September 7, 2020-Barn Raising (Day 1)

(click here for today's pictures)

• People were moving in the house this morning before me, so I didn't last too long in the bed. Before 7, Robby had taken Anderson and Graham to Pops' house to help him pick up sticks.
• The dishes, laundry and cleaning the bathrooms were the first things on my list tomorrow. I was well down my list-even working on making 3 pans of brownies when Campbell and Keaton woke up.
• Soon after that, I was waking up Reagan to take her to Grannymom's house for their sewing adventure. Keaton had been working on her school all morning, but decided to go with Reagan to Grannymom's house.
• The boys were back before I left with the girls. They enjoyed helping Pops and also enjoyed the doughnuts that he bought for them.
• Meanwhile, the party started here before 8-Wes drove down on his tractor, the others all arrived in their trucks (Robby needs a truck-not a minivan!). Things were going pretty well this morning-the holes were being dug quickly and then nothing was happening.
• They had a root, I guess, and the auger got stuck/broke. Getting it out of the ground took a while and did finding the part. The goal was to finish the posts today, and they did around 6 tonight.
• I picked up lunch for the crew and even dropped the girls off at the pool. I put a lot of miles on the car but I also put a lot of steps in today. I tried to help the men folk outside, but I really couldn't do anything to help.
• Graham and Campbell did help a lot though. Campbell was the water girl-turning it on and off while Graham worked pretty hard too-hard enough that he had a blister earlier on in the morning.
• Moving those posts was pretty difficult. At one point, a post moved looking like it was falling towards my Graham-that boy jumped out of the way. The post didn't fall, but I was super pleased with Graham's hustling. I think that they had a few times that the posts look like they were about to fall, but just one time when a post almost fell.
• The families started arriving around 5- and we really all just stood around watching the guys finish the last 2 posts. By 6, they were done so Jennifer helped me start on the burgers.
• I already had everything ready except for the meat-except then the grill didn't really work very well. Ha! It took an extra 30 minutes, but soon the burgers were cooked, most of the men had put on clean clothes and everyone was enjoying Labor Day.
• It was a fun evening-everyone was there. The kids enjoyed playing, and we even celebrated one of the Dad's birthdays. I guess the dads were all tired because folks started leaving around 8 or so. 
• Shannon helped me pick up the food, and they stayed longer. Before bed tonight, we did pick up the yard briefly and then some work in the house before it was finally time for bed-tomorrow is a busy day too!