Month: March 2017

Friday, March 31, 2017

It’s the weekend!! Hope you all take time to get outside and walk, ride a bike, take a hike or jog and just enjoy the beautiful world. It was a wonderful spring day today. Fortunately, all the bad weather we were expecting last night fell apart and we just had a little light rain so we had a restful night. Today Anne left at 6:00 to make the drive to Tuscaloosa. It was an uneventful and easy drive. It was a long day and hopefully Anne’s mom will be feeling better soon. Max stayed at Sumatanga to prepare for our project and be here to great our first team member on his arrival today. Richard was at Cedartown with us, but since we left after two days we didn’t get to know him very well. Looking forward to spending more time with him this time around. He arrived shortly after lunch so he missed the messy nachos served at lunch. Richard likes what he has seen of Sumatanga and we are sure the rest of the team will enjoy their time here. None of our team has been here before so it will be fun seeing things thru their eyes. Sumatanga is always pretty in the spring. Compared to last fall when we were in extreme drought – the lake is really pretty.

While walking the Lake Trail this evening we saw where the new zipline will cross the lake. We hope to get to try it sometime.

Tomorrow everyone else should be arriving so we will be here to help them get parked and settled in. Looking forward to getting started.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Sorry we didn’t post yesterday. Yesterday was a very busy day, with hair cut, grocery shopping for some of the ladies, and handling a lot of business items for Aunt Jean. We didn’t get back home until about 5:15 and then it was nonstop loading out FRED until we went to bed. We decided we needed to move FRED to Sumatanga early this morning because bad weather was predicted for later in the day and Anne has to unexpectedly go to Tuscaloosa early in the morning.  Max still shouldn’t be trying to set up by himself.

We departed the mountain a little after 9:00 this morning and had an uneventful drive to Camp Sumatanga. For those that are not familiar with the camp, Sumatanga is the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church camp and retreat center. Sumatanga has a special place in our hearts because we both came here many years ago when we were kids. We rode Max’s motorcycle to the cross on top of the mountain here, on our second date. Our church has at least one picnic here each year and we have now returned here to work on several NOMADS projects and done drop in work at other times over the past several years. It’s such a peaceful place and they do such good work here. We checked in with Lee Padgett, camp director, and got hugs from him and others on the staff. It’s like coming home. Everyone is almost like family. We also met the Dennis, the facilities manager, to find out what needs to be done. There are tent platforms to complete and new ones to build. There are walls to be taken down and others to be built. There are organizational projects and possibly some painting along with some pressure washing. If it goes like other projects here, there will be other things to do that no one has even thought of yet. There is always work at Sumatanga. We are sure it will be another great project and we just pray that our team accomplishes whatever it is that God needs us to do while we are here.

Today there was a crew from Cutters for Christ working on taking down trees in preparation for the zip line that will soon be installed. They have more than 84 trees to remove. They had 8 men today and tomorrow there are suppose to be a few more. Needless to say, it will take several more days to clear the path down the mountain. Since the Cutters were here the camp was preparing lunch and we were invited to join them. Donna and her staff as usual out did their selves. From the picture you can see why it is very hard to not gain weight on this project. The roast beef here is some of the most tender and flavorful you can find. And they make a dish we have never had anywhere else. Tomato Pie. It’s tomatoes and onion and cheese and we really need the recipe because we don’t know the other ingredients and it might not sound good to you but wow it is very good.

We have the campground to ourselves tonight and we are enjoying just looking out over the lake. Can’t wait for the rest of the team to join us. Some will be arriving tomorrow and the rest Saturday. Drive safely all you NOMADS moving to new projects this weekend.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

We know it’s spring because we had our first hummingbird at the feeder. Always love it when our hummingbirds return. We had put the first feeder out last week thinking it was about time. Today when we saw the first ruby-throated hummingbird, Max grabbed the feeder to refill it with fresh sugar water. We got one quick picture of the bird impatiently waiting. After Max got the feeder back outside we did not see another bird.

While waiting for the little feller to return we did get to watch a brief encounter between a young blue-tailed skink and an eastern fence lizard. Oh, well – surely the hummingbird will be back tomorrow. We had storms last night! Loud storms with lots of rain. The driveway was a little washed this morning but otherwise, fortunately, no problems. Early morning was still cloudy and dreary but later in the morning the sun was awesome. We started reloading FRED today. We plan to move the rig to Camp Sumatanga Thursday – the weather is suppose to be better than Friday morning. Part of the team will be arriving Friday afternoon so as leaders we must arrive before the team. We are so looking forward to another great project for Sumatanga.  It’s going to take a little longer and a lot more trips to get loaded out with Max’s lifting limitations but we should finish up tomorrow.  We turned the refrigerator on tonight so we can load it out tomorrow. We are going to be back to work soon!  Anne completed Juno’s and Aunt Helen’s tax returns. YEA! We also did some planning for later in the year but we are keeping that a secret for now. Otherwise it was laundry, answering lots of emails, and other mundane stuff.

As you remember we had asked one of our team members for an aerial view of the campground at Murphy Harpst Children’s Center and we included that picture in an earlier blog. Today he did even better. Late this afternoon we received a link to a drone video of the campground that our friend Frank Loy made.  It’s pretty awesome so be sure to click on the link and take a look.  Thanks so much, Frank.  We sure have missed being with you guys.  Hope everyone gets a good nights rest and check back with us tomorrow. 

Monday, March 27, 2017

Max felt better today than any time since his surgery so after carefully checking the weather this morning we decided we could get a road trip in before the thunderstorms hit. At about 6:45 we headed out to Red Bay Alabama. What? You say you have never heard of Red Bay? Red Bay is not near the ocean, not on a bay, and is a tiny little town on the far western border of North Alabama. The population is about 3100. According to our guide today, who was a retired history teacher, Red Bay was named for its red soil and the bay trees that grow there. Red Bay is home to Tiffin Motorhomes which was our destination for today. Tiffin also happens to be the manufacturer of our FRED. We think Tiffin is the only RV manufacturer in the state of Alabama and we are very glad they are here. Their Phaeton model has been the best selling model of class A diesel pusher motor homes for a number of years. They currently produce 12 motorhomes each work day and employ about 1,500 people. We took the factory tour today and then spent a good deal of time looking at various rigs. Sometimes when you want to see various models, fabrics or décors it’s easier to go to Red Bay because dealers usually only have a few units in stock at any point in time. We always like to take factory tours to watch companies make anything from ice cream or candy to cars and RVs. This was not our first time to tour the Tiffin plant but we enjoyed it again. If you are ever in the area, they conduct tours each day they are open at 9:30am. After you do the tour and if you are still looking for something to do you can check out the Coon Dog Cemetery or the Rattlesnake Saloon which are also in the area. We have visited both of those compelling locations before so refrained ourselves today. We wanted to get back home before the storms arrived and fortunately we did – just barely. Hope you have all had a great start to your week.