Jones Clan Journal

Ricardo and Laurel had a healthy baby boy on Monday, December 1.  He weighed 7 lbs. and 1 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long.  Everyone is happy the critter is out amongst us now.  Ian seems to be doing well with the little one.  No name has been chosen yet, but I’ll update the journal when it occurs.

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Today has been a productive day.  Truman and Stan have killed 3 deer this season.  Stan and the boys processed most of one to make some hard dried sausage.  Yesterday and today all of us pitched in to strip the meat off the rest of the bones.  Tamara is starting some jerky with some of it, and Stan and I made the rest of it into breakfast sausage to freeze.

I don’t really like processing the meat a lot, but I do enjoy eating it.  The dried sausage turned out really well.  We got the recipe from an older couple in our community.  He showed Stan how to make a smoke house several years ago.  We’ve used it for jerky a lot.  This is the first year, however, that we’ve make the hard dry sausage we like so much.

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Well, we’ve gotten as far as partially roofing the ‘green house’.  It’s decked and papered and partially shingled.  We’ve been blessed with some rain, and Stan still has to work to make a living, so it’s getting done a bit at a time.  Rico helped with putting shingles up last night and wants to come out this weekend if we haven’t finished by then.

The boys were hunting rabbits a few days ago and found a 3 foot long coral snake.  They dispatched it with their shot gun.  So, even though they didn’t get any rabbits, I felt they did a good days hunt.

Now for the pics:

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We’ve been busy working on the little building I call our ‘Green House’.  I suppose we will have to paint it green after all is said and done.  The site where the building stands is where Laurel Beth’s greenhouse use to be.  After she stopped gardening, she sold it, but the site was already cleared and waiting for another structure.  I was so use to saying something about ‘being down at the greenhouse’ when I was looking for one of the chidren, it just seemed to stay fixed in my mind that that location is the ‘greenhouse’.  Since it will be housing people instead of plants now, I’ve just altered it to being the Green House, rather than the greenhouse.

Enough of that.  Here’s the progress pictures.

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Here is what we did this morning.

Well at least we got one wall up…..sort of.

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Madalyn returned from Honduras safe and sound.  She enjoyed her visit, but was a bit frustrated by her lack of language skills.  She has been offered a job as paramedic at our county emergency services as soon as all her paperwork gets finished.

Simon accepted a job in California, so will probably be there until after the baby is born in January.  After that, who knows where he will land.

Rico and Laurel are doing well.  Rico has started his own marketing business and has lots to do.  Laurel had to suffer through Ian having his first round of real fever this week.  There is nothing so helpless feeling as seeing your child suffer, and not being able to do anything to make it stop.

Oliver has a part time job, and is looking for a full time one now.  Hopefully, this one will either work into a full time, or he’ll find another one.

Kathryn is happy since it looks like we’ll be keeping the grand piano for a while to make sure tunings and other adjustments hold up properly.

Tamara is still planning on starting EMT classes in September.  She’s plugging away at her math book which is all that holds her back from graduating from high school and getting her driver’s license.

The boys, Truman and Edward, you’ve read about more than anyone else.  They are still into fishing.  They are growing up too fast, though.  I can’t believe my youngest is 11.

Stan and I just keep on doing the same things.  Work, school, keeping up with children.

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It seems things have been changing fast around here. Madalyn finished her schooling and then left today for a month of clinic work in Honduras. I’ll miss her singing every time she comes rolling in from a shift.

Simon and Lindsey came down last week, and we got to visit with them for the first time since they got married. (Except for an hour or two when they were passing through from Florida to California) We found out they are expecting their first child in January.

Laurel and Rico are expecting their second child in late November or early December.

Oliver moved into Austin. He is renting a room from a man in south Austin. He will be closer to work and hopefully will be able to save a lot on gasoline. He exchanged his Mazda for our Honda Rebel, so that should help out on gas cost also.

Tamara and Kathryn are singing in the Wimberley Chorus Fourth of July concert, so practices are starting up for that now.

We are down to one normal size dining table. There are only 6 of us eating together now. It seems kind of lonely.

The young boys have a bedroom all to themselves now. So far (3 days) they have kept it immaculate. I’m hoping it will continue to be so.

Well, I’m off to round up boys for school.

Elaine

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Madalyn finished her final test for her paramedic license. And she found out this morning she passed it. Now, after a year of working up to 3 jobs and going to school, she will take off to work in a hospital in Honduras for about a month trying to learn Spanish and using her skills.

Then she will start looking for a job as a Paramedic.

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Madalyn finished her paramedic course this week. Then took the skills portion of the National Registry for her paramedic license Thursday and passed! Now she just lacks her written exam. That will take place this Monday. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome.

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We went to Iola, which is close to Bryan College Station on Friday, April 11th. We went to help clear brush for John and Kelli Kochan. The first day we got there (the “we” was Madalyn, Edward and me). It was raining so we ate lunch and Madalyn started cleaning (because Kelli had been in an accident and she could not be on her feet for long periods of time and John was gone.) She and swept the floor much to Kelli’s regret because Kelli started sneezing a ton. Then we watched a movie and finally John came home and we finish the movie and we watched a firefighter video while we had dinner. After that we got ready for bed and went to bed. The next day we got up and had breakfast. Oh yeah, Chris came over to help us clear brush. Chris is a guy who works with John at the wind tunnel. We went outside and John told Edward and me to move one burn pile to another burn pile. So we did it and it took some time but finally we got it done. Then we cut down about 7 good size trees covered in poison ivy which was bad for John because he is allergic to poison ivy. Then we cut up the stuff that they were going to use for fire wood and took it to the wood pile and John got his tractor and we pulled the big bad logs to the burn pile. Then we went in and had sandwiches for lunch and relaxed about 30 minutes.

Then we went to clear a fence line. So we cleared most of the fence line and called it a day and went to bed. The next morning we got up and had breakfast and we figured out that John and Kelli had gone to get B.281(that’s a brush truck) from the fire department. When they got back we lit the fire but it wasn’t burning very well. Then John mixed diesel and gas and threw it on the fire. Then we watched the fire for a while and had a snack. After that we went inside and watched NASCAR and took B.281 back to the station. Then we went to Yankees Tavern and ate dinner and went to bed.

The next day we got the rest of the fence line cleared and went to the wind tunnel (at Texas A&M) and John showed us around . It was VERY interesting I liked the models especially. Then we went to Freebirds (a burrito restaurant) and ate there. Then we said goodbuy and went home.

Truman (mostly with a little help from Edward)

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