Foundations

Things are starting to take shape on the farm.... Literally. The shape of the first foundation is in!! When I tell people we only have until November 30th to turn a piece of pasture into a finished home, their typical response is a wide-eyed, slow head nod accompanied by an “ Oh, wow” said with enough inflection that it can barely hold all the doubt that it was intended to.

What I usually withhold from those conversations is the detailed plan on how it happens. It is good practice not to show people everything you have, when it comes to a challenge or competition. “Just enough to win”. But for the purposes of this blog, I’ll make an exception.

For the foundation portion of the build I’ve enlisted the help of a former student turned contractor, Elton Kruse. He’s running point on both the slab foundation for the Mother-in-law cottage and the basement of the big house.

I love sharing space with Elton, even if that space is 110 degrees with no shade while performing manual labor while I flirt with heat stroke.

Back to the topic at hand, FOUNDATIONS.

As I’m on the working end of a shovel scratching out final grade in the trench, watching Elton run heavy equipment with the precision of a brain surgeon in preparation for setting forms,

pouring footings and walls, the stamped concrete of the front porch and the driveway I can’t help but feel a huge sense of pride, knowing that I had the honor of being a small part in laying the foundation on which he has built an impressive resume of work in a very short time. I won’t take more credit than I’m due ( even though I’d like to). To steal a line my Dad used to use “ He’s from good stock”.

In the span of 2 short weeks there will be a house foundation poured, ready for framing to start, a 32’ x 40’ concrete floor in part of the barn which will become my shop and the driveway installed to allow for heavy truck traffic bringing materials.

It wasn’t lost on me that 6 years ago when I met Elton, our roles were reversed.

I was the instructor, the content expert, and he was the guy trying to take it in and make sense of it all. Now he’s hitting his stride, operating at warp speed doing exceptional work and I’m support staff, at best, splitting my time between trying to keep up with him and allowing myself the time to appreciate the “changing of the guard” that is happening.

His first basement will be my last, and I’m okay with that, because I know the foundations are strong, his,mine and the ones we’re building together.

But the foundation that makes all of this possible; the farm, the house build, me becoming a teacher, this blog, can be traced back to my wife, Becky. We have been married for 13 years and

in that time she has created a space that allows me to look beyond myself and explore the “why” of things. Before she came into my life I was two things, angry and self absorbed. Now, thanks to her, I have the luxury of reflecting on and analyzing how I got here and how to make it better moving forward. She indulges me and all of my plans (AKA pipe dreams) with a level of trust, patience and support I found forign at first but have come to understand as true unconditional love. I’m not trying to oversell anything here, I’ve still got some demons to conquer but the foundations are in, let’s start building on them!!