Ok, I couldn’t think of a better title than that, but it’ll do.
As I’ve already mentioned, the little we do have in terms of assignments here tends to be in the way of physical exertion. I’ve already related to you our wood chopping – there are several walls now lined with wood ready for the furnaces, as well as a pile of choppings outside the main building (since we’d filled up the space inside the furnace room) and a small pile by the fireplace in the main building. On top of that there was a delivery of logs the other day which we have already made a start on chopping up too. I managed to get through a dozen or so logs the day they arrived, when as I swung the axe the log not only broke into two but so did the axe itself. Woops. I’m just too strong I guess 😛
The other way we have been exerting ourselves has been to shift LOTS of snow. This weekend there has been a class from a Christian Romanian University come to stay for a weekend away and so we needed to make sure the main building was accessible and ready. First we cleared a path around the building, then we cleared out the open concrete area in front of the main building, looping around paths and clearing stairs where necessary. Next we had to clear the road from the top of the property all the way down to the main building, then clear off some space to dump the new wood and for the truck to turn around (unfortunately the truck wasn’t able to get down the hill, but never mind). We then had to clear more space at the back of the building for cars to be able to unload the students and their food supplies. All the while we were doing this some of us were also chopping wood.
We also had to prepare the inside of the building – we had already been in and taken up the carpet squares, cleaned them and re-laid them and now we had to go through every floor and mop – a task they were quite precise about and had us do two or three times (and I thought I was a perfectionist :-P). The afternoon before they arrived we went around making all the beds as well. This weekend then we have been up to share meal times every day, with some of us also taking shifts to help prepare in the kitchen and dining room and then clear up afterwards.
Furthermore, yesterday I was able to shovel a path through the snow all the way from the main building near the top of the hill down to our house near the bottom. The other day I also got up on to the flat porch roof to clear off the snow, which was easy enough – shove the snow off, walk across to where it was, shovel the next bit of snow, etc. – until the whole roof of snow started to slide off with me in front of it. My life didn’t flash before my eyes though – I jumped over it, held myself to the ground and then got back up to clear off what remained, before jumping clean off the roof into the pile of snow 😀 We have, of course, also made snow angels and snow men and so on.
As you can see then, it’s not been all play and no work, but neither, fortunately, has it been all work and no play.
