Author: rvingwithapurpose

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

It was another early start to the day for Anne and Debra. It was foggy as well but not as bad as yesterday. We were on the road to Middlesboro at 5:25 with two other ladies riding with us so their families didn’t have to get up quite so early. We again had breakfast ready at 7:00 and it was another good one. We had breakfast burritos today, along with fruit, biscuits, gravy, grits, sausage, bacon and probably something else we forgot.

After breakfast the guys headed back to the job site while we stayed to clean things up. Sometime after that the pastor at Shiloh Church, the church that is letting us use their kitchen for four weeks, came by to visit. He is very nice and we had a nice chat. Shiloh is an independent church. Very generous of them to let us use their facility for four weeks. Another church is allowing people to sleep and shower in their facility. It’s very nice to see churches working together rather than thinking they are in some sort of competition.

After the visit, Anne and Debra decided it was time to tackle the huge hunk of ice in the freezer. Some called it a frozen waterfall, others the ice man, others abominable snowman. We used all sorts of tools including a hair dryer, ice pick, a small pry bar, pliers, squeegee, and large mop bucket. It got pretty funny. Actually, it got very funny and there was a lot of laughing today. We tried to get the ice down to an easily manageable size but didn’t quite make that goal. The first large piece that came tumbling out glanced off Anne’s knee leaving it’s mark and then sliding out into the middle of the kitchen floor. It was absolutely slick as glass. The remaining huge piece we were able to remove with a little more control. It took all morning but shortly before lunch we had the freezer defrosted, dried, and everything returned to the unit. It was quite a job, but one we were glad to do as a small thank you to the church. One of the ladies in the office came down just in to to see us finishing up. She was so excited.

The team prepared some great desserts today, cookies for lunch and German chocolate pie for dinner. We also had meatloaf meatballs tonight. Yep, another five pound project.

The guys made a lot of progress today. Max and Randy learned to build and install metal headers. They also put down a lot more metal base channel. More walls were also framed. They had several heavy rains to contend with as well. But it was a very productive day.

Monday, October 1, 2018

It was another really nice day in Middlesboro, Ky. Again it got hot in the afternoon but the morning was cool and foggy.

The day started really early for Anne and Debra with the alarm at 4:45. It was really foggy so we left for Middlesboro about 5:25. We had to start breakfast at 6:00 so the guys could eat at 7:00 and then head to the job site. On summer projects they start work at 6:00 and work an hour or hour and half then have breakfast, but there are no lights at the job site here and it’s still too dark to work at 6:00 so the schedule was changed. Anne is working with Debra and the other 6 ladies providing meals for everyone. We only have 25 people working this week. A usual summer project is about 50-60 people. We couldn’t divide the cooking into teams and prepare one meal a day with only eight people agreeing to work the kitchen. So we are all working together and cooking three meals each day for 25 people. Tonight we are really tired and confess that cooking 3 meals a day for 25 is a lot of work. Our team works really well together and we prepared three good meals today. Everyone seemed to enjoy.

The guys are working really hard too out at the building site. Max and Randy spent most of their day laying out walls and installing base channel. Others were putting up studs and top plates. It was a long day for them too, but they got a lot accomplished.

 

Sunday, September 30, 2018

The last day of September was a beautiful day in the mountains of Kentucky. Low of about 61 this morning but it warmed up to the upper 80’s this afternoon. Tomorrow is suppose to be cooler.

We drove over to Middlesboro, about 15 miles, and worshiped with the congregation for whom we are framing a building, New Heights Church. They are currently worshiping in a small gym type building, Making Ripples Studio, and it was pretty full today. During the week there are zumba classes and the like in the worship area. The music and preaching were good and the congregation very welcoming. They are very excited we are here to help build their new church.

After church we decided to ride up to Pine Mountain Resort State Park for lunch. It is back in Pineville where Fred is parked. It is a beautiful park on top of a mountain. The lodge is rustic with a large fireplace as you first walk in. The dining room has windows on all sides with beautiful views of the mountains and valley below. In a few more weeks when the leaves are in full color, (they are just beginning to change), the place will probably be packed with people enjoying the leaves. The view alone was worth the cost of our meal and it was a good meal. We all ate too much.

To work off some of our lunch, we drove on up the mountain past the lodge to the parking area for Chained Rock Trail. Chained Rock is so named because there are two very large boulders that are “chained together” to keep them from crashing down on the town of Pineville and destroying it. The chain links are quite large and weight 7 pounds each. They chain is over 100 feet long. The story goes that the children were afraid to go to sleep with the boulders looming above, afraid they would be crushed by the boulder during the night. Some say it was a publicity stunt to attract visitors to the new state park but you can read the sign. It was a nice hike with a beautiful view so even if it is just a crazy story and stunt we enjoyed our time on the mountain.

We had our opening meeting tonight and Anne and Debra will be cooking breakfast starting at 6:00 in the morning. Looking forward to a good week.

Saturday, September 29, 2018

So we arrived here in Pineville, KY yesterday and Max and Randy were on the job site in Middlesboro at 8:00 this morning. Unfortunately, due to rain the metal building people are behind. The roof was suppose to be on but the contractor started on it today. However, at the pace they were going today, we doubt it will be finished by the time we leave on Friday. Hopefully it will not slow us down too much. We will be using metal on the interior walls so we can build those out without the roof. For those that may be new to our blog, we are working with a different group this week – Constructors for Christ. Each year this group builds a church or family life center. We provide five weeks of labor and the church provides the materials. If it is small church, we may complete the building, but if it is larger structure such as this year, we will not complete the building but will have saved them a lot of money on labor for five weeks. We only work one week, as most people, and work it with Max’s brother, Randy, and sister-in-law, Debra. It is a wonderful week when we get to work and visit. They stay with us in FRED and we have fun. This project usually begins on Father’s Day but the church had weather and permit problems and the project was delayed until now. Unfortunately, we will be short many of our usual workers due to the delay. Our team this week will be less than ½ of our norm with about 20 expected versus about 45-50 on a usual week one. Oh well, God will use and bless what we are able to get done. Today Max and Randy first repaired one of our tool trailers electrical connections that were damaged in their travel to KY. Later they worked on installing the base channels so we will be ready to begin some walls Monday Morning.

Debra and Anne worked on setting up the “store” today. We sell T-shirts, hats, water bottles, etc with the Constructors logo. We folded shirts and displayed merchandise for most of the day. We have some new designs this year. We probably have some new shirts in our future.

Tomorrow the rest of the team will arrive, and we will have our first team meeting tomorrow night. We look forward to a great week.