Three-Handed Progress on the Barn

Before Dan’s accident we were purchasing a few sheets of plywood at a time to continue working on the goat barn siding. Between his injury and the rain, progress on the barn has been on hold indefinitely. When we got some blue sky and warm temps last week, Dan did the little bit of painting there was to do, and then suggested that if I would help position and hold the plywood, he could nail it in place. I knew he was pretty tired of just sitting around and hurting, so I said okay as long as he would take it easy, not push it, and quit if his hand started to hurt too much or feel worse. Here’s what we got accomplished.

Just between you and me, I don’t think Dan thinks much of my skills as a helper. Not because I’m not willing, but because he claims that I’m not very good at just standing by and doing nothing until I’m needed. He did think my doing the painting was a good idea, however, and I was still ready to carry and hold things in place as he needed me.

With two walls up now we got a glimpse of how much the milking room skylight will help.

He used his circular saw to cut the plywood but said the sound of it pulled up all those memories of his injury, which are still pretty fresh in his mind. But he pressed on. By the end of the day his hand was hurting pretty badly and he had to take half of a prescription pain pill on top of the naproxyn. Yes, I fussed at him the whole time, but I’m not a bossy wife. Mostly because I believe a partnership works best when the partners work as a team, and also because it wouldn’t do any good, LOL. The next day, though, his hand felt good and so did he, so maybe between the exercise, feeling of accomplishment and progress it was worth it.