Tag: vermont flood

Vermont Disaster Rebuild – Our Week 6

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Our last week in Vermont.  On Saturday, we were blessed with the wonderful news that Sally and Chester were going to work with us for another few days. Much needed help as we were committed to having Scott’s house in the dry by the end of the day Thursday.   Our new team members for next week were not arriving until Sunday so we had Saturday free to explore.  We returned to the Montpelier farmer’s market to get more fresh veggies.  We also learned that Montpelier is the smallest US state capital.  It really is small.  Next we drove through the mountains to Lake Willoughby in Westmore, VT.  Some locals told us that this was the prettiest place in Vermont.  It was beautiful but many, many other people were enjoying the lake this weekend.  It reminded us of Alaska and everyone’s rush to have one last beautiful weekend prior to the short summer season beginning to come to an end.  Very surprising to us, was that the leaves were beginning to change. Up in the mountains there were some beautiful reds and yellows.  We had a relaxing day enjoying the Vermont mountains.

Sunday, we welcomed Chris and Laura to the team.  We have worked with them previously and were excited to have their help on our tiny home build.  Monday morning the six of us returned to Scott’s new home.  We began the day by installing the sheathing on the walls, building the ridge beam and began installing the rafters.  We completed all these items on Tuesday.  Wednesday, we began installing the house wrap, roof sheathing and underlayment.  On Thursday, Stan and Jennie (the incoming team leaders) joined us to help complete those items.  The team had the house in the dry by lunch Thursday.  What an accomplishment!  Two weeks of hard work by the teams and Scott and he has a new home that is now dry.  We spent the afternoon with Stan and Jennie and the project coordinator, Rob, and are confident we are leaving the project in good hands. The next teams (3 weeks) will complete the home before the cold and snowy Vermont winter arrives.  What a blessing!

It was such a pleasure to work with our teams to help Scott build his tiny house the past two weeks. Scott became an honorary team member because he worked as hard or harder than the rest of us on his home.  We will miss him.  As is customary, we had dinner out Thursday evening, enjoying a meal at Nacho Mama. Great meal and fellowship.

Back at the camp, we readied Fred for the long trip back to South Carolina.  We were sad to say goodbye to all our NOMADS friends but hope to see them again soon.

We pointed Fred southward at 8:30 Friday morning, staying at Harvest Hosts Friday and Saturday nights, before arriving at Randy and Debra’s home in SC about 4:30 Sunday afternoon.  It was a long drive, but it was very good to be back for another visit.

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.

Vermont Disaster Rebuild – Our Week 1

Sunday, July 20, 2025

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.

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.

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.

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.