Nathan & Nathan climbing ladders

I had been dreading the thought of painting the interior walls of the barn for months. The thought of cleaning it out masking windows and doors, and spraying some 3000 square feet of walls (walls that are 18 feet tall) overwhelmed me.  By myself I knew the job would take me several days and dozens of trips up and down tall extension ladders.  I wanted to do it, but thinking about the effort it would take kicked in that old enemy of progress, procrastination.

Last Christmas our son Brook announced his engagement to a girl we all love, Andrea Dotters.  He proposed and gave her a ring on Christmas Eve and the excitement and preparation of a June wedding went into motion, especially at the Dotters house.  Other than having the privilege of facilitating the service as the marrying pastor, my only real job was to prepare the barn for a rehearsal dinner here at Timber Butte.  The thought of the party was exciting and motivating, especially considering the blessing of the occasion and so even though the size of the task was challenging, the vision of what it was for spurred me on.

Several weeks before we had shoveled out a mountain of horse manure after a winter of accumulation (See entry #162) in preparation for the paint job we had scheduled for this past Saturday.  After a winter of thinking about it, the day had finally arrived.  I got together the paint and supplies needed and headed for the barn early last Saturday morning where I started to clean the walls of hanging tack and the floor and loft of tools, bales of left over hay, welding equipment and miscellaneous paraphernalia which had accumulate in the many nooks and crannies. After a couple of hours of prep work I was ready to start masking and fire up the airless spray rig to start painting. That’s when I heard the welcome sound of Nathan’s diesel pickup coming up the road.

As the pickup came to a stop two young guys jumped out eager to lend me a hand.   Not only did Nathan Harknes who had helped me do projects on two other occasions, but he brought Nathan Evans who had come over from an island in Hawaii to attend our VCOM school of Biblical Action.  They were a welcome sight and without delay we all got to work.  Later in the day Josh and Melissa Fishburne showed up after having run a thirteen mile half marathon that same morning and jumped in as well.  Nancy cooked a great meal for everyone keeping the moral high and by five o’clock that afternoon not only were the walls and stalls painted  but the spray rig was cleaned up and all the tack and other paraphernalia was hanging back on the walls again.   The barn looked more beautiful than I had expected and ready for the celebration we were all anticipating with excitement. It goes to show that the Amish people are right when they say, “Many hands make light work”.