Church on Mars

Well, technically the Church is still in Grindstone City, Michigan, but the landscape has changed.

Early in the summer, I was excited to mow the church plot of land with the John Deere.

Green!

Then came the Big Heat! By the Party in late July, little green was left... except for the army green Party tent!

Summer '12: 23-50-70 Birthday Party

And then the road came in. First step in having a paved road:

What will be unearthed? Worms!

Progress and parking.

Check out the fancy cash I mean catch basin! 

So we're still in Grindstone landscape, albeit slightly modified. 

Then comes the Heat! As summer wanes to fall and then rushes into winter, the need for heat becomes real. The steamy hot hot summer becomes icy windy cold cold winter!

So we pried open our wallets and went with Geothermal heat. B and D were our contractors.

So we're gonna take the warmth from the earth, see....

First, we'll need more electricity. Dig 'er up, boys...

And inside?

New electrical boxes

Then come the pipes, underground, of course!
Dig 'er up, boys...

Now we're on Mars!

Here's the theory:

Here's the reality:

And the unit. This is what takes the warmth from the ground and transfers it to the church's environment. Likewise, in the summer it will take the cooler-ness of the earth and pump it back into the Church. The difference in temps will be made up by the electrical part of the unit, but heating from 55 (earth temp) to 65 is better than heating from 0 (air temp) to 65! That's the theory.

And though I thought about it for awhile, this is the best I could do to show you what heat looks like!!

But this is what heat feels like:

We did the right thing!

Workin' It.

Huff puff scrape scrape...

The season of summer slid right into fall, and still we are scraping and painting. I personally find scraping to be fairly therapeutic. I guess the boys think I need this therapy because they let me do it! With no interference.

Huff Puff blah blah blah...

Now since I am the author of this recorded history, I will not come out and say that I did most of the work this particular day. People might think that I'm biased. Instead, I will let the pictures speak for me.

How's it goin', boys? Just came in for a cool drink...

Back at it- me and the empty ladder.

But to be honest, we couldn't have gotten to the "next level" without the help of the scaffold; planned, gotten and set up by the menfolk. Without it, we couldn't have done this:

More than halfway! Yay!

And then there was the break in the action of the Annual Amazing Kinde Polka Fest.

Every year for seven years the families of Kevin Wiley (owner of the Kinde Pasta House)  Paul Fisher (owner of Grindstone's Rybak's Ice Cream opening spring of 2013) and Gerald Prill have enlisted the help of lots of local sponsors to put on the Thumb's most amazing Polka Festival.

After 7 years, Prill and Fisher are still going strong. Ignore the crazy eyes. 

It's grueling, but worth it.

We'll be Polish for the night.

Everyone's Polish tonight!

I helped hang the red lights. They stayed up the whole time!~ whew~

This awesome band played at Paul Fisher's daughter's wedding this summer, and they were back even more energetic, if that's possible. Three daughters on the fiddle, Dad and young son on the accordian, and other family members rounding out the group. So much fun!

Who stole the Kishka?

I didn't steal the Kishka, cause I'm not even sure what it is, but I did steal a kiss from my Polish hubby!

Mmm wahhh!

Whether we're working on the church

steady there...

or Polka-ing our butts off,

dang my arm is getting tired...

We're a great team, and surrounded by a community of hard working, hard playing folks. What more could you ask for?

The 2012 Kinde Polka Fest