Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Raising the Barn - Part 1

We are so blessed to have our church family!  There are many godly men in this group who have reached out to help my boys.  The boys and I spent two days working with a gentleman from church on our "falling sky".   Well, truthfully, I handed people tools, took pictures and cooked the meals....the boys and John worked.  I can't tell you what a wonderful learning experience this was for my boys....and John made it lots of fun...as you'll see!

The first thing we needed to do was to build a beam.  John told the boys that Yahweh always provides and all we needed to do was pray and look.  So, they did and began to scout around the farm for the wood needed to fix the problem.  We found almost everything necessary.  We were shy some hardware and two posts which John graciously blessed us with.....thank you John!!!

Here's my crew carrying a board up from the lower barn to the upper barn with John.

First board!

They scouted around some more and found other boards...the goal...to put them together and make a huge beam that would support the milking parlor ceiling/hayloft floor filled with bales of hay this summer.

First the milking parlor had to be readied - the feeding troughs had to be removed - they would be in the way.  There are two troughs and they slide in and out on a rail.  Although, technically, ours haven't been able to slide for years...too much weight bearing down on them and clamping them to the floor.

One down and one to go!

Checking the boards to find the crown.......

Will it work?

The really neat thing about John and this project...rather than whip through something I am sure he was capable of doing in less time...he took the time to teach and mentor the boys.  My boys love John....he's a godly man, he's a perfectionist in his work and he also believes in having fun and enjoying fellowship while you work.   You'll see that in some of the pictures!  His conversation was always laced with teaching from the Word and life application.  My boys learned a lot more than construction how-to's from John and they enjoyed every minute!

Then began the building of the beam...measure twice, cut once....John ingrained that into the boys that day.

Measure twice...cut once!

Laying the boards out to build a beam from them.

Beam in progress

Indiana Jones preferred a whip but he's got nothing on John with a hammer!

Indiana Jones?

Or even two!

Double Jeopardy!

Beam is built and now it is time to hoist it into place...

The home made beam!

The boys held the beam while John placed the fasteners.

Holding steady!

Next step...jacking up the beam and placing the support posts....and there we hit a small glitch!

Join me next time to see how they overcame the glitch, find out about the GIANT sledge hammer and how it came into being, and see our finished project!

Please remember John in prayer this week.  He is in Nicaragua on a mission trip.  He will be helping a team of Christian doctors who are building a clinic and orphanage there. They desire to minister to children born with deformities of various kinds.  Normally, these are children who are abandoned or thrown into dumpsters to die.  These doctors are surgically correcting the deformities and then the orphanage is helping to place these children into loving homes.

Blessings,

3 comments:

  1. I so glad you are getting that fixed!!

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  2. What a blessing to have this work done -- and someone to show your sons how to do it! Those hands on experiences are the best.

    I have a friend who just returned from a missions trip to Nicaragua; they were helping to build a new school.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a wonderful experience for your boys! And you!

    We will pray for John as he ministers in Nicarauga.

    ReplyDelete

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