I'm naming names......

I'm naming names, for just a moment......instead of continuing to recount the historic past year......because for an instant today we were all in the same place at the same time. Yesterday, I referred to the big fat meeting with the banker, the builders, the designers and me. The banker, Michael Garner of UMB, and friend of theworkshop 308, is the sort of banker who, with his wife Jess, tromped with us all over the 48 acres.....up hills and down.....along narrow trails with bluffs straight down to the river.....watching for eagles and heron from the rookery......nearly stepping on a snake.....listening to plans for the house we were building as we walked..... ever congenial and careful....and a very smart man to put his trust (and money) into such an endeavor as this. Since that first meeting, I've seen him both on and off a mountain bike, saw him do a cartwheel in Phelps Grove Park, and met with him dressed-fit-to-kill in his suit and tie behind his desk with the same combination of acceptance, caution and adventure it takes to be a banker you love to do business with. The builders at the meeting were Chris Kinnard and Todd Slack who, with their staff and crew, are Keyway Construction Company. The two of them also spent a huge chunk of an afternoon looking first at the house site, then walking down to see the best gravel bar on the river, talking about wives and children, hunting and fishing, jobs they had done, places they had lived, and seemed genuinely interested in doing this project.....and confident that I would be thrilled with the outcome. (I doubt that they said "thrilled", but I was sold on them and on their approach to the house, to the land, and to me. And still am.)
And then Jason, Michael, Natalie, Ian and Courtney were all there today, as well. And I'll have a whole lot more to say about them, as time goes on. The meeting went well....I laughed a lot.....had a little Hot Damn cinnamon schnaaps in Dixie cups to launch this deal.....I'll go sign a deed of trust tomorrow.....I'll get some project insurance....try to keep up my day job......attempt to learn another blllllloging trick.....be grateful for the way things have happened......and the people involved.....and off we go.

[That meeting I was talking about]