Big Yardage

No, I'm not talking about how much the Winnipeg Blue Bomber defense tends to give up. This is how you would acurrately describe our property behind the house in Red Deer. We built our house in 2001 but had no gumption (or finances) left to complete the back yard. Last year we finally got started on it. As you can see in this first picture, we put up the fence across the back along the alley. The gates are propped open in this picture which makes it look less impressive than when they are closed but I wanted you to see through to the back alley. If your trying to see the lawn clearly, you are not going to. There is sparse grass outnumbered by many weeds and even more bald spots. The strip running up the middle is where our service trench sunk and has been filled with dirt dug up from a patio spot (which is coming up in the photos).

In this second photo I have moved to the open gates. You can see that on the ground there is dirt filling in this corner. Much more of this fill needs to happen in the coming days. Whenever it rains this corner has always become a lake of water. The same was true of the service trench area before we filled it in. After we bring in more tops soil we will level and grade it all properly.













This picture shows that we did not build the fence right to the alley. With such a big yard, we decided we would leave some space behind the fence where a vehicle could park parallel to the alley. At some point we will likely make an opening in the fence to set the garbage and recycling out there. Currently I drive it around to the alley with the car (how pathetic is that?!). This area also is populated with volunteer grasses, weeds and dirt clods. In the foreground is the remains of a gravel pile which provided the base for our patio. The rest of this gravel will be raked across this space and be joined by a spread truckload of gravel so we don't have to try to make any lawn back here. The plan for this and the enclosed yard is to kill everything with spray. In the yard we will make a parking space of gravel at the back corner you saw earlier inside the gates. The rest of the lawn for now will be roto-tilled and seeded to grass (cross your fingers with us that it will germinate well).


Then standing where I was to take the first photo, I turned towards the back of our house and took this next shot. This is our patio which is 12'' x 12" textured stones laid to make a 12' x 12' area abutted to a 4' x 4' pad at the bottom of the back steps. When the lawn is done we will move the gazebo off the patio to the left so that it will be two spaces, one enclosed by the 10' x 10' gazebo and one being the open air patio. The ugly pallette leaning up against the wall will not stay, by the way. We also plan to close in the space under the back porch so we can hide junk there. On the side of the house that you can see just to the right we will put an archway with a mini-gate in it between our house and the neighbor's fence. That spot will be be covered with washed stones up to the side of the pad at the bottom of the steps.

Well, who really cares about all that. I do (and my wife even more)! One of the great features of building our house on this lot was that we would have the largest back yard in the subdivision. But to this point we have never done anything back there but mow weeds. By doing the fence last year and the patio and gazebo this year, we now feel pushed to get the rest of it done. Next time you come to visit us expect to sit out back and enjoy a barbecue. You may yet be overlooking a pasture but it will be better than it ever was.
Unless of, course, you come in the middle of January. We'll just go to the Steak House Restaurant.

Selina's Grad Guests

Grandpa and Grandma Floyd (Harold & Margaret) arrived earlier this evening from Edmonton where they were at Carrie's. Selina's ceremony is at 11:00am tomorrow and the banquet is in the evening. Will is fighting a bad sunburn. Ange was on the worship team at chapel today (Gateway Christian School). Jane and I are sleep-deprived. What else is new?!

Yes, I am actually blogging again. About 100 of us are gearing up for another mission in Zorrillo, Mexico with True North Helping Hands. Same school, more buildings, fence and a playground in the community. My daughter Angeline is coming again. So are 13 others from Red Deer. It is really quite exciting. My Spanish is still minimal but way ahead of last year. We'll see how it goes.
Why do I think this is so important, you ask. (Oh, you didn't? Well, you should have.) Being saved is great. Knowing I have a place in heaven is great. But lounging in the pew is not an option. God created me and all you other believers for good works. Not just random, whatever-we-think-is-cool good works. He has an actual plan for this whole planet (besides toasting it and taking the redeemable remains to heaven). His plan revolves around people and their lives. I don't know all the details but I do know that those of us who have (have food, clothes, education, money, hockey equipment) need to engage ourselves in feeding, clothing, educating and equipping those who have not. God sees something disciplinary in people suffering the consequences of their sins, but He sees something downright holy and spiritual in people overcoming the suffering of poverty. I got turned up by John Wood who left Microsoft to bring books and education to the third world. These things will at least raise the level of hope and standard of living for people world-wide even if Jesus said the poor we will always have with us. Who better to be vitally involved in such mission work that believers who can also bring the gospel mesage, the one about salvation from sin and death. In fact, how can believers talk heaven to people anywhere while multiple millions are suffering on earth. What do we say? "Some day it'll all be over and you'll go home to God." That's not much hope. Hope begins now with the world in which we live, the one that God has already created for us and placed us in. Jesus may come back at noon and end all this or He may tarry another few millenia. Whichever the case, the plan for human history was not that everyone would suffer their way into heaven through a miserable life on planet earth where things only continually get worse. God plans for this world to become a better place for people and the plan for transformation involves me (and many of you).
That's why I'm going to Mexico at the end of June... and to the seniors lodge to visit some lonely people at the end of this morning.
I'll enjoy heaven when I get there. In the meantime, Let's get this planet and its people going in the right direction. I seem to remember someone praying, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."