The moving of the steel continued this morning. We got all of the pieces out of the way that we could. There is one pile of straight pieces that had not been used in the construction that extended over our property. A few spot welds had been used to keep them from being stolen. The thing is, they are so heavy that it is about impossible to steal them without a crane and a truck. I understand it was tried but was unsuccessful and a piece or two were just left on the side of the road. I’m willing to bet the Presbyterian church is fundraising in America to get money to repair the “disaster”. I wonder if they believe in divine intervention? Maybe their whole mess wasn’t such a good idea in the first place. Why not sell the bent scrap and get it out of there. It’s no good as it is. Fortunately, we moved all that we could without a major accident. The more you mess with the stuff the more you realize how dangerous what we were doing is. On the last piece when the team dropped it, it sprung and hit just above my knee. No major damage and it did leave a welt. If it had fallen on my leg it would have been the end of my leg.
At one point the Minister took me aside and showed me the architectural plans and we went up to see how the top floor was going to be constructed. We talked for awhile and I told him about Marie. He engaged me in prayer and basically asked God for a miracle. I appreciated his concern. Afterwards I thanked him but I told him that I accept that God’s will will be done and that I don’t feel that I have been forsaken. He told me that was a good attitude.
Each day at lunchtime a few people go out to the supermarket (yes, a supermarket) to get fresh food for lunch. Usually it is bread and cold cuts along with drinks and chips. This is great for the local hired workers because they don’t usually get fed on the job and we are glad to share.
Now let me digress. There are two people that are with the group that are 91 years old. One is Beanie from Lexington, KY and the other is Percy, a retired Baptist minister, from Dodge City, Iowa. They have both done these projects before. They are the lovable, elderly participants who inspire us to keep going. Unfortunately, they are intent on working so hard it almost embarrasses us. We have to hold them back from doing labor that is too intense. Percy scared the hell out of us when he was trying to help with the steel.
Anyway, today Beanie went out with some others to get the lunch provisions. When they got back Beanie carried in a sack of Cheetos that was almost as big as she is. Here’s proof:
Beanie with her bag of Cheetos. All we could do was shake our heads and laugh.
In the afternoon we started preparing for the digging of the trench that was needed to set footings for the perimeter wall. After a good amount of manual labor and grumbling we convinced Mike that a better use of resources was to hire a backhoe and get the digging done without us all breaking our backs. After that victory we busied ourselves with miscellaneous tasks around the project. Fortunately, for the most part the rain held off. This is the rainy season so it was chancy to come here at this time of the year but at least we got two good days in.