Week three at Sumatanga was another busy one. After church on Sunday, we had a picnic lunch on top of the mountain at the Chapel. This beautiful spot overlooking the Sumatanga Valley is so special any time of the year but in the fall it is extra special. We had perfect fall temperatures and sunshine. It was a really nice day. We all enjoyed the afternoon.
Sunday picnic at the Chapel on the mountain
Team picture on the mountain
Monday after devotion, the entire team went back to the administration building to continue to work on the siding and battens. The weather that had been wonderful for two weeks was scheduled to turn against us with record breaking lows later in the week so we wanted to complete all the outside work as soon as possible. We are pleased with the outcome. The rear and side of the building look much better after we replaced the rotten siding, stained it and reinstalled the battens. We also returned to Retreat Center One to continue work on the remodel there. We completed the dry wall repairs, removed trim, finished removing the cabinets, scraped up the old tile flooring, painted the walls and did some cleaning up.
Dave and Max nailing on new siding
Rita painting a wall of the admin building
One of the finished walls of the admin building
Anne pulling baseboards
Dave and Scott removing old floor tiles
Teresa and Rita painting trim in the retreat center
Dave supervising the painting in the retreat center
The kitchen area at the end of the week. New cabinets and flooring will be installed later.
The meeting room walls at the end of the project. Actually, we did clean up a bit after this picture.
Wednesday night we had a team pot luck that was enjoyed by all. Thanks so much to Scott and Teresa for organizing this event. Thursday was of course finishing up and cleaning up and trying to get all the camps tools and materials back to the correct place. We all agreed it was another great three weeks at Sumatanga and we hope to work together again soon.
Of course, there were also the sad “see you down the roads” as we all had to get back on the road. Thursday is always bitter sweet. Then we headed to South Carolina Friday morning to spend some time with Randy and Debra. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the beautiful fall colors.
What a beautiful fall week we had to work at Camp Sumatanga. The weather was just about perfect – a little cool in the mornings but never too hot during the afternoon. The leaves have started to turn on the sides of the surrounding mountains with some pretty reds and yellows now visible. We also had some much needed rain over night Wednesday. Thankful for the rain and thankful it didn’t interfere with work.
Last Sunday afternoon, after a very good buffet lunch at Charlie B’s in Oneonta, the team gathered for some games. We had a relaxing afternoon and then Monday we jumped right back on the canoe rack project with all hands on deck. The racks are bulky and heavy and took us all to build and get in position. The racks are very sturdy and look good in front of the lake. They are currently holding several canoes and a kayak or two. We hope people will enjoy using them. We also finished up the last few boards on the floating dock, which is still a long way from floating. We need more rain.
Assembling the end pieces from 2x6s and 2x8s. We were very thankful that Max’s brother had given him an electric impact wrench that made the job easier.
Moving the pieces to be assembled where they will be used
We assembled the canoe racks in place because once put together we wouldn’t want to try to move them.
Loading a canoe on the new canoe rack
The loading process was well supervised
Finished canoe rack
Putting down the last few boards for the dock approach.
After cleaning up the area and packing up all the tools, the team headed to Retreat Center One to begin a remodeling job. We are tasked with removing a wall, enlarging a conference room, taking down some cabinets, repairing drywall, painting and removing some tile. We have made good progress with that project but since some cold weather is predicted next week, we pulled off that to tackle some outside work.
Our task was to remove this wall to make a larger meeting room.
We started by removing trim and drywall
While some of the team was removing the wall, others were painting the trim.
Removing the studs
Removing the cabinets
Thankfully we found a good wall behind the cabinets.
Wall removed. The pieces of stud hanging down will hold a false beam.
Installing trim to cover one end where we removed the old wall.
Building the false beam between the two rooms
Measure thrice
False beam completed. Its purpose is to separate the two drop ceilings that are at different heights.
We began work on replacing siding on the outside of the administration building. We removed all the battens and replaced the lower siding on the rear on the building. The siding still needs painting and battens replaced next week. Teresa and Rita have already painted all the battens so they won’t talk long to reinstall. Teresa and Rita removed, cleaned and rearranged all the pictures in the lodge, too. Looks really nice, but sorry we don’t have any pictures of the pictures.
For lunch today we met fellow NOMADS Dave and Carol Hill at Jack’s. They were traveling I-59 from Knoxville, TN today so it was a convenient stop for them. So glad they called so we could schedule a meetup. The eight of us ended up spending quite a while in Jack’s dining room visiting, laughing and reminiscing before Dave and Carol needed to get back on the road. Thanks so much for making the stop!
We have one more week here. Only four work days and lots left to accomplish. Say a prayer for us that we will safely accomplish all God has for us to do. Hope you all have a great week!
In spite of some of the looks, it really was a fun game session.
We are glad to see that someone is maintaining the prayer labyrinth we worked so hard on 2 years ago. We walk by it almost every day.
Busy, busy since last blog entry two weeks ago. After spending a full day in the service bay on Monday, we also spent most of the day Tuesday. It seems most of our problems have been solved. There are still a couple of small issues we will take care of at a later date. We simply didn’t have time to deal with them right then. We needed to get back to Alabama. Our service techs were great and if we are able to attend the June 2023 rally, they plan to get us back in after the rally to make a few more adjustments. We departed Middlebury midafternoon Tuesday and overnighted at a great Cracker Barrel a little south of Indianapolis. We hit the road again early Wednesday morning (enjoyed a good CB breakfast) and arrived back on Pine Mountain in time to get a good afternoon walk and begin transferring all the dirty clothes, food, etc. over to Fred. Thursday was routine dental appointments and completing the unloading of BB and working on Helen’s house. Friday was laundry and readying Fred for three weeks at Camp Sumatanga.
Saturday morning (Oct. 1) we completed our packing and headed to Camp. It was so great to see our wonderful friends Dave and Rita. We haven’t worked with them since Covid and really look forward to spending time with them while working at the Camp. Our leaders are Scott and Teresa who we enjoyed visiting with at annual meeting and we look forward to working with them for the next three weeks. We began our work at the camp repairing the ceiling at the McBee pavilion. We also cleaned and changed light bulbs in the ceiling fans, repaired the roof, a toilet, and painted fascia. The ladies also tackled the floating swim platform and stained and sealed it after replacing some rotten wood. We demoed three canoe racks and all worked to begin construction of two new, heavy duty racks Thursday afternoon. It was a busy week but we accomplished a lot. It’s always good to work at Sumatanga. We camp in view of the lake and get to do our walking around the lake each day.
The old rubber flashing and tar had pulled away from the chimney allowing water to get into the ceiling. We applied roof patch to stop the leaks.
Removing damaged ceiling panels
Dave always enjoys painting. 🙂
Installing new ceiling panels
While the guys worked on removing the water damaged ceiling panels, the ladies decided to clean some of the others.
Repaired ceiling
Max and Dave adding drip edge to the front of McBee pavilion to protect the fascia. We later applied a coat of the famous Sumatanga Brown paint to the fascia that was still exposed.
We also added some protection to the gable end of the roof.
It was a lot of work to remove the hundreds of screws holding the old canoe racks together.
After Rita, Teresa and Anne disassembled most of the canoe racks, the camp staff pulled the posts out of the ground.
The whole team was involved in building the new canoe racks…
… and hopefully we will finish during week 2.
Teresa staining the currently non-floating dock.
Rita, Teresa, and Anne applying sealer to the dock
One of the reasons we enjoy being at Sumatanga
Thursday evening the team went into Oneonta for a great dinner at one of the newer restaurants – Mio Sogno. Saturday there was the Blount County Covered Bridge festival and pancake breakfast. Hopefully we will have enough energy to get back to work tomorrow. It’s great to be back working a NOMADS project.
A lot has occurred since our last post. We have been busy. After our trip to Red Bay for Fred repairs, (The slide is still working beautifully.) and returning to Pine Mountain, we spent several days on estate business and Aunt Helen’s house. We then headed back to South Carolina hoping to pick up the little van/RV – BB/Beyond Blessed. She was not quite ready so we were able to spend Labor day weekend with Randy and Debra. We learned the repair shop had to reorder the rear doors 3 times before they received doors that were not damaged. BB was repaired – looking good – the following week and then we headed back to Alabama after Randy re-installed the undamaged rack. It was just in time to pack her up to make a trip to West Virginia for our annual NOMADS meeting. We felt like we were finally back on the road again. We overnighted at a Cracker Barrel and arrived in Lewisburg, WV the next day to make final preparations for Anne’s last NOMADS Board meeting. We were in Lewisburg for the meetings 9 days. It was a busy but fun time. We saw friends we had not seen in several years due to COVID. It was so GOOD!! Anne turned over the gavel to the incoming Board chairman Thursday.
On the road again
Our West Virginia welcoming committee
The week starts with a Sunday morning worship service.
Our friend Mike presented a very thought provoking Bible study early each morning. He titled it “Big Hits from Overlooked Bible Bits.”
A West Virginia State Senator (who is also a pastor) brought us our devotion one morning.
Some of our talented NOMADS got together for a Monday night jam session.
The silent auction is always a lot of fun.
Our live “Love Auction” along with the silent auction raises money to be used to help our partner agencies buy materials on NOMADS projects.
Anne conducting her last NOMADS business meeting
One of several education sessions during the week
GloryWay Quartet was our Wednesday night entertainment.
On Thursday Anne handed over the gavel – ending her four year term on the NOMADS Board of Directors.
Before the concert Dave warmed up the audience with his “You might be a NOMAD if … routine. Always a hit.
The NOMADS Choir, led by our friend Tammy, presented a great concert Thursday night.
Special treats this year were these hundreds of paint brushes and other painting supplies donated to the members by Wooster Brush. Max was thrilled.
On Friday we left Lewisburg for Middlebury, IN. We overnighted at a wonderful Harvest Host farm in Ohio. The couple that owns the farm were so friendly and sweet. It was a great overnight out in the country. Very quiet and peaceful and we made a purchase of some really good, creamed honey and chicken salad. Never tried creamed honey before but it’s very good on toast.
Peaceful stay at the Harvest Hosts location in Ohio
Back in Amish country
The Pumpkinvine Trail trailhead in Middlebury is a very short walk from our compground. We think all trailheads should have ice cream shops. We walked a ways on the trail when we arrived to help recover from a long drive.
BB has an appointment to be seen tomorrow at the factory to get the last of her warranty work completed and to be sure the guys here don’t see any further damage from the wreck. We are hoping to head south Tuesday or Wednesday because we need to get Fred over to Camp Sumatanga this weekend so we can begin a 3 week project with NOMADS Sunday afternoon. Since Anne won’t be so busy with NOMADS business, we hope to return to more frequent blogging, projects and seeing the country. Maybe another trip to Alaska next year – or Nova Scotia since we had to cancel that one this year due to BB’s injuries. Can’t wait to see what happens. Hope you will continue to travel along with us.
RVing With a Purpose 