Celebrating Kyle's 23 years!

Today Kyle is 23!  Joanne and Dean are coming up tomorrow for a couple nights to visit and celebrate Kyle's birthday.  We are looking forward to their visit and the beautiful weather they are bringing with them!  I made Kyle's favorite, split pea soup, for lunch and we are going to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner, Anna's Thai Cafe, and watching the second Star Wars we have from netflix.  We watched the first Star Wars last week for my first time and I loved it! Last night Kellay and the Murray's had us over for dinner for Kyle's birthday and we ate Jamie Brie's delicious chicken pot pie and Kellay's pecan pie (which we also had with breakfast) and enjoyed the visit with them! To celebrate Kyle I am going to share about two things that Kyle has been loving lately:

1. Since Kyle took a blacksmithing class last fall he has been wanting to have a "Smithy" of his own.  Initially it seemed nearly impossible, however, bit by bit it has all come together: the anvil, the forge, building the shop, the gear and the final step was completed a few weeks ago when we went and bought some coal from a man in Pittsboro! Kyle has already been out hammering on the anvil a few times and has great plans for his future forging efforts.  The "Stenersen Forge" as it is properly named is directly behind our house.  We are looking froward to the future creations that will forged out there!  Here are some pictures:

Kyle working with the fire pot which is part of the forge

Turning the crank to blow air into the fire

Hammering on the anvil

2. We have been taking a beekeeping course once a week since January and are really enjoying it!  Lauren and Brad gave us a bee hive for Christmas which has given us a head start for all that we need to buy to begin beekeeping this spring.  We also applied for a cost share program through the class in which 18 families in Alamance County receive all the equipment for two hives for no cost and we got it! We are so excited that we were selected for the program and so thankful!  I still have a lot to learn and I am still not sure how I feel about working with the bees flying all around me, it will definitely bee (he) something I have to get used to.  Kyle on the other hand is pumped to be out working with the bees.  He has already read a book on bees and knows all their inner workings and is looking forward to the field day for class in March and to having our own bees and honey on Sunset Farms!

I am excited to see what God is going to do in and through Kyle this next year of his life. I am thankful for the joy and blessing he is to me and those around him, Happy Birthday Kyle!