Last week of February - saying goodbye to volunteers

I should have stood BETWEEN the two cowboys.... Homeowner Archie and
fellow volunteer/Alice's cousin's husband, Bruce Isaak, from Medstead, Sk.

John's buddy, Paul Stoltzfus, on coffee break

Here I am, taping the ceiling at Myrna's house (yay, last one to go)

Myrna's house - interior still needs finishing

Website Update for the last week of February somewhat personalized for our Blog
From Johnson Bayou Senior R.V. Project

Spraying all of the ceilings in Leroy’s house with the heavy texture hopper one day and then the next day painting all of those ceilings with a long handled roller proved to be a bit much for John and he ended up with a strained chest muscle last week. He attended at the Johnson Bayou Medical Centre just to ensure his chest pain was not something serious, and the doctor confirmed strained muscles and put him on less strenuous duty. Thankfully the weekend was ahead so he could get some rest and his muscles could relax.

We had an eventful weekend. Saturday was an outing for all of us to McGee’s Landing near Breaux Bridges, for a swamp tour. Some of our volunteers said it was not really a “swamp” tour compared to others they had been on. John called it a “glorified boat ride”. We did have a lovely day for the drive and the tour. We were rather disappointed that there was only one alligator to be seen. Some of us then went to Breaux Bridges, which has a quaint little main street lined with antique shops. The rest drove to Eunice to see the Liberty Theatre presentation they had missed the weekend before.

Sunday morning, we attended the Presbyterian service at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Port Arthur. The two denominations are sharing one church building at this time. The headquarters of another volunteer organization, the Christian Reformed Church, was on this church's property in a gymnasium. They showed us around their accommodations and photos of their projects.

The Pastor of the Presbyterian Church introduced our group to his congregation, and afterwards, a very kind, elegant lady approached us and invited us to brunch at her exclusive private Country Club. I don't believe any of our group had ever been to a Country Club. It was exactly like what you see in movies. The buffet was very normal though – not fancy food at all. We learned that Mrs. Batty's ancestors were seamen at Johnson Bayou. She offered to give us a tour of Port Arthur and show us any sites we would like to see. Unfortunately, the group that we were with were on their last week of service and time was at a premium, so we were not able to take her up on her offer.

It was the nicest day we have had yet weatherwise – 83 degrees.

Monday morning, knowing we still have much to accomplish with our projects, and there were only 4 days left to work, our volunteers gave it “all they had”.

John’s “light duty” was installing the tiles in the bathroom and laundry room, laying the laminate flooring in the diningroom and kitchen, and installing the kitchen cabinets.

Bruce and Dave finished the bit of siding left to do on Myrna’s house. It was brought to light during the week in idle conversation that Bruce had last year hired someone to do the siding on his garage at home because he didn’t feel he had the time or inclination to do it. How ironic that on this mission, he spent 95% of his time doing siding!!

They then worked at Leroy’s house where Bruce laid laminate flooring and Dave installed light fixtures.

Len and Nettie painted the final coat on the ceilings at Leroy’s house on Monday. Len then put on the window casings and base boards.

Gerry continued boarding the kitchen and livingroom at Myrna’s, and Linda and Georgia started taping the back bedrooms. When Len and Nettie were finished painting at Leroy's, they came over to Myrna's and Len filled corner bead and did some second coat, and Nettie got to work taping. We three women taped the whole house, ceilings and all. M & M's mudded the nail holes and then came back and sanded them down. John worked Saturday morning and finished the second coat except for the angles, so it is ready for the next step on Monday.

The “M & M's” painted doors and enjoyed a visit with Leroy and Lorraine. They were waiting for more doors to arrive to paint for Myrna’s house, but unfortunately, the doors were delivered so late that there was only time to paint one or two.

Paul was busy with plumbing and electrical all week. It is a never-ending task.

Our devotion on Thursday morning was with the realization this would be the last time we would be meeting and we would soon be losing more than half of our “family”, plus Gerry's superb singing voice!

Wednesday evening, we had a dessert night at our RV. It was nice to get together and visit all together for one last time. It was hard to believe it was time to leave already and this was the first time we had a chance to all get together as we had done frequently the month before.

On Thursday, Jake and Verna had returned from Belize to resume their position as Project Manager. Warren (aka Noah) and Carol had filled their shoes admirably over the past month. Bruce and Dave tacked this nickname onto Warren, as he was responsible for listening for severe weather warnings on the N.O.A.H. radio.

By mid-day on Friday, 5 RV’s departed from our site, leaving three lonely couples at our camp.

John and Linda have agreed to stay for the month of March, and Paul and Mary have agreed to stay on until mid month, in order to try to finish our projects. At this point, we are expecting only one more couple to arrive for March.

Archie, the elderly homeowner who lives in our trailer park until he can move into his home, will surely miss Bruce, as he often took him his mail, and spent time visiting with him over the month he has been here. I went over and took a picture of the two “old cowboys” for posterity.