Magi had just made the treck across the desert to worship the King Of The Jews.

Their gifts were God's funds for the next 31 years of events.

The end of those 31 years brings us to the visit of Mary, Mary of Magdala and Salome to the tomb of their soon to be risen Savior.  At last, we have a real chance for eternal life.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, preparations are being made for the boys.  They each received a new jacket and a new pair of sneakers which had been donated to FHR.  Helping Billie is Helen Weibe, our MMAPer friends we had met last March at Shocco Springs.

At the same time, Rick Wiebe and I are cutting out the parts to give the boys a chance to each make a boomerang.  If you look back to the Shocco Springs post, you will see some wonderful carved items.  Rick is the talent behind those carvings.

Then, last night, we attended a Christmas party given for the boys.  They heard a great message from one of the counselors here and opened their gifts.

The boys were responsible for the great place settings.

Only a week till Christmas!

Here we are at the end of our second Sower Project Week at Father's Heart Ranch.  Next week will be our official LAST week here but since we are only three hours from our next project we will stay and help here through the 5th of January.  This week we were blessed to be a part of the office Christmas party and enjoy their "traditional" Christmas dinner and it wasn't turkey and stuffing.  Instead we had tamales and flan.  It was a treat for sure. We also did some work this week.

Even though there are not really many trees, there always seems to be a lot of "stuff" around the ranch area.  So, I guess is Jesus willing washes my feet the least I can do is sweep the parking lot.

It has been getting chilly lately (well duh it is mid December) and as the moisture tries to get over the mountains to the west of us it continues to drop snow.  The snow levels are now down to about 4,000 feet.

Remember the Teen or "J" house and the trouble with the sewer on the south end.  Well it has moved to the north end.  After trying to "snake" two showers and a couple of clean outs we were not able to get the drains in the shower running again.  So, we decided that the only alternative left was to try to snake from the vent.  No luck there either!  There is so much hard water scale in the pipes that the snake will not go around the corners.  Next step!  Dig a trench under the house and remove the plugged pipes.  Will keep you informed hot that goes.

Found another shower which was leaking.  I fixed the leak with some caulk now the wall needs attention.

Seems like the water has soaked through a lot of sheet rock.

A couple pieces of green board and some patching plaster and some texture, now the wall is ready for some paint and trim.

There is a little patch of "grass" around the basketball court for the boys to run on.  BUT the rabbits like the nice soft and chewy grass too.  They come in at night and eat the grass clear down to the roots.  A couple of the boys and I mixed 5, 1-1/2 cubic foot bags of compost and with grass seed and try to fill the holes the rabbits have just created.  It's all in a days work for the Father.

Another week's work done!

We have completed our first December Project week and it was a busy one.  A couple of the boys came a little unhinged and kicked out one window twice and another one once.  Fortunately, most of the windows in the houses are 3/8" polycarbonate (plexiglass) and cannot be easily broken.  We put them back together and went on about our business.  There also seems to be a lot of knowledge on how to defeat locks on doors so I spent some time readjusting doors to make sure the locking mechanism was functioning correctly.

One real problem that we have been working on is trying to eliminate a "sewer" smell from "F" house.  It would seem to come and go and now was a time to make it goooo.  After some experimentation I discovered that the smell only came when the furnace fan was running.  After disconnecting the return plenum from the system the smell went away which indicated that there was a sewer leak under the house which was sucked into the return line.  Solution, reroute the return to eliminate going under the house.  Ahhhhhh!  No smell.

Another ongoing problem was the leak in "C" which had ruined the ceiling in bedroom 3.  I guess third time is a charm alright because after the third time on the roof with a bucket of blackjack the roof was finally sealed and repair of the ceiling could begin.

There was a lot of damage and eventually the sheetrock in the area will have to be changed.  But for now, a little scraping, a little patching and a coat of texture and it is ready for paint.

In the middle of all this, there are still a couple of PT sessions to attend.  This is the Eisenhower Medical Center where I go to receive the PT.

One of the buildings in the complex is the Delores Hope Rehabilitation Center which houses the therapy center.

Saturday, after doing the laundry and changing the oil in the Ranger (I changed the oil while Billie did the laundry) we decided to take a drive to the Salton Sea.  The Salton is the largest lake in California and is kinda man made.  Many millennia ago the Gulf of California extended into the San Andreas fault to within 20 miles of where Palm Springs now is.  Silting created a dam and separated the Salton Sea from the Gulf.  However, since there was only a small amount of high mineral water coming into the Salton from the north and the temperatures here hit the 120's regularly, the Salton dried up.  In the early 1900's a couple of industrious guys cut a channel from the Colorado and ran water into the south end of the fault rift which was now 275 feet below sea level.  The managed to establish some water there but not enough to sustain the agriculture they had hoped.  So, they went down into Mexico and cut a couple more channels in from the south from the Colorado.  Well, when the Colorado went on a rampage a bit later, it tore through their channels and filled the entire rift.  Of course it stopped the flow of the Colorado from going to the Gulf for a period of two years.

Now there is a lake here which is 35 miles long and 15 miles wide.  Over the years, the irrigation usage has increased and evaporation has taken it's toll.  There were several species of fish and it was a great place to fish and camp.  As the saline level increased and the evaporation plus irrigation continued, all of the fish except the talapia have died out.

And they don't have a life of ease.  During times of algae bloom, the oxygen levels in the lake are depleted and fish die by the thousands.  Of course, the many water foul present make short work of them as they wash ashore.  To add to the whole mess, barnacles were somehow introduced to the lake and the entire shoreline is feet deep with barnacle remains.

Here are a few of the local fishermen...

... and are they fat

...and a bit picky.

Some like to wade in the shallows looking for their next meal,

...while some wait on the shore

...or in ambush in a tree.

The entire trip from home around the lake and back was a distance of 200 miles but as we rounded the south end and headed back north we were blessed with the rising of a new moon.  Go God go.

Another week at Father's Heart Ranch.

Even though we aren't "officially" here since we are between projects, there is still plenty things to do.  Today we were blessed with a visit from a great MMAPer couple, Rick and Helen Wiebe, who we had the blessing to work with at Shocco Springs lasr March.  They are working a Project a few miles from here and found that we were here when they reviewed our blog.

On one of my daily rounds I found a screen which had been broken and needed a little TLC.

We were given permission to put up the shelves which were seen in a previous blog a couple weeks back.  The boys were pleased to have them and immediately filled them with some of their prized posessions.

Two weeks ago FHR received authorization to open the "Teen" house.  This house had not been used for some time and as soon as the boys moved in and started using the the sink in the kitchen, it plugged.  There was also a couple of breaks in the drain, which was no longer covered with soil.

The first thing to do was to remove the broken piece of drain pipe...

...but noone seemed to know that back a few years they had tagged onto the kitchen water line to place a hose bib outside.....and.....run another line to another building UNDER the drain line.  I found it as can be seen by the gyser above.

After 4 hours of replacing drain line, repairing water line and running 70 feet of snake through the line twice, the only thing left to do was remove the sink trap and garbage disposal to clear the plug which was inside the house.  At last, the water runneth.

And now winter has arrived in the valley.  The temperature this morning was """"36"""" degrees and the winds (and there was a lot of it) blew a bit of moisture over the San Brenadino peaks and coated the slopes with snow. 

But, Monday, December 5 is the start of the December project month.  We look forward to what the upcoming Christmas Season brings to Father's Heart Ranch.