We hadn’t thought of it, but….

Did I mention that our construction crew is pretty cool?

Sam Wolthuis, owner of H-Minus Construction, is a young guy that grew up in the area.  He understand barns.  He appreciates what we are trying to do.  He’s proud of the work he’s doing.  Sam and the BARn,,,it’s a good fit.

Sam’s helper is his brother-in-law, Reuben.  Reuben also grew up in the area, and he, too, understands and appreciates old barns.  As an added plus, Reuben also does a little homebrewing of his own.  He mentioned a homemade wine made with black walnut and orange peel.  I think Reuben may be proud of turning an old barn into a microbrewery.  Reuben and his family live without electricity, pump water with a windmill and raise their food supply on their farm.  And, although he knows how to drive, Reuben doesn’t own a car.  Luckily, he works for Sam who doesn’t mind chauffeuring him to jobs like ours.

(No, I haven’t taken photos of Sam and Reuben yet, but don’t worry, I’ll whip out the camera sometime when they aren’t looking.)

Anyway, Reuben and Brian have had several conversations about brewing since they met, and Reuben found out about the importance of his job in working on our barn for the betterment of life for all of  humankind.  Brian hit the homebrewing jackpot this weekend when in our little basement beer fridge (that little fridge has lost its importance since we got the kegerator last year)–four homemade wheat beers.  One of the beers we’re saving to compare with our latest all grain wheat beer, but the other bottles are definitely in the consumption line.

It just so happened that we were home this evening when Sam and Reuben were still working on the barn (for the record, Sam tried out the hay forks in the loft today, and they still work).  I cracked open one of those limited edition wheat beers for Reuben to try.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a contractor grin as big as Reuben when I handed over that cold cup of wheat.   He enjoyed the flavors saying that he found notes of honey in the beer (although there is none).  Then, he brought up something that we had never thought of.

“You’re going to have to put a hitching post here so I can tie my horse up when I ride over for a beer,” Reuben told Brian after polishing off that drink.

We had thought of parking, of course, but hitching hadn’t crossed our mind…that is until tonight.  Something else to sketch into the master plan.