Weekly Update: 10.7.23
The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.Proverbs 16:9, ESV
When I make plans or schedules, I'm always careful to hold them loosely, adding a Lord-willing as a caveat. This habit is especially needful in weeks like this one.
The weekend started out hopeful enough. After work on Saturday, we attended Stockton's Black Walnut festival. I had a headache, but managed to enjoy myself. By Sunday, my headache had turned into a migraine, so I spent most of the day resting in my hammock -- a treat I rarely indulge in. Jeremiah took advantage of the quiet afternoon to turn the old pool site into a pad for our outdoor ping-pong table. He bought the table as a family Christmas present, but we have hardly used it since we didn't have a good, level spot.
Both of my brothers were off work this week, and we plunged heartily into putting up our rafters on Monday. I shaped the boards and cut birdsmouths while my brothers put the rafters into place. We began by making a pattern, and to my delight, it fit. We were elated.
I copied the rafter onto another, cut it -- and it did not fit.
After some measuring and conferencing, we decided using a pattern wasn't accurate or really feasible for such large boards - made from 2x10's 20-feet long. I recut a rafter using my measurements, and this time it fit. We added some blocking, cut another rafter with the same exact measurements, and once again -- something was off.
This time, we realized the deficiency wasn't in the rafter but in the walls. They were each leaning out ever so slightly -- enough to cause a quarter-inch gap inside the top rafter birdsmouth. We took off the braces holding the walls in place and adjusted them, using a stringline along each wall to check for plumb. It was a tricky, tedious process, but we got the next rafter on. We repeated these steps for the next rafter. By then, it was getting dark, and we quit for the day.
The next day was full of similar issues. We alternated between pulling the walls in and pushing them out. Again, we completed only three rafters. It was a bit discouraging. Still, we were thankful to have made some progress. We quit early enough to get everything tarped for the coming rain, and we enjoyed a Jamaican-themed meal on what almost felt like a Friday night.
Then the next two days, it rained. Poor Grace fell down our tent steps on the first day, bruising her back badly. She had been carrying a large load of food back to the refrigerator, so she was a bit unsteady. She spent the rest of the week too sore to do much. Aside from her accident, the rainy days turned into a nice little break, as we rarely have recreation with all we need to do. We were all forced to slow down, and we got to sleep-in both days.
On Friday, we started on the rafters again. We were refreshed from our rest, and wind from the north blew in an almost chilly day. We started out in long-sleaved shirts, but by evening most of us donned jackets -- it actually felt like fall. The guys put up a section of half wall as well as six more rafters. I kept up with them cutting rafters and blocking. We sipped on a pot of mulled tea while we worked.
The invigorating weather boosted our moods, and we made more progress on Friday than we had all week combined.
We finished the night with a pot of hot soup, and then a warm fire in the tent. It was so delightfully cozy, we felt quite festive. I kept thinking about October last year, how we made the decision to take a break from the bunkhouse to build a wall tent. It had been a dream of decades -- but it turned into a bigger project than we anticipated. But as the cold weather blows in again, we feel assured that we made the right choice. We would love to be in our bunkhouse by the time winter proper arrives, but it's comforting knowing that we will be snug in our tent no matter what. We can trust God about delays and difficulties, knowing He has guided us into a good place. We have our plans, but it's so comforting knowing that God is, indeed, establishing our steps.
