September 30th, 2013

Dear Diary,

This past week was very productive, although I must admit that I am glad it's over. Having completed our training almost two weeks ago, the primary focus of everything we are doing now is REpairing and PREparing things around the ranch. I continue to hope and pray for a couple of more staff members to help alleviate some of the stress, but we are doing well with what we have to work with. I know that we are all also continuing to pray that God will send us the kids that we so desperately desire to work with. I am confident that He will send us teens, but am just being reminded more and more that His timing isn't always the same as mine. :-)

Another subject of prayer and discussion is the tractor. I know we have one coming, however there have been complications, as it is not working properly.

I am so happy with our new road!! Jim did such a fantastic job in grating our road into the ranch, and also did a lot of work ON the ranch! Praise God!

Vern, Steve and I spent an entire day this past week repairing the drip line systems to the trees around the ranch, as we noticed many of the trees were not getting the water they so desperately need. As it turns out, the drip irrigation lines for the system run directly under the road, but were never buried, but rather just covered up. The result of this less than stellar work was the lines being cut in several places during the repairing of the roads on the ranch.  After a long days work, however, we have nearly the entire system up and running again.

I spent most of the week last week almost completely re-working the water system in the Dog Kennel too. Roughly 2/3 of the pipes had either burst or were leaking, and several others were connected in ways that made little to no sense. After 3 full days of work, the Dog Kennel once again has water running to it, and while not perfect, it is significantly better than it had been.

What a beautiful day!! Mid-80's, clear blue skies, and a slight breeze. Sitting here on my front porch in the shade, watching the dogs romp and play, listening to country music and catching up on some computer work. Wonderful way to spend my day off!

That is it for now... Until next time!