Improvements at Pine Loft

BANG! Bang! bang! at 6:00 in the morning the guys started hammering the board and battan siding onto our house.  The only problem with them starting so early was that it was the cooks' day off and we were inside, still sleeping.  Well, not sleeping for long!  There was some "unproductive hammering" going on that was just too annoying to sleep through. :)  We've been living in a "Tyvek" house for some time now so when I heard the guys talking about working on the house I asked what time they were starting.  Thinking to annoy me they said they would start at six.  Of course I scoffed at this because out here we are a little more laid-back than in Lancaster Co. and 6:00 is pretty early for any real work to begin.  I told them IF they started working at 6:00 I'd give them breakfast by 8:00 so I guess they took that as a dare and did it!  They got a lot done and I felt is was very worth waking up at 6:00 to have our house looking so much better.  I have pictures but for some reason they won't load although I've tried several times. 

Another improvement in Pine Loft is that we now have wireless internet.  It is still very slow but at least it's a connection!  We will also be getting our own phone line after a while.  The number will be: 740-838-4900.

The First Dinner Party at Pine Loft

 Since we cooks have off in the middle of the week and most of the socializing is centered on the weekend when chiefs have off we don't often have people over for meals.  We decided it was time to change that and invited the Thompson and Swartz youth along with Chief Matt who is currently in training to come to our house for supper Thursday evening.  It was lots of fun to set a nice table again and we dined in style on chicken parmigiana, fettucine Alfredo, and green beans with slivered almonds.  After supper we cleaned up, played games, and then had a light dessert of rosettes. 

 You know you have company when... there are a lot of shoes at the door that aren't yours!  It's so muddy around here that we have a custom of taking our shoes off as soon as we enter someone's dwelling.

 ROOK!

 A strange, new way to play - take out not only the 2s,3s,and 4s - but also the 6s,7s,8s, and 9s.

 Josiah and John trying to eat rosettes without having their picture taken.  They are both from families of lots of girls so they stick together pretty tightly.  Not pictured are the younger brothers, Silas and Philip, who are also happy to have each other.  The Swartz have recently moved to the area since their father, Amos, started working here as family worker.  They add a whole new dynamic and now we actually have a bit of a youth group.  It's lots of fun but the supervisors have been heard muttering, "The cooks party too much!" so I guess we'll have to invite them sometime so they aren't so jealous. :)

Tabitha, Joanna, and Diana helping to sugar the rosettes.  We girls have lots of fun together.  There are so many things you can do when you are with so many fun people!