Home Sweet Barn!

For 6 1/2 years we have had Dodds Church marked on our GPS as "HOME" but now we can move the dot over about 200 feet. It has been a long, long road but we are finally home. The worldwide headquarters of Boggs Family Ministries, INC. is now open for business!

Early Thursday morning I pulled into Dodds Church about 5:30 after a long run. I was finishing the trip from Wichita, Kansas with a small U-Haul trailer behind the BoggsMobile. The trailer contained the remnants of our belongings that have resided in Wichita all these years since we left. 

For those of you just joining us, we pastored a church in Wichta from early 1999 to the end of 2002. We began evangelizing the first Sunday of 2003 and liquidated most of our household belonging. We gave away or sold most of the big stuff, brought tools, instruments and a few other things to Ohio, took my library to Missouri and left a bunch of stuff in Wichita in storage. We emptied the storage on Monday the 8th. With that task tackled we have finally moved completely out of Wichita. It took us twelve years but we finally got it done!

Here is the BoggsMobile and the trailer parked at Dodds Church.

I rested until after daylight and then Kelly Jo and Dad came out to the church and I pulled the BoggsMobile next door to the Lazy OD Ranch for the very first time.

Some of the tree branches are in way the but I hope to trim those before we leave December 26th. The trees closest to the road are just about right on the property line and the tree next to the house is completely on our property. The line goes very close to the neighbor's house. 

Speaking of neighbors, we have great neighbors! I have known the lady of the house, Sue, since we were kids at Dodds Church. They have lived next door for many, many years. They keep a good eye on the place and know as much about the barn and property as anybody. 

It is super to have good neighbors especially a neighbor as handy as Donny. In fact he is the neighbor I mentioned in This Post that welded a bracket on the AC for me. He is going to help me trim some of the bigger limbs from the trees. 

There it is! It does not look big enough from here!

Going in for the first time. Dad had the key and has been in the barn a few times since we contracted to buy the place. He handed me the key and it would not work. He did not quite believe me that it would not work until he realized he had given me the wrong key. I thought I was locked out of my own barn.

Can you tell it was a very cold 22 degrees? I had the electric turned on the day before and Dad is turning on the breakers for the first time. The electric seems to be in good shape with plenty of receptacles all around the barn. I wired in for the bus temporarily but I plan to have a 50 amp plug inside and out before we leave.

After I backed the trailer to the side door, I turned the BoggsMobile around and put it into position so Kelly Jo could back it into the barn for the first time.

Kelly Jo backing into the barn.

Plenty of room.

Please excuse the dirty bus. It was pretty clean before I ran through the rain and winter mess for a few hundred miles.

The barn is 64 ' long and the bus is 45'. We parked it 4-5 feet from the door in the front so we have plenty of room in the back to pull something through the side door behind the bus. That door is nearly 15' wide but only 11 1/2' tall so the tent trailer will not fit under it but almost anything else will.

The concrete has been poured at different times and by different people and some if it is in poor shape. The concrete on one side of the barn has been compromised by animals digging under it but it is completely fine for now. It seems very solid under the bus.

It is so nice park the bus out of the wind. The only time we have had the BoggsMobile inside since we have owned it is to have it worked on. I think it looks good in the barn and I know it makes me feel good.

Some of the walls of the barn are insulated and I am sure that helps some with the temperatures. It would be impossible to heat the whole barn without the roof being insulated but we will get to that all in good time, along with a few dozen other things. 

Right now I am working on storage for all the "stuff", wiring the 50 amp plugs and cleaning up. The floor needs a good pressure washing but it is probably a bit cold for that right now. 

It feels a little different for us. Not completely weird but definitely different. Over all though I think we are Home Sweet Barn.

Thanks for reading.

Davy