Living Hazzardously

Little pieces of our journey with Jesus

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There is a time, turn, turn, turn…

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I believe everyone has an “Attitude” and that attitude is a window to the soul.

Mornings are my favorite time of day, but why? Well, the morning holds a promise of joy and things to come, the evening brings reflection of struggles that brought joy and perhaps a discontented and joyless day. The coming day is always filled with hope, mornings are never a disappointment, rather a hope for joy. 

What a week! We worked very hard and got so much done, we still have a long way to go. Just to recap the week:

Monday & Tuesday were set into play for the preparation of Wednesday… A friend from church loaned us his scaffolding on Sunday and we set it up Monday, Tuesday was more prep… and finally Wednesday… As I struggled to find hope of success for the day and false discouragement was nipping at my heels, I discovered God’s renewed hope like the first light of daybreak. Noon came with a flow of guys showing up to replace the windows, and it all went so very well. Eleven windows from noon to four or was it five pm. I lost track of the time as my body started to feel the results of the hard work on a hot day but the results are from GOD, like a well tended garden, we can not make the garden grow but we can plant and water the garden.. And today was that day of growth. 

With Wednesday behind us, Thursday opened a renewed perspective that led to success, 5 more windows for a total of 16! One more to go in this phase, but this one must wait for the right timing as we have a few other obstacles to deal with to gain access. 

Besides a five window day, we had the guys from Northome DAC come over and fill the dumpster with yet another load of junk from the previous era. Four guys that are so happy to have a job, Four guys that understand having purpose and value with the work of their hands!!

At Church we are going through a study on Ecclesiastes,  this book of the old testament wisdom literature reminds me that purpose and meaning in life are things to strive after in every situation and season. It reminds me that everything under heaven has a “time”, or perhaps you remember it a “season”… Either way, you may remember it, most folks recognize it as a song… But is it true?  “A time for love and a time for hate?” The day after Donald Trump was shot, do we still believe there is a time for HATE? If you understand hating evil in this world then you do believe there is a time for HATE… I hate that the man behind Trump died, I hate that I see people suffering, or killing their children… I hate everyday, But that doesn’t mean I hate the person that shot and killed an innocent man that was in the line of fire, nor should you. 

You see, it makes me so sad that another person can only find hate in their heart that they would wish for another person to die, yes, I said wish… not even try to kill another person but rather to wish harm on another person… we are all created in the image of our creator and so hating another person is kin to hating oneself, as we are all in the image of God, we are not GOD nor will we ever be GOD… yet there it is, “A time to hate” 

All things in the proper order… We couldn’t install windows until first the old windows were carefully removed and the correct preparations were made, to allow for the next “TIME” to happen… “A time to install windows and a time to remove windows”

So I leave you with this note: A time to die and a time to be born… Although this man behind Trump was devalued by the shooter to the point the shooter didn’t care about collateral damage, that man is loved and missed forever. I don’t know all the details, but I do know this.. There is a time for every purpose under heaven and we should never waste the time given to us, we can never purchase our wasted time back and reuse it for good!

Thank you for all the help with windows this week and let me not fail to mention the guy that started making the old stairs and deck disappear before somebody got killed using them… more about this another day. 

God Bless and may His hand guide your steps today.

Charlie

“How long before I can move in?”

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We are asked from time to time, “how long before I can move in?” or move back in? This place sounds like the place I want to live! Sam’s Place is coming along, slowly! Some stories about those who have lived here in the past are pretty horrible, the water leaks… the food… we hope to do better and ask for your help to do this…

It has been a good but long week, as I struggle to find enough time, I plead my case for help. We finally got our electricity back on and I have resolved many roof leaks, still have one to go before I start the next phase of roof repairs” . It is actually just managing the conditions and starting a standard of upkeep, unfortunately, we are just going to patch things together this year.

Jess is working hard to establish a 501c3. but taking “food handling” classes and taking tests and licensing and calls and administration for Spring Lake Heating and answering the work phone and being a mother and being a wife and looking gorgeous (she really doesn’t have to work hard for that last one) …

Al is excited to have his Basketball tourney… and in his words… “That’s all that matters, right Charlie?”

Things are going well, although a bit slower than we had hoped, our goal is to get partially occupied by mid to late fall of this year. Jess and I are taking a very overdue trip to see our baby granddaughter, this week. We can’t take Al as it’s just too stressful for him more than once every couple years and even then, he doesn’t really enjoy driving across the country and flying is not an option with Al, In fact, boating on our pontoon is too much movement for him as well… All things We are working on but it takes years of conditioning, it takes a lot of time!

Our Piggies are growing so fast and when I return, they will be moved into the summer forage area from the starter pen. The broiler chickens are feathered out so they can move into the summer tractor today! The Guinee’s are disappearing one by one, no trace but seems to be at night. We haven’t a clue but I am starting to think it has to be that owl is back, silent, deadly, no trace!

We have been filling our dumpster to the brim and I am certain we have become our garbage man’s least favorite stop on Fridays… but we got to clean out the trash, and so we keep filling it up…

So anyway, today is a short read, but let me tell you this… I REALLY APPRECIATE YOU ALL!! The time you take to read our blog means more than you know, the support we have seen in this chapter is so motivating, but even so, it’s a daunting task.

It’s not what you take with you when you leave this world, it’s what you leave behind… What’s your legacy?

Charlie and Jess Hazzard

What a beautiful mess

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What a beautiful mess! I know this is a huge undertaking and I know how disciplined I will need to stay in order to accomplish what needs to be done. Or at least I think I do… 

So far, I have moved all the beds, chairs, dressers, lamps & old tv sets out of the first wing… The first wing is now empty of furniture! The previous era has come to an end and the new is beginning. I have discovered that no mask can truly combat Carpet soaked in cat pee, ohh how I despise cat pee.

This week I have been working on emptying all the rooms and getting things ready for paint, disconnecting the old boilers so I can pressure test the radiators. Good news, they held pressure for two days straight. Now I can start planning the new heating plant, prepping rooms for paint, floor repairs and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning…  I have some trim to replace and floors to seal, holes to patch and cracks to cure. I may move them old cast iron radiators into the hall to get the rooms ready for painting and flooring, shouldn’t be too bad as each one has unions. 

We are on the hunt for an economical vinyl plank (or something) to just cover the floor. If the floors last 5 years? Fantastic! If not? We will address that in the future, today is all about “price”. I have always been a “value shopper” and never have I been a “price hunter” … it’s oddly strange and goes against my natural desire. The best value is my normal… never just the bottom line. Being a small business owner, I understand value. Every so often I get a customer that is a “price hunter”. When price is all that matters, it’s hard to sell value.

I thought a short history lesson may be fun. I sat down this morning and studied the abstract, just to get a decent feel for what has gone on in the past. 

This is a story of a piece of land in Northern Itasca County… In the beginning the land was filled with rich large PINE timber

In the year 1906 the land was deeded from the United States to Ed Shultis, in 1908 it became the third addition to the village of Bigfork. Around 1912 an easement was established by Minneapolis and Rainy railroad; this is now the foot bridge crossing the river near the north end of town, don’t get it mistaken with the old railroad trestle. 

In 1938-41 The cornerstone was set for a rural Hospital. The first doctor was hired, his name was Dr Bender (I’m not sure if he practiced Chiropractics or not). North Itasca Hospital Association opened what is possibly the first rural hospital in Minnesota; we are still trying to “verify” this.

In 1957 an addition was made off the east side of the building, adding 4 beds, a Dr office, a Dentist office & a kitchen.

In 1965 the new hospital opened, and this hospital was closed. The building was then sold to Leisure Hills Inc. For many years the building was operated as a retirement facility which is extremely surprising as there is no elevator, chair lift or ramp to get into the lower level for dinner.  

From 1981-2024 the building had at least three new owners and was named “Riverside Residence”. The old building sat there year after year waiting for someone to come along and love it back to health, the electrical just kept getting older, the roofing just leaked more, and the carpet just absorbed more cat pee. Windows would give into the constant nagging winters and lack of paint would allow the water to take away the only barrier between the Minnesota cold and the warmth of the cast iron radiators that were working overtime. 

Some call it fate, I call it “divine appointment” 

On March 6, 2024, at approximately 2pm, I walked into the building for the first time and met the owner. I noticed a few guys, one I knew as “Coffee Cup Ron” his room was just to the left of the front door, he looked tired and weak as he made his way into his small room and sat down on the bed, I saw him later on my way out again in a “near collapsed state” on one of the nearby chairs. As the owner brought me downstairs to the boiler room, I had observed a few areas of the building that were “interesting”. I stepped past the makeshift double doors into the boiler room, and I gasped at what I saw. There, in the middle of a crowded room sat four boilers, three oil and one propane (the propane boiler isn’t connected to anything) The three boilers that were connected were in an extremely distressed condition, anything but a safe condition and I feared for the residents that had no options but to continue living directly above a virtual time bomb. 

A closer inspection revealed one boiler had an attempted repair using epoxy on a cracked section of the cast iron boiler… epoxy? The owner commented she had a handyman make an attempt at repairing this… I shuddered a bit at that thought. I have seen the destructive power of boilers that were operated improperly, I have seen it and I have the utmost respect for this scenario. I tried to not show fear on my face, but that was hard. In my veins I felt a slight chill as I recounted my qualifications as a chief boiler operator and the responsibility that title holds. 

 The building was dotted with small electric heaters, doors to bathrooms were locked but I could see the sewage leaking out from under the door. The floors were wet more than dry and later I would discover it is in part a sewer back up and in part leaking water lines that had been patched over the years and never actually repaired.

As I revealed the truth about her boilers, the owner broke down into tears.  As I explained, the only way to fix this is a full replacement of the system, she slumped down in despair. It was at that very moment I was completely overwhelmed with the one thought: I knew I needed to go home and talk to Jess; I knew we needed to figure out a way to buy this building, I knew we needed to fix it up, I knew we needed to provide a better home for the guys living there.

I won’t reveal more of that day and the emotions that led to the horrible situation.  I was starting to better understand. It must have been so hard to struggle to keep going every day, thinking about the difficulties she had to deal with, to just to manage this monster of a building, to see how much she cared for the guys living there. This was truly heartwarming. Covid was harder than some may think, covid was a back breaker and she was crushed. 

As time went on, Jess and I both understood it was our mission to lead this building back into a usable condition and so we took God’s lead and jumped in. Jumping into a beautiful mess. But that cat pee is a killer.