I write this as I down yet another cup of coffee, with another pot brewing in the kitchen next to me. We are all still up, steadfastly working on our models and periodically taking “breaks” to put another wash on our watercolors. Today in the Red Barn we worked on AutoCAD drawings, preparing for tomorrow’s presentation for the annual Soup Roast, and saying our final goodbyes. Tomorrow families and friends are coming to see our work at the church and get a glimpse of how we spent this semester. . At 9:30 tomorrow morning we will gather at the site, under a tent large enough to hold even the Barnum Bailey three-ring circus, and present and display a slideshow and our AutoCAD drawings for the proud parents to ooh and ahh over. Some of us will be leaving Rural Studio for good tomorrow, while only a few reamin to work one last Saturday at the site. Tonight will be our last night together and I suppose staying up all night is the best way to spend it? So off I go to dive back into model making and to feed a coffee addiction I can’t afford to shake tonight, and hope to be able to nevertheless enjoy tomorrow as my last official day as a Second Year student of the Rural Studio

The semester is coming to an end and today was the last day of true site work for us. Our goal for the day was to remove the other side wing of the church, but we fell short of our goal. As we began dismantle the Pastor’s Office, we realized that the whole structure for that room was not very sound.Instead of dismantling this room we had to brace it with remaining 2X4s from the window boxes. Though as a group we were frustrated that we could not meet our goal, everyone understood the importance of having the proper bracing on the structure so that it would not collapse. The rest of the day we spent our time completing window boxes and a box for a door that we had removed yesterday. Next we removed windows and placed them into the boxes that we had created. We have just two double windows and six single windows left to remove and make boxes for after today. After a long frustrating day everyone was excited about the Rural Studio Christmas Party that was being held at the Spencer House. There we all indulged in the food that was prepared for us. The highlight of the night was when Dick dressed up at Santa Clause and handed out our presents from Secret Santa. Overall the night was great and we also were glad to hear that the due date for both our watercolor and model had been pushed back a day. I think everyone will get a little more sleep tonight.

It’s crunch time now, the semester’s final projects are due soon and everything is coming together seemlessly. From watercolor paintings of st. luke’s to column renderings for Dick, and of course the main project: THE TAKE DOWN. We have had unique projects that can only be assigned at the world famous Rural Studio. and please you can’t forget the pods, how many of you live in a dorm room that has been in magazines? Rural Studio has offered me a new place to live and a new outlook on Alabama - an amazing place to be and work. Keep it up guys, and thanks again to Andrew, Jason, Natalie, and Last but certainly not least, the living ledgend DICK! Thanks for the experience guys and hope to see ya’ll around!

Everyone was at the site today. We were in two teams: the box team and the dismantling team. Katie, Brittany, Amanda, and I all worked on building boxes for the windows of the church to go in. We also worked on a box for a door. Everyone else took apart the baptistry on the right of the church. The box team helped a bit with this as well. The dismantling went well and the baptistry was taken down. When that was done we took down the scaffolding and started putting it back together to take down the vestry. The rest of the day was spent taking out nails of the beams that were taken down and putting them into the storage trailers. It was quite an intense day for all of us and we still have much work to do for Dick.

The semester is now coming to an end. Since the begining of the project has come a long ways, a lot of hard work and planning has payed off for our second year class. We have all learned alot and gained a valuable experience. I myself have got real familar with autocad, a program I knew nothing about before I came to Rural Studio. We had our good times and bad times together as a team, some more than others, but I have no regrets. I had a great time at Rural and wouldn’t trade it for any other. The spring semester group has a lot to look foward to.