Just Another Update

Hey everyone I hope everything is going well back home. I am doing good here in Sierra Leone and enjoying nearly every minute of it! Work has been going good here at my compound and at Newton Farm.

The chicken coop has risen from the ground very quickly and today we almost got all of the wood and braces done on the roof to put the sheet metal roofing on Monday or Tuesday next week. The sides are done and as soon as the roof is done we are going to level and concrete the floor mid week. I found out some good news today, saw dust and wood chips free here! I am having a friend check on some laying hens this weekend and he is going to get me the prices of the English type hens.

I have not built a building before so this is certainly an experience to say the least. Oxford is good with all of the concrete work, but we have both been winging it on designing the roof and the general structure. I will tell you one thing, it is difficult to build a straight building with bent and warped wood. We do have one level and a square, so all of the main studs are good. We couldn’t find 4x4s so we ended up putting two 2x4s together. The wood is all hard wood and a 12ft 2x4 can be expected to weigh between 25-45lbs! I do wish that I would have paid more attention when dad has tried teaching me his ways in carpentry though, it would definitely come in handy right about now especially with this big rood I am making.

The work at Newton is moving right along and hopefully by the end of next week they will have all of the stumping done and maybe just maybe I will have my tractors at the end of next week. Emess the Pastor I am working with in Newton is having people from his ministry do all of the stumping work which I think is good because all of the funds I spend stay right there in the community.

Tomorrow Jesi and I are heading to the beach and I think that I might try and get a small boat to take that will go around the island if the waves are not to rough and maybe do some trolling while the guy is who owns the boat is paddling away! I will let you know if I have any success catching some big snapper or grouper.