Our Neighbors' Big Summer Project

One of the extra-fun things we did this past summer was spying on our neighbors.  :)

Oh, they knew we were doing it.  In fact, they welcomed it!  You see, they were having a new barn put up-and even more exciting, their old one torn down--and they knew how interesting it would be for the folks (especially the little ones) from my side of the lane to watch the process.  :)

Many mornings, we would be halfway listening for the sound of heavy equipment; and if we heard trucks or tractors or saws or anything of the sort, our ears would perk up, and we would head across the yard to see what was going on.  As a result, we got to watch a tall tree being cut/knocked down (and the kids got to climb all over that downed tree before it was cut up and hauled off), a small garage building being knocked down, holes being dug, huge dirt piles being moved (and of course, the boys loved to climb on those), cement being poured, rafters being raised, old beams being taken down, and so much more.

We sure do appreciate all the free entertainment the neighbors provided for us during the summer of 2015!  :)

Because they are Old Order Mennonite and resist most modern technology, I refrained from taking pictures...well, until one certain day when the old barn was being knocked down and I happened to peek through our pine trees and see this beautiful scene.  :)

 A snap or two of the camera wouldn't hurt, right?  :)

 I didn't plan to ever share those pictures (or even, truth be told, reveal that I had taken them).  ;-)  But when Douglas, our neighbor, mentioned to me that he would really be glad if I could take some pictures of the new and old barns, I had to laugh.  Of course I'd be more than happy to do that for him.  :)

Here is the new barn, with adequate room for their three horses, their buggies, their bikes, plenty of hay, a wonderful room for doing messy work like preparing corn for freezing and butchering a deer (like we did together this past week), and other storage...

 ...and next to it, the remains of the old barn.

 And when I say "old barn," I mean REALLY old barn.  I don't think I'm wrong when I say it was well over 100 years old.

 We were fascinated by the skill of this machine operator...

 ...as he used the big claw to pick up individual boards and place them where he wanted them.

 Moriah, not surprisingly, lost interest in watching the machinery before we did, so she got to run and play and jump on the trampoline with another Mennonite girl from the neighborhood.

 Meanwhile, Tobin played in the dirt.  :)

 And we watched...

You might be wondering why, if I have so many more important things to blog about, I chose to, on this chilly November Sunday evening, blog about my neighbor's barns.  Well, here's the reason.  I suddenly remembered tonight that I told my neighbor that I would get those pictures printed out for him; and wouldn't you know, I had forgotten and never got around to it.  When I remembered tonight, I was inspired to go ahead and do it; and since I was uploading those pictures to a photo site to get them developed, I decided to put them on the blog, too!

Besides, even though it might not be as important as Benjamin's two-month "birthday" or Tobin's new reading ability, watching the one barn go up and the other go down was a unique, big part of this past summer; and it's definitely worth recording here and recalling in the future.

And if that's not a good enough reason, here's another one: looking at these pictures from hot August makes me feel a tiny bit warmer on this cold night.  :)