TODAY IS A LANDMARK DAY for the Oak Harbor Kingdom Hall. Yes, the start of the demolition of the thirty-eight year old building to make way for a new Kingdom Hall of Jehovah′s Witnesses. ¹

This is a day that has been long in coming and many of the local witnesses have been waiting patiently many years for this to happen. ²

I was asked to arrive at the Hall at nine-thirty to have the gate open for when the temporary security fence workers arrive, but when I arrive, find him waiting on me. After greeting him, he tells me that his name is Popeye.

I open the gate and then get out the site plan that was prepared for the new temporary fencing. We walk to all three areas for him to ask any question he may have and then he begins to work setting up the fence.

I follow along to help when I can but he is quite capable and finishes the job in just more than an hour. I tell him that he has done an excellent job, then he thanks me, packs up and leaves. Now, the entire property has a fence around it which will make it much easier to keep secure and just in time because a lot of equipment is going to be brought in later today.

I park my van in the morning shaded area and then go inside the Hall to remove the exterior door to the second school. It only takes about ten minutes to remove the door and then I load it into my van.

I then notice two people standing outside the fence at the southeast corner (which I now call the peanut gallery at which have put several fold-up chairs) and walk over to find out that it is Lisa, one of our young pioneer sisters and her younger sister Lilica. They have come to watch the demolition of the Hall.

I tell them that the show does not start until some time after three pm. I talk a little more with Lilica and tell her that it is time for me to cook my lunch. She asks “How do you cook your food out here?” I say to her “Would you like for me to show you?” and she says yes! After locking the gate, I drive my van and park it in the corner, get out my stove and begin boiling water for my soup and tea. Also, I ask Lisa if she would like a cup of tea and she says yes.

While eating, Mark arrives, opens the gate and comes onto the property. He immediately sees us in the corner and walks to us. He comments that he could not figure out how the gate had been locked from the inside until he saw that I was still on-site. After lunch, Lisa and Lilica leave and then I move my van back to the gate.

Since it is only just after one pm, I drive home, unload the door into my garage and pick up my phone that I had left in my other pants pocket. Checking, I see that Mark has called twice so I call him back.

He says that he had come by to see if the florescence bulbs have been removed and that the building permit does not require us to remove them and since they were the green bulbs that do not have mercury in them, it wouldn′t be necessary anyway.

I am now set up at right at the gate giving me a clear view down the road and can see when anyone drives down Ronhaar. At three, there are a few brothers who begin to arrive. Two brothers from Sequim who are in the Safety Department arrive first, then Mike and Mark from the Oak Harbor congregation arrive.

Next John arrives to pack up and take the unneeded plywood back to the lumber store. Also, his wife Kelly together with the kids, Lucy and Jackson show up at the peanut gallery to watch the demolition.

Patrick arrives wanting to take the front door but when JP arrives, he says that he has to wait for the RBC brothers to get an approval. I ask Mike about it and he says that it would be alright, so Patrick removes the door and leaves. Next, Sue stops to drop off four cases of water for the workers and we put them in my van.

Then more of the demolition crew arrive and soon after the first dump truck pulling an 120 excavator on trailers arrives followed directly by another truck pulling a 50 excavator. These circle the parking lot and begin to unload. Soon the largest excavator operated by Robert begins to take out the west end of the Hall.

The smaller of the two excavators begins to remove the two large trees in the southwest corner.

The work is progressing well and then a third excavator arrives, unloads and is parked on the west side of the property. When I asked Robert, he said that it is here to remove the foundation if he is not able to remove it with his machine.

At about five pm, Bob arrives to replace me but says he wants to take some photos first. I tell him that I will pass on to him the security guard information when he is ready. A little later we go to the front gate, sit down and I relay to him all that I have been told and then give him the official orange vest.

Before I leave, I make one more round through the site to take some photos. When I arrive in the southwest corner I notice two people standing outside the fence watching the demolition. Upon looking a little closer, I see that one of the persons is our sister so I take a photo of her. I tell her about the peanut gallery and that there are chairs available so she walks there to check it out.

Then I walk back to my van to leave I see that I still have the water that Sue dropped off. I immediately grab a case and walk through the site offering a bottle to each worker. I don′t think anyone refused. When I finish, I return to my van, drive to the construction office and ask if I can drop off the remaining three cases.

Then, I drive off site and go home for something to eat. I prepare bean and salmon soup for supper but as I am just finishing my second bowl, look up at the clock and see that I am due back to lock the security gate in five minutes.

Upon arriving at seven pm, the demolition crew is still going at the Hall and both large trees are on the ground. As the work continues and Bob comes to me and says that he would like to leave, so he gives me the vest and heads home. The tree removal crew is cutting up the trees and loading it onto Rogers trailer.

At about seven-forty-five, the large excavator backs off of the foundation to the earthen area and begins to inspect the bits on the bucket. When Robert finds one missing and a second one broken loose, he begins to clean the mounts to get them ready for replacement bits.

As the work winds down, the brothers begin to congregate near Roger′s truck, say their good byes and leave for home. At about seven-fifty, two more brothers who are RBC cooks, coming from the Hall build in Sequim arrive and ask to have the gate open at seven am tomorrow. I tell them that I will arrange for the gate to be open for them at seven.

Soon, it is just Roger and myselƒ and he tells me to wear work boots the next time I come on-site. I tell him that I will from now on, that this evening, I was just here this evening to lock the gate and then go home and did not expect the workers to stay an additional hour. Then, I say, We learn as we go, don′t we? Roger packs up his tool and heads for home with some firewood.

As the light of Day begins to wane, I walk the property once again to take final photos and then call JP to tell him of the request for the gate to be open at seven. He asks if I can do it and respond, Absolutely, I would be happy to take care of opening the gate in the morning.

I leave the property and upon arriving home I begin to record the events of this day in my journal. At shortly after eleven pm, I still find myselƒ typing in this journal.

I must now head out to the Windjammer to get prone. Such another long day, again pushing well over twelve hours in pursuit of the Hall Build.

The nice thing about having other who want to work in this same position, that is security guard, is that I will have tomorrow from about eight am until two pm off from this job and plan to spend it uploading photos and journal entries to my web site.

Currently, security guards are scheduled only on weekends, from Friday at eight am until Sunday at seven pm. Later, as the work come closer to the Hall Raising, the security guards will be scheduled 24 x 7 until the hall is complete and most all the equipment has been removed.

I will stay long enough tomorrow morning to share some coffee with the other workers and maybe take some photos. Good night.

Last evening, Mark and Don on the kitchen crew asked me if I would open the gate today at seven again. I told them, no problem and this morning, arrive here at six-fifty am, open the gate and park in front of the Hall to take a photo. They arrive just before seven and begin to set up a table and get coffee brewing.

Just after seven, Roger arrives and sets up a canopy over the kitchen table area and in no time there is coffee and pastries ready for anyone who wants them. I have a cup of coffee and two cookies and then before anyone else arrives have time to walk the property and take photos of the accomplishment.

Soon, I have to man the front gate and allow the workers to pass into the compound and shortly after, the excavators are hard at work loading debris onto trucks and hauling the debris to the dump. Among those arriving are three more kitchen workers and a nurse named Dana drives in to provide first aid services. I take her to the on-site trailer ³ and show her her station.

At eight o′clock, Bret arrives for his shift as security guard but first wants to take photos. Mike arrives to taxi the workers, who do not need their trucks onsite, to park in the designated area two blocks away. He tells me that he will be the taxi service today for parking cars off-site.

When Bret returns to the gate, I give him the vest and we sit down to go over some of the guard details and get him started. Aterwards, I walk the property to take more photos. I walk into the on-site trailer to see how the nurse is getting along and she mentions that there is a smoke detector that is chirping. I tell her that the owner of the trailer is on-site and will get him to come to fix the problem.

Then I go to the kitchen and tell Mark and Don that I am off duty now but will see them when I return for my next shift at two pm.

I drive home, take a shower, and fix a bowl of bean soup for lunch. Then, I begin working on cropping photos for my next upload later this evening. I am able to complete about fifty photos and finish my journal entry for yesterday, Thursday. Then, at one-thirty I drive to the post office and check my mail box before returning to the Hall. When I arrive, I see Larry manning the gate and tell him that I am his replacement. He tries to give me the vest but I tell him that I want to take photos before I begin my shift as it is about ten minutes before two pm. There has been much accomplished during the time that I have been off duty, as I had expected. For one, the large Douglas fir was on the ground now and much of the building structure was now carted off to the dump. The brothers running the equipment have been doing and excellent job. Soon, I am wearing the orange vest and guarding the gate but I keep taking photos of the progress. Knock down the roof and walls, break it into small pieces and then stack it up for loading when the dump truck returns. When the dump tuck arrives, the excavator immediately begins to load the truck, right to the top, even pushing the debris down so as to pack in more. When the truck is full, John the driver climbs on top of the load and any piece of board that sticks straight up he pulls out and lays it down flat. He does this so that when he stretches the tarp across the top of the load, it does not get damaged but lies flat and keeps the debris from blowing out of the truck bed. Then he climbs down and begins to secure the tarp with the attached cords. When he begins to drive off of the property, that is when I move the cones and open the second gate wide and we will see him on his return run in about an hour. This process repeats itself all day long.

At about four pm, as the last wall is knocked down, I let out a holler, “Yip pi I aye!” and Robert the excavator operator looks up at me and smiles. Yes, the old structure is gone for good even thought there is still a pile of debris that needs to be carted to the dump. Then the excavators begin in earnest on removing the foundation, starting from the west end which has now been swept clean of all wood, sheet rock and other debris. It goes quickly at first and then they hit a very thick footing that slows the work down enormously. At first it looks like they are moving numerous feet per hour and now it looks like it is only several inches per hour. The yellow excavator changes to the hydraulic concrete breaker and begins to slowly pulverize the concrete. I hear someone call my name, turn to see that it is Guy, Nancy and their granddaughter behind the fence near the tennis court. I walk to the fence and comment that this is the correct way to view the demolition work in progress and not to drive down Ronhaar Avenue, especially since the elders have asked us not to do so by driving to the property. ⁴ Then the concrete seems to thin out again and progress resumes until the long bed dump truck returns and the orange excavator leaves the concrete breaking work to fill the waiting truck again with more debris. This is the last load for the day but it is not going to the dump today but to John′s home for the evening and then to the dump first thing in the morning. Robert gets out of the excavator at seven-thirty and I ask, “Are you done for the day?” to which he gives me a wide smile. Everyone begins to pack out. Earlier, there was a request to have a security guard stay on the property overnight due to the fact that all the equipment will be left here for the workers to use tomorrow and I immediately volunteer for the post. At about eight pm, I lock the gate and drive home to take a shower. I put the washed load in the dryer and a new dirty load in the wash and then return to the property by nine pm. Once, I have parked, I get out my laptop and begin pounding away on the keyboard to make this journal entry while it is still fresh in my mind. It is almost midnight now and I have to do another walk around the property. The next walk through should be some time around three am. So far, this has been a very quite night.

The sunrise is about five am and I am up and walking the property. It seems a long wait until the first worker arrives at seven-thirty am, who is the nurse Dana. She says that she has to go to the pharmacy to get wound soap and will be back.

Next a couple from Sedro Woolley arrives and asks where a good place for breakfast would be found to which I answer, my favorite is the Island Grill.

Then Theo in a dump truck arrives followed by another brother bringing kitchen equipment. Shortly after eight, Roger arrives in his truck pulling the trailer. Soon, the whole crew is here including Larry who is my replacement as gate attendant.

I walk to the kitchen area where there are some pastries and have two cookies but the coffee is not ready. Patrick then calls a safety meeting and first discusses the local safety issues, then he turns the meeting over to the safety brothers who also discuss more issues. Finally there is a prayer and the work begins.

The work that will be done today is primarily to remove the foundation and remaining debris and then haul all of it to the dump. Also, Bob the surveyor will arrive in the afternoon to mark the location of the new Hall.

I drive out the gate and go home to sleep, not awaking until after two pm. I work on the site photos for a while and finish Thursday photos but do not begin on the photos taken on Friday.

Then at five pm, I drive to the property to relieve the on duty attendant and to be there to lock up. I am able to take photos of all those still working and the progress that has been done today. I help in finalizing the final clean up and then leave by six-thirty locking the gate after pulling out of the compound. Every thing is secure and there will not be a need for someone to remain overnight and I go home. The work, I believe, will resume next Thursday and continue on both Friday and Saturday and will consist of the ground work in preparation of setting the foundation forms. The word is that we are hoping to have the foundation completed before the first district convention which give us about six weeks. Then after the conventions, sometime in early July, the building of the new Hall should commence.

Yesterday and today are two days off for everyone and I take the time to rest up and tend to spiritual pursuits.

Today, I spend cleaning my living quarters, resting and just not doing much.

In the afternoon, I go to the hall property and take photos of the completed demolition.

Just a note for the readers, in fact, there may be one or two of you that are such. For the time being, the journal text that you are reading above and in the chapters to come, are all the first rough draft. So, please excuse the many typos and other gammer mistakes that you are going to come across.

Nevertheless, as I have done with the previous seven Quires of journal online entries, I will be reviewing and rewriting the text some time in the future. Also like the previous quires, I will be adding photos taken during the time this daily journal was recorded.

However, unlike all the previous seven quires, this quire, quire eight will have a corresponding photo galley that is still being developed. Too, this is the reason that this quire is taking so long to update, that is the photo gallery is being developed simultaneously as this quire is being worked on.

Until this all comes about, Please enjoy.