Brushing Up on our Life Skills

While traveling across the country, we tend to mostly use our hiking and navigating skills. But right now we're spending some time in Oklahoma, brushing up on some of our other "life skills." For example, Mark has brushed up on his carpentry skills. He hasn't been on a hike where he got to scale tall cliffs for a while. But he got to brush up on his climbing skills to scale a tall ladder to hang a wooden quilt square on his mother-in-law's red barn. 

Don't even ask how he managed to hold that heavy wooden piece up with one hand and screw it into place with the other while perched at that height. 

It was a project for the county fair, and now her red-white-and-blue quilt square can be seen from the road as part of a county-wide project.

When we visit family, we see relatives from the very old to the very young. After spending time with our 7-month-old granddaughter, we also spent the day with Denisa's 99-year-young aunt.

Aunt Virginia has always been a quilter, but in the last year her eye site has started failing. She had two quilts in the works that she couldn't see to complete on her own. So Denisa and her sister Connie planned a sewing day to finish up some projects for her.

Connie was the pinner, and Denisa was the sewer. Denisa hasn't done much sewing in the last few years, so it was a good time to brush up on that life skill. It also meant she had to make friends with the singer sewing machine that Aunt Virginia bought new in 1952. With all metal parts, let's just say they don't make them this way any more.

Denisa had another sewing day at her other sister's house. Debra was the pinner, and again Denisa was the sewer as we finished some new nursery curtains for a niece. 

While Denisa brushed up on her sewing skills, Mark was brushing up on his cowboy skills. He spent much of his days hanging out with his brother on the ranch. They doctored sick cows, branded bulls, and moved expectant mothers to different pastures for easier monitoring. This day they got a cow in the chute with a prolapse. In layman's terms that means that when she delivered that calf, she delivered a little extra.

Mark was the tail-holder, as his brother poked everything back inside, and then stitched it up so it would stay. It looked like major surgery to Denisa, but it was just another day on the ranch.

Besides using skills of our past, we are also working to learn new life skills. Mark made the second and third pie crusts of his life using his Mother's tried and true recipe. Filled with home-made chocolate pudding, this will be our favorite dessert of all time!

We are also working on Christmas projects, and the annual card and letter are about ready for the mail. The only problem is finding Christmas stamps that don't include Santa Claus. Has the U.S. Postal Service forgotten the real meaning of Christmas?

Mark is also brushing up on his handy-man skills, as he makes the repairs on the motor home's plumbing. Remember that the water was flooding out of our basement when it was time to leave Kansas City? Mark purchased his supplies and waited for a warm day to glue the disconnected pipes back together. Even with an extended warranty, it's easier to make many of the repairs yourself, as long as you have the necessary handy-man skills to brush up on. Denisa is so glad that Mark has awesome skills!

So we are keeping ourselves busy with our stay in the Oklahoma Panhandle. It's good to spend time at a slower pace with our siblings and Mark's mother. We enjoy a town where the best place to eat is at the cafe inside the sale barn, where there isn't even one traffic light, and sun rises stretch across the eastern sky as far as one can see! We are brushing up on our life skills, as we have wandered into another of God's wonders!