Oct 31st - The Metal is on the Roof

Today the four of us put all the full sheets on the roof. (We still have two partial width sheets to cut and install) Kathy continued painting exterior doors and frames.

The mornings work.

And the afternoons work.

This old guy was POOPED! About half way through the afternoon side I was about convinced that I could not help lift my half of another sheet up on the roof. That went on for about three sheets and then the Lord must have given me a shot of adrenaline because I was able to keep working until we finished, almost exactly at quitting time. Had I taken a break, forcing the other guys to take a break also, we would not have finished. God is good, I should have been asking Him for strength but even though I didn't He still gave it to me.

Last nights low was 27 degrees, even though Weatherbug claims it was around 40. Water hoses don't freeze at 40 and ours was definitely frozen again this morning. I had expected it to be and had shut off the water at the hose bib, but the water that was still in the hose was frozen.

The day was sunny. My face is proof of that. Tomorrow I will have to remember to swab on the sunscreen before going out.

God is good. May God bless you and yours this evening, or whenever you might read this.



Oct 31 - Political Commentary - Lies?

Why is Obama telling lies about the economy? Is he deliberately trying to stir up class hatred?

The Lie

From Obama’s Weekly Saturday address – October 29^th, 2011
“This week, a new economic report confirmed what most Americans already believe to be true: over the past three decades, the middle class has lost ground while the wealthiest few have become even wealthier,” said Obama. (One place that has certainly got "wealthier" is the Federal government. It is spending nearly twice as much per capita, in inflation adjusted dollars, as it did 3 decades ago.)

The Truth

From the Congressional Budget Office report cited by Obama. “For the 60 percent of the population in the middle of the income scale (21st through 80th percentiles), the growth in average real after-tax household income was just under 40 percent.” That means that a family that would have been earning the equivalent of about $50,000 per year in constant dollars in 1997 would be making the equivalent of $70,000 in 2007.

More from the report, "For the 20 percent with the lowest income, average real after-tax household income was about 18 percent higher in 2007 than it had been in 1997.”

Another Lie? – Maybe not a lie but just a statement designed to inflame class hatred.

Again from his Saturday address.

“And this has happened during a period where the cost of everything from health care to college has skyrocketed,” Obama said.

The Truth

The increases in income that the CBO documented were in inflation-adjusted dollars—meaning that each type of household saw its income rise over and above the level of inflation between 1979 and 2007.

It is true that the wealthiest 1% saw larger gains in their income than the rest of us but so what? CNN recently reported that to be in the top 1% of American taxpayers you have to have a minimum adjusted gross income of  $343,927. They also reported that the 1.4 million households in this category earned nearly 17% of the nations income while paying 37% of its income tax.

I'd like to know why all of us should not have to pay equally for the services we receive from the Federal government? If, on a local level, we want to help others pay their Federal taxes that would be up to us.

Currently the Feds spend around $12,000 for every US citizen. It should cost a single person $12,000, a couple $24,000, etc; for their share of what we get from the Feds. (I don't know about you but I'm darn certain that I'm not getting my $12,000 worth.)

Actually, even though I don't think it is "fair", I support Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan, as an interim step to implementing a true "fair tax" plan. The 9% tax paid by business would, of course, be passed along to we end consumers in the form of higher retail prices, the same as what happens with today's taxes on business.  In addition, everybody would pay a 9% income tax and a 9% sales tax. The "rich" would, of course, pay far more because of their larger incomes and larger spending.

Oct 30th - Sunday

I think that Logan Valley must be the coldest place in southeast Missouri. We know our thermometer is reasonably accurate because the hoses had frozen when it said it was 29 degrees one morning last week. Weatherbug and Weatherunderground both claimed that the early morning temperatures were in the low 40's while our thermometer showed a low of 30 degrees. We had a fairly heavy frost and it did not melt off until after the sun was up. Today was windy but mostly sunny.

We went to church this morning and took naps in the afternoon. Kathy took a short nap and did some laundry while I took a long nap. We just got back from walking over to the creek and then down the road to the cemetery where the paved road ends.

This is the creek back behind the main camp. The water level is actually about 5' below the bank with the vegetation.

 This is the left side of the camp looking from the creek. Actually I was probably 100' from the creek. The buildings in the center are one of the dining rooms, a chapel, and housing units. The trailer on the right is where David, Kathy, Davie & Josh live, the staff. Below is the left side of the main camp area.

Below is the right side of the camp. On the left you see David & Kathy's trailer, then moving to the right is the new building we are working on, then a garage/storage building and then Dave & Sue's home, with the red roof. If you look really close you can see part of our RV to the right of Dave & Sue's, although we are parked maybe a hundred yards further away. Dave and Sue have a walkout basement. The house is less than 10 years old and the area once flooded so bad that they had over 3 feet of water in their lower level. The entire grassy area that you see in the photos above and below had to be under 4-5 feet of water, and the creek had to be 10 feet deeper than it is in the photo above.

We walked down to the cemetery just to look around. If you look closely at the hillside in the background you can see the paved road that runs across the hillside and down into the valley.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 29th PM - Blue Spring & Alley Mill/Spring

We drove about 75 miles today looking at two springs in the area, and enjoying the beautiful day. We had thought about going to at least one more but it would have been another 70 miles. Since both of us were tired we decided to come back home and take a nap instead. The nap was great.

We went to Blue Spring first. The name comes from its color. The spring is 310' deep and flows about 90 million gallons a day. Below is the parking lot the road that takes you to Blue Spring. We only slightly drug the bottom of the CR-V at one place getting down the 2.5 mile road to the parking lot.

Kathy is checking out the information sheet at the trail head that leads to the 0.4 mile path that takes you to the spring.

Here she is stepping on the stones that lead across a little stream that you have to cross to get to the spring.

  

 Below is the right side of the spring area. I'm sorry for the lousy photography. The place is just beautiful.  I don't know what makes the holes in the rock face on the other side of the spring.

This is the left side of the spring.

This is the outflow of the spring.

The photo below doesn't come close to showing the beautiful blue water. The other thing that we have seen at all the springs is an amazing amount of vividly green plant life in the fast flowing spring water. Kathy said that some of it is watercress(?). The green that you see is actually under the water, as much as 4' below the surface. The water is incredibly clear.

Below is where the spring water, on the left, flows into the Current River.

I am on the bridge that leads to Alley Mill. The sycamore tree in the background was huge.

Alley Mill was used to grind wheat, and later corn, for local farmers. At one time there was a blacksmith shop, a post office and two houses at the site.

The mill race.

Another photo of the mill race. The water here was more of a turquoise color. Note the green vegetation again, it is mostly under the surface of the water.

This is Alley Spring. It flows over 80 million gallons a day. The path is you see at the top of the photo is along the face of a rock bluff. I should have gotten more height in the photo. The water is pretty much the color in the photo, but it is VERY clear.

The water that does not go through the mill race flows out here.

I have this out of order but.... This is where the water flows into the mill race area. There are wooden gates that can be opened and closed. They either block all water from going through the race area, or they let the water just flow straight through the area, or they divert it over a turbine that provides power to run the mill. The mill is open between Memorial Day and Labor Day. It is a place I would like to see some time.

The high today was near 60. I don't think it is going to get below freezing tonight, but everything is buttoned up so that even if it does we should not have a problem. Current temperature is 41, at 7:45 CDT.

During our travels we stopped in Eminence, MO for lunch, while traveling between the two springs. Lunch was OK but nothing spectacular. On the way back we stopped at another place in Eminence and had hot fudge sundaes. They were quite good <grin>.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 29th AM - Burrrrr - 25 degrees

At 7 AM it was 25 degrees here. We know our thermometer is fairly accurate because last week, when it said 29 degrees, our water hose froze.

The sun is out and there aren't many clouds in the sky. It is still (at 8:40 CDT) pretty frosty out, but the steam is coming off the side of the car as the frost evaporates in the sunshine.

Oct 28th - Purlins On

We installed all the roof purlins today. Monday we will put the sheathing on the gable ends and by Tuesday we should start installing the metal roof.

Bruce and David did all the roof work while I marked and cut the purlins.

Kathy painted more doors again today. She also went to town for groceries, and to buy a different type of paint brush.

Dave and Sue had a dinner for the "Red Hat Ladies" last evening. Some type of club. They had food left over and told David & Kathy and Kathy & I to warm it up for supper if we wanted. Dave and Sue left for St. Louis around noon. There were going to attend the World Series game.

Kathy and I plan on going exploring tomorrow. Probably to see Blue Springs and then just wander around.

Today's high was 56. It is 35 degrees here now. I just came in from taking the pressure off the water hose. I also removed the water softener and brought it inside and put a light bulb in the outside space behind the refrigerator, to keep the ice maker water lines from freezing.

Guess that is all the news from here. Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 27th - Trusses are Set

Today we set the roof trusses, by hand, and installed one row of starter purlins. Three of us set about half of them and we had a 4th guy help us with the other half.

Tomorrow we hope to finish installing the purlins. Dave called in the order for the metal roofing at noon and it is supposed to be ready to pick up tomorrow morning.

Kathy did laundry and cooked (for us) and cleaned and swept the dorms in "Africa" today.

The temperature never got out of the 50's today and it was cloudy. Tonight's low is supposed to be in the mid 30's and tomorrow the high is to be in the low 60's, with sun.

By the time we leave here next week (to head for Andy & Kelsey's) I should be in the best physical shape that I've been in for years, and I have enjoyed almost every minute of it.

When I told the guys I have been working with that we would be leaving no later than the end of next week Bruce, the real carpenter, said he would miss me but wondered if I would leave my Hitachi cordless tools for them to use. I think he was kidding. (Actually I know that he was kidding, but the set of cordless tools that I bought before hitting the road have gotten a real workout while we have been here.)

This weekend we hope to explore the area a little more. There are still 3 springs close to us that we haven't seen.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.



Oct 26th - Rained Out

I only worked about 45 minutes this morning and we then were rained out. It has rained on and off all day, but never hard. The roof trusses were delivered to day so, if we don't get rained out tomorrow, I think we will start setting them.

We had David, Kathy, Davie & Josh (their 3 & 1 year olds) over for supper. Since there isn't much going on here Sue is visiting one of their kids & grandkids. Dave stayed around but I think he is leaving Thursday to do the same, since there are no camps this weekend. We asked him to come for supper but he already has other plans.

Kathy and I read, napped and worked caught up on our budgeting. (Actually she was caught up, I was the one who had not done anything on it for a couple of months.) Of course Kathy also cooked dinner and supper.

Temperature went down to 49 last night. Todays high was in the mid 60's. Tonights low is supposed to be in the low 40's and it tomorrows high is forecast to be 56. I may have to find my long underwear <grin>.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 24th & 25th - Making Progress

We have made progress on the new girls dormitory in the past couple of days. It will have metal siding and roofing. The next step will be to run horizontal 1x4's, spaced 2' c/c vertically, around the building. They will work as girts for attaching the siding. The roof trusses are supposed to arrive tomorrow. We have the building all braced and are also ready for them. The 3 of us will be putting them up by hand, that should be interesting.

There are 34 sheets of 1/2" OSB board sheathing. I took all but three sheets off the trailer and stacked them on saw horses. Bruce and I chalked lines on them showing stud locations, carried them to the wall and set them in place. David did a lot of the nailing. We put up all the sheathing up in the morning. We spent the afternoon cutting out the windows, squaring up and bracing the walls and misc other work.

By 4 PM, quitting time, I am always ready for the day to be over. Actually I am only working 6-7 hours a day. I don't go over until they have things set up and have started working. I take an hour, or maybe hour and a half, lunch break, instead of the half hour that Bruce and David take. Bruce has been bringing his lunch over to the RV so that we fellowship while we have lunch.

Last night Dave & Sue (the camp owner/operators) had David & Kathy (camp staff) and their two kids ( 3 & 1 years of age), and Kathy and I over for supper. The food was good, as was the conversation.

Tonight we had Bruce and his wife Charlotte out for supper. Bruce is the carpenter who is the "foreman" on the job. (David & I are the unskilled laborers.) Bruce also pastors the small, non-denominational church we attended in Ellington last Sunday. I have really enjoyed working with him. He and Charlotte are very nice people.

Last nights low was 41 degrees. Todays high was a sunny 77. It was WINDY. Most of time the wind was good because it didn't feel so hot. It is supposed to rain tonight and then rain the next two days.

There were supposed to be around 50 "campers" coming for the weekend but they cancelled. That means that there will be minimal cleaning required next week.

Yesterday Kathy vacuumed the entire downstairs of the building next to our RV(It is named Africa). It is a BIG building, and then she painted 5 exterior doors. Today she primed two exterior door frames and cleaned multiple bathrooms in the upstairs of Africa. If it rains tomorrow both of us may sweep (vinyl floors) and mop the upstairs bunkhouses in Africa. I think that then everything where last weekends campers stayed will have been cleaned.

There is a nice breeze blowing in the window as I set here writing this tonight. It ought to be marvelous sleeping weather.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 23rd - Sunday

This morning we went to church at Faith Community Church in Ellington. Bruce, the carpenter with whom I have been working, is the Pastor. It is a small, but nice, church. Attendance was maybe 15 this morning. The music was good as was his message. I didn't realize it at the time but our discussions as we worked contained a lot of information about the message.

I went back to the 6 PM service but Kathy didn't feel like going. There were only 6 adults but we had an enjoyable time. All the singing was southern gospel, which I love, and Bruce had another good message. I invited him and his wife for supper Tuesday night.

To get to Ellington we can drive 0.2 miles of gravel road and then 9.2 miles of paved road (9.4 miles total), or we can go the opposite way and drive 2.7 miles of gravel road and then 3.1 miles of paved road (5.8 miles total).

Following are some photos of the 2.7 miles. Below is a photo of where you cross the creek. It has been dry so there is very little water running across the road. They have thoughtfully poured a 10' wide concrete slab on grade to make the creek bottom where you drive across. Downstream you can see (not in the photo) the remains of a slab that must have washed away during high water.

Below we are on Lila's Hump. You can't appreciate how steep it is going up and down the hump. If you look closely it looks like there is a break in the road. That is because the elevation of the road drops so fast that it drops out of sight.

Below is the shoulder of the road at one point. The gravel you see at the bottom of the photo is actually the shoulder of the road. At this point the sidehill drops probably 50' by the time you are 15' away from the shoulder. At Lila's Hump it drops around 70' in maybe 20' (that photo did show up well).

 In most places you can crowd the shoulder and two cars can pass but the are places where one person has to wait for the other to get through because there isn't room to pass.

The weather was beautiful again today.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 22nd - Looking at Springs

I went over and had breakfast with the campers this morning. I didn't talk to any of them, just had some of the pancakes and bacon that was being served for breakfast.

After breakfast we drove around to look at some of the springs in southeast Missouri. Big Spring near Van Buren, Missouri. A couple of statistics that I found very interesting are its average daily flow, over 250 million gallons per day; and that it carries away 175 tons of dolomite/limestone every day.

 You can make her out Kathy is on the left, in front of the cave. On the right is a photographer and a couple who apparently getting married at the Spring today. The path up to where I was standing is about 4' wide. it consists of a combination of flat top rocks and level areas cut into the stone cliff. The drop down to the water was probably 50', but it looked like it was a LOT further. On the other side the cliff went up several hundred feet.

 After our trip to the spring we went back to Van Buren and had lunch at the Mercantile Restaurant. It used to be a mercantile store. There are photos on the wall showing shelves full of stuff.

 After lunch we walked by the Carter County court house on our way down to the Jolly Cone for ice cream.

After the ice cream we drove to Mammoth, Arkansas to see Mammoth Spring. What a downer. It is a pond that has two outlets but no inlet. You can see some disturbance from the water entering the pond from the spring, but not much. There is a LOT of water flowing through the outlets. It flows a little over 200 million gallons a day. They also advertise an aquarium and a fish hatchery. The aquarium is maybe 12 tanks 4'x4'x4' with fish in them hardly have room to swim. The hatchery was supposed to be open until 3:30 but when we got there at 3:10 it was already locked up.

Bottom line is that while Big Spring was worth the short trip, less than 30 miles, Mammoth Spring was definitely not worth driving the additional 70 miles from Big Spring.

Maramec Spring, even though it doesn't flow nearly as much as either of these two, was far more enjoyable.

On our way back we took a slightly different route to check out the location of Blue Spring. It is only about 25 miles from the camp. We may go look at it some other time but we were just to tired today. It is a 1.5 mile walk from the parking area to the Spring.

Tomorrow after church I am not doing anything for the rest of the day. I am TIRED, but it is a good tired. No one pushed me/us during the week, except us. It is easy to see that Dave and Sue, the camp owners/operators are really pleased by our efforts. They have souvenir shirts, hats, jackets, etc for sale. Dave told us to just take whatever we wanted.

It isn't quite 8 yet so I may veg out while watching a movie and then hit the hay.

Good night and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 21st - Frozen Hoses

The low last night was supposed to be 33 degrees. Kathy got up a little before 6 and when she turned on the water we didn't have any. The temperature was 29 degrees. I got up, got dressed and went out to check on things. I disconnected our water softener and brought it inside. The water in the hoses was frozen and there was enough ice in the freeze proof hose bib that I couldn't turn it off. (it is only freeze proof it you shut if off and let the water drain back out of it.) I disconnected the hose, put a bucket over top of it and set our small gas grill under it. After awhile it thawed it out enough to shut it off. No damage, everything is now back in service.

Today's high was 61, tonights low is supposed to be 38.

We worked on the new building again today.

We have worked on it 3 days. Doesn't look like a lot of progress but I've felt like I've worked pretty hard by the end of each day. We all had dinner together tonight at the dining hall. I took this photo while walking over for supper.

While working on the building we heard a lot of dogs barking from the opposite direction of the photo. About an hour later the barking was off in the direction of the photo. We kept watching and saw a deer loping through the field, not running hard. At least 100 yards behind the deer was some type of smaller dog (a beagle?) chasing the deer. Another 100 yards behind the first dog was a second dog.

While at the dining hall I went out on the back deck to take a phone call from our insurance man in Crossville. During the conversation he asked me if I'd seen much wildlife here. As he was asking me I was watching another deer, maybe 100 yards away, make its way through the field show in the photo.

There are supposed to be 35-40 college age kids here for a retreat this weekend. This will be the first that we have been here while "campers" have been here. They won't be camping. They stay in dorms.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 20th - I'm Tired Tonight

I worked all day helping on the new building. Started at 8, took a 1 hour lunch break and quit at 4. 7 hours of being outside, wrestling 14' long 2x10's and 4x8 sheets of 3/4" tongue and grooved flooring tired this old man out <grin>. I've enjoyed working the carpenter who is "bossing" the job. He works for a living but also Pastor's a local church. We should finish the floor tomorrow and get a start on the walls.

Today Kathy touched up painting others had done previously. Someone painted poured concrete walls while but they did not do a good job of getting close to the floor. (They did do a good job of getting a lot of white paint on the floor.) Kathy went around the walls and touched up the places they had missed. A lot of bending over and/or scooting along the concrete floor.

I finally regen'd our RV water softener this evening. To regen it you unhook it, drain out some of the water, dump in 2# of table salt, let it set 5 min, and then flush the salt out of it, the water exits through a pinhole fitting, for 20 minutes. With the flush water going through the pinhole fitting you probably use around 5 gallons to flush out the salt. Now we will see how much difference the regen makes.

There is a freeze warning here for tonight, but the forecast is for a low of 33 degrees.

That is all for tonight. Don't know if we will watch a DVD movie (can't get a TV signal here) or go to bed. We are both tired.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 19th - Construction Today

No sweeping and mopping today, hooray!

We started work on framing a new building for staff housing. It is 28' wide and about 40' long. The foundation walls were poured last week. today we put up the sill plates and half the floor joists. Tomorrow we should install the remainder of the floor joists and get a decent start of the floor.

High here was a cloudy, windy 43 today. Low last night was 38 and low tonight is forecast to be 33. Tomorrow there are supposed to be fewer clouds and the high is supposed to get up to 54.

I've been corresponding, via email, with a lady at a YWAM (Youth with a Mission) in Tyler, TX to see if they were interested in our being volunteers there over at least part of the winter months. She had given me the phone number of one of their Facility Managers and had asked me to call him. I talked to him today and he said they would be happy to have us come any time and stay as long as we want. He wasn't sure what we would be doing but was sure that there would be something for us to do. I told him I was concerned about spending the winter months in Tyler, because I thought it might get to cold to be there in an RV. He lives in an RV and said he has had no problems. He said it rarely gets below freezing.

Our son Drew is negotiating to buy a house in Oakland, CA. If he can make a deal we will probably spend some of the winter months there. It will be good to get a chance to spend some time with him, while helping him do some needed maintenance work on the house.

Over the past month or so I've also been doing a small amount of work on a Tate & Lyle project at Loudon. Getting in a few billable hours is nice.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 18th - Nothing Earth Shattering

Nothing much happened yesterday or today. We cleaned both days. Cleaning up after the campers that were here over the weekend and getting ready for the ones who are to be here next weekend. I getting to be really good with a mop <grin>. Kathy has been cleaning the bathrooms and I've mostly been sweeping or vacuuming and then mopping.

We are almost done with the cleaning. (We aren't the only ones cleaning, Sue and Dave, the people who own/run the camp are also working to be ready for the weekend.) It rained on and off last night and all day today. Tomorrow is supposed to be partly sunny with high of 50 so we may be able to do some maintenance painting. Lows are forecast to be in the 30's for the next 4 nights. Thursday night it is supposed to get down to freezing.

Kathy fixed a pot roast for supper and we all (6 adults & 2 children) ate in the nearer dining hall tonight. Its tough getting 8 people in the RV for supper.

Guess thats the news for tonight. Goodnight to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 16th - A Good Weekend

The last few days have been busy. Friday we drove to Russellville. We left the motorhome at the camp and drove the CR-V. Friday evening was the viewing for Cathy (Kelsey’s sister-in-law who was killed in a motorcycle accident) and the funeral was Saturday morning.  It was good to get to spend time with her, Andy and that side of the family, even under such sad circumstances.
                                  
The beginning of the trip was quite interesting. I set up our GPS to route us from here to Russellville. We knew how to get out to the highway, going the way we came in, but it routed us back to the highway via some county roads. We gave it a try thinking we might save some time. WHAT A MISTAKE! The photo below is out of focus but it shows one of the county roads. The grass growing in the middle of the road eliminates the need for a painted center stripe.

Below is Kathy looking at the creek we had to cross on another of the county roads. We would have turned around if we could have, even though it would have meant backtracking over 10 miles on the road. The road was so narrow that we would have had to back up for at least a mile before there was any place to turn around. Our CR-V plowed through the creek with no problem. We will not be going on any more Missouri county roads unless someone tells us they are passable.

Saturday afternoon Kelsey & Kathy did some shopping in Jefferson City while Andy & I messed around. We met and had an early dinner and then Andy & I went out to check out where his brother and Dad were harvesting soy beans. (The combine engine is a big air cooled diesel. No radiator, no water, just air for cooling.) David & Elaine (Andy’s Dad & Mom) sided their house during the summer. We went from the field over to their house to look at it. It really looks nice. Elaine gave us some tomatoes. We had just run out of the tomatoes Tom & Mary Lou had given us. Nothing tastes better than home grown tomatoes.

This morning we headed back for Logan Valley (Ellington). We took a slightly different route, sightseeing. Below is the view from a roadside park where we stopped to stretch our legs. There are lots of similar vistas along the highways we travelled over the weekend.

Our route took us past Maramec Spring Park so stopped to take a look. We were sure glad we did. The spring and the trout rearing areas were really interesting but the remnants of the iron making facilities, the forging facilities and the open pit iron mine were the highlights for me.

The maximum recorded flow from Maramec Spring is 420 MILLION gallons a day, the average flow is 93 million gallons a day. I can’t begin to describe how many trout are in the “rearing”canal. I think they said the turn loose 50,000 trout a year into the Maramec river.

The spring feeds this pool.



Looking back over the spring.

The water flowing over the rocks behind me is only a small part of what comes out of the the spring.

The Maramec Iron Works was built in 1826 and operated until 1876. The photo below shows what is left of the furnace. In the museum there is a scale model of the entire area. It shows the mulitstory building that used to be around the furnace. I could go on and on about how cool it was but most of you wouldn't find it interesting. For those who would, check out the web site listed below.

This is the "casting arch."

Check out their web site for a lot more information http://maramecspringpark.com/maramec/ If you are ever in southeast Missouri make sure you don’t miss it.



We also stopped at Dillard Mill to see a water powered mill that was in service from the 1850’s to 1956. For any Staley/T&L guys reading this, I saw what was probably one of the first paddle mixers. It was constructed of wood. I forgot my camera or I would have taken a photo. (It was probably over a half mile hike, along a rough gravel path, from the parking lot to the mill. I was to lazy to go get my camera.) Some parts of the mill still function, although they don’t grind any grain. The web site, which we didn’t see until this evening, says they run the mill during tours. We opted not to take the guided tour and just walked around by ourselves. I talked to the lady forestry person at the mill, to confirm that it did operate at times. She gave me the impression that while it did run, they rarely ran it.

http://mostateparks.com/page/54956/general-information

We had a very good weekend. Good night and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 13th - Dentist Day

We did maintenance painting on some doors and door frames this morning. Kathy kept it up while I was at the Dentist. The good news is that it isn't going to cost us $1,200 to have a crown put on my broken tooth. The bad news is that they couldn't put a crown on it because the break went all the way down to bone. I had to have it pulled.

The lady dentist worked one solid hour getting it out. That hour did not include the time she spent poking and removing the broken piece, nor the time waiting for the Novocaine to kick in, etc. The hour was just the time she was yanking and tugging on the tooth. She must have shot a pint of Novocaine into me, and I needed every bit of it <grin>.

It rained here last night and thing are greening up nicely. Today the high was in the low 70's and the low tonight is supposed to be in the mid 40's. Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 12th - Done for the Day before Noon

Yesterday Kathy did more cleaning. I varnished interior wood siding (they use a lot of tongue and groove wood siding on interior walls), installed some mirrors in the new bathrooms, re-cut a hole for a register grill (its in a new bldg and the opening was cut to small for the grill), and helped pick up enough walnuts to fill a big wheelborrow.

Not much happened at my dental appointment. The looked at my cracked tooth, wiggled the loose piece around some, took an x-ray and the dentist said she thought that there was enough left to put on a crown. She won't know for sure until she removes the loose section. If there isn't enough left for a crown then the remainder of the tooth will have to be pulled. She blocked out a 3 hour appointment for me tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon to put on a temporary crown. It will take at least two weeks to get the crown made and then I will have to go back, have the temporary crown removed and the permanent one installed.

It rained a little last night. That was good because it has been pretty dusty here. We are a half mile down a gravel road and the other campground is close to half a mile beyond us, down that road. It has been sprinkling on and off all morning. Kathy, David (the employee) and I swept floors, cleaned the new bathrooms, and mopped floors for 2 1/2 hours this morning. Dave & Sue (the camp owners/directors) have season tickets for the  Cardinal baseball team. The just left to go to a playoff game tonight, in St Louis. Since we finished everything on the "work list" this morning they told us to take the rest of the day off.

I think Dave & Sue, especially Sue, are so used to doing most things themselves that they are having a tough time getting acclimated to having help. Yesterday was David's (the employee) first day back at work (he worked here several years ago). With both him and Kathy and I working it is tough for them to think far enough ahead to keep us all busy.  Before having the help I think they operated in the mode of just being able to get the things done that had to be done. Now they have to get into the mode of being able to do things that need to be done, but things they just didn't have time to do before having help. The other thing is that they didn't know Kathy and I. I suspect that they wondered whether we were some doddering old farts who were just looking for a place to park for free, or if we were someone who was willing to actually do some work. Now that we are getting more familiar with one another I think they will start thinking about things they would like to get done, not just the things that have to be done. I hope so because I doubt we will stay long if they can only come up with enough to keep us busy a couple hours a day.

A contractor came out this morning to set forms for foundation walls for a new "staff housing" building. He was rained out but will probably be back tomorrow. Maybe we can get started on building it while we are here. After even the small amount of rain we just received the grass will probably start growing again and there may be some mowing to be done.

Well time for my nap. Actually Kathy just prodded me to go ask Dave, Kathy and their two boys over for supper, then it will be time for my nap.

Have a great day and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 11th - Good and Bad

Yesterday was a good day at Logan Valley but it came with some bad news. Kelsey's sister-in-law was killed in a motorcycle accident. That is all we know at this time.

Our day started with meeting Dave & Sue, the couple who manage Logan Valley Christian Retreat, they were in Chicago for the weekend when we arrived and didn't get back until very late Sunday night. I think we are going to enjoy working with them.

We caught them a little by surprise. They didn't think we were going to arrive until late yesterday or even early this morning. I had emailed Dave about the change in plans, and left them a phone message, but they weren't home to receive either.

Ever vacuum a gym? Our first task was to vacuum the auditorium or multi-purpose facility. It isn't quite large enough to hold two full size basketball courts. It took us nearly two hours to vacuum it and a couple of adjoining rooms.

We then moved our RV to it's "permanent" location and got everything hooked up. Not a big move. We had to move the camp's dump trailer to make more room and then basically turned the RV 90 degrees from where we had been.

We had lunch with Dave & Sue; David, Kathy and their two boys (permanent staff); and some guys who were here from St. Louis to look the camp over for a potential church retreat.

After lunch we swept the dining hall & kitchen (actually this was one of the dining halls, the larger one, it seats around 130). Then while Kathy vacuumed the chapel I beat rugs. You absolutely can't believe how much dirt one of those heavy, rubber-backed entry rugs can hold. I finally got the vacuum Kathy had used in the chapel and attacked them with that. The amount of dirt I got out of them was just amazing, and they really had not looked all that dirty.

When we finished that we tracked Sue down, she was cleaning elsewhere, and asked what we could do next. While she was thinking we suggested mopping the dining room and kitchen, the one we had swept. That finished our work day, and us <grin>.

I have a dental appointment today to see what they propose for my broken tooth. Hopefully there is enough left for a crown. The good news is that it doesn't hurt at all.

Time to get at it. May God bless you and yours this day.

Oct 10th AM - At Logan Valley

We arrived at Logan Valley Christian Retreat just before noon yesterday. Getting out here from Ellington was more interesting, by far, (relatively narrow roads, no shoulders, often with STEEP drop offs on one side) than getting out to our property from Crossville. In hind sight it probably would be about the same now that we know where we are going.

Overnighting at the Walmart in Poplar Bluff was interesting. I slept pretty good, even with all the noise. The kids there have a lot of loud, although they are just loud, not strong, sounding V8's. I didn't hear one rice burner wind out. There was a lot of tire squealing, but again, it all sounded like something from anemic V8's. I walked over to Hardee's and had breakfast. When I bit down on a tater tot I thought there was a piece of bone in it that jambed between one of my teeth and my gum. It wasn't a piece of bone, I broke a tooth. It must be one that had had a root canal because it doesn't hurt. The piece that broke off is quite large and still attached to the gum. After we meet the folks this morning one of my top priorities will be to find a dentist.

The couple who run Logan Valley were in Chicago for the weekend. There is a young couple here who are just starting as permanent staff. Between us we were able to find a temporary parking spot for the RV and get us plugged in to the electricity. We still have plenty of water/sewer capacity so we weren't didn't need those hook-ups yet.

We walked around and looked over the facility yesterday. We didn't find one locked door. We also walked down the dirt road that leads to the facility to get a better feel for the area.

View looking almost straight ahead from our RV.

View looking to the right. The dark colored building in the distance are one of the kitchen/dining facilities and one of the housing units.

Standing out by the road looking back at our RV. The front part of the building on the left is a two story housing unit while the back is more of an auditorium. There is some type of home in the trees behind us, and not that far from us. We have seen a vehicle go up a drive to the right of us and while sitting outside we heard some activity. Not a think is visible. 

Down the road aways is a nice creek with a very interesting rocky/sandy area beside it. The water is clear so it is difficult to judge depths. My guess is that the deepest part we saw was only about 4' deep. The young man who helped us get set up said that is had bee dry here, but the grass still looks green so I don't think it has been really dry.

Just finished my breakfast of ham and eggs and Kathy just got up and made herself a cup of tea. Time for another cup of coffee and then another day of adventure.

The day was beautiful here yesterday, and it looks like it will be today. Yesterday the high ws near 80 but it never felt hot, there was a nice breeze. It is 49 right now. With all the windows open during the night it was right chilly when I got out of bed this morning.

Good morning to all and may God bless you and yours on this wonderful day.

Oct 9th - Pol Comm - Feds Prevent Construction Jobs

Jobs at no cost to taxpayers, no way the Feds are going to allow that to happen.

Why is it that Democrats, and to a lesser degree Republicans, insist that growing government intervention is the answer to all problems? They think they just have to grow government to reduce unemployment, when in reality all they have to do is get out of the way.

The oil pipeline from Canada is a perfect example of the Federal government dragging its feet on reducing employment. Because the proposed pipeline crosses our border with Canada the Feds just have to help.

The construction of the pipeline would create 13,000 construction jobs and 7,000 additional jobs making the steel, pumps and other necessary equipment; AT NO COST TO AMERICAN TAXPAYERS! Not all the jobs would be American jobs, but most of the construction jobs would filled by Americans.

The pipeline would increase our use of Canadian oil by around 500,000 barrels a day. Not a lot based on our consumption levels, but better to give our money to the Canadians than OPEC, the Arabs.

So you ask, “What are the Feds doing to help this project along?” Nothing, they continue to throw up road blocks. The pipeline would go through numerous states. Each state would have the ability to prevent it from being built. For some reason the demi-gods in DC  seem certain that those in State government are just to stupid to decide if the pipeline, crossing through THEIR states, is worth doing.

The Feds have been reviewing this project for over 2 years and are still sitting on their hands. Had they approved it in a timely manner construction would now be under way. (TransCanada placed an initial order for some of the pipe in 2009.)

You may not agree with the environmental aspects of oil from oil sands, but that decision was made by Canadians when they chose to develop THEIR oil fields. Perhaps you would rather get your oil from people like nice rulers like Saddam Hussein and Kaddafi.  If so you can fight the battle at the state level and stop the pipeline from going through your state.

Oct 8th - Poplar Bluff, MO

We left Crossville this morning in time to have lunch at Demo's in Lebanon, TN. As usual the food was great.

We are staying the night at a Walmart parking lot in Poplar Bluff, MO. What a change! Loud pickups racing through the parking lot. Apparently there is a fire station just down the road because we heard a siren start up and in a very short time saw a fire truck and other vehicles, also with sirens blaring, going down the highway in front of the Walmart. I will have no problems sleeping, all I have to do is put my good ear on the pillow and I don't hear anything, poor Kathy won't be as lucky. She is in Walmart walking right now, trying to get a little exercise. I already walked in from the far corner of the parking lot, to get the manager's OK for an overnight.

We did not plan on driving this far today but there aren't a lot of choices on where we feel comfortable parking for the night. Once you pass one you might sometimes have to go quite a ways to find the next one, as we did.

We are a little over 400 miles from Tom & Mary Lou's. We have another 70 miles of rural (I think some will be very rural) roads to get to Logan Valley.

We initially planned on going northwest out of Nashville, up I24. We had travelled part of that last year on one of our TN trips. We also used to travel it on trips to FL, when we lived in IL. Kathy suggested that we stay on I40 west of Nashville and then head northwest, which is what we did. We got quite a surprise approximately a hundred miles west of Nashville - cotton fields. From there all the way up to here we have seen a LOT of cotton fields. Some have been harvested but most have not. There are cotton "balls" all along the roadway. If we had seen some place with decent shoulders we might have pulled off and picked up a few, we may still.

I know - lousy photo. In the far distance are what we think are cotton "bales". They are about the size of a flat bed semi-trailer. We noticed that they have different color covers on top but don't know if that is significant.

Time for a shower and almost time for bed. Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 7th - Tomorrow is Moving Day

It was another beautiful day here. I took these photos yesterday morning. I was standing by the side of Tom & Mary Lou's house looking out over their lake.

This morning Kathy was sitting outside, I was just getting out of bed, and she heard some rustling down the drive towards T & ML's. She walked out into the drive and just  a short way down the drive a deer was standing. She stood still and watched four deer cross the driveway. They had probably been down at the lake getting a drink.

This morning I went to Crossville with Tom to pick up a riding mower that he is to repair. Later, while he was bush hogging the garden I cut down a couple of small pear trees (5" trunks). Before I got back down there after lunch he had already pulled up the stumps and hauled the trees out into the woods. The pear trees were supposed to be real pear trees but after a several years of fruit the size of the end of your thumb, and nasty thorns, they figured it was time to get rid of them.

Later while Tom tilled the garden, he has a tiller on his tractor, I ran through a tank and a half of gas doing some weed eating.

In the evening Tom built a fire and we roasted hot dogs tonight. The moon was about three quarters full and it was beautiful out. As you can see, Tom doesn't fool around when he builds a fire to roast hot dogs.

We have had a really good time here but it is time to move on. Tomorrow morning we are heading toward southeast Missouri. We will take our time and take two days to get there. We will be volunteering at Logan Valley Christian Retreat in Ellington, MO. http://www.loganvalley.org/

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 6 - Good Test Run

Tom, Dennis (a friend of Tom's) and I worked cleaning up Tom & Mary Lou's garden this morning. We have it almost ready to be tilled for the fall. Working with these guys is just a lot of fun.

This afternoon we (Kathy) drove in to Crossville and filled up with fuel and propane. Everything went well.

It was another beautiful day here. I think the high may have hit 80 but the humidity is low and it doesn't feel hot. Tonights low will be in the high 40's again, great sleeping weather.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 5th - Repairs Complete

The mechanic installed the sensor this afternoon and things appear to be OK. Tomorrow afternoon we will make a test run into Crossville and fill up our propane tank.

We have decided to give up on volunteering at Deer Run Retreat, we just wouldn't be there long enough to get set up, tear down, and still do significant work. We think we will go directly to a camp in southeast Missouri but aren't sure when we will leave.

It was another beautiful day here again today. Tom and I loaded about half a pickup load of wood that I previously cut and then I split it. This afternoon Kathy and I dug potatoes for awhile. Haven't done that for a long time.

The past few nights as we walk back up the driveway from Tom & Mary Lou's house to the RV, the moonlight has been just fantastic. Even thought the moon is not nearly full it is so bright that our shadows are pronounced. Actually it is also very pretty when we walk down for dinner/supper. The sun is going down, although we can't see it because of all the trees, and in one area where there is a little bay in the lake, we can't see the lake either, the sun lights up the trees brilliantly.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day.

Good night to all. May God bless you and yours.

Oct 4th - Still in Crossville

The mechanic did not make it out today so we will be here again tomorrow.

Being here is certainly not a sacrifice. It was another beautiful day here today. I cut some wood this morning and this afternoon I washed the car and the motorhome.

We had a nice dinner/supper at Tom & Mary Lou's, along with two other couples.

We know the Lord has a plan and that there is a reason why we are still here. We don't know the reason, but that is OK.

Time to get to bed. Good night to all. May God bless you and yours.

Oct 3rd - Still in Crossville

It took some searching, but with Tom's help we finally tracked down someone who would come out and run diagnostics on our motorhome. The guy thinks it is a sensor, but there is a possibility that it is the injection pump.

They ordered a sensor. It is supposed to arrive in Crossville tomorrow before noon and the mechanic is supposed to bring it out and install it in the afternoon. If that turns out not to be the problem we will have to have the motorhome towed into Crossville so that the injection pump can be repaired.

It was a beautiful day to be here today. I did not see one cloud in the sky. It was cool enough that a jacket felt good most of the time.

Kathy went to Crossville with Mary Lou, Wendy & Dean. This evening we again had supper with the Tower's clan. Kathy made "gooey buns" (warm ham salad), I had warmed up meatloaf. Tomorrow night two other couples are coming out to have dinner with us and Tom and Mary Lou. I like the guys but have not met there wives. I don't think Kathy has met any of them.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 2nd - Still in Crossville

We finished packing up and were ready to leave about 11:30. The motorhome didn't want to start and when it did it wouldn't run correctly. Tom & I changed the fuel filter and it didn't help. Tomorrow I am going to call around and try and find someone local who can come out and plug in a laptop to the diagnostic connector. I called the Freightliner help line and for the first time ever they disappointed me. The guy just didn't seem like he cared, or maybe he wasn't that knowledgeable. I plan on calling back tomorrow. Hopefully I will get a different guy.

It was beautiful here today. This is a great place to be "stuck." The weather is supposed to be great all week. I may get a chance to run my chain saw some more tomorrow. Tuesday Tom & Mary Lou are having the guys, and their wives, who helped cut up the BIG tree in Crossville, out to dinner. If we are still here it will be good to get to spend some time with them and meet their wives.

Dean & Morissa made supper tonight. Some type of soup. It was good. I overate and just took an Alka-Seltzer.

There is a sliver of moon out tonight but it is so clear that we cast very plain shadows as we walked back to the RV. The stars were great to look at.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 1st - Ready to Move Tomorrow

We are packed up and almost ready to move tomorrow. The plumbing is winterized at our building. It was kind of sad closing and locking the door. We aren't sure when we might be back.

This morning we went to the Farmers Market and then to the Flea Market. We bought sweet corn at the Farmers Market, from the same people we bought some from two weeks ago. We had some for lunch and it was very good.

Kathy made meatloaf for supper and we ate with the Tower's clan again.

It hit 40 this morning but didn't make it into the 30's. There are frost warnings out for tonight. Next week it is forecast to hit 80 at Thompson's Station.

Time to watch a little TV and then hit the bed.

Good night to all and may God bless you and  yours.