It’s been awhile since I penned another story of life in America, so while on a short road trip with my wife I finally took the time to put the pen to the paper. In short, it’s a piece about a 3 year project I just finished. Never thought it would take that long, but I did it day by day and week by week. I hope it inspires a few people to tackle that one thing that you have been wanting to do, but for whatever reason you haven’t started. Take the first step my friends !!
I hear my phone ringing and as I look at the caller ID, I see that it’s my 81 year old Uncle, so I answer the phone and ask him how he’s been. As usual, all is good, and if it wasn’t, everything would still be good. We talk about this and that, and he finally makes it to the reason he was calling in the first place. He wants to take a ride to Breaux Bridge in the near future and talk about a project he has in mind, and wants to get my thoughts on it. As usual, I agree and we make plans to make the trip. This call happened sometime in 2015, and even though it was a short call and at the time very routine, I had no idea how it would affect my life over the next 3 years.
The day arrived and we met at our usual meeting spot in Port Allen, and I hopped out of my truck and into the drivers seat of his truck. At his age he doesn’t like to drive as much as he once did, so it’s customary for who ever is meeting him to take over the wheel for the duration of the trip. We enter onto the interstate heading west on I-10, and as I set the cruise control we are already talking about the usual follies of our local politicians and current events, and before we knew it we were at our exit. We head south after we get off of the interstate and soon we are sitting at a red light in downtown Breaux Bridge. He is telling me stories of his youth and his trips to Breaux Bridge from Bayou Goula with his parents and siblings. He tells me how his grandpa would take him, my mom and the other siblings to the movie theater in Breaux Bridge. He could tell stories of his life for days as anyone who lives to be his age and done the things he has, has lots of stories, but he has not brought me here for story telling. His goal for today is to tell me about an idea he has, but that will have to wait until we make it to our family property near Lake Martin.
We make the short trip to Lake Martin in just a few minutes and pull on to the limestone road that dead ends at a patch of woods about 100 yards from the black top road. My grandmothers family has owned this land since the early nineteen hundreds and through the years the property has been passed on to the succeeding generations for them to care for and use. The property is a mix of woods, pasture, and sugarcane so there is plenty of room for a man to have a nice walk if he wants to, or I was about to find out, build a camp !
As we exit the truck he tells me that we need to make more of a presence on the property and wants to make sure future generations come to the property and care for it as we have done. He then tells me that to ensure this he would like for us to build a camp on the property. A place where our family can meet and visit and enjoy the woods and fields for many years down the road. Like most of our projects, and there have been many, the camp won’t be built by a contractor. That cost way too much, plus we don’t roll like that. My uncle graduated as an engineer from LSU and farmed for most of his life, so he has a firm grasp of building techniques and most of all, knows what hard work is. I have also dabbled in home construction. I built one house with the help of a carpenter and acted as the contractor for the house I live in now.
He will be the leader of the construction crew, but he knows he has to have the buy in from some of the younger generation to get the job completed. He doesn’t have to talk long and I’m sold on the project.
We hang out a little longer and then grab a bite to eat, then hit the road back to Port Allen. On the trip back I can already envision the camp and me sitting on the porch next fall enjoying a cup of coffee before heading into the woods to chase after a few squirrels. What I found out over the next 3 years is that visions in your mind and reality on the ground are two completely different things.
To get things going we bought the most pitiful left over from Katrina travel trailer you ever saw. It was as crappy as you heard stories about, but it was good enough to store tools in and get out of the heat on hot summer days. Over the next few months floor plans were drawn, and redrawn. Family meetings were held to hash out what people wanted and what they didn’t want. When you have as many cousins and siblings that I have, lots of negotiating took place before the first nail could be driven. As most of you know, even when plans are agreed upon you can bet at some point in time they will change, and they did.
Ground was broken a little before January of 2015 and this is where my vision met the cold hard truth of reality. The logistics of gathering a crew almost every weekend and lining up the materials for the work we were going to do was never a given. Everyone involved in the project had full time jobs, full time wives, and multiple kids in schools all over south Louisiana. Needless to say this one year project would turn into three, and the words patience and perseverance were words that would have deeper meanings to them when we were done.
Over the next three years cement would be poured, walls would be framed and a nice metal roof would cap off our family camp in the woods. Accompanying the work over this three year period would be lessons in humility, disappointed and yes, joy. Humility when you realize you are not Superman and can’t hold a ridge board all by yourself, disappointment when you can’t find people to help for the weekend and joy when you are nailing the last rafter in place.
While all of this was taking place you still had your family to take into consideration. It is very hard to go home and tell your wife that you will be heading to the camp for a fourth weekend in a row and wont be home til well after sunset on Sunday for a good part of the last three years. Not to gloss things over, but let’s just say I have a very very understanding wife. She knows I am very attached to my family and our family land, and feel that we must be good stewards for our future generations. Over the last three years we did what we had to do to make things work. Was it easy, absolutely not, but was it worth it, you bet it was.
It is now October of 2018, and this is the month we declared the camp as being completed. As I look back we definitely could have planned things way better. Pouring cement on a very wet day and having 2 cement truck get bogged down to the axels was not a wise decision. Framing up the camp in the middle of a Louisiana summer was not that smart either. The summer sun beat us unmercifully. Now though as I look back, those were just short periods of pain and misery that were traded for something that is much greater in scope. Just the idea that my uncle who is 84 now and is alive and well and was able to see the camp completed was worth whatever effort it took to get it completed. It is a great feeling knowing you have upheld your end of a bargain and in the process brought much joy to a man who has given so much to our family. He actually has not been to the camp since we declared it done, but when he does go, he will walk through the camp, make the final inspection and declare a job well done, well done indeed !
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I hear my phone ringing and as I look at the caller ID, I see that it’s my 81 year old Uncle, so I answer the phone and ask him how he’s been. As usual, all is good, and if it wasn’t, everything would still be good. We talk about this and that, and he finally makes it to the reason he was calling in the first place. He wants to take a ride to Breaux Bridge in the near future and talk about a project he has in mind, and wants to get my thoughts on it. As usual, I agree and we make plans to make the trip. This call happened sometime in 2015, and even though it was a short call and at the time very routine, I had no idea how it would affect my life over the next 3 years.
The day arrived and we met at our usual meeting spot in Port Allen, and I hopped out of my truck and into the drivers seat of his truck. At his age he doesn’t like to drive as much as he once did, so it’s customary for who ever is meeting him to take over the wheel for the duration of the trip. We enter onto the interstate heading west on I-10, and as I set the cruise control we are already talking about the usual follies of our local politicians and current events, and before we knew it we were at our exit. We head south after we get off of the interstate and soon we are sitting at a red light in downtown Breaux Bridge. He is telling me stories of his youth and his trips to Breaux Bridge from Bayou Goula with his parents and siblings. He tells me how his grandpa would take him, my mom and the other siblings to the movie theater in Breaux Bridge. He could tell stories of his life for days as anyone who lives to be his age and done the things he has, has lots of stories, but he has not brought me here for story telling. His goal for today is to tell me about an idea he has, but that will have to wait until we make it to our family property near Lake Martin.
We make the short trip to Lake Martin in just a few minutes and pull on to the limestone road that dead ends at a patch of woods about 100 yards from the black top road. My grandmothers family has owned this land since the early nineteen hundreds and through the years the property has been passed on to the succeeding generations for them to care for and use. The property is a mix of woods, pasture, and sugarcane so there is plenty of room for a man to have a nice walk if he wants to, or I was about to find out, build a camp !
As we exit the truck he tells me that we need to make more of a presence on the property and wants to make sure future generations come to the property and care for it as we have done. He then tells me that to ensure this he would like for us to build a camp on the property. A place where our family can meet and visit and enjoy the woods and fields for many years down the road. Like most of our projects, and there have been many, the camp won’t be built by a contractor. That cost way too much, plus we don’t roll like that. My uncle graduated as an engineer from LSU and farmed for most of his life, so he has a firm grasp of building techniques and most of all, knows what hard work is. I have also dabbled in home construction. I built one house with the help of a carpenter and acted as the contractor for the house I live in now.
He will be the leader of the construction crew, but he knows he has to have the buy in from some of the younger generation to get the job completed. He doesn’t have to talk long and I’m sold on the project.
We hang out a little longer and then grab a bite to eat, then hit the road back to Port Allen. On the trip back I can already envision the camp and me sitting on the porch next fall enjoying a cup of coffee before heading into the woods to chase after a few squirrels. What I found out over the next 3 years is that visions in your mind and reality on the ground are two completely different things.
To get things going we bought the most pitiful left over from Katrina travel trailer you ever saw. It was as crappy as you heard stories about, but it was good enough to store tools in and get out of the heat on hot summer days. Over the next few months floor plans were drawn, and redrawn. Family meetings were held to hash out what people wanted and what they didn’t want. When you have as many cousins and siblings that I have, lots of negotiating took place before the first nail could be driven. As most of you know, even when plans are agreed upon you can bet at some point in time they will change, and they did.
Ground was broken a little before January of 2015 and this is where my vision met the cold hard truth of reality. The logistics of gathering a crew almost every weekend and lining up the materials for the work we were going to do was never a given. Everyone involved in the project had full time jobs, full time wives, and multiple kids in schools all over south Louisiana. Needless to say this one year project would turn into three, and the words patience and perseverance were words that would have deeper meanings to them when we were done.
Over the next three years cement would be poured, walls would be framed and a nice metal roof would cap off our family camp in the woods. Accompanying the work over this three year period would be lessons in humility, disappointed and yes, joy. Humility when you realize you are not Superman and can’t hold a ridge board all by yourself, disappointment when you can’t find people to help for the weekend and joy when you are nailing the last rafter in place.
While all of this was taking place you still had your family to take into consideration. It is very hard to go home and tell your wife that you will be heading to the camp for a fourth weekend in a row and wont be home til well after sunset on Sunday for a good part of the last three years. Not to gloss things over, but let’s just say I have a very very understanding wife. She knows I am very attached to my family and our family land, and feel that we must be good stewards for our future generations. Over the last three years we did what we had to do to make things work. Was it easy, absolutely not, but was it worth it, you bet it was.
It is now October of 2018, and this is the month we declared the camp as being completed. As I look back we definitely could have planned things way better. Pouring cement on a very wet day and having 2 cement truck get bogged down to the axels was not a wise decision. Framing up the camp in the middle of a Louisiana summer was not that smart either. The summer sun beat us unmercifully. Now though as I look back, those were just short periods of pain and misery that were traded for something that is much greater in scope. Just the idea that my uncle who is 84 now and is alive and well and was able to see the camp completed was worth whatever effort it took to get it completed. It is a great feeling knowing you have upheld your end of a bargain and in the process brought much joy to a man who has given so much to our family. He actually has not been to the camp since we declared it done, but when he does go, he will walk through the camp, make the final inspection and declare a job well done, well done indeed !
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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