Evacuation and other Excitement

At the Goodland museum Cop Exhibit

Eli the Cop

Evie the Cop

A couple weeks ago, my mom and I were working in the basement when we heard a lot of pounding.  I went outside and saw a backhoe hitting the pavement in the bank parking lot next to our house with its digger.  I got Eli and we sat and watched the backhoe for a while.  As it turns out, whacking the pavement with a digger isn't the proper way to remove a section of a parking lot.  Because we had to evacuate soon after.  It seems they broke a gas main right there.  My mom's house was in the evacuation zone also, so we all ended up out of the streets (for 5 whole hours).  We went to the local museum, then out to dinner and finally over to the Methodist church which was setting up for the "evacuation victims."  It was so surreal.  The pastor came over and asked us how we were doing, in such a nice and sympathetic tone.  He asked how the kids were holding up, too.  Our two crazy kids who had found another kid to play with and were having a ball, they probably thought this the best day ever.  Yeah, I think they were fine.  And we had only been out of the house a few hours, we weren't like those poor people on the east coast right now.  The Red Cross came and asked us to fill out paperwork with blanks like "Pre Disaster Address."  It was so silly.  These resources are meant for people in way worse situations than leaving their homes for an evening, I mean some people take longer shopping trips than our evacuation.While the Red Cross was explaining that they had set up hotel rooms for us, the gas company people gave the all clear, so that was it.  That was our entire harrowing evacuation story.

The children's section in the upcoming bookstore!

In more exciting news, we are making a lot of progress right now. Three weeks ago, I called everyone on the list of licensed contractors in Goodland for the fourth time.  And one actually came out!  He built the dividing wall between our living space and the store!  Now you can really see how the spaces will look.
And some students from Northwest Technical College are coming out and running all of our new wiring as well as bringing the old wiring up to code.  We only pay for materials and the students get real world experience, so it is really great.  Now if we could only think of a good bookstore name... Got any suggestions?
 

And we finished our penny floor finally, here is our bathroom floor. 

Jobs

Okay, I don't know how to break this to you, so I will just say it:
Jordan got a job.
Jordan starts next Monday as the Director of IT for the City of Goodland.  He is very excited.  Part of his new job will be to implement new technologies around town and he is psyched about it.
I feel a little torn because my vision of our moving here would be us working side by side.  Now he will be working at the city building and I will be running the household, homeschooling the kids and running a bookstore.  We will hire someone and can afford to pay them with Jordan working, so don't join in my pity party :)
There has been a major change in our focus with this job though.  Now we don't have to have this bookstore sustain us, we can focus on giving Goodland what it needs.  A community place to hang out and have a coffee and chit chat.  We don't have to create a bookstore that is jammed to the rafters with books, we want a relaxing cafe atmosphere (with books).
Here is what one area of the future store looks like now:

Just add books

Entry way

These are some old stained glass windows we found at thrift store that are cool:

3 stained glass windows

We got something completed!

Okay, that might not sound like much. We've been here for more than 2 months, but finally a project is complete!
This weekend we finished  building the window wells for two of the three egress windows we need in the basement.  Instead of doing two small wells, we decided to build one long well with stairs and a topper.
Yeah, before you ask, we are crazy.

We dug out the area right after we first moved in, but then have been waiting for the contractors to come and put in the windows.  When they came and put the first and biggest one in, they told us we didn't really have to wait.  So we started!

We build the wall out of cement blocks, then covered them with Quikwall,  it is a look I am sure every Arizonan is well acquainted with.

Our bedroom window, now code compliant

I think it looks pretty good, but for us it is more than that.  We have been working on each project only to a certain point and then stopping and waiting for this professional or that item to be shipped to us.  Now we feel like we really have turned a corner and are able to start completing what we start!! 

Sometimes all you need is that one thing to get motivated!  

View from inside our future bedroom

The Dreams of Children and the Careers of Adults

What is with kids these days?  Have you asked a teenager recently what they want to be when they grow up?
I know,  I know, it disgusts me too.  "Business man," they say; or "nurse," "truck driver" or "salesman." I mean goodness gracious.  What a bunch of wimpy dreams.  Where are the astronauts and artists?  The business owners or writers?
Ask a child want to be when they grow up?  I knew a genius boy once who graduated high school at 8.  He told me he wanted to be an astronaut, flutist and, also, compose specifically for the flute (I understand there is a lack of flute music in the world). 
My daughter said she wants to be a doctor then, when she's done with that, a ballerina.
And my teenage cousin wants a job that pays well.
When does this change?  As children we want the world, and we think we can get it.  At some age, we internalize the notion that we just need money.  The best we can hope for is a job that pays tons and we actually like.    I would literally weep if I asked my 6 year old what her dream was for the future and she said "Stability."

I've got big news for every parent out there.  Your child was made for more than to plug into the system and make some money in order to be self reliant via consumption.
What a waste of potential for us all to be held back by fear and practicality.   There is no greatness in stability- it is in the wilderness that we find God.

So I am going to take some time this week to listen and encourage those around me with the courage to tell their stupid, crazy, lovely dreams for life.  And I hope you do too.

On the other side, do you have something great and stupid you should be doing?  Does your child have a wonderfully idealistic, impossible future plan?

Found Things

There is a great thing about buying an old church that no one ever told me about...tons of weird stuff that was left behind. Here are some highlights:

Puppet Robot, it's mouth actually moves when you pull the block on the bottom

A sword

Termites, don't know why the church wanted those :)

Old costumes, thrones, fake pillars and tons of flower arrangements

My childhood.  This wasn't actually left at the church, but  I was wondering what happened to it, turns out my mom still has it in a box with taxes and travel.

The sword again because it is cool

and Professor Owl, of course

Our first month

It is July!  We are coming up on one month in this place.  It has gone by in the blink of an eye.  Most of what we have accomplished is demolition, so it probably actually looks worse now than when we started.  But sometimes life is like that.  You've gotta break some things down to start building again.

Before

Here was the stage.  This took us so long to pull up.  It turned out the top part of the stage was made of the hardwood floor, which we decided to keep.  It is awesome cedar wood, but to remove it without ruining the tongue and groove took 2 days.  The bottom part was simply particle board so we thought we would quickly cut though it and junk it all.  

Sadly there was a electrical cable running it that Jordan cut.
 After spending the  morning fixing that, we were able to disassemble the rest.

After

Our other big accomplishment was taking down the walls separating the bathrooms.

This was an adventure mainly because you have no idea how the people before you did anything.  So you see a wall that is not structural, that's 2x4s don't even make it up to the floor joist above and you think "that will be easy to take down". Little do you know that the drywall on the ceiling has been strangely nailed only to this floating wall.  And when you cut though a beam, the ceiling will start to fall down on you.

After the sagging ceiling debacle, Jordan used his step-father's reciprocal saw to remove the studs.And hits the copper pipe.  

After

Cut pipe next to board

So that is enough about our screw ups.  We also had a really cool moment.  As I was pulling down the sagging drywall in the bathroom, Jordan said "A book just fell out of there!"

I laughed and said "Yeah right."  But then looked down and saw this book there.  Opening it up we found it was a family bible that they put up there while remodeling.  Very cool. 

"This Bible placed in this church, January 4, 1969 while remodeling the bathrooms.  Bible given to me by children of Jacob Chauncey and Eva Beckner following their deaths.  Pastor Loren (Something)  The Wesleyan Church"

Homeschool lessons from home improvement projects

You can learn and teach in virtually any setting.  But from all this DIY construction we are doing, our kids have gotten to learn some very important lessons.
1. What is Tetanus.
2. What colorful language not to repeat.
3. That the Chinese consider the cricket good luck so mom does not need to chase down and remove every single one from the house.
4. What is cartilage and why Mom's knees creak so much.
5. There is a fast way to do things (Mom's) and a "right" way to do things (Dad's)
6. What is that weird thing we dug up? Cicadas, earth worms, coal...

And the lessons are just continuing!