Sadly–and with many of you remonstrating over the lack of any recent posts–it has been almost a year since I last wrote. There have been some profound shifts in both my personal and Geobarn landscapes since last summer–many of them good but also difficult. The business is booming with all the Covid postponed projects back online as well as new projects that were waiting in the wings waiting for the uncertainty/insanity to subside–so from barely enough we now have more than we can handle and are booking well into 2024. While this is all good–we are all straight out flying down the tracks and mercifully brought Casey Ruth Williams in Charlottesville on to a full time position–without whom we and I in particular would be in dire straits. We are also blessed with David working more designing/developing our commercial projects–with some huge ones looming overlooking Long Island Sound…see Greystone renderings attached. Ryan Hereth is running everything in New England and also insuring we are becoming much more effective as a business with the help of Sean Foster in IT and marketing and Kelly Hernandez as our new bookkeeper…and Susanne helps with the marketing/admin and helps me stay afloat in the deep end of the ocean.
As if this were not enough–my dad took a turn for the worse last Christmas and one of my sons in particular stepped up to the plate with his wife and four children and invited him to come live with them in Concord VT. To say this is gift from heaven is an understatement–given he is a nurse and pastor and the entire family has wrapped my father in loving care so that now at 102.5 years old he is still on the wane but doing far better than he was a half year ago. We all know this is his last chapter and are so grateful that there is nothing we could hope or ask for that would be better than what he has right now. Just yesterday we watched some of the Great Courses and wrote a bunch of emails to my various grandchildren/his great grandchildren…I was amazed how proficient he was on his I-Pad!
On the building side–we finished two Covid fraught projects in Virginia and have started three more with two more waiting permits and crews, as well as a venue coming up in Georgia. In New England we have several new large projects getting underway–as well as finishing up several over this past winter–as well as a housewarming in the Berkshires for the largest home we ever built–in conjunction with Lyon Carpentry–a wonderful builder who has made it possible for us to be there. This winter we finished a beautiful local library in Meriden NH with a record setting blower door test for efficiency–and last summer a music studio in Charlottesville which is now fully functioning.
The building in Italy is almost finished–where I am working 2-3 weeks every other month and am headed shortly with Susanne–with great gratitude we can create this legacy for my dad who left there 77 years ago and married my mom 75 years ago on this very day. We miss her but she is with us all every day.
Yes indeed–it has been quite a year–for which I continue to be grateful to all of you, my precious family, my beloved colleagues and to my dad for still being with us.
God is good–
george
