OK, I've been totally lax in posting. But now it's above freezing (in fact, today was pleasantly sunny and t-shirt warm) I can update the world on events in Alabama...
We've been building! having started this week with merely our foundations and all-important termite shields, we've managed to get nearly our whole floor platform done. It's starting to look like a house might actually happen. Everyone's understandably very excited about the progress we've made, though in my impatient way I still think we could have done it faster. But then, we all know very little about what we are doing, and we do keep nearly making stupid errors, so perhaps less haste, more speed is an apt proverb.
Building a house here is a bit of a spectator sport - everyone with any relation to your client comes round to visit, add their tuppence-worth of advice and help out a bit. Larry Junior (her 17 yr old great-grandchild) has been a regular presence, coming after school to talk about hip-hop, hold the end of a 2-by and occasionally wield a hammer. Perry and Larry Senior also come round nearly every day. Not to mention other Rural Studio folks, visiting critics and general traffic. There's nothing worse for your hammering skills than having a local redneck who knows how to do everything breathing down your neck while you try to toenail a joist, but it does make it feel like a communal enterprise and it's good to be making progress so they can se that we're actually doing something...
I've been alerted that some of y'all want some pictures of me in action so here's us, nailing our girders, and my jeep , being filled with random stuff at Hale Country Supply, and our platform, as of 5pm this afternoon.
We probably would have got all our floor sheathing on today if it hadn't been for a lunchtime gathering in honour of Fred, one of the inmates who works on day release at the Rural Studio, who is getting out on parole and thus leaving us. It was grilled sausage and burgers and cake and icecream all round (and a sneaky beer) and somewhat delayed the start to our afternoon session.
Well, tomorrow's my big day in terms of our gig at the Tannehill Opry House, so I'd better leave off and get practising my fiddlin'...
We've been building! having started this week with merely our foundations and all-important termite shields, we've managed to get nearly our whole floor platform done. It's starting to look like a house might actually happen. Everyone's understandably very excited about the progress we've made, though in my impatient way I still think we could have done it faster. But then, we all know very little about what we are doing, and we do keep nearly making stupid errors, so perhaps less haste, more speed is an apt proverb.
Building a house here is a bit of a spectator sport - everyone with any relation to your client comes round to visit, add their tuppence-worth of advice and help out a bit. Larry Junior (her 17 yr old great-grandchild) has been a regular presence, coming after school to talk about hip-hop, hold the end of a 2-by and occasionally wield a hammer. Perry and Larry Senior also come round nearly every day. Not to mention other Rural Studio folks, visiting critics and general traffic. There's nothing worse for your hammering skills than having a local redneck who knows how to do everything breathing down your neck while you try to toenail a joist, but it does make it feel like a communal enterprise and it's good to be making progress so they can se that we're actually doing something...
I've been alerted that some of y'all want some pictures of me in action so here's us, nailing our girders, and my jeep , being filled with random stuff at Hale Country Supply, and our platform, as of 5pm this afternoon.
We probably would have got all our floor sheathing on today if it hadn't been for a lunchtime gathering in honour of Fred, one of the inmates who works on day release at the Rural Studio, who is getting out on parole and thus leaving us. It was grilled sausage and burgers and cake and icecream all round (and a sneaky beer) and somewhat delayed the start to our afternoon session.
Well, tomorrow's my big day in terms of our gig at the Tannehill Opry House, so I'd better leave off and get practising my fiddlin'...
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