Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A picture's worth a thousand words!

I must confess that I had been waiting to write another post until I had enough time to download some pictures from my phone. I wanted to be able to show you all how the barn project had gone. Unfortunately, I have not been able to accomplish this yet. It may be the beginning of next week before I have the time to get it done. I apologize for the lack of pictures in this update.
As I had shared with you, we had two weeks to tear down a barn that had been built in the 1800's. Karen was concerned that I was going to be fatally injured during this attempt. Praise the Lord, none of my injuries ended up being fatal. I am living proof!

The owner of the barn (I never found out his last name-I just call him Mike the barn guy) was so happy to see us start on the project right away, that he never mentioned the time frame again. I started the project on a Saturday by delivering scaffolding and ladders to the site, and 13 days later (seven working days), the barn was on the ground. Mike the barn guy (see?) has said however, that since the barn is on the ground, he is not worried about how long it may take us to haul it away. He has a new building going up the second week of May in the same spot that the barn stood so he just wanted to make sure that the spot was cleared.

I have paid more attention to old barns the last few weeks. After all, there is little else to do during the 120 mile drive. Some barns are in good condition and some look like they haven't been maintained for the last 80 years. I have found it a pity to see the number that are in disrepair. Every old barn has some history attached to it, and it is fun to look at the type of construction and speculate on the original use of the structure. As I have discovered, barns were built for practical purposes. They were not intended to just be decorative objects in the backyard. The style of barn can vary greatly depending on it's intended use.
The barn that we chose to tear down was mainly built for storing grain and hay. The ground floor had several built in grain bins but the entire loft was designed to store loose hay. There was also a milking station built into the north end on the bottom floor. As neat as all of this was, it was of no practical use to Mike the barn guy. He wanted a place to store his tractors, his boats, and his camper. He needs a free span metal building.

For those that haven't heard, the new use of the barn (after it is erected) will be as a home. I am not sure when construction will start, but I am looking forward to it! There are endless possibilities for layout. I can imagine the beauty of the great room with it's 30 foot ceilings and post and beam construction. I can imagine the old pulley and track system hanging from the ceiling which will allow furniture to be hoisted to the lofts. I can even imagine kids (and adults) in harnesses using the pulley as a zip line from loft to loft, soaring across the great room, kitchen, and dining room ceilings. I see decks suspended 16' off the ground projecting out the old hay mow door. I see a two story master bedroom with a balcony overlooking the main living area. I see the old wood floors refurbished as wall and ceiling wood. I can imagine the original sliding interior barn doors as bathroom pocket doors and bedroom or closet doors.
Can you picture it?

Wow, I'm excited just writing about it!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Lofty Ideas

Well,

As if I don't have enough going on already.

I had a friend telephone me about 4 days ago to ask my opinion about the feasibility of tearing down an old barn, moving it to another property (120 miles away) and putting it back up. The old barn he was referring to was built circa 1880. I told him that it was possible, not probable, but I would have to see it before I would know for sure. This prompted an invite to ride along with him last Tuesday in order to see the barn.
I accepted the invitation knowing that I would never recommend the attempt to tear down and relocate a 130 yr old structure.

To tell you the truth, I went along on the trip because there were some things that I wanted to talk to this guy about that had nothing to do with moving barns. As we were driving south and the dialogue turned to barns, I would humor him for a couple of minutes before steering the talk back to realistic (and important) topics of conversation. In this manner I was successful at fully sharing my valuable opinion concerning every other area of his life (The issues that prompted me to travel with him in the first place).

When we arrived at the barn site I got my first glimpse of an impossible task. This barn was 39 feet wide, 53 feet long and 3 stories tall. As I viewed it from the outside, I knew my job of forcing him to contemplate reality would be an easy one. No one in their right mind would attempt a job of that magnitude.
I respectfully followed him across the yard as we met with the owner of the barn. I quietly trailed along as he walked into one end of the structure and inspected the posts and beams. I meekly followed as he crawled into the hayloft and peered at the roof suspended 26' over our heads.

To be totally honest, I wasn't exactly quiet the whole time. I shared my opinion about the difficulty in taking down a roof that was perched 44' in the air. I shared my thoughts concerning the removal of the 4-8"x8" 44' posts that supported said roof. I shared my ideas regarding the impossibility of removing the wooden pins that pierced the mortises and tenons. I opined on the difficulty of removing 5,000 square foot of lap siding, and over 10,000 square foot of ship lapped 1x8's covering each wall and the hay mow floor. I spoke of the weight of the 39' floor joists, and the beams that held up the hay loft. I reminded my friend that everything would have to be done by hand. I reminded him that we were 100 miles from home and we had no lift, we had no cranes, we had no tractors capable of a job that size.

I broke in to the conversation again when the owner said that he would like the barn to be removed within two weeks. He had to know that my friend has a job and wouldn't be able to work on weekdays. That is the only reason I bothered to interrupt.

After all, if I hadn't spoken up, we may not have gotten the barn. Someone had to tell the owner that I would take next week off and we could get it done within his time frame!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

CAN IT!

Last Saturday my two youngest daughters participated in the Awana Games. Karen and I drove in to Papillion Nebraska in order to watch the competition. We sat in the bleachers along with several hundred other spectators and watched the kids run races around the Awana circle. It was quite a large operation as they had four circles in full operation. Despite some mistakes during the contest, our girls took first place against their opposing teams.

I must say that I was a little disturbed though at the opening of the afternoon games. As the kids filed in and sat with their respective teams, a man walked to the center of the gym with a microphone. He took the opportunity to welcome the children and their parents and then proceeded to share the gospel. I know that doesn't sound like something that should disturb me, however, with the kids all keyed up for the competition and the parents and grandparents waiting to watch the show, it seemed out of place.
No, "out of place" isn't the right word. It seemed trivial. Flippant.
As I looked around, the kids were thinking of the games. They had been in Awana all year. They had heard the gospel during times that were much less distracting. They weren't being bad, but they didn't perceive the seriousness of the message. Why then was the gospel being shared at that time?

The man giving the presentation sounded as if he were talking to children but he stated that the gospel was for the parents as well and asked them to listen too. In fact, I was left with the distinct impression that it was almost a trick. He was pretending to talk with the kids who had been in Awana all year but his intended audience was the parents. It made the gospel seem cheap, a canned message.

Should the presentation of the gospel be a gimmick? Am I being too hard on the people who put the program together? How serious should we take the presentation of the gospel message? Do people become callused to the message when it is something that we put them through when they are not willing participants? It was almost like dues that they had to pay in order to watch the game. Which reminds me, they had to pay a $3.00 entrance fee as it was.

I know that some of you are thinking that I am a little too judgmental. You are probably right. Yet there is more. I found out later that evening that the same thing had been done before the morning games. There was a difference however. The morning message was given by a woman. Her intended audience was everyone in the room as well. The children and adults alike.
Am I being too critical? It wasn't a church service. Women are allowed to share the gospel.

For you Calvinists, I know that in your mind no damage could be done. Or can it?

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Invested in Education

I looked up some information about Omaha Public Schools. Here is a link for a good place to start reading.
http://www.ops.org/district/CENTRALOFFICES/GeneralAdministrativeServices/BudgetPlanningandAnalysis/tabid/118/Default.aspx

I spent the last hour trying to copy some of the information that I found, but this blog would not support the format. I decided to retype it as a Word Document so that I could paste it. That format wasn't supported either. Now I have no time to retype it as a post because I have to take my girls to the Awana Games.

It is interesting reading though to see that the OPS budget is over $500,000,000 per year. It is also interesting to note that their cash on hand varies greatly depending on which investments they are in!

Friday, April 3, 2009

Money? What money?

About a month ago, our principal (at my Omaha Public School) called us to a meeting where he informed us that because of the "financial crisis" there were budget cuts for the school, and this would affect all of us to some degree, but we would get through it. He is after all, a very gifted leader, well-skilled in managing limited budgets due to previous experience. (At least that's what he tried to convince us of over the next few minutes.)
My immediate thought, of course, was... what does the "economy" have to do with school budgets? My understanding has been that the money used for schools was from taxes; not investments. Surely we haven't taken a big hit to our property taxes in Omaha, have we? In fact, the economy in Omaha is pretty much the same as it has been for as long as I've been living here, with the obvious exception of retirement investments.

Since that announcement, we've been getting word about multiple positions in the building being cut. Many teachers will be forced out of the building or into different grade levels or positions. I have already been informed that my position is one of those being cut.
So... maybe someone else can explain the whole thing to me instead. As far as we've been told, we've somehow lost lots of funding instead of new money being passed out.

Appealing

I have been hoping to have "Your Brother" post on this blog as well. I have asked him to help me keep this blog up to date. I love being able to write, yet sometimes I get so busy that it is difficult to get something posted on a regular basis. I know that for many of the readers if several days (or even weeks) go by with no updates, people get out of the habit of checking in. The purpose of this particular post is to encourage "Your Brother" to contribute.
This is a direct appeal.
Jon

Incidentally, I heard on the news yesterday that the bail-out money that is earmarked for education will not be evenly distributed among the schools in the state of Nebraska. I wonder what the teachers think of that?