In which New Year's Day is a great day to raise the roof (of the new barn)

Jim was up early this morning, adding meat and good vegetables to the beans that had been soaking all night. His goal: make enough chili to feed a giant work crew.
And soon enough, the giant work crew started to arrive and set up ladders and extension cords. LOTS of ladders. LOTS of extension cords!

Butch is the King of our construction crew.His "day job" is metal building construction. He got out of his truck, sized up our building-to-be, and took charge.
Butch figures anybody and everybody can gain the skills to do stuff. He assigned Willy the task of drilling patterns into the roofing sheets. Dick (brown jacket) has built a LOT of farm buildings, and he took charge of measuring stuff. He is leading the crew in measuring insulation/vapor barrier.
All day long, we were amazed at the great weather. It's not common to schedule a Swampland work party in January, because we're nearly always under water at this time of year. Haiku Farm's weather gods were smiling: we had blue skies, sunshine, and temps almost above freezing for most of the day.

(Check out my purple overalls! Santa spoke some good words to Jim's brothers and the overalls and the matching fleece-lined purple work jacket were under the tree this year. I was warm and *stylin'* up there on the roof!)

On our ladders, ready to pass the insulation up the roofline, we look like the opening table of "Whack-a-Mole."
It's probably not the method that professionals use to move the vapor barrier up the roofline but it works fine for us.

Coffee and sandwiches provided a bit of warmth.

and then: back to work!

or, errr, play. Willy! Where is your ladder???Despite a great deal of willingness to screw around, it started looking like a roof by mid-afternoon. Clear vinyl sheets let some light into the stalls--that will be nice on winter days! By late afternoon, we were running out of light and running out of roofing panels. I'll have to order more panels at the feed store on Monday--we need 4 more pieces to finish the job.

But that's okay: it's a good time to go inside the house and sample some of Jim's amazing chili. The sunset through the windows was amazing, and the company of friends makes us happy.

Happy New Year!