Dr. Doolittle vs. Dr. Ford

Merry  Christmas and Happy New Year from the Fords!!! We have had a very good holiday season, celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus.  What a gift we were given, and how grateful we are.  He is our reason to celebrate.  Without Him, it is all empty and vain.

Well, the last few weeks have been very exciting around here.  

We had a great Thanksgiving with some of the Ford family from Oklahoma.  They came down and stayed for a few days, and besides food, football, and puzzles, Ray taught them some of the finer things about fixing one of our male cats.  Yes!! That is right.  Since he does this for a living on humans, he figured, "How hard could it be on a cat?" So, after a little googling online, and gathering the needed materials, he fixed our female a few months ago, but waited until Thanksgiving weekend to fix our male.  We have a new niece who married into the family, born and raised in Richardson, who was a little shocked at how the Ray Ford Family passed the Thanksgiving Holiday time away.  :)

After Thanksgiving had come and gone, Ray injured his back again, causing us to rethink the possibility of having another back surgery.  During this consideration time, someone approached Ray about buying ALL our goats.  Hallelujah!!!! Finally, rid of the goats!

He felt like it was a provision, not knowing how this back surgery might effect us and his ability to work the farm, so he sold them all, lock, stock, and barrel!!

 Wow, did it seem quiet on the farm, no goats to run off the porch, no poop to avoid on the driveway, no gates to keep closed.  I have to say, even though I was relieved, it did seem a bit sad.  

Well, only a short 2 weeks later, we bought them all back!!! (Too long of a story to explain why, but needless to say, we got them ALL back, plus 12 babies that had been born during that 2 week period!!!)

We picked them up and moved them back to our place on Christmas Eve.  Merry Christmas Ray!! :) I have to say the babies are adorable, and my husband is sooooo happy to have them back home.  We will face tomorrow's challenges if and when Ray has back surgery. But for now, we are back in the goat business!!

Along with the goats, you know we still have a few egg chickens left that have survived the neighborhood dogs.  We also have a duck, Mr. Sader, who was purchased as a duckling and came in the mail through the US Postal Service, along with our chicken chicks. (You haven't lived until you get a phone call from the local Post Master letting you know you have a very loud package waiting for you down at the post office!! :)

 Anyway, I guess because he was raised with the chickens, he thinks he IS a chicken. 

He runs with them all day long, and then likes to swim in our pool because that is what God made him to do.  It is so funny to see the chickens watch him when he gets in the pool, they can't figure it out, and to watch him, when they roost, he looks down at those two webbed feet, and for the life of him has no idea how they do that!! 

Well, to top off the Ford Farm, Santa Clause added a new member to our animal family. Delivered Christmas morning was an appaloosa horse named Simon.  Esther, our middle daughter has loved horses for as long as I can remember.  She takes after her grandmother, "Babe", and has had "horse" at the top of her Christmas and birthday list for ever.  Well, Santa finally felt like it was time, so welcome Simon.  Esther was so excited!!! She said he fit right in, because his hair looked like mine, "White and Red mixed together!!" and because he already had a Bible name. 

Esther getting Simon Christmas Morning in the rain, love at first sight.

One more funny story from our holiday adventures..... Ray has really enjoyed duck hunting during some of his time off.  On New Years day morning, we did a family duck hunt.  So at 5:30 we all headed (minus Jesse, who had spent the night with some friends that were actually going to celebrate the New Year by staying up till midnight, we went to bed at 8PM, Wooohooo, Party!) Anyway, we headed out bundled up for a duck hunt at the ranch.  We had a great time, and actually got a few ducks, despite loading issues, mis-firing, and general loudness that always accompanies the Ray Ford Family.

Well, Esther is the animal lover, and one of the ducks only got wounded before Moses retrieved him for us. Esther begged to save the duck, and that is it, in her arms.  She rescued him, and he now lives in our pond.  

Another morning, when Ray went hunting by himself down at the ranch, he had missed so many, and only came home with one.  He was shocked, when he got home, to see that his daughter, Esther, the duck whisperer, had managed to catch, not shoot, 2 wild ducks on our property.  Unbelievable!!!

Oh the life we live.  It is never boring, and always exciting to see what will happen around here next. Have a great beginning of 2013, JJ

Meat Chickens

Well, it has been a while, to say the least!! Life happens around here, and so I have not focused on anything but family, laundry, cooking, school, etc.  Anyway, Ray asked me the other day if I had blogged in awhile and I told him "no."  He said he'd given me plenty to write about, so I better get busy.

Well, I must go back to the spring. This past year, right after the Ft. Worth Stock show, Ray's buddy, Don (aka. our youth minister) called and asked if we wanted in on a great deal on meat chickens.  (What are meat chickens you ask! I had the same question.) Meat chickens are different than layers. Layers are what we have raised up until this point.  They are great!! They walk around, eat the bugs, and lay beautiful eggs for us to eat.  They are usually pretty, and they are very low maintenance. Meat chickens are not raised for laying, they are raised for eating their meat.  They grow for several months, then you slaughter them.  Sorry for the faint at heart!! 

Anyway, Don said the FFA barn for Cleburne was getting rid of all the meat chickens that had not been good enough to take to the FW Stock show, and they were GIVING them away.  Don said there were about 40 - 50 of them, and counting on the fact that you usually lose 1/3 to 1/2 of them, he figured he would take them and at the end of 2 months put up 25 or so chickens in the freezer.  The only problem was that Don didn't have a chicken coop.  Well, he was planning on building one, so he went ahead and picked them up in 2 large wire cages.  They were fine at first, but what he didn't realize was that they almost double in size every day or so, when they are young and growing!! In only about a week, they were busting at the seems, feathers sticking out of every hole in these wire cages.  It looked like a "Looney Toons" cartoon.

Well, he called Ray and asked if we wanted to put them in our coop, since ours was already built, and he just hadn't had time to build his yet.  Ray said "yes" of course, and agreed to partner with him in this chicken venture.  They were planning on meeting after Ray finished clinic one afternoon, so that Ray could take them home and put them in our coop.  Well, the same day I was scheduled to head to the church and pick up a bunch of plants that we were going to take to our house, so I had the trailer, and had just finished loading up a bunch of bushes and plants, when Ray called.  As expected, Ray had gotten called into the hospital, and wondered if I could meet Don at the church and pick up the chickens as well.  Don showed up with 40 chickens, feathers coming out everywhere from the cages.  He threw them on the  back of the trailer with the plants and I had to head out to pick Jesse up from school.  All I needed was a rocking chair and we would have looked like the "Clampets" going down the road, leaves flying off plants, feathers floating through the air, and me driving slow, since I didn't like driving the trailer anyway.
I called ahead to the school, asking if they would let Jesse walk out to the road, instead of me trying to maneuver this crazy trailer load through the pick up line.  They agreed, but as I parked near the entrance of the school, I realized I was slowing up traffic, as everyone was slowing down to see what in the world was all this mess going on on the back of my trailer.  Jesse quickly ran down to the truck and jumped in, ready to get away from all the onlookers!!
We did make it home, and were able to dump the 40+ chickens into our coop.

After only a few days, we quickly realized that these chickens were eating their weight in food almost every day, and they were continuing to double in size every few days.  In only a week or so, they had outgrown our coop, and we had to let them have free range.  They were hilarious, as they all looked like really overweight hens, eating for a moment, then their legs would start shaking, and they would have to sit right were they were, to rest for a moment, before they would move on to eat again.  Crazy!!! Who knew that meat chickens did this?!

Well, with 40+ chickens doing this all day, we realized we couldn't keep this going for much longer.  There was chicken poop everywhere!! So, we scheduled the harvesting day.  Ray asked some great guys from our church to come help, his parents came over, and we had a huge chicken harvesting.
  
In all my life, I can honestly say, I didn't think I would ever experience this.  The kids were all involved, and honestly, except for some of the grossness, everyone really had a good day of harvesting chickens and fellowshiping with one another. Praise the Lord for good friends who would come over and help with this.  It was really hard work, and the guys were exhausted after about 5 hours of harvesting chickens.
  
The great news is, we are set for the year with chicken meat.  You can't believe how many chicken recipes I have found!!!
Oh the life of being married to and OB/Gyn/Chicken Farmer!!
JJ Ford

Pictures follow, if you are faint of heart, don't look!!!!

Esther catching the next chicken in line

Anna and Joshua taking a break from the harvesting

 Nana, Ray's mom, with Ruth and a friend, shucking corn, to feed all the people who were helping us

 Ray and a friend from church

 Chicken running around with her head cut off, literally!!

 Ray's Dad teaching us how it's done!!

 Ray

 Russ from church, with a bunch of "sumo wrestlers", oh, I mean chickens!!

 Boiling the feathers off

 Esther with another victim

 Hanging the chickens before we packed them up

 Cleaning the chickens

 Matt (another friend from church) and Jesse, cleaning them out

 One of Jesse's friends, Adam, helping as well

A view into our barn, or rather.....bathroom.

Disclaimer: I typed this last spring, but forgot to post it!!!!

New life is abounding everywhere.  We are enjoying spring, everything is turning green, all the animals seem to be giving birth. New goats, New kittens, New bunny, and even new chicks.  But the chicks have needed a little Dr. Ford OB/Gyn intervention!!
How lucky our chickens are to have an OB/Gyn as their owner!! You see, our chickens were not being very broudy, (for all you non-farming people, that means they didn't want to sit on their eggs, thus, no hatching), so we, or rather Dr. Ford, had to intervene.  This is what he does for a living, saves lives of unborn babies, and does all he can to help get them into this world, healthy and strong.
So, Ray headed to Tractor supply to purchase an incubator.  Again, Ray, being taken aback, by the price of the durn thing, turned on his heels, and headed to google, to see if he could figure out how to make his own.  And low and behold, wouldn't you know it, we had everything we needed right in our own home, to make our own incubator!!!
Ray, wanting to make this a family affair, gathered all the kids together on a Saturday morning, and we built our very own incubator to hatch our own eggs.  How exciting!! We used an old white styrofoam ice chest, a light bulb and socket, some old chicken wire, straw, a bowl of water, and a thermometer, that measured temp and humidty.

We began the next day, collecting eggs, marking them with their dates, then carefully placing them in our homemade incubator.  Much to my dismay, the only place in our home, that we were able to acheive the perfect humidity for them, was OUR bathroom, so for the next 3 weeks, we had this glow, every day and night, coming from our bathroom, from the incubator.

As we got closer to the due date of the eggs hatching, excitement was rising in the household.  At last, the first egg cracked!! Amazing!! Did you know, that even before the first crack happens, you can hear cheeping coming from inside the egg?! I do know, because we heard it in the middle of the night, coming from our bathroom!! 

The next morning, the whole family could hardly leave our bathroom, as we hovered over the incubator, watching the first signs of life emerging from the oval eggs.  It is a miracle, whether human, as my husband gets to experience on a daily basis, or animal, as this was.  Every birth is a miracle!! 

What a beautiful picture of new life.  Christ gives us new life, through the cross.  I love spring, especially being married to Ray Ford, who seems to bring it, not only right up to my doorstep, but into my  bathroom!!!

Happy Spring,

JJ

Opportunities and Creosote

I can't believe it has been 9 months since my last post!! We have had alot going on.  Alot to do with my Dad's fight with cancer, and keeping his blog up to speed. Dad went home to be with our Savior on Jan. 21, 2012, and we will greatly miss him.  You can read about his last few months or even the last few years and the memorial service on my other blog www.teamjanszen.blogspot.com  . He was an amazing man.


Knowing that scripture says, laughter is good medicine, I have a few things to share about another amazing man in my life.....
We have had some ups and downs this past year.
Some of them have been opportunities......."opportunities" are what Ray calls his projects for the whole family!!
The pool..... Well, this past summer, it turned green, and looked natural, for the second half of the summer. We had an extreme winter, and then very hot summer, so our pumps froze, cracked, then melted because of the temps in Texas this past year. We limped the pool along half way through the summer, then when it finally all died, we decided we had to get it fixed or fill it in.
  
Oh please, don't fill it in, the five kids love the pool, and it is a great place to have people over and cool off in these hot Texas summers. But, we can't swim in green, or we might as well be swimming in our pond! 


So, after Ray got several bids on fixing the pool, and about had a coronary every time he received one, he made the famous announcement, "I will fix the pool and save us thousands!!"
Oh boy, here we go again. Honestly I doubted, and kept praying that he would give in and let me call someone to come fix it.  But no was the answer to that, and as we began to receive large boxes from the UPS guy, with the words "Discount Pool Supply" stamped on the side, I knew it was inevitable. We were going to fix the pool ourselves.


Well, life does not stop, nor does Ray's schedule, babies coming, emergencies at the hospital, so the pool continued to turn into a deeper, lovely, aquamarine color, all while these large boxes sat posed on the back porch, ready to be unpacked and installed.
  
Again I asked if I could hire someone to come finish the job....No way!  
Eventually, the job began to unfold, as Ray would find little sections of time to unpack the pumps, begin the fitting process, and carefully place them onto the concrete slab, to connect to the already existing pool equipment that had not died. 
Well, these pumps are heavy, and awkward to lift, so as Ray was working on this, he was also working on making his back worse. (he has some disk issues) 
So, about 2/3 of the way into the job, he was out, with back surgery!! 


Yikes!! what are we going to do now, not only with the pool, but with Ray's work?


In short, God got us through, He provided, and He used some of the men in our church to help meet the need. As a matter of fact, I had 2 of Ray's good buddies tell me, "When Ray tries to do something stupid, call me, and I will come do it for him." (Partners in crime :) ) (He was supposed to be on total rest for 2 full weeks after his surgery!!) Needless to say, he was out trying to work on the pool equipment to finish the job, the day after surgery!! I quickly called these guys, and they came over several times during the week, and helped him finish the job.  They truly were the "hands and feet of Christ" to Ray.  Literally!!


I have to say, I never thought the water would be crystal clear again, aside from hiring help, but it is!  He did it, Wow!!! What a man. And really without much encouragement from me, I am sad to say. It only took a few extra months, but he "gotterdone!"


Now, one of the additional things Ray wanted to do, was build a shelter around the pool equipment, so that we would not have this problem again. (you know, protect it from the heat and cold) He did wait another month or so, to let his back heal, before he began to tackle this job.  When he finally did, he headed out to Home Depot to purchase a prepackaged shed to build around the equipment.  Again, he came home with just some lumber and nails. 
"What?! where is the package deal?" I asked. 
"Oh, those stinking things are so expensive..... I can do this for so much less!!!"  Really?!


Oh boy, so here we go again.  Jesse and Ray started building the foundation to this shed, trying to level it, trying to get it just right.  I have to say it actually looked pretty good, but because of time, it was a slow process.  Over the next couple of weeks, they completed the floor, but before adding the walls, we had a friend stop by, who is a professional builder.  Such a kind young man, who loves Ray.  Ray took him out to show him his progress.  
He didn't say anything negative, he just offered to come help Ray out with the rest of the job. He said he could come the next day, but that was Ray's surgery day, so Ray wouldn't be available until later on in the day to work with him.  The friend came on out anyway, that morning, and when Ray got home that afternoon, He had completely redone the entire job, it was perfect. 
Ray had mixed emotions, sad that what he had done was gone, and obviously had not met the professional builders specs., but also amazed and thankful/overwhelmed at what he had accomplished in such a short amount of time. :) 
Again, the hands and feet of Christ, at work in our lives. Ray accepted the help from our friend, to get the walls and roof on, but Ray and Jesse are finishing the job, as I type, of putting on the tin roof, and building doors to the shed.  I saw the doors a little bit ago, and they are amazing.  


Who knew?...he can deliver a baby, save a life, and build some pretty good looking doors.  Maybe he needs help on leveling the floor of a building, but, hey, you can't be good at everything!


As I think back over the past few months, Ray has tackled a few other great feats.  One that stands out was burying the large square trampoline in our back yard, like Kanakuk's if you've ever been to Kamp.  


Some asked "why are you doing this?" Ray said "Why not?" Sounds like what Robert Kennedy said,

 "Some men see things as they are and say why. 

I dream things that never were and say why not."

It really is cool, and the kids love it.

Digging the hole

The funny thing was, that when Ray finally got the hole dug, this took weeks, it is a huge trampoline, he wanted to line it with creosote soaked railroad ties, to keep the dirt from caving in.  He found some at the local feed store, and was so excited to get these ties cut and in the ground. 

 Ray finishing the logs and the trampoline leveling.

Well, did ya'll know that creosote burns??  We didn't!!

Ray was working on this job alone, for some reason, all the kids were gone, and he had a free Saturday, so he attacked, knowing he could get it done if he just kept plugging along. I was in the house, it was hot, hot summer, but would occasionally go out with a glass of lemonade, or an encouraging word, to cheer him on.  

He would use the tractor to lower one of the logs into his hole, then use the chain saw to cut the log into the exact length he needed.  

Chain saws usually cause sawdust to fly in the air, and coat whatever it lands on.  Ray, being careful, had protective goggles on, but because of the extreme heat of the summer, had on work boots, with shorts, and a short sleeve shirt, along with work gloves.  

After several hours of cutting, moving, placing, and shifting railroad  logs, he noticed a little burning on the exposed parts of his skin.  He assumed it was the sun, and he was feeling the affects of a sunburn.  He thought if he could just keep going, that he would finish quicker, and get in out of the sun, so he kept working.  

He was almost done with the lining of the hole, when I looked out and noticed him, almost hopping around.  Puzzled, I walked outside and asked if everything was ok.  He said no, and by the sound of his voice, I could tell things were not good.  He said, "I'm on fire, something is burning me!!!" 

What?

Then he hollered something about creosote.  I ran back in and googled creosote.  The first thing that popped up was, "Danger, do not touch creosote with bare skin, can cause severe burns!!"

Oh crud!!! I then quickly read what the treatment was, and as I ran back to the back porch, Ray was running, no, sprinting to the house.  I hollered what I had just learned, and instructed him to remove all clothing that had creosote on it.  Well, this included everything he had on!!! Thank goodness all the kids were gone! As he ran from the back of the yard toward the house, clothes were flying, leaving a trail behind him.  As he came in the house, I sent him straight to the shower, where he was to rinse off with soap and cool water for at least 20 minutes.  I then made ice packs, and had him lay in the recliner, where I had to rub "Preperation H" of all things, all over the burning parts of his body, which was most of his legs, arms, and face, then we packed him in ice packs.  This was supposed to stop the chemical from continuing to burn.  I felt so bad for him, but kept thinking, this is great stuff for the blog.....you can't make this stuff up!!!

The good news is, the treatment worked, and within a few hours, the burning had completely stopped. Thank the Lord for google.

I am never short of being amazed at the crazy life the Lord has given us to live here.  We truly are trying to worship the Lord through all of this stuff.  God is good, and funny at times. He is faithful, even in, and especially in, our crisis.

Thanks for reading.

I will post again soon, Lord willing,

JJ Ford

I hate Goats..... Pictures.

Bruno, one of our billy goats

  

Ok, well, let me just say, God answered prayer. 

Yesterday, had all the potential for evil, as well as good. 

It was a great day.  The weather was perfect, beautiful to be outside all day.

We started off by having a big breakfast, and discussing as a family, stewardship.  How does God want us to be good stewards of what he has blessed us with, time, things, gifts, talents?

Ray then, handed out job lists to everyone, and we headed out.  Each had their part, whether is was mowing, so we could get the fence put up, feeding animals, herding them here or there, or handing Ray the tools he needed to fasten the fencing.  (a few of them picked blackberries along the fence as well, not part of the job list, but oh so fun.)

Good day of work

For those of you that have ever worked at Kanakuk, it felt just like work week to Ray and I.  The coolness of the day, the hard work we were doing, the fun we were having just being together and accomplishing something.  It was a great day. Certainly not because of me, I am naturally a griper.  But God, gave me a joy, working side by side with my husband, on a project.  It is not what I would choose to do on a regular Sunday, but it was exactly what we needed to do, and we really had a great time doing it, all together.  Obedience is better than sacrifice.


No, the fence is not complete, we still have some work ahead of us, this week, but a huge part was accomplished yesterday.

Working hard on the fence

Joshua by the post hole digger!!

Jesse on the mower

Anna helped some, but mostly picked blackberries.

Ruth and Esther

Enjoying frozen lemonade at the end of the day.

I hate Goats, or at least when they are on my porch!!

OK, I am in confession mode, and frustration mode right now.


We still have goats, I will soon post pictures of what spring has looked like out here on our little farm.


But, yes, we have goats, about 12 or so.  Our little heard has been doing fine in the back of our property, where they have been eating and having a great time, and I have been having a great time, because they are not up on my porch, or in my flower beds eating my plants.


Well, as of this past week, the goats had eaten most of the GREEN stuff in the back, sooooo, they broke through the fence, and are eating the GREEN stuff up by the house.  Which means, they are on my porch, pooping, and basically taking over wherever they want to.


I have been reading LOVE and RESPECT (highly recommend it for married people!!!) this spring.  A wonderful book, with lots of interesting thoughts on marriage, and how important it is for husbands to love their wives, and for wives to respect their husbands (UNCONDITIONALLY).

We have been having a great season in marriage this spring, (last year was rough!) But part of it, I am sure, has to be with how I have been applying the Love and Respect ideas in my marriage.


Well, when I woke up Wednesday morning to goats trying to ram through my glass doors on the front.  (I have double glass (storm) window doors on the front, and the goats see themselves in the reflexion, and try to butt themselves!!!) It scared us to death, like someone had a battering ram, and was trying to knock the front doors down!!! 


I screamed, yelled for Ray to get up and save the house from the goats, then proceeded to steam in my frustration of "why didn't he have the fence fixed better in the first place, to keep the goats in?!"


He ran outside, and I ran to the bathroom, so mad, knowing that this just meant more work for us, in fence repair, and/or new fence to be put up, and also, more goat poop on MY PORCH!! I know you are laughing right now, but believe you me, I was not!!
In the bathroom, I began to formulate the lecture that I was about to give Ray, then my heart stopped, as I heard the Lord begin to whisper in my ear, respect him, no matter what.


Without giving you the long boring details, Praise the Lord, I was able to march back out there, and give him the respect that God has called me to give, even with goat poop on my porch.  (we all have some kind of goat poop on our porch, in our lives, don't we? It just comes in different forms, shapes, colors.)


But, sadly, the rest of the week was hit or miss.  Literally, wrestling with my flesh, on a moment by moment basis!! Some moments, the Lord would win, and I would surrender to Jesus, and show great respect, join him in helping build the fence, encourage him in his work, remind him of all the great things he is doing with and for our family, and then....... sometimes, my flesh would win, and I would carry on like a spoiled, angry, frustrated wife, who was not getting my way, and who was sick of the poop!!!


Right now, this morning, we stayed home from church, to be together as a family (we have been going crazy the last few weeks, with spring football, volleyball, wedding stuff, out of town) and also stayed home to work on the goat fence!!! Again, what is more pleasing to the Lord, Obedience over Sacrifice.  We have a wonderful opportunity today to work together, hard work, but treat each other with kindness, respect, laugh as we work, or, we can be mad that the goats have kept us from church, gripe and complain about the fence, the poop, etc.  What, I ask myself again, is more pleasing to the Lord?
I am about to put my boots and jeans on, and head outside, to work side by side with my husband and kids.  I will be praying, moment by moment, that my heart will be to respect, encourage, and laugh.  Not to be bitter, gripe and complain.
I do have much to be thankful for.  Give thanks in all things, right?
God is good all the time, goats, not all the time, but God is still good.
If you want a great book for your marriage, read Love and Respect.


In Him,
JJ aka, fence builder

You can pay someone to do this!

A few weeks ago, we had just finished dinner, and were about to settle in, to what I thought, was going to be a quiet evening.  I had some plans in my head to work on a few things on the computer in the recliner, as the kids played outside for a little bit longer, before time to get ready for bed.  All was going as I had planned, until my husband walked in and announced he needed my help.


Being the Godly wife I am :), I quickly hopped up from my chair, and headed down to the barn.


He was on the last step of a project that he had been working on, for literally, months.  He was replacing the awning on the trailer.  You see, when we got this trailer, it was a hand-me-down from his brother.  A great little trailer, but the awning was in great need of repair, better to say, replacement.


We had taken it down to a repair place, here in Cleburne, a few months ago to see what they could do, and as soon as they quoted Ray the price, out we pulled.  No way was Ray going to pay that!!


So, he started looking on line, googling "How to replace your awning on your trailer."


There are youtube videos for EVERYTHING!!  


Anyway, all of these sites that gave instruction on "How to"... all had a warning that said..."This is very dangerous!!! Do not attempt alone, and must have at least 3 to 4 adults helping." The tension that is wound up inside the tube of the awning, is appearantly very strong, and can take a finger or hand off!! 


This is what ALL the websites said.  Yikes!! After reading that, I thought we would surely take it back to the RV place, but NO Way!!! Not Ray Ford.


After we very carefully took the awning off of the trailer, and took it apart, Ray found the part numbers and ordered what he needed to replace. Several weeks went by, and I kinda forgot about it, until he came in to get me the other night.


After briefly instructing me, and reminding me of the danger (He didn't have to do that, I hadn't forgotten!!) , we started the process.  We actually didn't have too much problem getting it threaded onto the tube, and then actually winding the tension.  It was a little nerveracking, thinking that this thing could spin, and take off one of Ray's fingers, but we did it!! The funny thing was, I was so nervous, that I lost count of the turns on the spring a couple of times, so we had to start over 3 different times!!! 


The worst part was yet to come.  After getting the thing wound onto the tube, we then had to pick up this huge tube, with the awning hanging off of it, and thread the other end onto the side of the trailer.  No problem, except the thing weighed a ton, and it was just the 2 of us. Remember the warning, "This is a job for no less than 3 to 4 adults!!"


All I can say is, it was a total disaster!!  Ray was trying to balance one end on his head, while I was holding the majority of it on my shoulders, and then needing to pull the end of the material, so it wouldn't bunch up as Ray was pulling it through the track!! It was windy to boot, so the tarp part was flapping in the wind, and eventually blew us over as well as the ladder we were standing on to reach the side of the trailer where the track was to attach the awning.


We just stopped, looked at each other feeling completely defeated, (I did), but not Ray.  He said, "Hey, let's get Joshua to help us!!!" 


"He is FIVE!" I said.  Not exactly another adult to help us.


"Ok" he said, "we'll wait until the big kids get home from youth."


When the kids got home, my sister,, Joy was with them, she had brought them home.  Oh, thank the Lord for another adult!!


We quickly recruited her and Jesse, our 14 year old son, to be the other 2 adults!!  As I was explaining to her about what we needed her to help us with, I said, "You know you can pay to have someone do this, but......" Joy interrupted, "Hey, another blog post, right!?"

Anyway, after recruiting a few extra abled bodies, things went alot better.  it was still rough, but we did it!!! Yeah, success, or so we thought.

We all waited in anticipation as we watched Ray pull the switch, which should have caused the awning to roll up all by itself, with ease, into a nice tight roll to travel down the highway.  Much to our dismay, nothing happened...well something happened, we heard a whizzing sound inside the tube for a moment, but no movement of the awning rolling up. Nothing. What??? What was wrong?

Much to our dismay, we had wound the tension in the wrong direction!!  So, it was going to roll out like a champ, but rolling back up was a different story!!
I asked, "Can we just leave it, it is sooo late?" No, we couldn't, a storm was coming in that night, so we all had to use our strength, to roll it up, as tight as we could get it, but it was very heard, as we were all rolling against the tension, the super tight tension, that we were warned about on the websites!!


It took all four of us, but we finally get it rolled up enough for it to not catch the wind, but I was done.  The thought of having to take that thing down, and start over was a little too much for me.  Needless to say, I think Ray knew that, and actually he and Jesse were able to reverse the tension and get if fixed, working perfectly, without me at all.  They both felt a huge amount of accomplishment, and what a great feeling to get it done, and save us all that money.


Anyone need any RV repairs, check with Ray first!


Have a blessed week, and remember, He is Risen!
JJ