Life in the Ozarks

Catching Up with My Life

2011-10-31T07:56:00.000-07:00

We are expecting our first child in December this year!

We are having a boy! His name is Evan Michael Eldredge.

I got married on October 2, 2010!!
In the spring of '11, we built a small house on the family property.

Joel & Ashley Eldredge

2008-09-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

We went to the cave at 10:00pm....

Everyone had a blast...

Here is some of our group...

Then we went to Carl's cabin....

Here we are on top of the cabin roof...

Everyone left at 11:40 something, we all had so much fun~
Thank you all for all of the work you have done on the barn. We are so blessed.
~Susie

2008-09-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

We went to the rope swing...

And off the cable....

2008-09-09T07:24:00.000-07:00

We had little helpers and big helpers...

Drew Eldredge

Caleb was showing me how easy it is to carry a board.

Jacob Hamacher...

Joel and David

2008-09-09T06:58:00.000-07:00

Lots of work!!!

2008-09-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

Mr. Hamacher wanted to help us again this last Monday, 9/9/08, and he brought with him 4 guys from Oklahoma. We had 10 awesome workers :) They were able to finish the roof and get the siding on another whole side. PTL!

2008-09-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

We had lots of yummy food for dinner...

A hungy worker, Andy.

After dinner, some people went on the cable
that is over our pond.

There was a beautiful sunset that evening.

Thanks again, everyone, for all of the help.
God bless~

and some more work...

2008-09-05T12:32:00.000-07:00

A hard worker, Carl, gets a drink...

.....Dad and Mr. Hamacher .....

In the afternoon, some of us went on a
bike ride.

Ben was quite happy to give people rides
on his new bike...

more work :)

2008-09-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

We had another Barn rising last Monday.

There were 12 hard working guys to help us.

( the Hickle guys came, but I don't have any pictures of them, sorry)

We were so blessed to have the help.

The guys got the siding and roof on the summer

kitchen!

2008-08-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

Work day Saturday, August 8th:

The master plans...

Everyone started to show up after 9 am and went straight to work... We first all started working on laying out and building the trusses.

Then the Nisbett boys showed up so Tom and Nisbett's started building the walls for the summer kitchen & feed room.

Jesse Lepich showed up with his little helper and we put up the braces that you see in the background

The first wall! (Also notice Caleb's little creation)

All the trusses are built other than the ends... here we were in the process of flipping and turning the end truss over when we paused for a picture.

The first end truss all built and stacked with the rest...

John N. doing the finishing touches to the walls...

Flipping the second end truss...

Every one was a big help!

Shuffling trusses...

The first truss goes up for final placement!!!

I am happy!

All the trusses up and now time for the final bracing...

Grace came over for the evening after they had driven for 24 some hours from Lake George... She organized a awesome cleanup crew!

God blessed us with an awesome day to work. It has been so hot and humid the last couple of weeks, it was a huge relief to have some cooler weather and then we had a nice cloud cover for the afternoon.

I would like to say a big thanks to everyone that came out to help!

2008-07-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from Wednesday and Tuesday.

2008-07-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

Joel was able to make a lot of progress on Wednesday and Thursday.

2008-07-25T06:52:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we got all the wood in.

2008-05-19T19:40:00.000-07:00

Tonight I cut all the poles to the right height...

I worked Saturday night till about 11:00 pm in the moon light and then I took this pictures.

Squaring up the footing...

Step 1. Post

2008-05-15T20:21:00.000-07:00

Dan and his family came out for the weekend and ended up staying an extra day so we put all the post in.

First two poles..

Every one wanted to help.

I had such a hard job.

Now time to set the poles

The ladies "supervised"

Look at those muscles!

Even the baby helped.

Dan had to leave before we where done but I was able to get them all set before the rain.

Clean up.

2008-05-14T23:22:00.000-07:00

Carl Ben and I cleaned up all the metal and took it to the junkyard and got over $120 for it. :D Then our neighbor came over with his dump truck and bobcat and loaded up all the hay, junk, metal, nails, and the rest of the summer kitchen and hauled it away at no charge. :D He also smoothed it out for me. God is good!

2008-05-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

They say you could see the flames from Rolla.

The Fire Department came out and helped save the summer kitchen. We where able to save some stuff out of the kitchen, but everything else was lost.

Before

2008-05-14T23:00:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of my barn before it burned.

Haiti and Barn

2008-03-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of you have been asking how things are going so here is a little update….

Other than being very busy with work, I went down to Haiti about three weeks ago for two weeks. It went really well and I had a lot of fun. We went down there to teach some kids at an orphanage typing tutor and to give the directors a break. Giving the directors a break came a bit faster and bigger than we expected… the night we got there they told us that they are leaving the next day in the afternoon and leaving us in charge of the orphanage for the weekend. That was a challenge but went well.

The day before we left I got an email telling me that my barn had burn down at home along with all my goats (a bunch of them where new kids) some sheep, and all a bunch of wood working tools. That was hard to take and deal with for me and I think harder for my family since they felt responsible and saw it burn down. But God is good and sent lots of friends around to comfort and for support. Last week I received a gift from a friend and with that I should be able to rebuild the whole barn this year. Praise God!
So with business and building my barn and everything else that I want to do I am going to be very busy this summer.

Here are some http://picasaweb.google.com/EldredgeJoel/Haiti