Tag: lyndonville flood

Vermont Disaster Rebuild – Our Week 3

August 03, 2025

The NOMADS Vermont Disaster Rebuild team is still enjoying our time in Vermont.  We had some rain and some hot days this week but all in all a good week.  On Friday we had to say “see you at annual meeting” to Larry and Jean.  Thanks, Larry and Jean for all your hard work!  On Saturday we were blessed to have Pam and Jeff join us for their first disaster rebuild project.  We certainly hope it will not be their last as they were such an asset to the team. Sunday we all went to West Danville UMC together and Tammy and Rodney sang the prelude for the service, and the team sang the postlude.  It is such a sweet and welcoming little church.  After church we had a team brunch back at the campground where we all pitched in various items.  Oh, so good!

Monday we all returned to Sally’s house.  With all nine of us there, there was not a room untouched by NOMADS and lots of progress was made.  The highlight of the week was the Bible presentation to Rosa on Monday afternoon.  This was a special time for all.

The remainder of the week we continued at Sally’s with the highlight being the completion of the kitchen, with the installation of the stove, range hood, sink and butcher block countertops.  This family had been without these amenities for over a year.  Washed dishes in the bathroom for over a year and had only a microwave for cooking.  Sometimes we forget just how blessed we are. Lord, help us to remember and be grateful!  A lot was accomplished this week.  The house is livable again with mostly smaller items not quite completed.

Friday morning, Max and Anne moved to a private RV park for the next week.  Sugar Ridge RV Village is only about 15 minutes from the church camp, but we are taking next week off and will then return to lead two more weeks of the DR.  We plan to get some rest and do some touring while we are off.

Friday evening those of us still in Vermont – Tammy and Rodney, Herman and Janis and the two of us, had reservations for “Lobstah on the Lake” dinner cruise on the Spirit of Ethan Allen that cruises Lake Champlain.  We had never been to Burlington or been on Lake Champlain.  Thanks to Tammy for recommending the cruise and arranging our trip.  We enjoyed the company, cruising Lake Champlain, and the food!  It was a really nice sunset and peaceful evening.  Great way to begin our week off.

Saturday morning, we hiked to the Danville Community Fair in “downtown” Danville.  We had read on a sign that it was only 1.4 miles from Sugar Ridge on the rail trail, so a walk seemed a good idea since we wouldn’t have to worry about parking.  It was actually 3 miles to the fair.  Oh, well.  We got our steps – total of 8 miles and 22,276 steps for the day.  It was a nice community fair and we did make a few purchases of food items. 

Today, Sunday, we took it easy.  Everyone stay safe and remember to shine like Jesus wherever you go.

Vermont Disaster Rebuild – Our Week 2

July 27, 2025

On Saturday we had the pleasure of welcoming Tammy and Rodney to Vermont to join the NOMADS Disaster Rebuild team.  It was great to have two more hard workers assisting Larry and  Jean, Herman and Janis, Jayne, and Anne and Max in repairing Sally’s home and Rosa’s home. It’s always great to have a full team.  Before the workweek began, Sunday we all enjoyed going to the West Danville UMC to worship.

Monday morning Larry and Jean continued work at Sally’s, installing the OSB subflooring and dry wall in the bedrooms and hallway. Tammy began the painting in the kitchen while Anne and Janis continued working on finishing the drywall.  Tuesday Tammy and Janis removed the wall cabinets in the kitchen.  Wednesday, Rodney joined the crew at Sally’s and he, Larry and Jean spent the remainder of the week installing the new wall and base cabinets in the kitchen.  Anne and Tammy, with some part-time help from Max and Jean began the installation of the vinyl plank flooring in bedroom #1.  There is still much work to be done at Sally’s, but we made good progress this week.

Monday Max, Rodney, Jayne, and Herman returned to Rosa’s house to continue the work of installing the skylight and roofing.  With that work complete, Tuesday they began the work on the two bathrooms repairing the floor in one and the damaged ceiling around the skylight in the other.  By Thursday afternoon all that work was complete, and we are looking forward to scheduling a Bible presentation next week.

Week eight of the NOMADS Vermont Disaster Rebuild was a pleasure.  As predicted, the temperatures cooled and the entire team enjoyed the beautiful weather.  It was so much easier to accomplish our work assignments in 74 degree weather rather than the 90+ degrees of last week.  At the end of our work week, we again stopped for pizza and ice cream on the way back to camp. Since we pass by the ice cream place every day some of us enjoyed ice cream more than once this week.  We all enjoyed our weekend in Vermont.  Max and Anne visited farmers’ markets and Goodrich’s Maple Farm.  We really enjoyed the Maple Farm visit because one of the owners, Ruth, spent about 1.5 hours sharing her impressive knowledge of all things maple as well as general Vermont information such as: The Goodrich Family has owned the farm for over 200 years.  They harvest the sap from over 160,000 trees each spring.  They are the 4th largest privately owned maple syrup farm in the nation.  They no longer use buckets but rather tubing that runs from the trees to a collection point in the woods and is then is transported to the sugar house for processing.  Some of the water is removed by reverse osmosis before the cooking begins.  They designed and patented a cooker that can make a gallon of syrup in 37 seconds.  They produce 60-80 THOUSAND gallons of syrup each year.  Amazing!  Of course we purchased syrup and other maple items before saying goodbye to Ruth.

We also visited (and made a few purchases) at the farmers market in Montpelier and came home and prepared a great meal of halibut and fresh veggies.  More from Vermont next week.