On Friday November 29th, Josh and Laura arrived to our country bungalow just before 1pm. Katie and Andrew had arrived on Thursday afternoon driving from the Coast. After we all had a hot bowl of Dear’s famous Tomato Rice Soup with Granny Great’s rolls we headed out to man our winches to lift the center trusses. It was very cold. This building is going to be Dear’s Shop. A place for our larger equipment and Dear’s truck and other projects.

4 people cranking to cadence set by another one of us. Slowly but surely the trusses gained height. The three of us gals took turns with our crank.

We raised the trusses up to about 10 inches shy of reaching the notches where they would rest and had to call it a day. The trusses were secured with blocks of wood and chains and and straps and we came inside to get warmed up and have a thrown together meal of pasta, ravioli, and steamed broccoli. We would wait until Saturday to do the final raising.

Saturday morning after a hot bowl of oatmeal we headed out again to lift the trusses the final 10 inches. At this point Katie noticed some fraying of one of the cables.  We halted and the guys put their heads together to fix the problem.

New cable was added and we manned our stations again to continue lifting but then…

…disaster! We didn’t notice that the cable on this side had frayed and after a fatal crank it snapped and the truss came crashing down landing on one of the splash boards. Thankfully the cable just swiped Joshua’s arm and no one was hurt. Now heads would have to come together again for a solution. The girls went inside for intervals to start work on our post Thanksgiving meal.

To lighten the mood we did a little jump roping. We did a lot of praying and asked God to give the guys a solution that would work for the trusses to be raised and secured. We also called on some prayer warriors to pray along with us. The girls went inside again for more Thanksgiving meal preparations.

We introduced Addy to the art of putting marshmallows on top of the buttered and brown sugared yams.

JJ enjoyed watching. Jamie took Addy and JJ home for their naps and would return later in the day for our Thanksgiving meal.

Did I mention it was really cold?

After hours and a double winch/cable solution from a different angle it looked like we were just about there.

The girls watched and prayed.

Hallelujah! One last adjustment and all went into place in the notches and it was now time to secure each end to the posts. That would take a while so the girls went inside to continue on our meal and get warmed up singing praises to God all the way into the house and for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Laura and Katie headed to Super 1 for some Brussels Sprouts and bacon to add to our meal and were happy for that short distraction after all the stress of the day.

The turkey came out brown and beautiful. Our meal together was one filled with more thanksgiving that you can imagine. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, candied yams, Brussels Sprouts with bacon, and Granny Great’s rolls. While Addy and JJ napped Jamie made a dairy free pumpkin pie to add to her apple pie for our dessert.

Before we ate our pie we were also grateful to be able to celebrate Laura’s upcoming birthday with a special gift from all of us. She adds so much care and love to our family and we are all thankful to God for her. Happy birthday dear Laura. You are precious to us.

This was a very long post but it represents two very long days of labor in freezing temperatures. There was joy, disaster, grief, perseverance and then ecstatic praise and relief for a final good result. We are so grateful for the help from Josh, Andrew and the girls. Gramps couldn’t have done it without us all pitching in together.

We were sad that Dan, Addy and JJ’s dad, had to miss out on this two day adventure.

Thanksgiving decor is all put away and I’m slowly bringing out the Christmas decor. Josh and Laura left on Sunday and Katie and Andrew left on Monday.