Working Hard

Wednesday, January9, 2019

Today started as a brisk, cloudy day. Temperatures were about 10 degrees cooler than yesterday with a cold wind. The clouds did break up late afternoon and we had a little sun. The forecast is for it to stay cool for the next several days. However, our Minnesota team members reminded us that it was 7 degrees this morning at their house and “that’s warm for January.” Note to self: never go to Minnesota in the winter!

Bev and Roger brought our devotion this morning. It was from the devotion book, “Together with Jesus.” We need to remember that when we work with God, the works that can be accomplished are so much greater than our own puny efforts. We also learned today that people from Minnesota call crow bars, pinch bars. Roger used the illustration of using a pinch bar vs a puny hammer to tear down a wall. Never heard of pinch bars before. Amazing the things you can learn totally unexpectedly.

Everyone reported good work days yesterday and were all anxious to get started. Today, Anne, Max, Stel, Jodi and John went back to Gilberto’s. We continued to make progress, and today Max and John completed the installation of the new back door. Max previously installed a gutter above the door to channel the water away, which is what caused the old door and frame to rot. There is still a little door trim to paint and install. Jodi painted the base board we removed and sanded. Anne and Stel completed the installation of the vinyl plank. Max and Anne reinstalled the base and bedroom one is now complete. We then helped Gilberto, Jr start moving furniture from bedroom 2 into bedroom 1 so that we can start in room 2 tomorrow. It takes a lot more time to work around everything in an occupied house that is full. We still aren’t quite sure how we are going to work around Gilberto’s wife and hospital bed which are in the living room. She seems to want us to move her down the hall to the bedroom but the family hasn’t agreed to that. We will have to let them figure that one out.

Meanwhile, Dave, Rita, Bev, Roger and Diane went to Josefina’s. The were very busy today. They completed the installation of a new window but the major accomplishment was getting all the T 1-11 siding primed. That was 32 sheets of T 1-11. The had a little assembly line going where the guys kept moving the pieces of siding for the ladies. Tomorrow they will begin the painting of the top coat. That means another day of moving 32 sheets of siding around for the guys. There may be a little muscle soreness by the end of the day.

We are making progress. Tomorrow – NOMADS Friday!