Today was a beautiful early fall day in Sebewaing. We had just a light breeze today with nice blue skies. The leaves are just starting to turn here. Not nearly as far along as International Falls. The maples are a deep red and there are some yellows but certainly not the leaves we were expecting. Maybe by the time we leave.
After we shared at devotion time with Tom again sharing his music skills, we all headed back to work on the Tibbits cottage. We all started back working on the re-framing of walls and doors we started on yesterday. Two of the new windows were installed today. The French doors were delivered and we are ready to install them. Lots of progress was made. Suzanne is pleased with what we accomplished. It was a good day.
Hilary and Jenny finishing the kitchen wall framing
Max and Bruce installing baseplate for new door
Tom and Reid preparing the bathroom for the shower and surround
Bathroom at the end of Tuesday
Kitchen at the end of Tuesday
All windows in on the south side
Back of the cabin at the end of Tuesday
Front of the cabin at the end of Tuesday
After lunch today we were able to take a quick view of the little museum of the camp. There are some very interesting photos and lots of scrap books that would take a while to look through but would be interesting.
We had rain again overnight and off and on today. Most of the day was dry but we had several short little showers. It was windy today as well. Gusts to 35 mph this afternoon and since the high was about 66 today it felt a little cool. The wind seems to blow off the lake most of the time. Reminds us of being at the beach but there is no pretty sand here. The shore line is very marshy.
The team joined for our first devotion together this morning and we are pleased to have Tom with us again, as in New Lisbon, playing the guitar. We sound much better with Tom accompanying the singing. After devotion, Jeff, the camp director shared information about the history of the camp and then took us on a little tour. The camp is over 100 years old and is loved by this community. We are going to be “remodeling” the Tibits cottage, to make it a four seasons cottage rather than just a summer place. As you will see as we go forward, it’s actually pretty much of a rebuild but it would not be politically correct to bulldoze the cottage so we will “remodel.” The cabin has already been moved across the street, a new foundation dug and then the cottage moved back across the street and placed on the new foundation. We will now build out the interior and replace all the siding on the exterior. There will also be some carpet and laminate flooring as well as new cabinets, appliances, shower and bath fixtures.
Front of the cabin where we will be working
Back of the cabin when we arrived
Kitchen when we arrived
Bathroom when we arrived
Bedroom when we arrived
Today Anne and Jenny began by taping and mudding the two knee walls in the loft that had already had drywall hung. Max and Bruce began by removing the front door and enlarging the opening for French doors. They had to move a good deal of wiring in that process. Hopefully we will have time to build a new deck in front of those doors. Tom and Mike removed the front bedroom windows and reframed for a new window. While that was going on, Jackie and Hillary worked on determining the amount of trim that will be needed for the project. It’s a lot. Reid began the work of re-plumbing the bathroom. Anne, Jenny, Jackie and Hillary, then joined forces and removed the rest of the windows and started framing the wall where some of the kitchen windows were. Later in the day the back door was removed and it will be re-framed and the front door that Max and Bruce removed will then become the back door. So, at the end of the day, unfortunately, the little cottage look a lot worse than when we started this morning. The 35 mph wind is blowing through all sides tonight. Hopefully by tomorrow night we will see more rebuilding going on.
Jenny and Anne finishing the drywall in the loft
Bruce enlarging the opening for the front door
Mike and Tom removing a window
Suzanne, Jackie, Hilary, Jenny and Anne framing a wall where the kitchen windows used to be
Front of the cabin at the end of the first Monday
Back of the cabin at the end of the first Monday
We had a lot of fun today. We haven’t worked a three week project since January, and then we were working on multiple houses so the team was split up much like DR projects. On this project we will all be working together on this little cottage. It should be a good three weeks.
We enjoyed lunch with the staff today. This is one of the t-shirt cushions we saw on the on the dining hall wall.
We even got to practice table tennis for a little while this evening.
Sebewaing is known for beautiful sunsets across Lake Huron. Tonight we finally got to see a sunset when it wasn’t raining. Nice! Hopefully we will see many more before we complete our time here.
Sunset on Saginaw Bay
The same sunset from the outdoor worship center on the shore
It rained several times over night and throughout the day today. This afternoon we did have a period of sunny skies and we were able to hike down to the county park and check it out. There is an RV park there and the Sebewaing river runs through the park before emptying into the Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron. It’s a nice little river.
We decided not to walk on this trail at the county park since it was underwater.
An old railroad depot we saw on our walk
This morning the team all went to one of the about three local restaurants in town before church. The Lamplighter serves a breakfast buffet on Sunday’s and it came recommended by the camp director, Jeff. Some of the team went with the buffet and reported everything was good. We opted for a southern omelet which was very good, and big. It was “southern” because it had sausage gravy on top of the omelet. It was also served with hash browns and biscuits and we were glad we decided to share. We both ate so much we didn’t want lunch until about 3:30.
We worshiped at Trinity UMC in downtown Sebewaing. It’s an older, small church that seems very active based on the announcements and things listed in the bulletin. The congregation was very welcoming and invited us back next week to enjoy breakfast with them and view a life size replica of Goliath’s spear. Sounds interesting.
Our opening meeting was at four and it was nice to begin getting to know everyone. We have worked with about ½ the team on previous projects and it’s great to see those team members again. Now it’s time to get ready for tomorrow morning. Devotions at 8:00am.
Yesterday we woke up to the sound of rain on the roof. A couple of small showers went over before we ventured out. When we did step out God gave us a rainbow to start our day. Nice way to start our time of walking around the campsites saying our goodbyes. It’s always a little sad. May not see some of these friends until next year in West Virginia. One of our friends had some motor home issues so we hung around a little while Max and Bruce tried to help.
Around 10:45 we left Crescent City in route to Michigan. We were driving lead with our Michigan team leader Suzanne following in her new motor home and Bruce and Jackie brought up the rear. Traffic was very heavy and of course that’s when some people become a little aggressive in their driving. We had to make of couple of hard brakings. When we pulled into our first rest area we discovered part of the reason for the traffic backup. Pulling in just before us and still trying to get their rigs situated were two trucks transporting huge blades for the wind turbines. Looking at the blades generating power in the wind farms, you know they are big. Seeing them driving down the road they look even bigger, but up close and personal, standing beside the transport trucks, they are huge. They take up a lot of room at the rest area too. Michigan allows you to spend the night in their rest areas, so our little convoy did just that.
We were happy to get in front of these trucks hauling wind turbine blades.
Each time we stopped at a rest area we checked for geocaches. This was the easiest one we found.
We even found an actual ammo can geocache. We don’t see many of these anymore.
Our home on Friday night
Everyone reported good sleep this morning before pulling out for the last leg of our trip. We had much less traffic today and saw a really nice sunrise as we traveled toward Sebewaing, MI. We received a warm welcome from the Bay Shore Camp director around 11:30. After setting up we set out to explore the camp. The camp is on the shore of Lake Huron, the second largest of the great lakes, where we hope to get some good sunset pictures while here. We found the climbing wall, miniature golf, zip line, archery, lots of buildings, pool, ball fields, outdoor worship areas, a boardwalk out to the lake and a road out to the lake. We probably haven’t found everything yet. It’s not nearly as large acreage as Camp Sumatanga at home but nice with lots of amenities. The director told us there were two negatives here. One, the sugar mill doesn’t have a pleasant aroma when the wind shifts the wrong way, and the railroad tracks that run right behind our rigs are used once a day late at night. He warned us that they would disturb our sleep for about an hour but after that it would be over for the day. We may have to bring our the ear plugs. Let you know more later. It was a good trip from Illinois with three good friends. Looking forward to the next three weeks.
The camp director really made us feel welcome
Sebewaing Bay of Lake Huron
Right behind our home for the next three weeks
Update on our love auction – extravagant generosity from everyone including NOMADS that were not able to attend – over $52,000.00 was raised to use in funding projects to help our camps, children’s homes, community outreach, etc. Amazing!
