Building the Bee House

Working in the Chacra

Playing the recorder

Game Night

The house at dusk

Manuel

Anita painting the fence

Classic David



Over the past week we have worked on several different jobs that were a change of pace from what we had been doing in the chacra. At the beginning of the week we worked on the property line that runs along the edge of our land. Surveyors originally cleared the line about two months ago but since everything in the jungle grows so fast we had to clear it again so that it wouldn’t get overgrown. The work itself wasn’t extremely hard but a good dose of endurance was needed because we had 3 kilometers of line to clear. The work went well except for the occasional wasp sting of ant bite. We made good progress and we thought we were almost done. So at the end of one of our work sessions we decided to see how much farther we had. An hour and a half later we finally arrived back home from our hike. Needless to say we still have quite a bit of work left on the line but that is all right because God will give us the strength to perservere.
Another project that we have been working on this past week was building a bee house for the 15 new hives that we bought for the bee project. Originally we thought that we would build them a house out of the wood that we had been cutting in the chacra but Richard and Thomas thought that it would be smarter to use the wood from the sheep house instead. This ended up being a great idea because the sheep rarely use their house anyways. So on Thursday we disassembled the sheep house and made a few minor repairs to some of the trusses. Then on Friday we cleared an area near the pineapple field were the new bee house would be located. On Sunday we started construction. First we set the posts for the building into the ground which took quite a while because we had a limited amount of tools. After setting the posts we put up the horizontal supports and then the trusses on top of them. By the end of the day we had gotten up two trusses which was quite an accomplishment for only a days work. On Monday we had a little bit of tricky work because we were extending the building ten feet to make room for the bee boxes. This made it somewhat difficult to use the old wood but Thomas, David, and I combined our knowledge to figure out what to do. By the end of the day we were ready to put on the tin for the roof. Although we were doing basic framing for the whole building it was quite different from what I was used to in the US. For one, the boards are not always very straight and they are much harder to pound nails into. Because we are using mostly hardwoods to build the structure hammering nails is a very difficult process. This is especially evident when it takes two or three nails to finally get one in. Thankfully we eradicated this problem by pre-drilling most of the holes. On Tuesday we got up early to put on the roof because the sheets of tin are almost to work with when it is hot outside. It took a while for us to figure out the most efficient was of laying the sheets but once we got started it went pretty fast. We got the first half of the roof finished in the morming and the second half completed in the afternoon. One thing that I learned about working with the sheets was that they cut skin extremely easy. By the end of the day I had a half dozen cuts all over my fingers as a result of working with the sheets. On Wednesday we finally put the finishing touches on the building. These included adding a few braces to stabilize the roof and spraying wood preserver on the beams to keep the ants from eating our hard work.
This past week was extremely rewarding because we made good progress on several projects that we have been trying to get done. Also we got to construct something which really made my week. Throughout all of our work this week I was thankful for God’s strength and wisdom because there were several times were I felt tired and lacking knowledge. Every week I see God working in my life and the lives of our SM team and it makes me feel extremely grateful to be part of such a group that loves Jesus and wants to share that love with those around them!
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for the project. I hope that all of you have a blessed holiday season with family and friends and remember to continue to keep us in your prayers!