Carriage House Renos.

Since Irene and Chris from Australia finished tiling the upstairs bathrooms in the fall, much more has been accomplished on the Carriage House thanks to some extremely hard working, committed men, not the least of which is Mel. It certainly seems that not a day goes by (except Sundays) that Mel cannot be found there outworking the rest of us on staff as usual! :) By the way, Mel has almost 

com- pletely recovered from the stroke he suffered back in June. We praise God for His goodness!

Much of the work completed is on the outside of the building. Thanks to the extremely generous donation of siding by Ross Mitchell, owner of Gemthane, Mel and Nico finished the siding.

John Hayward and his friend, Colby Chin, formed a landscape team. Weekend after weekend they labored to place large, flat, landscape stones to form stairs on each side of the building and make a beautiful retaining wall for sandy soil on the north and south sides. These were generously donated by La Farge.

One of John‘s passions is timber frame and he and handyman Jeff Schneyderberg have built the decks, porches and stairways. Matt Stevens has worked with them to stain the large timber frame.

Thanks to a company called Gel, soffit, fascia and eaves troughs (that is, gutters to the Aussies!) are nearly complete.

The hydro connection will soon be complete by C.I.D.‘s Robert Ralph. Robert was on full-time staff years ago and continues to be very generous to the Ranch.

As you can imagine in this cold, winter weather, the workers are really looking forward to Bryan‘s Fuel hook- ing up the new boiler to heat the building. Apart from being warmer, they can resume work on the drywall and completion of the lower level. Inside, Mel, Darryl Schenk and John have painted, trimmed and installed cupboards.

The Carriage House continues to stand as a testimony to the faithfulness of God and His ability to provide not only quality goods, but skilled and dedicated workers.

Nico Koeslag is always friendly, supportive and smiling...and also happens to have been responsible for building mainte- nance since 2003. Thanks for all you do Nico!