Feb 18th - Missouri House Hunting

Today we looked at at least 5 houses. We are looking another one in the morning before heading back to Indy. We didn't like any of them well enough to make an offer.

After getting back to Andy & Kelsey's we decided that if we were going to make an offer on one of them it would be an older ranch, with a full basement. It would need a lot of cosmetic work, a kitchen remodel and more. It has been empty for 4 years. The lady who lived in it for the 7 years prior to it being empty is the one who still owns it. The price was $119k. We would not have offered more than $100k. One interesting feature was that the garage floor was a structural slab with a workshop area below the garage. All four walls of the workshop were poured walls, as were the remainder of the walkout basement walls. It would have made quite a substantial storm shelter.

It was a passive solar home. Behind the windows on this wall is a 2' air space area and then an interior 8" thick brick wall. The wall has multiple arched doorways in it. The sun shines through these windows and heats up the brick wall during the summer. I assume the sun is high enough during the summer so that it doesn't hit these windows.

This is the back yard.

This was the high efficiency heat pump at one of the other places we looked at. It was running and the house was warm. Temps were in the high 40's. Someone had written "Hi" in the ice crystals and the word was still there.

This afternoon Andy gave me a ride in the quickest car I have ever ridden in. He bought an older Civic that has a turbo. He says that he has no doubt that it will currently run in the eleven's. Current boost is limited to only 8 psi. His plans are to install a different fuel pump and increase the boost. He estimates that it currently is about 300 hp, in a 2500# vehicle. He said the bottom end of the engine is supposed to be good for 500 hp. He currently limits rpm's to only 9,500. I admit that it feels funny when he makes the first/second shift and the front tires break loose and the car slips sideways. It has limited slip and has Mickey Thompon radial street radials. The street radial are for use on the street and strip. They are a very soft compound. He only ran it up to 85 a couple of times during the ride. The vibration is rather pronounced since the motor mounts are solid but even with a minimal exhaust system the noise wasn't bad.

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

Feb 16th - Coldwater

Doug, Kathy & I made a trip to my Mom's, near Coldwater, MI, today. David, my brother, came down to Mom's and we also got to spend some time with him.

On the way back to Indy we stopped at Auntie V's, Kathy's niece's restaurant in Angola, IN. We had dinner with Kathy sister's Nancy & Cindy and Cindy's husband Ed.

The roads were good, weatherwise, both ways. We had a good time but I'm tired and it is good to be back at Doug & Anthony's.

Feb 14th - In Indy

Yesterday's flights to Indy were rather routine. Some area were a little "bumpy" but nothing extraordinary. Getting up around 4 AM to make our 6:20 flight was a little extraordinary <grin>. We are spoiled by sleeping in late on a regular basis.

Kathy had a Doctors appointment this morning, up in the Carmel area (45-60 minutes from Doug & Anthony's). She then went to Sam's and was going to come back here before her afternoon appointment. Since she hasn't showed she must have went directly to the afternoon appt.

Doug & Anthony are at the salon (I think). I didn't get up until after they had left.

I made emailed Drew a material list of things we will need to stiffen his roof when I get back to Oakland. Nothing major, just a "soft spot" where roof modifications have been made during an old alteration.

I just warmed up a pork chop I had left over after last nights dinner at La Parada, the little Mexican restaurant near Doug & Anthony's.

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

Feb 12th - More Painting

Today was more house washing and painting. Drew washed the gable area on the front of the house and then started painting trim, working from the back of the house towards the front. Kathy and I painted a couple of interior walls.

Drew worked until twilight but didn't manage to get anything done on the front. Actually it was still to wet to paint even if he had time. It rained while we were eating supper. Hopefully it came straight down so that it didn't damage any of the fresh paint.

The big roast cooked all night long. Kathy carved it up this morning. We had beef/gravy sandwiches, mashed potatoes, and corn (homemade corn cut off the cob) for lunch. It is impossible to get anything nearly as good at any restaurant.

We leave for the airport at 4:45 AM. Our flight leaves at 6:20. I'm not sure what time we are supposed to land in Indy.

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

Feb 11th - Saturday

This morning we went to a nursery and looked around. Drew didn't find anything he really wanted, but looking at all the plants/trees was interesting. After that we went to the "Cash and Carry" grocery store. I guess you would call it a restaurant supply store. It was quite interesting. Kathy had been there with Doug when he was out here.

Below is a photo of the walk in meat cooler. I think there was also a walk in dairy cooler and a walk in fruit and vegetable cooler.

I just had a taste of the roast in the photo below, but it is still cooking. It was good. 21# of beef marked down to $30.

Tabasco sauce by the gallon. I was also quite impressed when I saw a stack of 5 gallon buckets of soy sauce.

Once we got home we had macaroni soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. Kathy made the macaroni soup and Drew made the grilled cheese sandwiches. He made an assortment. Plain grilled cheese, grilled cheese with tuna and grilled swiss cheese with tuna. I tried them all and they were all good.

In the afternoon Kathy, Drew and I removed the fabric from the living room slide topper. Then I washed the slide roof and lubricated the slide seals. After things dried out we installed the new fabric.

The old fabric was almost gone on the ends.

 The new looks great.

Kathy also did more painting in the front and Drew mowed the lawn. They are in the house now looking at different sample colors he had painted on the wall. They are trying to determine which one/s he wants.

It was supposed to rain today or otherwise we would have done more exterior painting. We still have areas to touch up and trim.

I am so blessed. Thank you Jesus.

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

Feb 9th - Kathy's Sunset Photo

Kathy had not given me a copy of this photo when I posted earlier. She took it this evening before I took the other sunset photos. This was taken earlier than the ones I took. I think this is Bolinas Lagoon.

She took this with her cell phone!

Feb 9th - Sebastopol

Today we drove up to Sebastopol, CA to check out Mt. Gilead Bible Camp. It is about 70 miles north of here, less than 10 miles from the ocean (but it make take over a half hour to get there). I've corresponded with them using email and talked to one of their people on the phone. They would like us to come up and volunteer there. Frank, the guy I talked to on the phone, suggested we come up and look the place over.

The drive up was nothing special. We pulled off to get gas in Novato, CA. At the Shell station near the exit regular was $4.199/gallon. We drove a little over a block past it and found a Safeway station. By using Kathy's Safeway grocery card we were able to fill up for $3.599/gallon. The place was packed! As one person pulled out another drove up and "parallel parked" at the empty pump. Right after I took the photo someone parked in front of the U-Haul truck.

The last 5 miles to the camp was a relatively narrow winding road. That part was OK but there were a lot of places where it appeared that the branches were low enough that they might hit to top of our motorhome. The camp regularly has volunteers come up with 5th wheel units but most of them are not 13' tall, like our motorhome. (Actually it is 13' to the top of the satellite dish, and 12'-7" to the top of the air conditioning units.)

Frank and Sue, his wife, have a home east of Oakland. They have been volunteers at the camp for 10 years. For the past 5 years they have not moved their 5th wheel off the camp. They are full time volunteers, the go to their "sticks and bricks" home every 3rd or 4th weekend. I should have taken some photos while at the camp, but they would not have done the place justice. When we parked at the admin bldg and got out of the car we were surrounded by huge coastal redwoods. They were typically 4' or larger in diameter and had to be nearly 100' tall. It was just awesome. The tallest coastal redwood on record is 379' tall. 178 of the trees have been measured to be over 350' tall. The current "largest" coastal redwood on record is 26' in diameter and 320' tall.

The downside is that because of the dense foilage the sun doesn't hit the ground during the winter months. Most of the ground was damp, as though it had sprinkled rain during the morning, even though it had not rained. Frank told us that the temperature in the camp was typically 10-12 degrees colder than it was in Sebastopol, which was less than 10 miles from the camp.

There are currently 3 MMAP (Mobile Missionary Assistance Program) couples on site. They are renovating one of the dormitories, a job that will probably not be completed for months. They leave the last weekend in February. We had a chance to meet them and visit with them for awhile. One couple is from Washington, another from Oregon and the 3rd was from South Dakota.

I think the work part of volunteering at Mt. Gilead would be fine. Getting there, with the low branches, might be a problem. Also, cell phone service is almost non-existent and they only have WiFi available in a building quite a ways, still within walking distance, from the campground area. We drove back to town on a different route and it was far less suitable. We would not go up there until Feb 27th or 28th so we have time to give it some thought before calling Frank and giving him our decision.

On our way back home we drove over towards the coast and came back on highway 1. We saw a different side of California. Lots of very hilly pasture areas with quite a few cattle, including dairy cattle, prior to getting to the coast.  We pulled off the highway just south of Stinson Beach and took the following photos. The dots in the center of the photo are two adults and two children playing at the edge of the water. Up top there ws no railing of any kind. One step over the weeds in this photo and you would drop hundreds of feet, you might bounce a few times on the way down, but you wouldn't stop until you were at the beach level. There were some fools, we think they were French, who stopped with two kids. One of the kids was a teen and the other was a pre-teen. The parents let both of the kids walk right up and stand on the weeds.

The sun set while we were there. It went down so quickly.

It has already set in the photo below.

This photo shows the road we where it went around the next "bluff". I was glad we (Kathy) drove this route but, even though there are a few places where I would like to see again, I would never drive, or ride, this route again. This is a photo of one of the really good areas. We went mile after mile after mile with no guard rail and drops of up to 500', with only a couple of feet of shoulder. There were so many sharp curves that the typical speed limit was 15-20 mph. To make matters worse the last half hour was in the dark.

We arrived back home around 7 PM. I forgot to mention that we did stop at a discount bread store and a large roadside fruit market during our travels. All in all it was another enjoyable day.

Good night and may God bless you and yours.