Day 3: A Wondrous Wednesday of Work and Whimsy

This morning we awoke to the squawking of the guineas and the snorting of the horses. After slowly waking up and washing away weariness in the shower, we ate a hearty breakfast of egg casserole, donuts, fruit, and cheddar mashed potatoes. After a short fireside chat where we voted to have pancakes for breakfast Friday, we finally piled onto the luxurious school bus, chauffeured by Mr. Allen Speckhals, and headed off to a backbreaking day of labor. We, the master painting group, arrived at our sight with high hopes and big smiles. We quickly dispersed into different rooms to divide and conquer. The north side of the house was sided by Jon, Evan, and Hannah. The painting crew began work on the final room - the interior bathroom. MiKayla and Natalie put all the effort forward to complete this room quickly. Jessica and Everett began the second coat of paint on the soffits, as Kelsey, Talisa, and Torrie moved many rocks that were littering the yard. After the soffits were dry, the whole crew began and finished painting the south siding, a beautiful bronzed ivy color. Since most of the painting work was finished, most of the crew went to a local school to water their garden. The plan for tomorrow is to finish all of the painting inside and outside of the house. The fencing crew began their day joyously. We skipped all the way to the holes we had to continue to chisel. Little by little the rocks in our two foot holes disappeared. Soon we were mixing concrete and measuring, measuring, and more measuring. After marking out all the measurements with “straight” lines, we nailed the boards into place. Our fence was finally coming to life! After a refreshing lunch, we continued our wonderful day of labor. Hayley, Katie, Kirsten, and Jamie helped to mulch the children’s play set while the rest of the crew started to prepare the wood for the fence. Michael cut the wood with masterful precision as the students watched intently. Emma helped to haul scraps into a pile. Andrew and Cullen removed the nails from the stakes we had used the day before. It was hot, sweaty work, but we loved every second of it and couldn’t stop smiling. Soon Rebecca was recruiting members to go to the garden at the elementary school. Emma, Cullen, Tyler and Hayley reluctantly left their work at the fence sight to go water the plants. Seven members from the painting crew came along as well. It took a few extra moments to actually locate the garden, but once we did, we dived in head first. Soon the cold water was a flowin’ and the plants were drinkin’ it up. We watered all that we could and then left to pick up the other members. We arrived back at the ranch and proceeded to wash all of the dirt and sweat away and get spiffed up for a night at the carousel park. Mrs. Vieth cooked up a wonderful build-your-own taco bar and we had sodas and ice cream as a special treat. Then we loaded up and headed out to the carousel park where we met up with a religious group and shared fun times. Carousel park was a magical land of bumper boats, go-karts, mini golf, a Ferris wheel, and bumper cars. Ironically, the only carousel to be found was part of the kiddy rides and no one rode it. We proceeded back to the shack to finally use our pool after another nightly fireside chat. The crew told funny stories and then drifted off to sleep to rest up for another day of work.