Here’s a teaser:

How the customer explained it.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Went skiing at Meadows yesterday. We had a blast! My rig made it up despite the poor conditions and heavy load...

Drake Spoonie, Hen Spoonie, Drake Gadwall, and Hen Gadwall

Fort Frontier combats the brown foe against significant odds in a multi-century mini battle involving weapons and architecture from several eras.

Here comes the air support!

Quick! We cannot hold the fort. Fall back and evacuate!

What are we going to say once we get back to HQs? Uh...

Ready to land.

Many of us had fun this afternoon taking these photos.  I flew the RC Helicopter while Zachary and Benjamin shot photos.

Many things amaze me in this world.

How man could possibly make something so small fly, hover, and land at his will.  God’s obvious guiding hand in my life over the past year.  Christ’s ultimate sacrifice to save me, a sinner.  Have a merry Christmas!

1987 Ford Ranger

The owners were on vacation and I was tasked with the job of keeping all those animals and myself alive for 3 weeks.  The stay was not without death, but thankfully it was only one chicken instead of something more significant.  It was good to get out on my own for a little bit and see whether I could maintain sanity under the weight of responsibility that only many animals, a house, and no one to clean up after you can incur.

Like most of the Berkompas guys who’ve had to live on their own for a period, I didn’t fare badly in terms of food.  However, I have a better appreciation for Mom’s cooking and influence in our household’s daily activities.

Mornings were spent making breakfast and evenings were occupied with many chores and 17 dozen eggs to wash.  During the day, I was at work.  So, yeah, I was quite busy.  It was good though…  Farming is hard, and I wouldn’t own that many animals alone, but I enjoyed myself.  I enjoy the brain work of programming, but am never completely satisfied until my hands accomplish some sort of physical labor.

I’m looking forward to owning animals of my own some day, but am also glad that I didn’t sign up for 6 months in Virginia at Polyface.  3 weeks is plenty of time to get a feel for things.

Some might ask what I was thinking when I signed up to take care of the farm…  It was a wonderful opportunity to gain some experience away from home and learn more about farming.  They needed the vacation, and I had the time/flexibility to pull it off.  Those are two things I’ve wanted to do for a while and were quite worth the painful hours of egg washing.  (Yeah, if you talk to me about this, I will mention the eggs…)

Sorry, but I don’t have any pictures as I don’t own a camera.  You can always request vivid descriptions in person.

My blog sure has been silent lately, and no, I don’t think that’s going to change very much.  My time is just about to become even more limited.  (BTW, that computer equipment is a tool, not a toy.  Well, maybe the iPad is a toy, but we won’t go there…)

Come middle of this month, I’ll begin working a second part-time job and also take care of a 15 acre farm while the owners are gone  on vacation for almost a month.  Full workdays with mornings and evenings spent taking care of the farm will keep me quite busy.  Currently considering how I’m going to manage school…

Life will more or less be defined by the different desks I’m at during the day, the places I sleep, and the time I spend hunting deer and ducks.  (Above is a photo of my home desk in our bedroom.)

God certainly has blessed me with a greater amount of responsibility.  Now we’ll see whether I can rise to the challenge.

Mom, you have loved me, guided me, taught me, disciplined me, and trained me up in the way I should go. May you be blessed until the end of your days!