After months of predictability our travel schedule to Zavalla has been a bit wacky lately. Obviously calendars mean nothing to me. I walk by the ray of the sun and the sound of the wind. Well, in simpler and more accurate terms- I travel when my work and personal schedule allows, so we get to Zavalla when we get there. Enough of that.
I post quite often on the topic of our Shanty Rebuild. I also share pics and rebuild stories with the folks I work with and I often get asked how in the world do I know how to frame walls, install windows, build a roof, run electrical, install plumbing, you know, pretty much build a house. After I snicker at the lesser men I fess up and tell them about my dad. From the time I was a kid when he built my first workbench out of an old BBQ pit (You should have seen this thing. It had wheels and a very cool pegboard to hang my tools) to helping me build my first house while in my 20’s, My dad taught me to use tools, plan a job, regroup after the job doesn’t go as planned, and all the other things needed to finish the job.
Lucky for me, this weekend my mom and dad made the trip to our shanty. Together we knocked out our first ever PEX plumbing job, installed a water filtration system, and somehow survived a blistering day that was about as hot as East Texas can get. You know what they say, If the heat doesn’t get ya then you are probably sitting in the air conditioning. Well, it got me. It’s 24 hours later and I am still recovering. Am I to old for this?
Thanks to my Dad’s efforts this weekend, and somehow getting me to this point in life, the project is coming along. A functional toilet (we have been filling it with a bucket of water), clean water to the house (UV protected and everything) and a near miss with heat exhaustion. All in all short but productive weekend. Final thought. My beautiful bride Paula and I are doing most of the shanty rescue ourselves but the way I see it we are not doing it alone. Through generational learning, and love and support from family, this is the project that Paula and I built with my father. What a wonderful thing to be able to say.