Grade Beam

I heard a truck drive in this morning before I was up. The gate makes sure that everyone who is sleeping wakes up due to its abundance of squeaks and bangs. The trucks also drive right next to my window.

We have been receiving deliveries of brick, sand, and Hard core throughout the day. Abraham, one of our workers that I have really come to like, has been doing light duty; sanding and painting the front gate. He crushed his thumb the other day when the gate fell on it. The root of the nail is actually starting to come out.. He asked me the other day if I had a bottle that he could go and fill up with water, so he didn't have to go back and forth to the water tower to get a drink, I told him I would give him a water bottle that was unopened, so that he didn't even have to go to the tower to fill it. He gave me a warm response; “God blesses hands that work hard, so I will credit it as a blessing from God.” We have had a few visitors drive by checking out the progress. Our friends from Sweden, and also the family from Texas, whom I ate dinner with the other night. 

I spent most of the day in the Pump House. I originally went down to charge my iPad, and ended up getting tired of the mouse poop all over the place and did another deep clean. Oh, and by the way, that little mouse from the other night; chewed his way out of the box. I knew better...  should have finished the job when I had the chance. As revenge, he poops all over the place. 

I cleaned up all the tools, made a new charging station for the mums, fastened a new power strip to the wall, and I even installed a guard over the high voltage fuses that were sitting out in the open, beckoning to be touched. I could only think of my Grandpa when I was doing all these things. I have tools hanging, and I have seemingly done everything with some tie wire that we bought early on in the trip. I remember there was a closet under the stairs in my grandparent’s house. When you went in, every tool was hanging on something that was fastened to the wall. Nothing was uniform, everything was McGyver’d, however, each tool had it’s place and it was organized in his fashion.

The workers today have been setting forms for a grade beam that will distribute the load of the wall evenly over all of the “Hard Core” that was placed into the ditch. Once the grade beam is in place, the work will go quite fast. They will probably have that entire wall up within a week. 

The last couple of nights I have done my bucket bathing have not been as bad as I thought. I have done it before this trip, but I get used to my showers in a legitimate shower. Today I thought ahead and made myself a little solar water heater. I simply filled my little jug up with water, placed it in a black plastic bag, and set it out in the sun. It has heated up nicely. I am actually excited to bathe tonight.

It was super windy tonight. Some very dark clouds brought an early close to the day as the children gathered in one place to be lectured by Mum Tabitha. I didn't understand anything that was going on, so I went to continue what I had been doing. When I turned the corner the children began singing praises to God. It makes me pause and smile as I think about how sweet that sound is in God’s ears.