Yup- Should Never Have Said NEVER

I told him when this project started rolling that I would NEVER. EVER. NOT EVEN A CHANCE! 

I told him out the gate I would never get up there and help him build this barn; that my contribution would be from the ground and that just that. 

My guy might not be afraid to "fly" or be off the ground, but I sure am,  and although he was okay with my position- 100% on board and supportive- it didn't matter on Friday. 

                            

Well... on Friday we both saw there was no way around someone being up there to help him with the sheeting, and with his eye on me or my oldest two boys, "never, not ever" was no longer an option. 

 It WASN'T going to be the babies getting up there, by default it would be me. 

I told myself I got this, just breathe and walk down there and climb. Upon my approach #1 said, "Mom, one foot off the ground is no different than 100- you'll be fine." And when I stopped to assess once again he emphatically expressed, " MOM upside down is WOW," and how I just have to be able to get up there. Got to love pep talks from nine-year-olds....short, sweet, insightful, and to the point.

I scaled the two extension ladders, one to the top of the horse trailer, the other to the fascia "just" twenty-two feet in the air and froze. Oh Crap!

I. AM. TERRIFIED. OF. HEIGHTS!  Yes, yes it's true. I am not super woman and I will be the first to admit it, so why am I here and oh my goodness why is My Man way over there!?

(see the tiny speck in the back/bottom left of the picture? Yes, that is 40 feet from me at the top of the ladder. I just hadn't noticed his position till I got up there.) He isn't even close to me, but in the far back corner. Why?!

                                       

"Honey, can't we start here, in this corner?" You know, the one just 15 feet from me and the ladder?
Nope, no that would be just too easy. No, we have to start in the back corner for whatever reason he  gave, but I stopped listening because I had to start thinking how I was to cross all these trusses.

These were bare- two foot apart, twenty foot in the air- two inch wide sticks and I was to get my 170# frame across them and not fall through or snap them? In what life!? 

Never mind I just saw the man WALK from one to the other, dragging a sheet of ply wood back with him. Nope, they wont be able to hold me, I just "know it."  But who cares what I know....I have to do this so I let go of the ladder and spread myself across three of the trusses and there I stayed. 

                                          

I tried to work myself to a crawl BUT just lifting my head was too much, so I scooted my way to a beam and then slithered 40' back. 

I moved as slow as a sloth but with as much grace as a floundering fish. I would hesitantly reach and then pull back. Reach again then grab hold and inch my body from one brace to the next all while listening to my boys coach and express how easy a task I have and how they would gladly take my place.

    

Ray said it took me over 15 minutes to reach the back corner, and I don't doubt it. 

( #1 was so "kind" as to take a quick video for me/of me- I just can't get it to load. Sorry, not sorry.)

By the time I made it to my guy he had the "sweetest" little island nailed off on all the sides, and in the very corner of this newly considered MASSIVE barn.  An 8'x4' perch on the very VERY corner- way up the the sky- and I was to stay there and get it nailed in the field- that's the middle- ya I thought...right. Did he forget I have never used a nail gun?!  

Lord give me strength!

I looked back to the ladder and knew there was not a snow balls chance I could make it back the way I came, so I better start nailing off my bridge home. Just one sheet of plywood after another, I told myself,  and don't look down.  AND don't lift my body up either, that's just too high. Stay on my belly and all will be fine. LOL! 

So I laid on my stomach and used the ridiculously heavy nail gun from that position and got to work.

                  

After about an hour I had worked up enough real-estate to bring myself to a kneeling position, and by the 3rd hour I could stand for a short spell to fetch a tool here or there. I just wanted one thing..... and that was down, BUT down only would come with sheeting all the way to the ladder. What motivation to move, and move as quickly as possible. 

         

Sheeting didn't get all the way to the ladder that evening. 

We worked at a great pace, but fell short, leaving me five feet to crawl over the bare trusses and transition back to the ladder. 

Isn't that the hardest part of getting up on anything y'all?  The transition from roof to ladder?  It sure is to me and it took me ages to work up the courage to get going and get on. When I finally got my toes to touch the ladder's rung I was so relieved, but still clutched the 2x6's for dear life. My Man had to tell me to "detach [every appendage]," that I was home-free if I would "just let go." 
Oie! Easy for him to say!

                    

Well, in summary,  we both weren't sure if we were going to have to call the fire truck to come and get me a few times over! 
But they didn't- I made it! 

(My brother had to be rescued from a tree once in such fashion, it was epic.) 

Once my body was firmly on the ground I started to ache and hurt from my ribs to my ankles.

The adrenalin was gone and my shoulders burned from wielding the nail gun, my knees ached from kneeling for hours on end, and we were maybe only one-fifth of the way done! Face-palm!

"I lived to die another day!"

So, when I don't show my legs for the next few weeks, this is what I am hiding. I am bruised from my bust to my ankles and all to SAVE my boys from climbing a structure they are eager to climb 

already. 

They keep telling me they don't need saving. Maybe they're right... I think it's me who needs saving from them.