The cabins are nearly complete. We just have a few minor things to finish off like the bird blocking between the rafters, and the fold-down tables inside the front windows. We are very pleased with them - they get a lot of compliments from visitors who seem surprised at their roomy interior and beautiful exterior.
We did a lot of praying whilst doing the architecture and the result was a plan that generates extremely little scrap and a lot of room. The roof and floor, for example, consist of 16 full sheets of 4 x 8 sterling (or particle board in the USA) board and 2 sheets each cut once. The cladding (siding) comes in exact 4 meter (13.123 feet) lengths. The rear wall is 16 feet long so it needs 2.877 foot boards which are exactly provided by the scrap from the windows.
They needed strong, steep roofs so as to shed the small branches and leaves from the forest around them and to protect people from collapse when large limbs or trees break in the winds that ply these fens: so the rafters are supported by purlins which are supported by 6 vertical poles. Therefore there are no trusses. This makes the cabin feel large because the roof is high, your vision is not interrupted by trusses, and your eye is drawn upward by the poles that support the roof and the sides of the bunk beds. They have been really fun to design and build!
Today we were out reconnoitering the upcoming handcart trek route with an agent of the Environmental Agency. He had been informed by a farmer whose fields we would be going through that due to the threat of hoof and mouth disease, out trekkers would have to be equipped with special sanitized footwear. So he found a detour that would allow us to avoid the problem. Here is a picture of Sister Pemberton showing the point where the detour starts. Elder P. took the picture with his camera and here it is. Isn't she just the cutest little grandma that you ever saw. I do love her!
She is standing in front of a small pile of aluminium (say al-you-min-ium in England) irrigation pipe and an large circular abandoned bit of rusty farm equipment.
This evening, after hosting the local Ward's traditional Fourth of July Celebration at Camp Liahona where we serve as volunteer Camp Directors, we sat in our back yard and watched the fireworks. It all seems very normal except that we are in the nation whose tyranny caused the Declaration of Independence to be written in the first place. Not only that: one item among the objections listed by the declarers was that England had stationed a standing army in the colonies in a time of peace. But the fireworks we watched came from canons on the local Royal Air Force base which is staffed and operated by the USAF - the United States has a standing army in England (and everyone is happy about it).
These strange and wonderful facts illustrate the quirks of history, the perplexities of the nations and the fact that these two nations have been and remain sisters. There is also the reminder that the English in 1776 didn't exactly like what King George III was doing to them either. We have found that most of the people here have absolutely no resentment toward Thomas Paine (who was born in Thetford, a 30 minute drive from here), the US, or our celebration of our independence from them. They are quick to say something like: "And it was a good thing too because the US has saved us from destruction twice in the last century."
The reason the local Ward has a traditional Fourth of July celebration here in England is that the Ward boundaries encompass three RAF bases staffed and operated by the USAF. There are enough Mormons among these airmen that 80% of the Thetford Ward is American.
It is sobering to note that today, 2 and a third centuries later, we have leaders in the US government making statements like "We don't want to waste a good crises." To suppose that these people are unaware of the fundamental Marxist nature of such a comment is probably a dangerous choice at best.
