As you may recall, we took a vacation from the NOMADS rebuild project last week to get some rest and explore some of Vermont. We rested at the campground, drove to Hardwick to visit the Cabot Yellow Barn cheese store, did some sightseeing and some hiking the first of the week.
The Cabot Yellow Barn
The store had many varieties of cheese …
… and free samples of a few of them.
This horse drawn wagon gave rides to the campers.
The campground had a nice mini-golf course. Anne scored two holes-in-one and won the game.
Thursday, we went out to our next job site. It’s about 10 minutes from our previous site and we met with our project coordinator, Rob. We also met the homeowner, Scott. The four of us assisted the site prep contractor with installing the pillars of the new tiny home we will continue building on Monday.
Laying out pilings
Checking hole depth
Lowering a piling into place
First piling in place
Friday, we moved back to the camp to prepare for our incoming team. Saturday we were blessed to have Richard and Mary Lou and Sally and Chester join us for our fifth week of work in Vermont. Another great team!
Monday, we installed the 6×6 beams on the pilings, leveled and squared the beams and assembled the floor joist system. Tuesday, we squared and centered the floor joist system, installed the underlayment and insulation and installed the subfloor. Wednesday, we raised three walls. We finished the week on Thursday by raising the last wall, squaring walls and installing the top plates. This was a great accomplishment because it was another extremely hot week. We took off a little early because we had been working a little late earlier in the week. On the way home we stopped for pizza and ice cream. We don’t often get to do new builds on our NOMADS projects. The entire team really enjoyed this week, in spite of the heat.
Lumber inventory
Building floor joist system
Floor system assembled
Pushing it into place
Squaring the floor system
After centering and squaring the floor system, we secured it to the beams ….
… with straps.
Installing vapor barrier
Installing subfloor
Starting the first wall
Fastening the studs
Getting ready to raise the third wall
At the end of Wednesday
All four walls up
Team Photo for the Week
We sadly said see you down the road to Richard and Mary Lou on Friday. We will enjoy having Chester and Sally work with us part of next week. We have one more week in Vermont and then we will be heading back south.
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!
Rodney and Tammy performing prelude at the church
Delicious and fun brunch on a rainy Sunday.
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.
Bible presentation for Rosa. She has such a sweet spirit.
When we went to Rosa’s for her Bible presentation, we finally got a picture of the finished skylight.
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.
Janis cutting flooring with the guillotine.
Pam making some special cuts in the flooring.
Tammy and Janis laying flooring
Herman and Jayne hanging drywall
Janis and Pam laying flooring
Rodney installing baseboard
Jeff installing trim
Jayne and Herman putting down subfloor
Jeff under the home working on the kitchen plumbing. God always sends the right people.
Jeff preparing the sink for installation
Sally’s bathroom at the end of the week.
Sally’s finished kitchen
Herman and Rodney spent some time preparing the home next door to Sally’s to be elevated next week.
Team picture for our third week
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.
Our friends on the cruise
Of course we had to get a picture of the lighthouse at the harbor.
This is how dinner started, then continued to prime rib and sides.
Sunset on the Lake Champlain
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.
The trail we walked to the fair
It was very well attended.
One of the local emergency responder departments uses this food trailer to raise money.
Our favorite find at the fair was white peach sorbet. Surprised?
Today, Sunday, we took it easy. Everyone stay safe and remember to shine like Jesus wherever you go.
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.
West Danville UMC
Commemorative plate at the church
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.
Larry and Rodney on cabinet installation duty
The cabinet crew did a great job with the new cabinets.
Jean ripping the first row of flooring for one of the rooms
Anne, Jean and Tammy installing vinyl plank flooring in really tight quarters
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.
We wanted to make sure there were no leaks around the new skylight.
New skylight installed!
After we finished installing the skylight we had to get the shingles on the roof.
Almost finished with the shingles
Rodney, Jayne and Herman installing the metal ridge cap – the final step in repairing the roof.
Herman spent quite a while repairing the Rosa’s bathroom floor.
Janis laying the new vinyl plank flooring
Herman and Janis did a great job.
Jayne and Rodney removing the old ceiling around the skylight
Jayne applying the first coat of mud to the bathroom ceiling.
The new skylight from inside showing the new drywall. Jayne finished it Thursday afternoon, but we didn’t go back and get a finished picture.
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.
Goodrich’s Maple Farm is just around the corner from the camp.
Part of our team with Ruth beside the machine her husband invented.
This cross section of a maple tree shows how long it has been tapped. You can see the tap holes from over the centuries.
Examples of damaged tubing and the culprits
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.
We arrived at Covenant Hills Christian Camp, outside of Cabot, VT, on 7/11 to start our weeks on the NOMADS Disaster Rebuild project here. We were met by Herman and Janis and shown the RV sites. It’s so good to be working with them again. After doing all the things required to get Fred set up, we sat down for a late lunch and took time to look out the window for the first time. Wow! What a beautiful setting we will enjoy for the next six weeks. We are at the top of a hill looking out across a valley toward some tall, beautiful mountains. It is such a quiet and peaceful place. Cell service isn’t great depending on your carrier so sometimes you need to go inside the dining room if you need to do some online work, but Starlink works fine. Depending on which roads you take, it’s around 6 miles to Cabot from the camp.
The view from our campsite
One of our neighbors
On Saturday, we were glad to welcome Jean and Larry to the camp and later that afternoon we got to welcome our final team member, Jayne. We have previously worked with all 5 of our team members and they are all leaders, so we knew this week would be great. Sunday the team all went to church together and ate lunch at Wayside Restaurant and had our opening meeting Sunday afternoon.
Monday we all went to Sally’s house, about 25 minutes from camp, to continue the work on her flood damaged home – damage from the 2024 flood. We were blessed to have Herman and Janis with us to fill us in on all the work up to now. NOMADS raised the trailer 8 inches and replaced/repaired the underbelly of the trailer as well as installing the underpinning in previous weeks. This is actually the seventh week of the NOMADS project here. Our team completed the last of the outside work and began on the inside work. Monday, we began installing subflooring and drywall throughout the house. We also worked on finishing the drywall. We will continue this work next week.
Our first task on Monday
Herman working on building an access door in the underpinning
Anne installing a piece of subfloor
Larry and Jean cutting drywall
Janis finishing the drywall on a difficult corner
Jean hanging a piece of drywall
Hall drywall and flooring at the end of the week
The kitchen drywall and floor at the end of the week
On Wednesday Max and Herman began working on Rosa’s house. Rosa’s house needs a new skylight installed and some roofing replaced. Jayne joined them on Thursday. They have removed the rotten wood, replaced the decking and have begun the installation of the new roof to keep it dry for the weekend. Next week we will replace the skylight and repair the damaged drywall inside.
Our skylight and roof project
Removing the old skylight
Framing for the new skylight
Herman and Jayne removing the old decking
Jayne and Herman installing the “ice and water” underlayment
The roof at end of week
It was an extremely hot week by Vermont standers, with temperatures and humidity well above normal most days (upper 90’s heat index) so we had to take some extra breaks and work to stay hydrated. The first part of next week is predicted to be much better with high temperatures in the 70s – nice. After the hard, hot week, the team stopped on the way back to camp Thursday night at a pizza restaurant – Pizza Man. It just happened to have an ice cream parlor in its back yard. It was a nice ending to a busy work week. Friday was laundry day since we hadn’t done laundry since leaving SC so no fun excursions yet – maybe next week.
RVing With a Purpose 