It was another beautiful day in Dutton, Al. Nice breeze most of the day with a few scattered clouds. The sun was pretty unrelenting for those working out on the slab. Randy and Max wore their sun hats but faces still look like they may have gotten a little too much sun.
The guys were on the job site with Ray directing them at 8:00. Since Saturday is an “extra” day to get things setup and started, Ray let everyone sleep in today. We will start at 6:00 am starting Monday. The people working on the new church building were laying out the walls and installing the base plates. Some also worked on building the T posts and corner posts. Anne and Debra were back in the kitchen at 8:00. They were assigned the “store” so they spent most of their day unpacking all the T-shirts, hats, caps, sweat shirts, etc. and setting up the displays of all the Constructors for Christ logoed items. We all enjoyed our day renewing friendships with all the people we will be working with for the next week. We had between 30-40 people working on this “extra” day. It was a very productive day and we are looking forward to the rest of our team members arrival tomorrow.
Studying the blueprints
Laying out walls
Installing baseplates
Building t-posts
Most of the walls are laid out and many of the baseplates are down
Two more beautiful days. Cooler temperatures. It was 57 degrees this morning and remained cool all day. Nice.
Yesterday was a relaxing day. We decided to drive up Sand Mountain to locate our job site for next week. When we arrived another Constructors for Christ couple were on site delivering one of the equipment trailers. It was great to see Gary and Debra again. We visited a while and then went to look at the kitchen where we will be eating three meals a day next week.
The work site
Kitchen and Dining Hall
After looking around a while we drove over to Huntsville to visit the new Duluth Trading store that opened in Madison last week. Nice store and we had fun just browsing. They had some interesting items that might be in our future.
Our new home at New Home Church Camp
Today we moved Fred from Hollywood to New Home Church Camp on top of Sand Mountain. This is a beautiful camp in a really nice setting. Quiet and peaceful place. We will enjoy being here. Randy and Debra arrived mid afternoon and of course we were excited to see them. Soon two other Constructors friends arrived, and then two more. Max and Randy spent the afternoon putting a new 12” compound miter saw and stand together. Anne and Debra went to the kitchen to assist in unloading the kitchen trailer. We got the trailer unloaded but it will take all morning tomorrow to get things organized and put away. We are now just relaxing, watching a baseball game, and enjoying our time with Randy and Debra. Two good days. Hope you all have a good weekend.
We have had showers and thunderstorms the past three days but no severe weather in our area. With the intermittent rain we have also had a little cooler temperatures. Nice!
Monday was busy with dental appointments for both of us and then errands and business meetings. We also continued to work on downsizing our stuff at the house. The first time you work on purging your closet it’s easy. The second time through it’s a little harder. Anne says she still has too much to fit in Fred and it’s getting hard. It does feel good to walk in to the closet and see all the empty space. Making progress.
Tuesday we had family meetings for both the LOLs at the Rehab center. Nothing really new going on there. The staff has taken care of some of our concerns and they are providing good care for our dear aunts. We also took care of more errands in Oneonta, shopped for the ladies, took donations to Hope House and stopped by the curb market for fresh veggies and water melon. Love our Alabama veggies.
After one more dental appointment today, we decided to go to Hollywood. Hollywood, Alabama that is. It was an uneventful 2.5 hour drive and we arrived and hooked up Fred just before the afternoon thunderstorms arrived. We will begin working Friday or Saturday preparing for the start of a new church building in Dutton, Alabama a small community a few miles from the small community of Hollywood. Dutton does not have RV parks. Hopefully tomorrow will be a day of relaxing.
This week everyone is happy that most areas have had rain. The temperatures have been more moderate too – highs in the 80’s rather than 90’s. There has been some flash flooding but nothing that bad in Tuscaloosa. We brought Fred back to Blount County late yesterday and we have had more rain in our area again today.
Scanner at work
Last Sunday we took our scanner back to Tuscaloosa after church and started scanning family pictures. We spent about 2 ½ days scanning pictures. We also continued to work in the house, emptying it of over 50 years of our family’s life. It was hard at times and fun at times. Many of our readers have been through this same process. It’s just been very tiring. However, we finally feel we have really made some progress in giving Anne’s mother’s most precious items homes with various family members. We have decided to forego an estate sale. Based on further research and scheduling problems and placement of more items with family members, we decided we would rather just donate to various charities. We will make more calls over the next week or two to schedule pick up of various large pieces of furniture. Hopefully there are no more hiccups.
Another stack started for a donation run
We came home for the day on Wednesday to check on the LOLs. Anne talked to the NP Monday morning and expressed her concerns about Helen’s cough and Jean’s hand. While we were in Oneonta, we went to Walmart for the Weather Radio event sponsored by Channel 6 and EMA, assisted by the Oneonta Fire Department and Blount County 9-1-1. It gave Max an opportunity to visit with old friends from the National Weather Service, media, and a number of other friends from his work days in Blount County.
Today we went back to Lester Memorial for early worship and Sunday School. We celebrated Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit, today. It was another wonderful worship service with a large crowd. We have two mission teams out today – one in the Philippians, and another in Honduras. Pastor Harvey read an email from the Honduras team reporting two professions of faith were made at services last night and we Skyped with the Philippians team at the beginning of worship. It was great to see and hear them all. Great work happening in both locations. Our 42 member Appalachian Service Project team leaves next Sunday for their week of working on homes. Love the work everyone is doing.
We saw the LOLs again after church today and are happy to report both ladies are improved. Helen’s cough seems to have resolved and Jean’s hand is slowly improving. We will have a little time at home this week before leaving for our project next week so we decided to spend the afternoon going through some kitchen cabinets. We have decided to downsize and dispose of things we don’t need or not using. We don’t want anyone to have to go through what we have been going through to dispose of our stuff in a few years. Should be another exciting and hopefully not too painful journey. Hope you all have a good week.
RVing With a Purpose 