The Evolution of a Dream Part 2

 This is part two in the story of how the Bailey Country Store and Sasquatch Outpost came to be.

We had to move all the old fridges & freezers out of the store,
some of which dated back to the 50's.  

"They don't make 'em like they used to!".  These machines were made of steel - I think we
took four of them down to the metal recycling place and they weighed 3000 lbs plus!

One day our new friend Dan - who called himself an atheist - pulled up in front of the
store with a trailer and donated every power tool he owned to the church.  He'd decided
to move to Texas and felt "impressed' to give us his tools.  We rebuilt the whole store through
his generosity.  He's not an atheist anymore.

 RED TAG DAY

September 5th, 2012.  I was planning out our next steps for the store when a fellow walked in and in a very gruff manner asked me what were were doing.  Without really waiting for an answer, he declared that we were remodeling without a permit and 

cited us for being in violation.  As he attached the red tag to the door he made it very clear that "No Work" was to be done until we applied for and received our remodel permit.  This would prove to be a very frustrating, two-month process.  The county building inspector became my ever-present nemesis.  It seemed like he showed up every second day due to some complaint from our neighbors.  One time a deputy Sheriff showed up and told me that the complaint they'd received was that we were "blowing asbestos" out of the building (??)  How exactly does one do that?  We got to the point where the rumors and gossip going on about us and the new store were really amazing!   I got tired of all the whining, so I made a couple of signs that I put in the window: "We're doing Asbestos we can to get back to work!" and "Free Asbestos; inquire within".  I thought it was hilarious, but the next thing I knew an agent from the State Health Department in Denver was at the store, looking through the windows.  He called me and declared that we had a "probable Asbestos spill" and that no one should be in the building.  I asked him if it took special training to identify Asbestos by looking through a window.  He didn't think it was funny.
All that's behind us now.  

The Evolution of a Dream Part 1

Last Saturday was a very big day for Daphne and I and for our whole church.  Not only was it Bailey Day - the main festival of the year for the town of Bailey (and my first attempt at organizing the entire event), but we officially opened the doors of the newly renovated Bailey Country Store for the first time.  Nine long months of hard work, sweat, frustration, delays, financial shortfalls, amazing partnerships, generous donors -- and we're finally here.  The Bailey Country Store and Sasquatch Outpost are officially and legally open!  But I'm getting ahead of myself;  there's an  amazing story to be told here, and I want to tell it with pictures.  

August 2012

When Michael (our Senior Pastor) first proposed the idea that we lease this old country store, I thought he was insane.  The paint was peeling off the walls,  half the lettering gone - it was in truly horrible shape.  Vacant for four years, time and the weather had taken their toll.  

    

    The state of the inside of the store was - if this is possible - even worse than the outside!  The floor was uneven and rotten, most of the old fridges and freezers didn't work anymore and 

it was full of accumulated junk from countless owners.  The building itself is over 130 years old... and it looked every bit of it!

 

   This is how the old shelves looked when we took over the lease.  The former owner was known for his meat - and that is virtually the only question people asked us when we started working on the building, "Are you going to sell the Tri-tip roast?"  Seems no one really cared about the groceries, just the meat!

 

This is how the back room looked - bare concrete walls, concrete floor.  The plywood square in the corner covered a 12 foot deep cistern... probably the original well.  The transformation in this room is probably the most dramatic of all... but I'll save that for Part 2 or 3 :)

Graduating #2

Graduate Number 2!

Nicole graduated from Conifer High School last weekend.  She finished as a Distinguished Scholar in the top 10% of her class, and in August she's heading for Chapman University in Orange, CA to pursue a degree in digital animation. Chapman is a private university that costs around $50K per year.  This is significant because we've told all our girls that they're free to attend any school in the country - or out of the country - that they choose, as long as they figure out a way to pay for it.  When Nicole first mentioned her desire to attend Chapman I was concerned that she was shooting too high due to the cost, but she was determined and her grades landed her almost $45K a year in grants and scholarships.  Not bad for a girl who spent her first 10 years of school in France!  We are very proud of all that Nicole has achieved through her determination.

Country Store Update

I've grown to develop a love-hate relationship with all State and county building inspectors.  Well, actually it's a hate-hate relationship with most of them. Tomorrow we have the third inspection by one of the inspectors - I won't say who, but he deals with water and pipes and toilets.  We dug the hole for the sump pump last week, then he added a whole list of stuff we had to do for the ADA toilet.  I'm all for trying to be in compliance with state and county building codes, but this is a 130 year old building for pete's sake, and it should by anyone's standards be razed to the ground.  We've vastly improved the whole place in the last nine months, so all we need is a little grace here so we can get open before Bailey Day on June 16th.

Mountain Lion Kill

My neighbor Brian called me a few days ago and said, "Hey, we just noticed a fresh Mountain Lion kill on our road, just below your house.  You should probably keep a close eye on your dogs for a few days."  Yes, we do live in the Colorado mountains!  Sure enough, a large female cougar had taken a deer virtually on our doorstep, and Brian managed to get a short video of her with a trailcam before she finished her kill and took off.