Shindig

We went to our first country wedding.  Our Friend the Farmer’s daughter was getting married…nearby in a country barn outfitted for parties.  We were invited because we are friends, and because, well, we said we’d help, and they needed someone to tend the bar.  You’d think this would be no problem for us, but the truth is we got off to a rocky start.  We didn’t actually know where the bar was or what we were serving, but believe it or not, we managed to figure it out.  This barn had twinkle lights, a dance floor and lots of happy people.  My Loving Spouse and I tried to imagine our barn in this state and that’s when it happened… I said, “Let’s have a party!  In our barn…it’ll be fun.”  My Loving Spouse said something like…”Great idea”.

We were excited.  We told The Offspring.  They were excited.  We planned.  We changed the date.  We planned a bit more.  We’d already had a major barn clean up, so we should be all set (thought My Loving Spouse).  However, the barn that we’d cleaned was full of hay.  The hay loft would be the perfect place to throw a party!  Except….it is filthy (yep, the original barn clean up never made it upstairs) the dust has dust, the pigeon poop is layered, the floor needs patching, the stairs are steep, there is no electricity (that we trusted to turn on) so there is no light…but other than that, it is perfect and we are really, really excited…we’re just at that tired phase of party planning…you know….the work.

My Loving Spouse has wired in electricity upstairs.  The first layer of dust and pigeon poop has been blown out, swept up, vacuumed and scraped….  We’ve bought hand rails and lights, washed the old feed bags left in the rafters, cleaned up miles of old baling wire, a few old gloves and a tin plate.  There have been multiple trips to  hardware stores just in the last 2 days.  We needed more cleaning power.  I was dreaming of a vacuum on steroids…  We went to my favorite hardware store.

‘Do you have a leaf blower that vacuums?’

‘We have one’s that blow.’

‘No, I don’t want a blower-outer, I want a sucker-upper.’

‘We have shop vacuums.’

‘No, I have a shop vacuum, the pigeon poop clogs it up.  I need more power’.

My favorite hardware store was sadly a disappointment.  I was on the hunt for a ‘sucker-upper’ with power.  I was sure, if I could find one, it would be a huge help.  I don’t know if anyone here in Ellensburg has spent as much time cleaning their barns, as we have…could be we’re just city people…I don’t know, but this barn/hayloft needed to be cleaned…even Zoe ‘helps’ out.

We did find a ‘sucker-upper’ and sent The Teen to fetch it from Yakima.  We also bought a deck scrubber and considered a janitor’s mop set up, until we saw the price tag…no matter what, this pigeon poop stained floor will get clean…. or I’m going to paint it.

The Teen wanted to know why we were having a party.

‘Because we want too.’

‘Yes, but what is the reason.’

‘Well, it is sort of like a harvest party.  We’re not farmers with a harvest to bring in, but we are grateful for all we have here.  It is like a Grateful Party.  We’re grateful for our life here, and so the party is like our expression of Gratitude”….and we are excited…and we’ll make a great memory and that is priceless and worth the work…and well, a pigeon-free poopless barn…well that will be just even better.