This maybe our new home.

We had viewed this home before but things seemed kind of dim for financing it, so we put it out of our minds for the present, and thought to go the cheaper route, which was moving onto the Mithchell's land. However when we took our Pastor and his family, who are also looking for a home in the area, out to see this place our desire to live there was renewed. Mike completely forgot that he had told me to forget pursuing this house, and when the Pastor asked us why it was that we didn't buy it, Mike turned to me with such a quizzical look on his face, and had to ask me that question.

So Mike let me loose on the trail of research, and things are looking better for us to be able to buy this house. Though the house is a 28x76 double wide, it is the double wide we dreamed about living in during our search for our first home. This is the kind of double wide that you walked into and just thought about what you could do with all the space, then walked back out knowing you where stepping back out into reality.

The walls are not your typical post board, they seem to be sheetrocked, with almost like a stucco paint on them. The doors are defintely a better quality than in most mobile homes. The amount of space is phenominal to us, at least doubling any home, or apartment, that we have every lived in. It has four bedrooms, and two full baths. It also has a very open floor plan with two living room areas, and a very open dining and kitchen. To be honest I'm not sure that I have enough stuff to fill all the cabinets in the kitchen. I guess in time I will. It has really great closet space. It also has a nice patio entrance to the front door, and a nice large covered deck to the back door.

The land itself is not much to sneeze at since it is the desert, but it is potentialy already set up to handle a pair of goats, and a handful of chickens. It is out in the country, away from the busy city, and there are lots of open lots that have not houses on them.

There is a bit of clean up we need to do but with us all working together it really shouldn't take us that long.

This seems like the idea place for our family. We are waiting to see if God will work it out for us. I have more pictures of the home and the land here http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos under "New Home". I know that they will not give a very good picture of how the house is laid out, and they will probably all seem the same after a while. If I can I'll ask Mike if he can draw out a floor plan I can post so that everyone can get a better idea of how the house is laid out.

Hope you enjoy seeing the photos though, and be sure to post a quick comment if you have the time, we would love to hear from you all.

Denise

Our Little Spud

Little Kate is starting to really give a try to rolling over. I helped her out a little today. When I got down on the floor and scooted closer to her she rolled over onto her side and reached out for me. When I gave her my finger she used that as leverage to pull herself over. The first look on her face when she rolled all the way over onto her belly was comical. To her she had just discovered a whole new world.

We went back and forth working on rolling from front to back and visa versa. It wore her out pretty quickly and she decided to lay down for a nap, giving me this time to write up a blog and post her picture. See more pictures of her in my yahoo photo albums here. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos

I look forward to her crawling with mixed feelings. I know all too well now what kind of mischief she can get herself into once she gets going, but it would be nice to have a baby who would get up and go faster than Leah did. The floors here are all tile. We do have some area rugs down but they don't supply a whole lot for cusion. I guess she will toughen up to it though.

Denise

Visit to the Farm

Today we went to visit a farm of a family that I met through one of my online goat groups. It was nice to make contact with someone in the area that has goats. It seems to be hard to make contact with people around here with like interests, I think it has to do with it being bi-cultural.

These folks live on 77 acres over looking the Transmountains, Ellen should remember these mountains as being the ones that you can drive up into and over look the city of El Paso and Juarez, Mexico. They have 90 horses, approx. 30 goats of various breeds (some milking kind others meat kind), so many dogs I was wondering which numbered more, the horses or the goats, some llamas, and a few donkeys.

We had a nice visit with them, got to pet plenty of horses, feed the goats pecans, pet the llamas, and the kids helped to prepare the horses feed. They were helpful with information about a few places around to get hay and grain. They had only one goat that interested me in buying it if all things work out for that to happen. They did offer us all the milk I could milk out a couple days a week. They can't sell milk in New Mexico, which is where they live, without a license, which they don't care to waste the money on, but I can take what I milk out. Since they lost their foreman the man who owns the place is up to his ears in things to do anyway. So as a favor to him I will milk two days a week, and as my pay I get to take that milk home with me. The amount of milk that we will get will nearly supply our demand.

What I'm about to say next means nothing to most of you, in fact only Joan will know what I'm talking about. The milkers they have are an Oberhasli breed. I was surprised to find that out since I believe that is a Sweedish breed. I thought for sure that the more popular breed of goat would be Nubian since they come from Africa and could handle the hot summers here. Their teats were so nice and big compared to the two goats that we have had previously, which would make them easier to milk.

We had a fun day there anyway, and it was so nice to be able to see farm animals again. See more photos of our visit to the Farm here in the "Visit to the Farm" album.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos

Denise

Picnic on 20 acres

We went out last night with some friends of ours, who also have six children, to the property of 20 acres we are looking to be able to share with them. We had a nice little Bar-B-Q and some fellowship while we discussed the inns and out of getting our homes onto the property.

Their family is not so lopsided gender wise as ours since they have an even number of both. Though that is not so soon to be true, they are expecting little girl number four in the summer time.

I was trying to figure out how to adjust my camera to give the photos a more natural look but it just didn't want to do it with the the lighting being the way it was. I took the pictures as all light from the sun was dissapearing and the camera didn't want to function without the flash, which cast such an unatural look on everybody. I forgot to turn on the red-eye reduction as well as you will plainly see in some of the other photos.

They are looking forward to doing some small time farming with us, and we are glad to be able to give what little knowledge we have about it in return for the generosity they have shown us. It should make the next three years an adventure for both of our families.

Since we grilled with charcoal while there, the grill was still too hot to take back with us, so we had to leave it there. We were teasing about coming back in the middle of the night to find the coyotes all standing around the grill cooking up some jackrabbit. "Fred, pass the pepper please. You forgot the pepper!?!?" "Do you happen to have any Grey Poupon?"

See more photos of our families here under "picnic on 20 acres".

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos

Denise

Station

This time I'm writing a blog with no picture, and it will probably even be short, imagine that. Mike found out on Wednesday that we are going to be stationed here. We do not know all of the details though since he really doesn't know which unit he will be in.

So we are pursuing a home off post where we will be sharing 20 acres of desert with our friends the Mitchell's. So far so good on the progress. We are hoping to be moved into there by June 1st, but nothing is set in stone right now.

The Mitchell's aslo desire to do small time short term farming. It will seem odd putting animals out on the sandy desert rather than the lush green pastures back in New Hampshire. One very beneficial thing here is that almost all hay here is alfalfa which is very good for milking animals.

Saturday we have planned to meet a family here who is already established with horses, goats, lamas, etc. and get some ideas from them about how raising animals will be different here than in New Hampshire.

Well, I guess I tried to make it short.

Denise

Camping Again

This time we were headed to Leasburg Dam State Park, just north of Las Cruces NM. Leasburg is a shorter drive than Caballo which is where we went last time for our camping trip. Leasburg supposedly had all the ammenities that we were looking for, a camping spot, and a place to fish. When we arrived there the place was packed out, and after driving around it seemed that the water was quite a ways away from any of the camping spots.

So we decided we'd go ahead and go the extra 30-40 minutes to get to Caballo again. When we got to Caballo we found that it had the same first problem, which was that it was packed, but we did find a place right close to the Rio Grand where we could park, the only problem was that there were no camping hookups. The only real problem this could have posed was if it had decided to continue being hot and stayed hot right through the night, but the winds picked up and blew us in some cooler air. So that spot proved to be a suitable spot. I liked being parked right next to the river so that we had the comforts of "home" right there for the little ones while the others could fish to their hearts content. No, nobody caught anything. I think these fish know that we are from up north and they are still holding grudges against northern people, even if I did spend more years down south than I did in New Hampshire. The fact that I married a northerner is probably enough in the fishes eyes to consider me a northerner too.

We spent the night at this spot. I'm always a light sleeper when I'm out camping, the only thing I can figure is because of my sense of being responsible for the children. So I'm often awake for hours at night, and even if I do get back to sleep I'm always the first one up in the morning. So Saturday morning when I awoke I heard a hoo-hoo-hooing outside right next to the camper. I got up and got dressed, and since there was just enough light out to see a little I decided I'd go out and see if I could catch a glimpse of the animal responsible for this noise. I stepped out and headed in the direction of the tree where the noise was coming from. I wasn't able to get very close before the first one took it's flight across the Rio Grande into a hole in the cliff on the other side. The second one soon followed suit but flew to a different whole in the cliff. I don't know that I've ever seen owls in the wild before, probably on display at a zoo or some place that like, but never naturally. So even though I didn't get to watch them in the tree, it was nice to actually know they do exist in the wild.

After fishing in this spot for half of Saturday without even so much as a nibble, we decided to go on the other side of the dam, commonly known as the lake side, the side we were on was the river side. So we pulled up to a place that was very rocky, not naturally so, but rocks that were brought in to help create the dam. It was also a burr farm. These are nickle size burrs that I remember growing up with. They have thorny type projections that have a little curve to them on their ends, making them stick very well. Of course this is the place where we decided to let the kids hop into the water for some fun. So they had to dodge all of the burrs on the way to the water. Mikey had the worse time with them. He'd get them in his feet and then fall down because of it, causing him to get them in his hands. Poor fellow, we had to carry him back and forth when it came time to eat lunch.

We all had fun, and the kids were thrilled to get to swim. Can you imagine swimming in New Hampshire in April? They all had a turn fishing, except for Katie, who spent most of her time sleeping in the camper, and they all came back dirty, tired, and sunburned. There's more pictures of our trip at this site, titled "Camping Trip #2".

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos

Denise

Finished bookshelves

Mike finally finished up the bookshelves that he was working on for me. They came out so nice especially the last one that is pictured here. He just kept on coming up with ideas as he was making it and before long it didn't match the first one at all.

The first one Mike did pretty much all by himself, other than the staining which I pitched in on, but the second I got tired of standing by and watching, so I dived in helping him where I could.

I really like what he did with the doors on the second bookshelf. He made them out of planks, and then added two strips of wood one on the top and the other on bottom to make the door more sturdy.

The really neat thing about the two bookshelves that he made was that they are both held together by the boards being set into each other, glue, and wooden nails/pegs. There are no metal nails or screws in these bookcases, they are sort of made in an old fashioned style.

Since he decided to make doors for it I decided that I would finally give my hand a try at another craft I've been wanting to learn, and that is woodburning. I continued to keep the theme old fashioned, so I burned in pictures of carriages and wagons. We both had such a blast making this bookshelf, but we are glad it is over for now.

Next on the list for making is a printer/audio tape shelf to replace the old one, and the bigger job is going to be making a new dinning room table and chairs. I'll have to come up with some creative ideas for doing woodburning on a table.

If you want to see more detailed pictures of our bookshelves you can go here.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/album?.dir=475f&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

Denise

Wildlife

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that this is a big ol' southern roach, but they do get bigger, especially the water ones. It's been many years since I've seen one this big. We've seen some smaller ones inside the house here.

Mikey and Faith were playing outside and found this one, and they were having a blast with it, screaming and carrying on everytime it started to crawl toward them.

I remember growing up that we had them so bad in our house, when we would come home at night and flip the light on you could hear them all scamper away. Since I grew up with it it didn't bother me much, but thinking about it now it seems kind of creepy, wondering where they went and exactly what were they doing. We knew they were out hunting for food, but what were they actually finding and eating, was it something we were planning on eating later ourselves? Well I survived it even if I did share food with a roach, in fact I didn't get sick much at all growing up, and we were not clean people, though I've seen dirtier, even while I was growing up.

Denise

Picture for Polly

Polly I'm having trouble posting photos here for some reason for the past couple of days. So I'm going to enclose a link that you can go to and view my photo albums, one of them there is called Family Photos, you can see our family photos there.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos

Denise

Sweet Dreams

I went out to check the mail today, and as I was walking out of our driveway I looked up directly into the neighbors driveway and found this little girl asleep. It seemed like such a cute picture, and children are always so innocent when they are sleeping. I ran back in and grabbed my camera so I could catch the photo, but not wanting the neighbors to wonder what I was doing taking pictures in their driveway I stayed back in my own and tried to zoon in best as I could, so it's a little blurry. This picture of this little girl, looking so innocent as she slept reminded me of the scripture when Jesus told the disciples to let the little children come to Him and not to turn them away. Perhaps on regular occassions this girl could be difficult to control, but she looked awfully sweet and peaceful here.

I knew that the neighbor whom this driveway belonged didn't have any girls so I figured I'd better let them know she was there, perhaps they knew where she belonged. I guess this little girl belonged to a direct neighbor to them.

So she was returned home safely.

Denise

New Church

We have recently, as of this past Sunday, started to attend Faith Baptist Church here in El Paso. The first mention of the Rinka's that we knew anything of was back when we used to attend church in VT, at Bow Baptist Church. They had just sent out letters asking for financial support and donations to use for their church that they had a burden to start in El Paso. I remember thinking how exciting it could be to help them get their church started, but figured we'd miss the starting of it by time we got to El Paso or something like that. Furthermore the Rinka's lived in Las Cruces NM, so I naturally assumed that they also attended church there. However I was quite surprised to find them attending the church that Mike had picked for us to attend before my arrival.

We got to know them a little while we attended church there, and we decided it would be such an encouragement to their family if they didn't have to preach to themselves when the church firt got started. It was also a shorter trip for us and the church we were attending wasn't working out anyway.

So after they spent a good deal of time trying to find the building God wanted them in, they finally came up with a warehouse building on the east side of the city. We had our first unofficial opening service. Since there is still much work to do asthetically Pastor Rinka has decided not to have the "grand opening" until the beginning of June. At which time we will tour the neighborhood handing out flyers inviting people to church and hopefully helping folks learn how to get saved.

Speaking of salvation Faith was the first converted soul at Faith Baptist Church. She's been wanting to get saved for quite a while, but I held her back until I was sure she understood exactly what she was doing. Pastor Rinka was the one who reaped what I had sowed and she got saved last night. From the detailed account that he gave us, she did understand what it meant to be saved.

I'm hoping to get a better picture of our two families together. I took the picture of their family alone after the picture of our two families together and realized that it would come out much better with the flash off. The flash was casting a shadow on the white wall which was making the whole picture much darker. I'll try to remember the next time we are together to get a better picture.

They have another child who is not pictured here. He is there oldest and he is now attending Hyles Anderson College. We have had the opportunity to meet him once.

Denise

El Paso Windstorm

Some of you may remember telling a short story before about the winds here. Believe it or not this picture is a picture of the sun, not the moon. We have been having a nice windstorm today and yesterday. On our way to church yesterday to see the Karpenko's I took this picture. The windstorms can be so bad here that the dirt gets blown in under the doors. Last night I left open the window in the kids bathroom a crack since temps have been between 85 and 90. This morning the sinck was nicely coated with brown sand. I'm grateful for my glasses whenever I have to go out in the wind here, though they aren't capable of keeping it all out of my eyes either.

You can find all kinds of goodies in your backyard after a good windstorm like this. Or you can go check every couple of hours and there will likely be something new back there you might be able to snatch up. A neighbor of ours found a childs doll stroller in her yard and she toured the neighborhood trying to find out who it belonged to. She had exhausted all the possibilities on our block and still couldn't find the owner.

Which reminds me about the Mexicans who drive around the base here. On trash day, or other days they hop in their pick up truck and go to driving around. Military are notorious for throwing things out that need just a little fixing, but they are way to busy to even attempt it, so they toss it out in the trash. The Mexicans aren't stupid, they drive around the base and snatch things out of the trash like appliances, vacuums, and furniture. They fix them up for next to nothing and sell them for a decent price, then they have made a profit off of your trash. It gives a new meaning to "one man's trash is another man's treasure".

Denise

Little Tater

Since I figured out how to make this photo of Tater smaller I thought I'd share it with everyone. I always enjoy when I'm able to take a real good photos of whatever I'm trying to shoot. This one turned out ideal although if I had had a mind to I could have changed the lighting to make it look even nicer. It's good enough for an amateur at least.

Enjoy
Denise

Karpenko Visit

The Karpenko's have swung through on their way to central Texas. We did a cookout with them on Tuesday night and played Bocce ball. We all had a blast. On Wednesday night we attended a service at our old church where Mr. Karpenko preached, and the family sang for us. The whole visit was a blessing. While visiting with them we heard of their own exciting adventure as they were on their way to El Paso from Pheonix AZ. While coming down a road known as the Trans. Mtn road here in El Paso the buses air brakes gave out. The first light they came to was green and they were able to go on through, at the second light it had turned red and the traffic going the other direction had already started. Mr. K. layed on the horn of the bus and plowed through that intersection with 60 ft. of bus and van without getting hit. They were able to pull over into an area that contained decorative stones and about 10 ft. from standing traffic is where the bus finally stopped. Praise God for their safety!!

Denise

For more photos of their visit go here. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/album?.dir=fc7a&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos