You know, it's all great but I LOVE the gates. ...I know he gets some talent from his mama.

I love my gates too.  The whole backyard is really making a difference now and is extremely healing for us.  Who woulda known?  I feel very blessed to have such talented sons.  My older son has done all the drafting work for our rebuilds. 

Amazing man..amazing Mama..

by the way my sons favorite creatures are Dragonflies...

Dragonflies are my signature critters.  Here's my dragonfly (hope it works):  (thanks Ray)

he has your nose..beautiful..

His work is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen

Thanks, DS.  He looks a little different now - no facial hairs at present.  His eyes are very dark brown, unlike mine.  I did that funny thing from ShadeofGray, with Heritage.com to figure out whether your children look like you or their dad.  They both came out smack in the middle ;~)

 

Thanks, about his work.  I love it and feel so blessed that he can do this for us.  All those year of playing with his dad's tools have come to fruition

impressive stuff!!

Thanks K10.  I feel very fortunate.  Just wish both my sons could meet their helpmates.  My friends always say that they have given birth to lots of creative works...

While I do my fair share of woodworking, it's generally chainsaw carpentry...

You can't do everything Mike, as we've written about before.  He's a crafstman and you are a farmer.  Both are needed, now more than ever.

By nature, farmers are some of everything.

Of course you are a man of many hats.  You have to be.  And the more hats you have, the more capable you are of having choices in this life. 

And I made mine.

Choices aren't all they're cracked up to be.

"choices aren't all they're cracked up to be"...man, that is putting it mildly.  I'm on the other end of the spectrum than you are, age-wise.  Who would have ever thought that decisions and choices I made 40 years ago are still affecting me now?  I moved across country, back when it was simple for me to do that (before children, etc.) and now I've been here over 39 years, with a few in Ann Arbor, MI.  35 here.  And in the same house now...who woulda thought?  There have been lots of other things like that too.  I want to warn my sons, but then, it most likely wouldn't do any good ;~)

This is for after my first post to you...

 

Are you familiar with the German word for 'stuck'?

It's great - Gestucken.  That's what happened sometimes when I made choices.  I got gestucken...hahaha

I'm just stayin' put and digging in!

Under the circumstances, I think stayin put and digging in is a great idea. 

Well, as I said, it was unintentional, but we've created a compound around here, which is interesting.  We can now even lock the gates.  That might be good, because for the first time ever, in our 35 years, we've had our car broken into twice in the past 6 months, all the way up our very private drive. 

Don't have gates, save for the livestock, but I do have a tall silo and a scoped rifle.