The Blessing In The Barn

We hit the road to evangelize in January 2003. When we came home for Christmas 12 months later in December, 2003, we parked our fifth wheel in a campground. Sometime over the next year or so, my brother Steve invited us to park in their driveway when home. We did that through Christmas 2007.

Once we purchased the bus in March of 2008, we realized it was to big to park in my brother's driveway. They had blessed us abundantly by allowing us to park there, but it was time to move on.

Bro. Rex Lloyd was Pastor of Dodds then and he invited us to put a 50 amp plug on the fellowship hall and park there when we were home. From then through Christmas of 2013, we parked at Dodds.

It was a tremendous blessing to have a place to park, but the cold winter weather was about to get the best of me and the bus. If it was cold, most of my time and energy were spent trying to keep the bus from freezing or repairing what had frozen. My time at home for Christmas was miserable.

I decided the BoggsMobile had made its last trip north in the winter. We would park somewhere south and drive the car or fly home for a few days at Christmas. I was done fighting the cold and snow.

In August, 2014, the property we later purchased became available. This was not just any property. It had an old pole barn and was right next door to where we parked. I had contacted the owner about selling with absolutely no interest on their part.

We looked at the property with longing every time we were home.

My Dad and I were standing at the crumbling fence dreaming about what could be done with the property next to Dodds Church.

The bus parked at Dodds, about 10' from the property and about 200' from the barn on July 4, 2014. You can see the barn over KJo's head.

A full view of the property in August 2014. It was not yet available when I took this picture.

The barn was rented to a man for several years. In late August, my Dad heard the renter was vacating the property. We were driving home from Vermont, when I got the call. I immediately called the owner and left a message.

When I arrived at Dodds, I walked over to the barn, introduced myself to the renter and asked if he had any interest in buying the property. When he said no, I told him that I did have an interest in it.

I also talked to the church and the great neighbors on the other side to see if either of them had any interest in buying the property. I would have been disappointed to miss the opportunity, but I did not want to step in front of them.

Long story short, the owner called in late September and we closed on the property in November 2014. This post has pictures of the first day we pulled into the barn in mid December. What a momentous occasion that was.

Yes, friends, that day literally changed my life. I knew I wanted to park the bus inside, but I did not realize how much of a blessing it was to get out of the wind.

Present Day

The whole bus would have been frozen the last several days if it was parked outside. There is no way to overcome the combination of below zero temperatures and high wind. We are so thankful for this old barn. It is an amazing blessing.

I intend to eventually insulate the whole barn so I can heat it a little in the winter, but these last nine winters have definitely been better than the winters before. Hallelujah!

Praise God for the blessing in the barn.

Davy

Racing The Cold

Before we entered the deep freeze for a few days, we had an outdoor chore to complete. Friday or Saturday would have been the right timing but there is no sense working in 4° on Friday when I could work in 41° on Tuesday. 

What is that chore? It is emptying the holding tanks, otherwise known as doing the work of the evangelist. 

I do not have a receptacle for emptying the black holding tank inside the barn so after 20-21 days, we need to pull outside and take care of that task. 

We are very rarely home that many days in a row, so it is really not that big of a problem.

It has been cold in the barn so I turned on the engine block heater for a few hours. The big Detroit fired right up like it should. That always brings a smile to my face. 

I have a short length of rubber exhaust hose that I clamp onto the bus exhaust when I start the bus in the barn. It reaches out the big overhead door and about 3 feet away from the door. That helps us to prevent smoking up the barn.

KJo drove the bus in and out of the barn  and helped with the work too. I would say we were finished in about 30 minutes with no injuries and no frostbite. 

We were praising God for sunshine along with 41°! By the time you read this we will be sliding into very cold temperatures. I will stay inside as much as possible. 

Thank you for stopping by. 

 Davy 

A New Home For Old Doors

I wrote about our old barn doors about a month ago. I removed them in August when the overhead door was installed. We laid them aside and finally took them apart in December. I will copy some of that post below.

Not long ago, the guy who bought the frames, track and rollers sent pictures of the old doors on the new addition to his shop. I think they look great.

Outside

The doors even have red metal on them again.

Inside

The old doors with a new home bring a great big smile to my face. It genuinely makes me so happy that these doors work perfectly for someone else and we were able to save him a whole bunch of money in the process.

He told me that he would eventually like to have an overhead door, but these doors should be ideal for many, many years to come. Yep, that makes me happy.

This is part of the post from January 6, 2022

We had a day in mid December without rain and with only mildly arctic temperatures so we removed the metal from the frames.

I suppose this is the manufacture date of the metal. 12/8/81. 

I was amazed that the screws came out so easily. The guides mounted on the barn did not come off easily, but we finally removed them!

I am saving the faded red metal to finish around the new door and for a few other places around the barn. I kept the frames, tracks, rollers and guides and they are in really good shape. I was hoping I could find someone that needed doors and did not have money to build doors like these.

Each door is 14'x7', but could be rebuilt to a smaller size if needed. As they are, they can cover a 14x14 opening. I put them on Craigslist in Dayton and Cincinnati at a very cheap price. You could not purchase the track and rollers for the price of everything.

The ad stayed up on Craigslist for two or three weeks without one bite. I did not even get scam emails or texts! I usually always have someone wanting to send extra money in exchange for my account numbers.😍

I put up the ad and did not update it, renew it or even look at it the whole time. I heard nothing but crickets from the ads.

Monday night a guy text me from 9:30 to 10:40 about the doors. He decided to take them and he made arrangements to do the deal Tuesday morning. By 6:00 Tuesday morning he was pulling in and loading up.

He drove 90 minutes from Kentucky to get the doors, tracks, rollers and guides. He is finishing up a new building and they are the exact size he needs. He saved a lot of money and got exactly what he needed.

By 6:30 AM, we had the doors loaded, strapped and he was on his way to work.

I sold them for half the asking price and the asking price was WAY less than new material so I was super happy to send them to a good home. That worked out just like I had hoped and imagined!

Some days things work out great!

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

Please Laugh Softly

This is another for the "Forgotten at home" file. 

When we are on the road, washing the car is a part of the weekly routine, especially if we have traveled 1000 miles between washings. Washing the BoggsMobile, at least the front, is a pretty regular occurrence too.

The front of the bus gets coated with bugs as we bounce down the road and IF it is raining or snowing, the stainless down the sides gets messy in a hurry. The white Jeep gets covered in road grime and oil too.

The oil comes from the small leaks in the bus engine. It does not take much oil to make a mess at 65-70 MPH. We try to wash that mess each week if it is possible.

The Jeep trailed along behind the BoggsMobile for 1043 miles and desperately needed to be washed. First, I needed a pole and a brush. Why? I had neglected to load them in the bus and they are now sitting in the barn. Ugh!

I found an acceptable brush at one store and a nice adjustable pole in another. We were ready to go. We hooked up the hose, pulled the car into position and went to get the sprayer for the end of the hose.

We found no sprayer! What? That is impossible. We own FIVE good sprayers!

We used to buy the $1 sprayers (They are not $1 anymore) from Walmart, but they would only last a month or two.

In 2017, we found these thumb style sprayers. 

They are much better built. In fact, the one we bought in 2017 is still in good shape. We like that style so much, that over time we bought one for the hose at Odie's house, one for the hose outside the barn, one for the hose inside the barn and of course one for the bus.

Plus, I saw one on the clearance table at Home Depot over Christmas that looks nicer than the other four we already own and it was only $2 on clearance. Yay!

That makes five really good, well built sprayers and we drove 1000 miles away from home without one of them in the bus, not one! The new one is sitting in a chair right next to where the bus sits in the barn. I set it there so I would not forget it.

Do you know what I did? I forgot! Just like three German police dogs I heard about.

Sooooooo, instead of our nice big brush, we washed the car with this little brush. Not so bad for the Jeep, but way too narrow for the bus.

And rinsed the car the old fashion way.

I suppose we could eventually wash all of the bus with that narrow brush, but we would need awfully good water pressure to spray 12' up with only the hose. Yep, we will be buying a SIXTH sprayer.😁

Maybe we will get this traveling business down to a good routine someday!

Until then, we thank you kindly for laughing softly so as to keep our embarrassment to a minimum.

Have a great day!

Davy

Bitter Cold , Barns Old and Gratitude Bold

We purchased the BoggsMobile in late March 2008. From then until December 2014, we parked outside whenever we were home for Christmas or any other time. Can you see the Dodds Church van and the funnel cake trailer parked at the church next door about 200' away?

The van and red trailer are parked where we parked with permission for a week or two at a time for nearly seven years when we were home. We were grateful to have a place to park at home. That was a wonderful blessing. 

But the winter weather at Christmas was ridiculous. 

We have had frozen everything there more than one time. The challenge to keep the bus from freezing was about to drive me crazy and I had determined not to bring the bus home for Christmas ever again.

Then the property next door with the big red pole barn came up for sale and we jumped as quick as we could. The guy that rented the property was there one day and I went to talk to him. First, I wanted to make sure that he was not trying to buy it. I did not want to step in front of him.

Next, I wanted permission to measure the door. When the height measured 14', I nearly shouted. Do you have any idea how many perfect places we found for sale and the door was 10' or 12' and could not be raised without removing the roof and trusses?

We knew we had found a home for the BoggsMobile!

An individual stepped up and loaned us most of the money we needed to purchase the property and we have thanked God for them a thousand times. Everything has been completely paid for over a year and we are very thankful for that too.

We are so incredibly thankful for what we call The Lazy OD Ranch and especially thankful for the only building on it when we purchased the property in December 2014. That building is the red barn. It is a pole barn built in 1982.

It needed some structural work and a roof when we bought it. That and many other things have been done and there still remains a lot to be completed. I would love to eventually have it totally insulated and fairly airtight and maybe even heated. That is the end goal.

However, it was great the first day we pulled the bus inside in December 2014. 

It changed our lives for the good and removed a heavy burden from my shoulders. The bus is out of the wind and easy to heat while it is inside the barn.

What makes me think and write of this now? Good question. It is never too far from my mind, but winter has hit with a vengeance this week.

It was already cold and then it was 20 shortly after midnight Wednesday night and felt like 7. Yikes!

Thursday morning it was 15 about 8:30 AM and felt like 9. 

It was supposed to get to 23, but I do not think it did. By 5:00 Wednesday evening, it was 19, snowing and felt like 9.

Eventually, IF it stays this cold, the barn will get below freezing too. But at this point, it is still 37-38 degrees just inside the front door. I will take that any day over being outside in the cold, snow and wind!

I do not think the pipe will freeze, but I always have a lightbulb in the place where the water enters the barn underground. I usually turn the water off while we are gone in the winter just in case there is a break from a frozen pipe.

Can you see why we are thankful for this old barn? Praise God for a barn! Praise God for protection, provision and providence! God knew what we needed and had a guy build it for me in 1982 when  I was 15 years old!

Yep, I am sold on the providence of God enough to believe that!

I am thankful for you, too! Thank you for spending a few minutes with us today.

Davy

When One Door Closes

When one door closes, another door opens or something like that.

When we first purchased the Lazy OD Ranch in December 2014, the old red pole barn was in pretty sad shape. Bro. Mitch Boggs Jr. brought his crew and Bro. Jason Fellers to shore it up structurally, replace the roof and finish it out with trim in the summer of 2015.

This is how the front looked until August of this year.

The overhead door finally arrived and was installed in August.

While the installers were here, they helped me take down the old sliding doors that were built in 1982. I laid them next to the driveway until I could get home and remove the metal.

We had a day in mid December without rain and with only mildly arctic temperatures so we removed the metal from the frames.

I suppose this is the manufacture date of the metal. 12/8/81. 

I was amazed that the screws came out so easily. The guides mounted on the barn did not come off easily, but we finally removed them!

I am saving the faded red metal to finish around the new door and for a few other places around the barn. I kept the frames, tracks, rollers and guides and they are in really good shape. I was hoping I could find someone that needed doors and did not have money to build doors like these.

Each door is 14'x7', but could be rebuilt to a smaller size if needed. As they are, they can cover a 14x14 opening. I put them on Craigslist in Dayton and Cincinnati at a very cheap price. You could not purchase the track and rollers for the price of everything.

The ad stayed up on Craigslist for two or three weeks without one bite. I did not even get scam emails or texts! I usually always have someone wanting to send extra money in exchange for my account numbers.😍

I put up the ad and did not update it, renew it or even look at it the whole time. I heard nothing but crickets from the ads.

Monday night a guy text me from 9:30 to 10:40 about the doors. He decided to take them and he made arrangements to do the deal Tuesday morning. By 6:00 Tuesday morning he was pulling in and loading up.

He drove 90 minutes from Kentucky to get the doors, tracks, rollers and guides. He is finishing up a new building and they are the exact size he needs. He saved a lot of money and got exactly what he needed.

By 6:30 AM, we had the doors loaded, strapped and he was on his way to work.

I sold them for half the asking price and the asking price was WAY less than new material so I was super happy to send them to a good home. That worked out just like I had hoped and imagined!

Some days things work out great!

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

I Will Set Before You An Opening Door!

It takes about 4-6 months for my fingernails to grow from cuticle to the end. I know this because I have smashed my nails more times than I can count and counted the days until the evidence was gone. That brings me to this picture.

As you can see, the blood damage on my right thumb is almost gone. This is important for one reason. It happened while Dad and KJo and I were framing in the barn door to prepare to remove the sliding doors and install an overhead door.  

I smashed it right next to the cuticle the first week of April, the same week I ordered the overhead door. The picture above was on August 16. The nail damage is nearly gone four full months later, the same time the garage door finally arrived and was installed.

That is a very good thing!

I just happened to take some pictures while it was going up.

The 39 year old sliding doors.

Each of these doors is seven feet wide and fourteen feet tall. I will remove the red metal and use it around the new door frame and to cover some windows that I am eliminating in the barn.

The door is insulated, but amazingly light. You can see in the picture below that it needs metal and trim on the outside. I have the old metal and I have trim, but I ran out of time. It is a job for another day.

I purchased the heavy duty opener. It is unusually quiet and smooth operating.

Big Springs

The inside opener.

The outside opener.

Of course, we have some remotes too. I am so glad to have this project to this point. Yay!!!

Thank you for spending a few moments with us.

Davy