Today was another fun and productive day for our team. Pat shared a wonderful devotion this morning about peace. Our devotion times are so meaningful and set the foundation for the rest of the day.
Today was not as sunny as yesterday, but was still warm. Several of the team members spent most of the day outside preparing lumber for the new stairs and installing siding. The Volunteers in Mission (VIM) coordinators working with us today put the roof on the new porch and started hanging the drywall. Since the concrete was sawn by a contractor yesterday, Henry was able to prepare the trench for the new plumbing. Hopefully, the plumbing supplies will be delivered tomorrow. More milestones were reached on the new stairs. The first run of steps and the landing were completed and the opening for the second run was cut upstairs.
Removing nails from old treads to use in new stairs
Sawing old treads
First run of stairs finished
Opening cut and framed for new stairs
Concrete slabs removed by contractors
Henry digging out trench for new plumbing
Installing siding on back of house
First sheet of drywall going up
New front porch roofed
During lunch some of the team members mentioned a plaque “downtown” about the first tornado warning issued based on a Doppler radar signature, so after work we walked over to get a picture of it. A little Internet research shows that Gary England was a Oklahoma television meteorologist for many years and was the first to have Doppler radar at his station and was the first person to use it to alert his viewers of a possible tornado. And that just happened to be right here in Elmore City. Between that historic event and Footloose, why had we never heard of Elmore City before the NOMADS project?
What a wonderful day it was today. It started off cloudy but then the sun came out and it was warm with a gentle breeze rather than the wind we have been having. Wonderful!!
Gwen led our devotional time this morning which we moved to 7:30 to try to be working by 8:30. Gwen did a great job leading us and we did make it to the job site by 8:30. It seemed everyone felt good about what we accomplished today. We divided up into 3 teams. We were on the porch team along with Gwen and we had a good day. We put up all the hangers for the rafters, the rafters, the roof decking and the felt today. That was more than we thought we would do. All that’s left on the porch is the shingles. Gary and Henry were the plumbing team. However, they were limited in what they could do because the VIM coordinators decided against renting the concrete saw we needed and instead elected to have the professionals come cut/remove the portions of the slab that had to be removed for the drains. So when Gary and Harry completed what they could do on the plumbing they became the demolition team on the stairs while we waited on the concrete guys. The stair team was Pat, Barb and Scott. Before they could start they had to move a lot of stuff that was in the way of the new stairs. The old steps were then removed and the stringers built for the first flight of steps and the first landing framed in. They made a lot of progress. There was also a window installed in the kitchen and additional framing on the back wall of the house. The concrete guys came late this afternoon shortly before we were going to stop work and they ran us out of the house. They are NOISY and MESSY!! Some days you work really hard and don’t see a lot of progress. Today we could see the progress. That felt good.
Tearing out old stairs
Stairs team laying out stringers
Attaching cleats to stringers
First stringer installed
Gwen and Anne cutting rafters
Installing rafters
Front porch framed
Installing decking
Front porch waiting for shingles
More work on the back wall
When we got home we visited with Molly and Gus while they got their exercise. Then we went for a walk since it was still so nice out and we needed the exercise. Then had peach pie and ice cream for supper. Yep, supper. Oh and then we had some chips. We had our big meal of the day for lunch so … life is short – eat dessert first, or instead. See you tomorrow.
It was another cool day in Elmore City. The high was in the mid fifties but with the wind it felt much cooler. And it stayed cloudy all day. However, the gray clouds didn’t put a damper on our worship at Elmore City UMC. The team all went to Sunday School and then worship. Pat even sang a special with the praise team, which we all enjoyed. The pastor’s message was very good and went right along with our Sunday School lesson.
After church we all went to Pauls Valley, about 15 miles away, to Happy Days Diner. It is as one would expect of a 50’s style diner along the lines of the Happy Days TV show. There was a Fonzarella and other menu items from the TV show. They serve breakfast all day plus lunch and dinner entrees. Gwen and Gary had been here earlier in the week and enjoyed the meal so we went back today as a team. There are some poor ratings on Facebook, but our experience was good. Everyone enjoyed the food and our service was good so we can recommend this restaurant.
We rested and did some planning after getting back to the rig this afternoon and then had our usual Sunday evening team meeting in Gary and Gwen’s rig. We got to know our new team members, Barb and Henry from Iowa, a little better and made some plans for tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to just jump in and start accomplishing some things in the morning without spending time in the planning stage. Oh, and Gwen served us apple pie and ice cream. Good stuff. Thanks, Gwen! Hope everyone has a great week and check back in tomorrow to see what we get done.
Oh, my goodness it was cold this morning. 26 per our thermometer and even colder per weather service. Therefore we decided to stay in and stay warm. There was laundry to do and tax preparation to be done. Our additional team members arrived this afternoon and we look forward to working with them this week. This now gives us a complete team and hopefully we will accomplish much for our home owner. It was a beautiful sunny day, but it stayed cold all day with the high in the low 50s. Working on taxes made us think of our first full year of NOMADS work. We came home from Pensacola, which we blogged about last Saturday (Feb 18), and stayed home for the holidays then headed to Florida. Below is a copy of our journal of that time that we never posted because we had stopped blogging.
We departed on our first adventure of 2015 early Friday, January 2nd for the first leg of our trip to Melbourne, FL. It was a rainy morning, but nothing could dampen our excitement of traveling down the road again.
We overnighted at Lowe’s in Live Oak, FL and then continued on to Wickham Park in Melbourne on Saturday, January 3. It was a bright and sunny, perfect Florida day.
We were in Melbourne for a 3 week NOMADS project at Emmanuel UMC. It was primarily a painting project. We painted the exterior of the sanctuary, education building, Corton Hall (fellowship hall) and parsonage. We made wonderful new friends since we did not know any of our team members before the project. Our team leaders Bill and Marti (MO) were great and we will always cherish them and our fellow team members Waid and Betsy (SC), and Larry and Joan (WI). We accomplished so much for Emmanuel and had great fun. We met wonderful members of the congregation who came to work with us most days. One couple even joined NOMADS. Our agency liaison was Rebecca who was absolutely awesome.
Repairing Soffit
Pressure washing high eaves and gable
Painting Soffit
More Painting
And Even More Painting
Church Finished
Corton Hall Finished
We went to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge – an extension of the Space Center and got great pictures of alligators, and all kinds of beautiful birds. We would love to go back and spend another day there.
Ibises
Osprey with Gar
Pelicans
Bald Eagle
Roseate Spoonbill
Alligator
Of course while in Melbourne we ate great food from places such as “Squidlips”, “That Little Restaurant”, “Sand on the Beach” and “Del’s Freeze” (wonderful ice cream) as well as a spaghetti dinner, pancake breakfast and several other meals provided by various members of the church.
There were wonderful walks on the beach, watching the wind surfers, and watching the manatees.
Windsurfers
Powered Parachute at the Beach
Manatees
Manatee Closeup
While staying at Wickham Park we had a great view from our back yard and got to view 2 launches from the Kennedy Space Center. What a wonderful experience that was!!
Wickham Park has a great RV Park and lots of bike trails, hiking trails, geocaches, a disc golf course, lakes and much, much more. Scout loved it there.
Evening Hike
One of Many Geocaches in the Park
Sunset in Wickham Park (can you find the baby gator?)
This was our first 3 week NOMADS project and we did not want it to end. Great experience! We hope to return to Emmanuel, Pastor Pam, Rebecca and all the others in 2016.
And we did. We will have to tell you about that project at a later date. The 2016 Emmanuel project was our first project to lead. Hope everyone is having a great weekend and you are praying for the services you will attend tomorrow at your church. Never forget to be in prayer for the one who brings the message and everyone who will be hearing it. Same time tomorrow – or there about.
During lunch some of the team members mentioned a plaque “downtown” about the first tornado warning issued based on a Doppler radar signature, so after work we walked over to get a picture of it. A little Internet research shows that Gary England was a Oklahoma television meteorologist for many years and was the first to have Doppler radar at his station and was the first person to use it to alert his viewers of a possible tornado. And that just happened to be right here in Elmore City. Between that historic event and Footloose, why had we never heard of Elmore City before the NOMADS project?
RVing With a Purpose 