What a difference a year makes.

It happens at different times for different reasons, but most of us reach a point where our values shift and what seemed important just doesn't anymore.

Summer 2010

Winter 2011

The smile says it all!

Board, but not Bored

So besides the furnace ouster last weekend, we also kept ourselves from being "board"...

Using old electric cords to bundle ceiling planks

by cleaning up the sanctuary, but not before trying out the art in the new venue. 

This is gonna be good...

Off with the carpet!

Well those wires are a hot mess...

Sharing the vision with daughter Eva...

....pretty sure these aren't "hot"...

...pretty sure this piano's dead...

...pretty sure this church is going to be awesome...

Friend Duane was up with more freshly turned bowls and a check for the barn...

Coming soon to Grindstone City...Duane's Wood Shop!

The Ascetic

The art looks great, with or without the finished gallery. I'm so lucky to have such beautiful art  hanging up around my house. I think some people shy away from art because they are unsure of how to react- or how to think or what to say about it. But painting, like music, dance, and other arts, can touch something in you that doesn't need thoughts or words. This hand of an Indian ascetic, holding the prayer beads, buried in the sand, is such a vision of hope and devotion to me that it just touches me every time I look at it.

I'm sure that's what these two were discussing...

...furnace needs to go...

So that's the other part of the weekend. Family fun with Eva and Jack her boyfriend, Pat and Duane, and of course, the Don, Paul Fisher. 

The Don poses...

St. Michael and his seraphim

Blue Shadows

I'm just in love.

Lofty

From A Distance

And across the lane, the Peer House. Beautiful!

Frosty

We are blessed to be able to resurrect the old Church and hopefully the spirit of the folks who toiled and lived here. 

Furnasty

So there was the giant old furnace in the church.

Giant Old Furnace

 It's gone.

Gone Gone Gone!

Thank goodness for the burliness of men. I don't know how else to describe them, those descendants of the finest ape specimens.

Ok Boys, on t'ree

They heaved, and they grunted, and it moved.

Arrrrgghhh

Uggggghhhhh

OOOFF!

All's well that ends well...

A Thing of Beauty

Standing Proud

The windows have their own language.

Trinity

Friends and Neighbors

Who's that sneaking around back, hooking up... ELECTRICITY???  Power? Lights? All that comes with the modern age?

Far out! Electricity is surely on the checklist. Light, heat, and TUNES!

But nature is still in charge. Look at the beautiful art it makes on the INSIDE of the window!

 

Friends and soon to be neighbors were up to help with demolition. Thanks so much, Duane and Pat. They will be Grindstone Corners neighbors soon! 

Pat taking off molding

Duane helping to de-nail lumber

Another building that needs love!

The Barn Door is ...closed for now! But not for ever...Pat and Duane are going to bring it back to life. A Wood Shop. Wood, metal, stone.

Can cute get any, gosh, cuter?

So work progresses, even at night now. The ceiling tiles were held up by piles and piles of very nice, very expensive lumber! 

$5-$6 a piece! American!

Wood chair!

Happy Church!

New Friends and Neighbors across the street are renovating Captain Peer's place, but it's not mine to reveal: 

The Old Peer Building

It's going to be awesome, though, and I can't wait till it opens! Ice Cream, candy, and toys! Just for starters...

Meanwhile,  back to work...

I know how to use a hammer.

The Pursuit of Happiness

This is a man inspired.

We need a dumpster.

Hey, when the ceiling came down,

...the Bible got a ding!

He heard a voice and found a church.

Fix walls, sand the floors, electricity, furnace, paint inside and out...

Tile pile:

A man walks his own path...

Where the HECK is my pry bar?