Those Becker Boys! by nicole

Daniel, in his yard
Troy, making an Advent wreath with his son
Trent, trimming a tree the day before Ila was born

(and you wonder what put me into labor!)

We've been busy, busy, busy! I guess with warmth, comes work, which is fine by me! You may have heard about our little project replacing the front lawn of cheat grass and weeds with real grass. Well, like most Becker projects, a small project has become a big project. Trent, my darling Becker husband, has many things in common with his dad and his brother and this is one of them.

Now, when I say that small projects become big projects it's never, to my knowledge, been to poor planning. No, the Beckers know how to plan. I would say that the reason this usually occurs is that once they start the planned project, the potential of the area becomes much more apparent to them. So, in this specific situation, Trent saw that the lawn needed redone, and he made a game plan, but as he went to work on the plan, the yards potential grew and grew and grew! So, now instead of just a plain old green grass with a flower bed(which would have been nice), Trent has started a beautiful rock wall, build another wall with railroad ties and it's going t have 2 flowerbeds and wine barrels as planters (which is even better!). I'm pretty excited about the whole project, and helping with it is sure fun, as is watching my man dig holes, carry super heavy rocks and put his sweat into it.

I think of this whole process as quite artistic. All three Becker boys seem to have a strong urge to work with their hands, and create something useful and aesthetically pleasing, whether it be a yard, a house addition, a house remodel, a paper mache project, a toy chest, candle holders, tile work, a tree etc. This list goes on and on, but I'm always amazed at what these men produce, and find it to come together like a beautiful painting, or statue, or cathedral. It may be a bit messy in the process, and you can usually count on it taking a bit longer then planned, but the outcome has always been worth it!

Another thing I think is worth mentioning is the skills list that Trent, Troy (his brother) and Daniel (his dad) have together. I'm pretty sure that together they are the most useful set of hands you could ever ask for, which means that they are pretty darn useful on their own as well (So useful that Daniel started his own business doing these things and he is the best Handy Man you could hire in the Magic Valley Area). Just off the top of my head, I can think of all these things that at least one of them can do, without an instruction manual (and usually if one knows how to to it, the others have a darn good idea of it as well).

Farming

Running tractors, and other farm equipment

Fixing/keeping that equipment running

Landscaping

Sprinklers

Tree trimming, care & removal

Tile work

Wood flooring

Carpet installation

Plumbing

Foundation building & repair

Sheet Rocking

Painting

Roofing

Window installing

Electrical stuff

House building (yes, they can build an entire house from the ground up!)

General car maintenance

Tire changing (I've found this one particularly useful)

Wood art

Moving (like professional movers, for real)

Math Problems (this one may seem out of place, but it's not, at all!)

Furniture building

Now, that may seem like a long list, but I'm most certain that I missed a bunch. But really, you get the idea, my husband and his father and brother are amazing. AND that list is limited to just repair & building and whatnot. I didn't even mention their sweet card/game playing skills, their awesome diving and swimming, their father/uncle/brother/grandpa-ness of awesomeness, or anything like that. I didn't tell you that they are human jungle gyms to kids, they can fold a cloth diaper and put it on a baby, and know quite a bit about breast feeding (not from personal experience) and how to care for a sick baby. And how they are just all around fun, loving, fun loving, hard working, good looking, good people!

Trent and Troy covered in Camille Lotion (bad case of poison ivy, playing chess, while Daniel looks on

I'm sure blessed to be in this family! And not just for the sweet skills of its members! And (as if you needed a cherry on top) I didn't even tell you about my other brother-in-laws skills (and one of them is a Mechanic and the other studying to be a Doctor)! I can't even begin to start on the skills of the women in the family right now either because boy howdy would that be a long list!

I'll make sure you get to see the finished product of our yard once it's done...even though I'm not sure we too before pictures....