Dec 31st - Snow

Yesterday we went to Sunday School and then church. We then came home for the rest of the day. Andy, Kelsey & Lydia came over for an hour or so after they got out of church, and after they had lunch with Andy's folks at McDonalds (a family tradition). They came back later for supper (HOMEMADE NOODLES! and other things). Andy is working today and Kelsey goes in this afternoon for a 3 PM to 3 AM shift. It makes me so angry that they are punished by having to pay so much in taxes so that others (who are to lazy to find and keep a job or who have kids they can't afford to support) can sit around on their butts with their hands out, but I won't go off on that subject, it is for my political blog <grin>.

This morning, around 7:30, when I went out to add wood to the boiler it was just starting to rain/snow. All our snow from the last snowfall had melted. I took this photo an hour later.

I think we have received another inch in the last hour. We are supposed to get as much as 4" by tomorrow, depends on which weather source you look at. It is good to know that we can just sit home, we don't have to get out if we don't want to.

The small church we have been attending in Centertown, maybe three miles from here, is having a New Years Eve get together tonight. We plan on going but will wait and see if we think we can get up our driveway to the road. Getting up the driveway may be our first opportunity to test the "all wheel drive" on our CR-V.

The church is currently searching for an "interim" Pastor. I'm not sure what they mean by "interim", maybe part-time. They certainly aren't large enough to pay a full-time Pastor. Yesterday there were maybe 6 people in the congregation who were more than 5 years younger than Kathy & I. Three of the six appeared to be teenagers who came with a parent or grand-parent. I doubt if there were more than 35 people total.

Yesterday I put up the stove pipe for the wood burner in my shop, it had fallen down during the summer. (Its in pretty ratty shape but I wanted to build a fire in the wood burner and see that it worked before spending any money of stove pipe.) I built a fire in the wood burner and think it will be OK for limited use. I sure wouldn't want to leave much of a fire in it overnight. Doug brought me out an electric power washer to try out. I used it to wash some of the surface dirt of the motorhome, since it was in the low 40's yesterday. I didn't have any soap for it, and it didn't seem to build up much pressure, but it at least knocked off a lot of the road dirt. I need to go online and see if I can find some instructions for the unit. There may be some adjustment that isn't obvious to me.

It is now 10 AM and still snowing. There is now wind, the snow is falling straight down. It is pretty. I don't have anything I have to do. I have to figure out whether I want to "surf the Net" or do something else. I should out and come up with some type of a plan on how to make my shop more usable. Currently I just thinks stacked on every flat surface.

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

Dec 28th - Habitat Day

We went in and volunteered at the Habitat Re-Store again this afternoon. I did not think I did enough last Friday to make it worth bothering to drive to Jeff and back. I had decided that if I weren't busier today I probably would not go back. Today I had no problem keeping busy. The store sold close to $3,000 worth of merchandise, which may be a record.

Kathy left about 2 and went up to Kingdom City to meet Tiffany for lunch. Tiffany was one of the Teen Challenge councilors. She was on her way from Lebanon, IN to Kansas City so they made arrangements to have lunch in Kingdom City, which is right on Tiffany's way to KC.

Not much happened that past few days. Doug and Anthony have their travel trailer stored here for the winter. I checked their relatively new battery and saw that there was ice in the cells. I took it out and put it under a box in the shop. I put a light bulb in the box to heat the battery up to above freezing. The next day I put the charger on it. This morning the charger indicated that the battery was fully charged. I took the charger off and now will wait to see if the charge holds.

The wood I split by hand the other day has lasted during daylight hours for 3 days now. It was nasty wood and I only use it during the day because it doesn't have much heat value.

No plans for tomorrow. Since we haven't seen Lydia for a couple of days we will probably be sure that happens.

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

Dec 25th - Christmas in Centertown

Let me know if you can't view the video. I've never inserted a video before. I've got another one I'll try to put in another post if this works.

Dec 25th - Christmas

Christmas day at our house. Doug, Anthony, Kelsey, Andy & Lydia were here for Christmas dinner. Doug and Anthony arrived Sunday evening. They had planned on leaving tomorrow afternoon but they decided to head back this evening. A blizzard warning is in effect for Indy starting a 5 AM tomorrow. They are supposed to get 8-12 inches of snow, with winds gusting to 40 mph.

Before dinner Lydia was just tired out from Christmas activity

 She managed to wake up in time for opening presents.

 She liked the wrapping paper almost as well as her presents.

 Lydia's dinner attire. This was after dinner. Kathy ran some prime rib through the blender and put it on the high chair tray. Lydia loved it, although she is wearing a lot of it. She sent straight from the high chair to the kitchen sink, for a bath.

 Mid afternoon.

Soon after this photo Lydia got down and chose a plastic laundry basket as her favorite toy of the afternoon.

So often I forget to be thankful for my many blessings. Thank you Lord.

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas. May God bless you and yours.

Dec 22nd - Amish Grocery

Thursday Lydia got to see snow for the first time.

She wasn't impressed. Right after the photo was taken, with Kelsey, Kathy and I all close to her, she tipped over face forward into the snow, and onto one of the walkway stones. She really didn't like that. So far snow is the only thing I've seen her not want to put in her mouth <grin>.

By the way, those of you who have been here know how our driveway goes steeply down and then steeply back up. Mid-day Thursday it took 4 tries to get Kelsey's front wheel drive car out onto the road after the 2-3" of snow. She didn't have any problems on Friday. Depending on how much snow we get it should be an interesting winter. The neighbors at the top of the driveway have told us several times that we could leave one of our cars up at their place. They said the previous owners did that when much snow or ice was forecast. I think they then drove their skid steer up to their car.

Yesterday Kathy and I volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store from noon until 5. Kathy has volunteered there several other times but it was the first time I have even been in the store. I was impressed by all the "stuff" they have. They sold over $2,500 worth of stuff on Friday, but I guess is was really slow on Thursday. Most of the money goes to build Habitat houses in the area. I think they said they have built eight houses in the area. Kathy was one of the "salespersons" and I helped the other old farts receive things being donated, and load the things that were sold. There were maybe 10 volunteers working while we were there. One impressive item is that they have a couple of guys who check out all donated used appliances. The used appliances are then sold with a 30 day warranty.

Today we stopped in Russellville to pick up Kelsey and Lydia and we all went to the Amish grocery store located about 15 miles west of Russellville. Every time I have been there the place has been really busy, and it was again today.

After we returned home I think I'm finally finished with winterizing the motor home, PTL!

Last nights low was 17, maybe the coldest night so far. Our wood fired boiler seemed to do just fine. It warmed up to 51 during the day. Most of our snow is gone. Monday through Thursday the highs are supposed to be below freezing, with lows as low as 13. That should give the boiler a decent work out, and give us a better idea about how much wood it will use when it really gets cold.

Andy, our grandson (in-law), gets back from Sacramento, CA tonight. Kelsey, Lydia and Elaine (Andy's Mom) are picking him up in Kansas City at 10:30. He has been out there learning how to repair hail damaged vehicles. It is great that he is looking for ways to expand his skills/knowledge.

Doug and Anthony are supposed to be here, from Indianapolis, by supper time tomorrow. They are staying until Wednesday.

I had a pleasant surprise this evening. My phone rang and it was a call from Bruce Tremaine, one of the guys I worked with when we volunteered at Logan Valley Christian Retreat (Ellington, MO) during October 2011. He called to wish us a Merry Christmas and to check on how we were doing.  I certainly enjoyed working with him, and learning from him, he is a real carpenter.

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

Dec 20th - First Snow

The weather today was not supposed to be bad. I had procrastinated about getting the RV winterized, knowing that I didn't have to do it until today. For several days the low for tonight has been forecast to be 20 degrees. I wanted to get it done before it got that cold.

 Last night when I looked at the weather the forecast was for rain today. Not great for doing the winterizing, but not to bad. During the night we had a thunderstorm go through. We only got a little rain, and some some pretty good wind. This morning was something of a shock.

Looking out over the upstairs patio doors.

 Looking out the lower level patio doors.

 This was the scene on my way back to the house from the RV, about noon.

 My fingers were numb, my feet were wet, and I was cold. Temperature was 31 with wind gusts reported to be as high as 51 mph, wind chill 16 degrees. The combination of  cold and wind is the worst I have experienced in almost two years, since the winter of 2010 while still living in Indiana. It is going to take a little time for these old bones to get used to the cold again.

Coming in to the house and getting to see three generations of noodle makers made it all worthwhile. (Actually I think Kathy was doing the noodle making while Kelsey and Lydia were watching. Lydia was enjoying playing in the flour.)

I didn't actually get the RV winterizing finished. I ran out of RV antifreeze. (I pumped the first gallon into the water tank I was draining because I forgot to turn off a bypass valve.) I'm comfortable that I have everything protected except the washer, the ice maker and the drain traps. I have a light bulb on behind the refrigerator. It will protect the ice maker. I left the heat on in the RV so the washer and traps are okay. I will pick up some more antifreeze tomorrow when we go to Jefferson City. I have to do a little research on the Internet to re-learn how to winterize the washer and the ice maker. If I remember correctly the washer is easy enough, but the ice maker is a pain.

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

Dec 17th - Home

I made it home a little before 4 this afternoon. Things look a little different. It is strange to see the house when you turn off the highway, with the leaves mostly gone; but things aren't a lot different.

The load of gravel that I ordered last week is here. I can finish levelling the RV pad tomorrow.  I still may want to get a load of "clean" rock to top the area so that the gravel doesn't splash up on the sides of the RV when it rains.

I unhooked the car from the motor home down at the small grocery on the corner, and drove the car home. Lydia had just started a nap so we waited until she woke up before going back for the motor home. By the time we got it back it was sunset. I only unloaded a little more than what I need for tonight. I needed time to play with Lydia. I was whispering in her ear and she when I would quit she would lean her head over against my lips for me to keep doing it.

Roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy and asparagus for supper. WOW, a home cooked meal. It tasted great. Lydia was fond of the mashed potatoes.

After supper she was busy playing.

 

 

Right now she is having a tough time going to sleep. She does not like to go to sleep.

 

I enjoyed my time at Messiah's Ranch, but it is good to be home.

 

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

Dec 16th - Joplin, Missouri

This morning I "officially" said goodbye to Messiah's Ranch.

 John came up from his home in Bryan to thank me again and to give me a copy of a book he wrote, and had published, several years ago. He is currently updating it and revising it for an ebook release. I had almost asked him for a copy but did not because he only had five copies left. I'm looking forward to reading it.

The Oklahoma welcome center is a fantastic facility.

 I hope you can pick out the buffalo in the photo below. It is cut from a single sheet of steel, but actually looks like a 3 dimensional figure, from both sides.

 The hallways inside the facility. They bring to mind water flowing down a creek bed.

 This is actually a concrete bench. I had to touch it to make sure it was actually concrete. The sinks in the mens room were also concrete.

It rained last night and I didn't get left until almost 10 this morning. I'm spending the night at the Flying J truck stop in  Joplin, Missouri, a little over 500 miles from Messiah's Ranch and about 200 miles from home.

In the morning I will fill the propane and fuel tanks, and dump the wastewater tanks. After than I will head for home.

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

Dec 15th - Last Day

Today was my last “work day” at Messiah’s Ranch. I've go to meet, and work with, several interesting people, be involved in a "sawmill operation", attend a small local church with an outstanding Pastor, etc. Now its time to go home.

Mark and I worked for about 3 hours this morning. We ran the sawmill for maybe two hours and spent the rest of the time getting set up and cleaning up the area when we were finished.

We added more wood to the first trailer that we had loaded.

We only cut about the top four layers today.

John took Mark and I out for lunch. John, the camp director, is on the left and Mark is on the right. 

I spent the afternoon getting ready to leave tomorrow morning. I hope to be on the road before 10.

Good night. May God bless you and yours.

Dec 14th - At the Sawmill

Mark and I sawed logs into boards all day today. We filled up the trailer we partially loaded yesterday afternoon.

The picture doesn't look nearly as impressive as the actual trailer. The top of this pile was almost up to my eye level (5'-6"?). I didn't measure it but I think the bed on this trailer is 6'-6" clear inside. These boards are all at least 10' long and some are probably 14' long. There are several layers of 8-9' long boards "crosswise" in front of these. If you look real close you can see some of the shorter boards sticking out past the rails.

We are going to work tomorrow morning. I think we are done with the pine and that we will be sawing hardwoods in the morning.

John is taking us to lunch tomorrow. After lunch I need to get packed up, my laundry done, etc.. so that I am ready to leave on Sunday. I plan on taking my time going home. I told Kathy not to expect me until the 20th. I was planning on winterizing the RV while at a campground along the way. Since the lowest forecast overnight temperature for Centertown is 28 degrees, and that is not until next Thursday, I think I will wait and do the winterizing at home.

I've listened to some of the reporting on the tragedy at the school in Connecticut. Such an event is beyond the understanding of any sane person. Rather than pursue the real issue, which is, what has happened in our nation that has created all these nut cases, the government will no doubt use this as an excuse to try and disarm law abiding citizens.

I am as upset over these events as any of the bleeding heart liberals. I agree that measures be taken to reduce gun crime. I suggest that laws be changed to required a mandatory death penalty for anyone convicted of using a gun during the commission of a crime. Of course that will never happen. The liberal/progressives don't want to punish criminals, they would much rather punish law abiding citizens.

Remember when the "security conscious" person threw his/her keys on the floorboard, rather than leaving them in the ignition? Now the auto theft victim is at fault if they don't remove their keys from their car and lock the car. Things are so backward today. Rather than make the punishment for auto theft severe enough so that people quit stealing cars, we blame the auto owner for not prevent the theft.

OK, I'm off my soapbox <grin>. Have a good evening. May God bless you and yours.

Dec 14th AM - Sawing

Yesterday started out slow. I uncovered the saw mill and installed the new gas line. John came over and said Mark had called. Mark's wife was ill and so was one of their boys, he didn't know if he was coming to the camp. I covered things back up and we switched to Plan B.

John had mentioned that some people who are scheduled to rent the Lakeside building over the Christmas holidays had mentioned that the kitchen sink was to small. He told them he would install a larger one.

He planned on installing a full size wash tub, but the hole for installed oblong tub was to large along the length. He went down and went through his stock of old sinks. He found an old double basin white sink that will work. I spent the rest of the morning disconnecting all the plumbing and removing the existing sink. Then Mark called and said he was on his way.

 After lunch it was back to Plan A, the sawmill. This is the wood we sawed in the afternoon. Only had a little down time when one blade broke. I had thought we would get through the pine logs but we didn't manage it. If we don't get rained out today we should easily get through the rest of the pine logs and start on the oak logs.

I'm not sure where Mark it this morning. Usually he is here around 8 and it is almost 9. Guess I better head over to the saw mill and check. Maybe he is over there waiting for me.

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

Dec 12th - Scraping Boards

I spent all day scraping the old wax/varnish off hardwood flooring. John salvaged an entire gym floor some time ago and is now wanting to use the flooring in several places. All the edges of the hardwood pieces have to be scraped to remove old varnish and wax that had migrated down between the boards. Some aren't to bad, some are a real problem. I bet I spent at least 10 minutes scraping one board. I probably spent about 4 hours actually scraping, and another 2 hours going to the barn/shop to get the boards, setting up a place to do the scraping and then putting things away when I finished for the day. I think it would take me at least two more days to get enough ready to do a 200 sq ft room. I'm sure looking forward to sawing wood the next two days, rather than more scraping. <grin>

The couple from Wisconsin, the grooms parents, arrived around 8 last night. I chatted with them briefly. When they left their home in Wisconsin there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground. They are pulling a 31' Airstream trailer. When they leave here, after the wedding, their plan was to spend the rest of the winter in southern Texas. Yesterday one of their kids called them to tell them that a pipe had burst in their home. A good portion of the home was flooded, not underwater flooded, just totally soaked. The Dad says he told the kid (one of their married adult children) to turn off the water, get the heat running again. He said that he will deal with it when he returns in the spring. The Mom wants to go back and deal with it now.

It got down to 28 last night (30 was the lowest I saw on the RV thermometer). Today's high was a 63. The low forecast for tonight has been steadily dropping. Yesterday tonights low was forecast to be 35, by this morning that had dropped to 32 and now I see that it had dropped to 28. Tomorrow's high is supposed a sunny 63 again. It ought to be good wood sawing weather. Tomorrow nights low is supposed to be 43, and Friday nights low is supposed to be 60.

On a totally different subject. I am a Jack Reacher fan. Jack Reacher is a character in books by Lee Child. Have you seen the ads for the Jack Reacher movie? Tom Cruise is playing Jack Reacher. I would like to know what lunatic cast Cruise as Reacher. A big part of Reacher's character is based on his size and strength. Wikipedia knows his size, 6'-5" and his weight, which varies from 210-250#.  Tom Cruise is 5'-7" (ex-wife Nicole Kidman said she couldn't wear heels when she went out with him, because she was taller than him) and weighs about 150#. There is no way Cruise is the Reacher in Lee Child's novels. I am shocked that Lee Child allowed his character to be prostituted.

Have a good evening. May God bless you and yours.

Dec 11th - Cooler Here

Lunchtime.

I didn't do a lot yesterday. I swept and vacuumed Fallow Hall (about a 2 hour job for me) and swept the Lakeside building (about a 1 hour job for me).

I also replaced the bracket that holds the shower head in the RV, it broke again. I had glued it once before because I couldn't find a new one. We found a new one so I had it in reserve. I also filled the water tank and disconnected and drained the water hose.

It got down to 28 degrees early this morning and is supposed to get down to 24 tonight, but then it warms up again. The water in the cats bowl, which sits on the back porch of the dining hall, had quite a bit of ice on it this morning so it most definitely got below freezing.

I spent the morning cleaning up wood scraps. Some of the time around the new building but most of the time at the saw mill. I've got a fire going over by the saw mill. This afternoon I'm going to mop Fallow Hall. Robert, the college student who lives in one of the houses in the camp, was supposed to do it but he is unreliable, at best. Fred had told me that Robert didn't do much, for his free rent, and that what he did was typically not done well. After being here 6 weeks I certainly have to agree with Fred. Just another young person not willing to carry his own weight, at least so it appears to me.

There is a family coming in to use Fallow Hall. They are to arrive either Thursday or Friday. They are here for a wedding. I think the bride is from this area and the groom is from Wisconsin. They rented Fallow Hall so everyone could stay together and get a chance to become aquainted. It isn't working out quite as well as they had hoped. Originally they told John there would be 50-60 people, the latest count was only around 20 will be here.

Mark is supposed to be out here Thursday and Friday. We are supposed to saw lumber both of those days.

Friday will be my last work day. I will spend Saturday getting ready to head out and leave here Sunday morning. I intend on making my way back to Missouri in about a week. I've enjoyed working with the people here but after 6 weeks it is getting lonesome being alone every evening.

Have a great afternoon. May God bless you and yours.

Dec 9th - Sunday

A normal Sunday, except warm. It was 82 this afternoon when I was in Bryan. At 6 PM is was still 76. The forecast low for tonight is 38, it is sure going to have to drop a lot.

Pastor Dana had another good message this morning, I am going to miss him. One thing he mentioned was that how science keeps finding new wonders. The smarter we get the more we realize how little we know/understand.

Scientists once believed that the Earth was the center of the universe. Now we know that is not so.
Scientists once believed that the Earth was flat. Now we know that is not true.
Scientists once believed that the universe was infinitely old. Now they agree that it was came into being during the "Big Bang".
Darwin's convinced many that evolution was a "scientific fact", instead of a theory pushed by atheists. Now we know that many of his theories were wrong. Today there is not "Theory of Evolution". There are many, many different theories because all of them have major holes in them. It took 40 years for evolutionists to admit that "Piltdown Man" was a hoax. It took even longer for evolutionists to admit that "Nebraska Man" was based on the tooth of a pig, and that it was not a transitional form between ape and man. The list goes on and on.

Rather than proving the Bible wrong, as we learn more and more, much of what we learn seems to verify things in the Bible.

After church I went to Bryan for lunch and to pick up a few groceries. I had intended on eating at the little Mexican restaurant where I had eaten a couple of weeks ago. There were no parking spaces available in their lot. I can't imagine how they got people from all those cars into the restaurant.

I ended up finding another Mexican restaurant, there are lots of them to choose from. It was okay, but not as good, or inexpensive, at the previous one. I headed home after getting some groceries.

In addition to the above I went around this morning to see it the campers had a bag full of trash yet. I picked up one this morning and another one a little while ago. They had cleaned up and had left when I was there this afternoon.

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

Dec 8th - Lazy Day

John came in this morning and took care of any needs the campers might have had. He actually came in to move some things out of the "barn" and haul our load of wood down there so that it was inside in case of rain.

It was warm again today, 82, and quite humid. The high is supposed to be 80 again tomorrow.

I changed sewer hoses, the old one had some leaks in it. I also worked on the sewer pipes and drainage. The sewer inlet is just to high, or the RV parking area is to low.
There is virtually no fall in the sewer line so after about the first 15 gallons of sewage it fills up, unless you only open the valves part way. There is really no fix other than raising the RV parking area, or using one of the sewage grinder/pumps. I don't think it would be a problem raising the RV pad about 12", there is plenty of fill material readily available, on site. John just can't seem to get his hear around the fact that what he thought should work won't. I thought about cutting some large chunks of wood today and blocking the motor home up another 2-4". Since I only plan on being here another week it didn't seem to be worth the effort.

There are two families staying here over the weekend. John said they are people his wife knows from work, at Texas A&M. There are at least 5 boys running around, none older than 10. All of them except the oldest one seem to be having a great time. So far this morning they have managed to find a small copperhead snake (I've been here 5 weeks and have not seen a snake) and one of them managed to get stung by a wasp. They stopped by and knocked on the door of the motor home to see if "Mr. John" was here. They wanted to know if there was something they could do to earn some money. I will give them credit for initiative.

Other than working on the sewer, adding water to the "house" batteries, and some "domestic" chores I haven't done much today. I did manage a nice hour long nap.

Tomorrow is church in the morning and then off to Bryan to buy some groceries.

Have a good evening. May God bless you and yours.

Dec 7th - Remember Pearl Harbor

The left wing main stream media may want us to forget, because they hate the America of old, but never forget Pearl Harbor. (I bet the media will be sure that we remember what terrible people we are (NOT!!!) on the anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki) On December 7th, 1941 the Japanese murdered 2,400 Americans when they bombed Pear Harbor. The sneak attack was their way of declaring war on the United States. Maybe the worst part of this was the men who were trapped in the capsized ships. Over the next two days, after the attacks, holes were cut in the capsized hull of the Oklahoma, where it was above the waterline. 35 men were pulled out of those holes. These men had alerted others that they were alive by banging on the hull. The banging continued for another day in an area that was below the waterline. Rescue workers had no way to get to the men trapped in that section. They suffocated, or drowned in the dark cold water.

This morning Mark and I sawed more wood, until a pressurized rubber gas line developed a leak. Rather than waste over an hour going to Bryan to get a piece of gas line we moved on to other things.

We were getting close to having a trailer load. This rough sawn pine it going to be used to remodel bunk rooms in Fallow Hall.

We did some clean up work around the sawmill. There is still LOTS of trash to burn. This pile of slab wood would have heated our house for a week. That is Mark on the tractor. He works here part time, normally a couple of days a week. He is a good guy with whom I enjoy working.

After lunch Mark cut down some dead trees and I used the tractor to drag them to an area where they could be "de-limbed" and the limbs burned. I don't remember if he cut down 4 or 5 trees. After cleaning up our mess, where the trees dropped in the lawn or roadway, we did more clean-up work around the Dogwood complex. I filled up the leaf blower and didn't stop until it was empty, just blowing leaves, and sand, away from the 5 buildings in that complex. It was a full day.

There will be people staying at the Dogwood complex through Sunday morning. They are supposed to arrive around 6 (pretty soon now). I think John is still around to show them how to get to the place, or maybe they have been here before. John asked me if I would mind checking to see if they needed trash hauled away tomorrow and Sunday and I said certainly not. I'm here and it saves him a drive here from Bryan.

It is warm here for this time of year. Last nights low was 64 and todays high was 81. It is supposed to hit 80 again tomorrow and then cool down to a high of 47 on Monday. Normal highs here for this time of year are in the mid 60's. Monday night and Tuesday night it is supposed to get down to 28. We shall see.

I've had my shower and now time to fix some supper. I think some spaghetti will be tonights supper. Kathy sent me some canned spaghetti sauce and I'm pretty sure I can boil water for spaghetti <grin>.

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

Dec 6th - Sawmill

Yesterday I finished the mezzanine screen wall and did a few other small tasks.

Last night on his way home John stopped by the barn and saw that the tractor had a flat front tire. He took it off and took it to Bryan to have it fixed. He sent Mark an email asking him to pick it up on his way to the camp this morning. Mark didn't check his emails and came to the camp without the tire. We needed to use the tractor to load logs on the sawmill so Mark turned around and drove back to Bryan to get the tire.

While he was gone I did a couple of loads of my laundry in the camp washer and dryer. I also loaded the left over barn boards and hauled them back to storage. Then I fed the fish in the aquarium, the cat and the fish in the pond. Check out all the turtles in the photo below. The white areas are splashes from fish grabbing the food pellets. Turtles come up and get them also, but the turtles are very wary. Just the slightest movement and they are gone.

We finally started sawing logs a little after 10:30. Things went well. Mark ran the mill and I took the boards off the mill and loaded them on the trailer. We were sawing pine logs. We didn't dull any blades but did break one during the afternoon. Below are two photos of the wood we sawed today. A few 1x4's, but mostly 1x6's and 1x8's. Most are 8-10' long but one log was at least 14' long.

Tomorrow we should finish up the pine logs in the morning and will probably start sawing oak.

Time to take a shower, put the sheets back on my bed, make some supper and get ready to watch Person of Interest. By then I will certainly be ready for bed.

Have a great evening. May God bless you and yours.

Dec 4th - Screen Wall

It cooled off a little today and we had very light rain for a couple of very short periods.

 

In the photo below the area above the walk in cooler is a mechanical mezzanine. There are four 7.5 ton air handlers on the mezzanine. This morning John asked me to build a screen wall to hide the units. You can just see the end of one of the units at the left of the boards I have already installed. I'm using more of the old barn siding.

 



When he asked me it looked like a pretty straight forward job. I went down to the "barn" area, loaded up a bunch more of the barn siding and brought it to the dining hall. Then I started looking at the details and the job got a lot more complex. Originally I was going to put the outer layer of the "shadow wall" on the face of the floor joist and the face of the rafter.

It was easy to see that the two were not in the same plane but I figured I could add some blocking on the face of the floor joist to bring it out even with the rafter. When  started to determine how much blocking I needed I realized that the floor joist was skewed, relative to the rafter, by over 3" over its length.

I quit for the morning and did some pick up cleaning around the work area outside until John got back. He told me to just run the screen wall up behind the rafter and at some later time he would "box in" the rafter.

This was as far as I got today. I put this up in two sections. I did not get the back board on between the two sections before taking the photo, that is why there appears to be a gap. I don't have a lot more to do tomorrow since he wants me to leave a 3' opening between what I have already installed and the short section on the left that I still need to install.

Nothing to exciting today.

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

Dec 3rd - Shelf Building

John asked me to build a shelf under one of the main kitchen sinks. He bought a set of  drawer rollers so that the shelf could be pulled out and pushed in.

A lot of it was a "from scratch" project. I dug around the scrap board pile and found some rough sawn boards that were usable. I got out the portable planer and planed them to smooth the rough sawn surfaces. Next I ripped them to a 4" width. We found an old scrap of plywood down at the "barn", and dug it out of the pile of plywood scraps.

In the midst of the above I decided I was tired of fighting the sliding cut off saw we have. At one time it was a nice saw, but it has not received much care. I blew out as much saw dust as I could and did some oiling. Most of it works pretty well now.

I also had to make a couple of trips to the "barn". Once for some screws and another time to get the angle grinder. The "barn" is a pole barn with a partial concrete floor. It is the main storage area for maintenance items.

On the way over to the barn I was looking out through the woods and saw a roof line. I got off the Mule and wandered around a little to find this building. There is a sign above the door that says Mobley's Wild Kingdom. I think a guy named Mobley was the prevous owner of the property.

 In my wandering around I also happened on this old structure. It is now used as a roof over some roof sawn lumber.

 There is a house near the "barn", and this pond.

 This is the house. I think the buildings shown above were all part of the complex. Currently a Texas A&M college student lives in the house. He is supposed to work at the camp part time to pay for his rent.

 My shelf with the basket in the stored position.

 My shelf in the out position.

 

I couldn't find the right length screws so I had to use screws that were to long. I cut off the exposed ends with the angle grinder.

 





It was in the mid 80's again today. The humidity was high enough that I was glad I was working inside a lot of the time. It wasn't really uncomfortable, but it might have been if I had been working hard outside. Tomorrow it is only supposed to be 80 and then drop to the 70's for the rest of the week. I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow and Wednesday. John told me that Mark was working Thursday and Friday, and that Mark and I will be sawing logs both of those days.

After getting home I cooked some "Rice a Roni" while I took a shower and then fried some pork chops. Supper was a salad, pork chops, rice a roni and cottage cheese.

After watching Bones I did today's dishes, I don't do dishes more than once a day, and then sat down to write this entry. I think when I finish it I am ready to lay down and read awhile, before going to sleep.

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

Dec 2nd PM - Good Day

This morning Dana's message, Dana is the Pastor at Five Points Baptist Church, was taken from the 7th and 8th chapters of Romans.

Some key points:
When we sin, and we all sin, it always ends up hurting us. It also often hurts people around us.
We tend to focus on the the physical and forget that we are in a spiritual battle. We need the help of Christ if we are to resist the temptation to sin.
Satan loves it when we rely on ourselves to fight sin. We will lose. We must enlist the assistance of Jesus to fight the battle.
We need to look to God every day and ask Him to show us right from wrong.
Christians should be the most accepting people in the world. We know that we are sinners. We have had our eyes opened to our sin and have no excuse. Those who have not accepted Christ are still blind.
Satan will make sure non-believers can't see the truth. (I think this last item is part of the explanation for the shape of our nation. Our government continues to increase the rewards for negative behavior and seems to be shocked when we get more of it.)

After church I went to College Station and had lunch at the Golden Corral. I ate there once with Fred and Gail. It was good, but I tend to overeat. I want to make sure I get my moneys worth, no matter how miserable it makes me <grin>.

I then stopped by Walmart and picked up a few groceries. The cashier happened to be a young (college age) black man who had checked me out before. He has such a pleasant spirit. I should have mentioned it to him.

Once back at camp I fed the cat, fed the fish in the aquarium and switched a load of camp laundry from the washer to the dryer.

RV chores. I mopped/washed the ceramic floor tiles and vacuumed! Hooray! I also washed a load of my clothes in the camp washer. I've got them in the dryer now. I need to go over and get them after I post this.

It was in the low 80's again today, almost to warm. I forgot to mention that the Pastor and his son rode their motorcycles to church this morning. One of the has Ninja and the other has a Ducati. Both looked like they have been "tweaked" to run.

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

Dec 2nd AM - Lazy Day Yesterday

I didn't do much yesterday. I did finally get the woodwork in the back half of the motor home dusted/polished. I also had a mountain (looked like a mountain in the small RV sinks) of dishes to do. I had not done my dishes after making potato soup and had an extra breakfast dish or two after making pancakes yesterday.

The weather was nice yesterday, and looks like it will be nice again today. It hit 80 yesterday and is supposed to do the same today.

There were a bunch of college age youth here in one of the weekend groups. It was good to hear them laughing, screaming and having a good time. The other group that was here was on the other side of them camp. I didn't see anything of them.

Yesterday evening John stopped by the RV, he was at the camp all day, and asked if I would mind checking on the trash cans in the dining hall after 6, so that he could go home. I told him I had a bag of trash to take to the dumpster and it was no bother. The dumpsters are outside the gate, maybe an eighth of a mile from the RV. I went over to the dining hall at 6:45 and the youth were still serving/eating their supper. They did have one trash can that was nearly full so I took that bag with me when I went down to the dumpster. I was lazy and drove the Mule down and back. I just walked down and back with another small bag of trash this morning.

It is about time to head off to church. After church I plan on going to Bryan for lunch and a few groceries. When I get back I need to mop/wash the ceramic floor areas in the RV, and maybe vacuum the carpet. (Maybe if I write it here it will shame me into actually doing it.) I probably could wash a load of clothes, although that can wait.

Hope you all have a great day. May God bless you and yours.