It's the end of December already???

Our December at home

Where did the month go? We arrived home on December 3rd and the month has been filled with activity. The new cat is fairly adjusted to us being here, and the old dog is acting up, somehow knowing that we will be leaving again.

The big news when we arrived home was that our daughter was now the proud owner of a brand new 50 inch flat screen television which she was lucky enough to win at her work Christmas party! We have very much enjoyed her new television in our livingroom, which is not really large enough to accommodate such a large TV!

When we walked into the house, the sight of Shari’s 3 foot white artificial Christmas tree was perfect, sitting on the white wicker coffee table in our sun room. There was no necessity to put up our larger green tree at all. We did put up some extra Christmas lights and decorations in the sun room windows and on our fireplace mantel, and I brought out some of my Santa and angel collections.

The grandchildren were delighted to have us home and we spent as much time with them as we could. One evening they came to visit and were complaining about being bored. It was a fairly nice evening, so we suggested they might want to go out and play in the snow. It was neat to watch them out there, in the front yard, where there was not even one track made in the snow, flopping around in the snow like seals on ice, with only the Christmas lights on the front of the house and the corner street light for them to see. Soon they were trudging around in the virtual dark in the back yard, doing heaven knows what. Grampa found out what it was they were doing the next morning – pushing back onto the sidewalk all the snow he had shoveled out, as well as the area he had shoveled out to make a place for the dog, so it didn’t mess throughout the whole yard.

We had a small birthday party with cake for Emily at our house the day of her birthday, as her official birthday party was to take place later at the Bowling Alley. That is a wonderful place to have a birthday party! So much for the children to do.

We made a quick trip to Brandon to check out how John’s brother is faring and found him in great spirits, despite the fact he is suffering severe shoulder pain which is now requiring serious medication. His doctor commented, when he went to emergency for pain relief, “And now it starts”. We are so thankful he has been relatively pain-free up until now. Rita was a good sport having company when her dentist had ordered her to not put her dentures back in her mouth for two weeks. Her daughter teased her mercilessly when she visited, saying “How is my little gummy bear today??” and “Say that again, Mom!!” We were thankful to learn that after two weeks without her teeth she did not require a biopsy on the lesion in her mouth, as it was her bottom plate which caused the problem. She lost some weight in those two weeks as well…

While we were there, they managed to get all of their family together for a dinner, which they had not been able to do for years. John was surprised when his niece came in with a birthday cake for Uncle John! Two over-nights in Langenburg were greatly appreciated by my Mom. She was very happy to have us attend with her the Christmas meal in the next-door South View complex. They have a volunteer who provides a home-cooked three course meal once a week for Seniors at South View and anyone else who wants to come, for $7.00. The Christmas meal was extra special for the Seniors and it seems that our presence there was all my Mom wanted for Christmas, so it was the least we could do.

We had planned to stay another night on the way back, but there was nasty weather predicted and we wanted to get home before it got to bad. As it was, we encountered blowing snow in places, and freezing rain just out of Prince Albert. It was a good decision not to stay.

Back home, we invited the neighbours over for Ted’s 70th birthday party on Saturday night. It was great to have a get-together while we were here. Then a few came over again for John’s 69th birthday on the 20th.

What a wonderful afternoon is provided for local children at Redeemer Lutheran Church as a Christian outreach. Our grandchildren have attended in previous years and when I saw the notice in the paper, I asked if they wanted to go again and they said yes. When we arrived at the church, we were advised that the plan was for the children to rehearse a re-enactment of the manger scene and the birth of Baby Jesus, and that when we picked the children up at 4 p.m., we were all invited to stay to see “the performance”. The children had great fun and the performance was wonderful. All the 4 year olds were in fluffy sheep outfits and baa-ed through the performance. It was so cute. Our 6 year old Emily was one of the angels. There were shepherds and wise men and a wicked ruler, along with Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. Keely and Bryton were thrilled to be chosen to be the readers, and they did an excellent job. The “audience” got a lot of laughs out of the Pastor’s dynamic directing!

We had Christmas dinner at our house, with Darren and Jeanie and the kids, and Shari. $10 Christmas lottery packs were the gifts of choice among the adults but there were no big winnings. Darren and Shari each won $10. John got a Ken Davis comedy video. Darren presented us with a new cell phone.

Shades of Christmas past

SHADES OF CHRISTMAS PAST

As Christmas comes again, to me it always brings memories of Christmases past.

Being raised in a Christian family (for which I shall be eternally grateful), the Christ Child was always the centre of our Christmas. We attended a Lutheran Church and from the time we were old enough, each child participated in the Christmas Eve Service. Pastor A.O. Borchardt retired at that church after 50 years of service. His Christmas Eve children’s service was exactly the same for all the years that he was there, except there were different children. The younger children did group recitations of the old Christmas hymns and the older ones sang the carols. Everybody got a bag of candy with an orange on the way out. It was an exciting time for us children. My father had gone to this church all his life and had participated in exactly the same the Christmas Eve Service himself as a child - which probably contributed to his absence from the yearly service from about the time I was a youngster. He would be found resting on the chesterfield while his parents (who lived next door) and my mother and us four children would go off to the Christmas Eve Program. It was our custom to open most of our gifts on Christmas Eve, and lo and behold while Dad had been sleeping, all the gifts miraculously appeared under the tree. One special gift was saved for Christmas morning to open. I don’t know if that is a German custom or not, but it was a Christmas tradition at our house.

Recalling Christmas as a child brings the realization that times have so changed. We were delighted with the gifts we received, which in comparison to what today’s children expect, no offense, were mere trinkets. A doll, a sleigh, a G.I. Joe, a cassette tape, now would barely qualify for a decent birthday present… It makes it impossible for grandparents to compete in the Santa department. I know a lot of us don’t even bother any more. And I don’t even want to go to the place where written “thank you’s” were an expected courtesy.

Looking back over our own family Christmases, it is surprising which one I recall as a very SPECIAL Christmas. It was not the Christmas that we took our children age 11 and 8 to Disneyland. It was a very wonderful trip, but the four of us sitting in a motel room in Los Angeles was not the thrill we thought it would be for Christmas. We drug in a palm leaf off the street in absence of a Christmas tree. It was memorable in that it was the coldest Christmas there ever. ALL of the million, or so it seemed, poinsettias in the Disneyland complex froze! I was very thankful I had inadvertently brought along my “pink marshmallow” full length quilted winter coat. The locals were not prepared for such a deep freeze, and one homeless person died sleeping out on the street that week.

It also was not the Christmas, when we lived in Creston, that we took our young children to visit John’s brother and his wife in Kelowna. They have no children of their own. Guess what – somehow all of the gifts we had bought for the kids were left at home! We had to run about the day before Christmas buying a few new presents we thought they would like to have and not duplicate what they would get when we returned home!

Our best Christmas ever was the first year we moved into Creston from the lake house. As it was impossible to bury our water line on the rocky mountainside, when the freezing wind blew across the lake and up our side of the mountain, the pipes froze. The first year that happened, it was no big deal. We had a woodburning stove in the kitchen and it was kind of fun. We just “roughed it” for a week or so. There was snow to get in and melt for doing dishes, etc., and we got drinking water from the neighbour. It wasn’t so much fun the next year when the same thing happened. There was a little house in town that was for sale for a very reasonable price, just waiting for us to come along and need it. It had been my previous conviction that we would NEVER leave our mansion (so it was to me) on the lake with our crystal chandelier and million dollar view of Kootenay Lake. But then, I did not know “the bigger picture”. It was the first step to prying me off my mountainside and eventually moving to Prince Albert for reasons I can share in another story sometime.

But I digress. We moved into Creston and our first Christmas there, we were feeling quite lonely and disappointed that we could not afford to be home in Saskatchewan with our family that year. It had not snowed much at all in December, but while we four were walking to the church from our nearby little home, the sound of the church bells ringing was heavenly and the snowflakes were gently falling. I still get goosebumps just remembering the feeling. At church we were greeting Darren’s young friend’s parents who lived in Wynndel. They are from Germany and did not attend church regularly, but of course this was Christmas. Realizing they may just be going home after church to their empty house, as we were going to be doing, we invited them over for a visit. They accepted and we had a wonderful time of fellowship and getting to know some virtual strangers. Our children were absolutely thrilled with the few small gifts they received that year. That is the Christmas that I recall with special fondness!

As for my husband, he says BAH HUMBUG!

AND A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.

Fourth Week at Marble Falls Nov 2010

LAST WEEK OF NOVEMBER, MARBLE FALLS 2010

The evening before the Winkler concrete crew left, the Board Members of Camp of the Hills invited all of the volunteers on the property, namely, those 16 people, our RV crew of 12, and 6 RVIC couples, for supper at Mel’s again. There were 50 in all for the Cajun gumbo supper with soup, rice and desserts. Also present were four of the Board Members as well as Lacey, a young lady who had been a camp counselor for several seasons.

Mel had a different (older) promotional DVD to show us. It was very enlightening for the Winkler crew and it showed what hallowed ground they built this concrete slab on. Lacey was asked to say a few words about her experiences as a camp counselor. She told us it was a fairly difficult “job”, but extremely rewarding. She said that some young prospective counselors figure they will try it for only one month, and in every such case, they have ALWAYS stayed for the full term. Last year was the first time they have had a camp counselor from China. There has never been a counselor from Canada. Mel gave us a challenge: get him TWO camp counselors from Canada for next year. Counselors are between the ages of 18 and 26. Anyone who wishes to find out more information regarding how to apply to be a camp counselor can find the application criteria on the Camp of the Hills website, click on “About Camp of the Hills”.

John and I were happy to be working exclusively renovating Miss Kaki’s cottage. He laid the laminate flooring in the large closet room, which will also double as her grandson’s sleeping quarters when he visits. I painted the bathroom and then John put the tubsurround on and laid the ceramic tiles. I fastened the newly painted baseboards with the air nailer and did the caulking around the windows and baseboards. John had installed the kitchen cabinets and was putting on the finishing touches.

The other men started straightening up the ground around the new floor and making way for the pouring of a veranda. We stopped by after work on Monday and they were still making forms and pounding in stakes, which did not really look like something seniors should be having to do at this stage of the game. However, if the project is to be ready for a full slate of volunteers for January and they expect to have a building to build, this difficult work has to be done.

American Thanksgiving was Thursday and everyone was on the move “home for the holidays”. Although the weather was over 80 degrees for the first part of the week, the weatherman promised a cold front for Thanksgiving.

We were free to work on the holiday. The ladies, all of whom are over 63 years of age, found themselves doing something they never dreamed would be in the line of duty for MDS! We confirmed to each other that it was not on any of our bucket lists!! The steel workers had finally lifted up and welded the steel beams for the first building. They were off for Thanksgiving long weekend, and our mission, should we choose to accept it, was to stain the four largest beams and the welds, up on 20 foot scissor lifts. Hesitant Henrietta and Reluctant Linda were not too keen on this idea, but we did manage to paint some of the lower parts of the beams, mastering using the lifts. Up-for-anything Agnes, Mighty Mary and Eager Ena were ready willing and raring to go, and with some assistance from Mike, managed to do all the apexes of the eyebeams (that’s steelworker lingo), on their lift. We all spent the day being steel workers. In the morning, it was around 75 degrees Fahrenheit, so warm that we needed sweat bands and looked forward to going back to the RVs at noon to change into some summer clothes. That cold front the weatherman had promised came in PRECISELY at 12:45, so that by the time we went back at 1:00 p.m., we were putting on jackets. It was uncanny! By the time we quit at 3:30, we were looking for warm gloves and winter coats!

Black Friday, we all went to town for breakfast. Stores were all open, but restaurants serving breakfast were few and far between. In the afternoon, we each headed our own direction to get the specials we were looking for. We needed a new flash drive for our computer and also found a wireless mouse, and John could not resist a cordless 18 volt screw gun complete with 50 bits for $19.99!

Saturday, we took a drive in our truck, with Marv and Henrietta along for a tour of Burnet (we were advised it is said “Burnet: learn it, durn it”!), Bertram, Georgetown, and around back to Smithwick. Lovely day for a drive. We also stopped to do a bit of shopping at Old Navy in the large Georgetown Mall.

Last Sunday, Pastor Hank at Cowboy Church advised that the Mennonites were leading their singing next Sunday. That was news to us, but we were game. We led their music worship with 8 old-fashioned country hymns. It was a blessing to our group as well as their very small congregation. There does not appear to be the interest in this small cowboy church as there was in Beaumont last year, and no apparent reason for it. Their pastor is one of the best we have encountered in this area.

Texans are crushed because their Longhorns lost the big football game. We know how they feel… But it was a good game anyway.

Third week at Marble Falls 2010

We all finally got to meet Mike and Ena Baldwin, who arrived from Miramichi, N.B. on the weekend. This couple took advantage of the offer of MDS to try out a Senior RV Project without having an R.V., as Camp of the Hills has several fully furnished cabins available for use for special visitors. Mike and Ena have been on many other regular MDS projects, but the RV Project will be a new experience for them.

We attended the Cowboy Church again this Sunday and were pleased to be invited by Jennie, the guest musician, to sing several songs with her. What a blessing that was for the four of us who enjoy singing. Pastor Hank Wilson also had our leader tell his congregation what the Mennonites were doing in their midst, and thanked us for our presence.

Fifteen men and one cook arrived in three vehicles, with a skreeter, from Winkler, Mb., on Sunday night to pour the footings and the concrete floor for the main Lodge Building. The group consisted of a contractor with several crew skilled at doing concrete work, a plumber, a real estate salesman, a few retired farmers and some strapping young men, all eager to get to work. They had a monumental task ahead of them and were equal to it. There was MUCH site prep work still required and the goal was to have the 1000 feet of grade beam and 94 x 110' concrete floor finished in five days. They pounded the stakes into the compacted crushed rock, leveled and covered the mounds of rock with heavy yellow plastic with duct tape to hold it together, and tied the rebar in place. To the astonishment of everyone, they advised they would be ready for the concrete on Wednesday. The footings were poured on Wednesday. When our Project Director called to arrange for the pumper truck and concrete for the floor, he found that the ONLY time the two could be co-ordinated was at 4:00 a.m. on Thursday. The 9,420 square feet of floor was poured and finished in 19 hours, from 4:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. It was nothing short of a miracle, which we all had desperately prayed for, to get that huge job accomplished. There were some pretty exhausted fellows. They slept in the dorms for campers and were fed in the temporary camp kitchen by Erna and two of our RV ladies. When asked what the value of the volunteer work for this job would be worth, the reply was at least $70,000.00! The contractor also commented that if he would have been offered this job for pay to be done in the time constraints required, he would have said it could not be done! With God, nothing is impossible.

Mel treated the crew to a pontoon boat ride on Friday afternoon and they were able to spend some time enjoying the scenery and relaxing a bit before they headed back home at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday. The Highlander local newspaper printed a very nice article in the informing the local inhabitants of the participation of the Canadian volunteers at the Camp of the Hills.

Staining and varnishing the new kitchen cupboards were first on the agenda for the ladies this week. John and two other men finished tearing apart the very small bathroom and replacing the damaged shower enclosure with a 54 inch bathtub. While the other fellows put in the tub and new gyproc, John laid the laminate flooring in the kitchen/livingroom so that the cabinets could be installed.

The baseboards were all given two coats of paint up at Mel’s shop. In addition, the kitchen/livingroom ceiling and walls were painted. Miss Kaki was totally thrilled with each step. We gave her a new name: Miss Kaki-Gopher, because she made many trips the 10 miles to town to pick out cupboards, countertop, tub, tubsurround, etc. etc. etc.

Friday evening, more than 2.5 million twinkling lights turned Marble Falls Lakeside Park into an enchanted winter wonderland (with no snow???) in the lighting of the annual Walkway of Lights, with the first appearance of Santa Claus. There was also a parade which was not as great for watchers as it could have been, as it was in the dark. Anything that was lit up was very pretty, but where there were bands and marchers, you couldn’t see them, and can you imagine trying to find candies thrown from floats in the dark? The entry that intrigued us the most was the group of about 30 seniors who called themselves “synchronized lawn chair marchers”. They marched with folded up lawn chairs with lights on them, doing all kinds of motions in time with music. It was really neat.

This weekend was the monthly Trade Days at Fredericksburg. As John had found some treasures there last year, it was on our list of places we wanted to go. We drove with Ben and Mary Klassen from Winkler in their Honda Civic, and as we found that most of the prices at the Trade Days were “out of sight”, we only stayed an hour and a half. There was a small private yard sale about a block down the highway and there we found some useful things that were garage sale prices. Our Project Director had said that if we ever saw a bread maker for about $5 or $10, we should get it for him. There was one there for $3.00. Haven’t heard if it works yet… Then we went on to Fredericksburg and while the men toured the National Museum of the Pacific War, Mary and I did Main Street. The city is a major tourist trap in Texas and the tourists were out in full force. It was very enjoyable checking out the shops, even though many of them were for Texas millionaire pocket-books!

Second week in Marble Falls Nov. 2010

SECOND WEEK IN MDS SERVICE AT MARBLE FALLS

Our Project Manager couple here are both licensed pilots. Accordingly, when they learned that the San Antonio Air Show was on this weekend, they asked if anyone else would like to go. It was at Lackland Air Force Base and admission and parking were free. We all piled into the MDS van to travel the 120 miles to San Antonio. For outings such as this, the MDS van is available for our use if we pay for the gas. We went on Saturday, a very hot day. None of us had enough foresight to take our lawn chairs or sunscreen, so we all ended up with sore necks and burned faces from looking up. It was a fantastic show, with a Viper Four-Ship Flyby, F-15 Strike Eagle Flyby, Warbirds Demonstration, F/A 18 Hornet, U.S. Army Golden Knights, and USAF Thunderbirds Demonstration, just to mention a few. Of course there was a tremendous turnout by the public and everyone was security-checked at the entrance to the airfield. We all agreed that none of us had ever stood in such a long line-up for such a long time, but it was well worth it. Naturally, being an official Air Force function, it was done in a very orderly fashion.

Last weekend, Camp of the Hills had its first ever family retreat for campers who had attended as children 15 years ago. It was a very exciting time. It was promoted by a Camp Counsellor from 15 years ago with her group that she had led at that time. Living in the inner city, the young families are experiencing the usual struggles of young families and came to recapture the experience they had as campers with their families. The camp is hoping that this will be the beginning of a whole new chapter of campers every year.

Sunday found us at the First Baptist Church of Marble Falls. It is a huge church and has a fairly new very young, passionate pastor. We came away greatly blessed by his message. This church is very involved with their community.

Sunday afternoon, most of us enjoyed an afternoon picking and shelling pecans out in the sunshine on the picnic table, and the men convinced Mary she would like to make some pecan pies for our Thursday night pot luck.

Back to work on Monday. No sooner had the ladies again started working with their sorting plumbing supplies than Mel showed up with a more urgent task for us… a much more strenuous task! The concrete was due to be poured into the styrofoam forms in the first building the next morning. Before then, we were to lay 10 foot strips of canvas tarp all along the inside of the 60 x 80 foot building, as well as on the outside where there were concrete pads poured for verandas, so that there was no overspray of concrete onto the concrete already finished. However, these 10 foot strips of canvas were still in the form of a 10,000 square foot circus tent! It was our job to unroll the 4 sections of tent and cut them into 10 foot strips. Luckily there was a gravel parking lot accessible to accomplish this. By the time this canvas was all cut up, we were done in! Then we had to lay them out, as the concrete was coming at 8:00 a.m. Thankfully a couple of the men came and helped us move the rolls of canvas over to the building and lay them in place. It was probably the hardest day any of the ladies had in their service with MDS! We were very happy to get back to sorting plumbing on Tuesday. By 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, that part of Mel’s shop looked better than it ever had, complete with vacuumed floor. We were mighty proud of what we had done.

Meanwhile, the men spent their days getting the footings ready for the crew to come in and pour next week tying steel for beams and pilings, another very demanding task, John says not for the weak and feeble!!

Tuesday evening some of the Board Members of Camp of the Hills prepared a soup supper for us and the RVIC group at Mel’s home. After supper, Mel gave us a presentation about the camp and its history and showed us a video which they use for publicity purposes. It was a lovely evening and they are hoping we can all get together for an evening of song before we leave.

Next on the agenda for the ladies was making the “Big Ark” cottage liveable for Miss Kaki, the Camp’s volunteer co-ordinator, She has been hired full time and now lives on site instead of commuting 3 days a week. It started out that we were to paint the three room cottage, but in accordance with Murphy’s Law, there was much more upgrading required: a new shower enclosure which turned into a bathtub with shower instead, removal of carpeting and installation of laminate, removal and replacement of kitchen cupboards to allow for a small cook stove, and finding mold and leakage underneath the vanity; nothing new in the life of an MDS volunteer (or anyone renovating, for that matter). It will keep us busy for a while - we really have nothing else to do while we are waiting for the site prep.

HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY KEELY!

First week in Marble Falls Nov 2010

Former Lodge which burned down



Where the Lodge Used to Be


New start in Marble Falls

Somewhere along the road while we were driving the second last day, we lost one of the small windows in the bedroom of the R.V. along the highway. It must have simply popped out. John taped in a piece of cardboard until we can get a new one.

There is no doubt that the hill country around Marble Falls, Texas, is some of the most beautiful scenery in America. It was like coming home to drive down the hill to the MDS campsite where we will spend the next month. By Saturday evening, all of the volunteers had arrived. There are 6 couples, all Canadian. We have become friends with two of the couples on other projects, have met one of the couples previously and have briefly become acquainted with the Project Directors on another occasion. This is the first Senior RV experience for the one couple from Winkler, Mb.

When we first joined the Senior RV Program, we were advised that the key requirement of a volunteer is flexibility. This is certainly true here in that we were expecting to begin putting up metal interior walls in one of the two new buildings that are being constructed to replace the former Lodge. Upon arrival, we could see the project is way behind schedule and that the concrete slab for first building had just been poured. We will be lucky if it is ready for interior walls in two weeks!

Accordingly, we went to “Plan B”. The site preparation where the Lodge used to be had not even begun. As crew foreman, John shot in the elevations and determined that 7 feet of fill would be required on the west end of the building site!

There was heavy equipment on the site available for use and two of our volunteers had some experience driving the dump truck, backhoe and packer. They were both in their glory, never dreaming they would be playing with these big machines for days on end. We learned that to run some of this heavy equipment was on our Project Director’s “Bucket List”!

The other men were put to work doing odd jobs around the camp. On Monday, the ladies had a new double washroom building by the soccer field to paint, inside and out. When that was done, we cleaned up the “Lewis Cabin”, a two room rustic cabin with twelve double bunks and a full bath on each side. We are expecting a group of volunteers from a church in Winkler, Mb., to arrive on November 14th to do the concrete floor for the new main building. The Winkler volunteers will be staying in that cabin while they are here.

When the ladies ran out of work painting and cleaning, they were assigned the important task of sorting out many boxes of plumbing supplies which had been donated to the camp. That was an interesting job, as about all we could do was sort them into the proper sizes. We had a few good laughs for the afternoon, as none of us are familiar with the various connectors and fittings, and there were so many different kinds.

Our first pot luck of the month was Thursday night, and as usual, there was a great feast and more than enough food for everyone.

Some members of the volunteer group known as RVICS (Retired Volunteers in Christian Service), are also camped in RVs at the top of the hill and are lending their assistance to the camp for maintenance and upkeep.

The weather this week was up and down like a yo-yo. The weekend was beautiful. The day after we arrived, Saturday, we enjoyed a two hour pontoon boat ride in 80 degree weather. What a lovely afternoon! It was hot enough to enjoy a leisurely Sunday lunch on the deck at River City Grille overlooking the Colorado River. Monday we were painting in sweltering 85 degree heat. Tuesday, it was cloudy and 65. It rained that night and was so windy it felt like our RV was going to end up in the lake! Wednesday morning it was just above freezing and then it rained all day. Thursday was a nice sunny day again.

There are several large pecan trees near our campers and one evening we went out and picked an ice cream pail full. Pecans in the roadside stands are $10.00 a pound!

We discovered Hallowe’en in Texas is just as much for the adults as for the children. Hundreds of costumed adults partied in the streets of Marble Falls. At lunch on Sunday, the waiters and waitresses were all costumed. Our waiter was a Mutant Ninja Turtle – I asked him if it was easy being green. He laughed and said “Not really, the green keeps coming off.” Our son Darren knows all about that from the time he won tickets for the Grey Cup Semi-Finals with the Riders by painting himself green and appearing in the CKBI parking lot in -15 degree temperatures, with snow falling, dressed only in cut-offs and work boots!

We have not been overly impressed with the T.V. we get down here. We can pick up about a dozen channels, a third of which are Mexican (Spanish). However, we were thrilled to have a front row seat (in our R.V.) Thursday evening for an hour long Statler Brothers special. It was absolutely awesome! We also watched an excellent documentary about Gulf War casualties and the emergency care they receive. It was a real eye-opener.

Back to Beaumont

Back to Beaumont


Finally we have arrived in Texas. When we had driven through last year, there were very beautiful multicolored potted tiny chrysanthemums at various plant stands. This year, we stopped at one of the first stands, and came away with two pots – one bright yellow and one dark red, each about 18 inches in diameter, on sale that day for $5.00 each! They fit nicely into the truck box which John had made, and we will surely enjoy them in “our yard” for the 4 months we can keep them down here.

While traveling in the evening on Tuesday, we noted some ugly storm clouds gathering to the south and east of us, with the odd streak of lightning. The next day, as we drove, it was apparent in the ditches that there had been heavy rain. Stopping at Lone Oak for coffee, we learned that there had been a tornado in the area, with golf size hail in some places and pea sized hail in others.

As we drove on, we noted that Americans are mighty big on pumpkins. There are hundreds of them in every school yard we see waiting for upcoming Hallowe’en.

The owners of the storage unit were happy to see us. They said they had some hail there as well this summer. It appears our awning may have some hail damage but we won’t know the extent until we roll it out. We stayed the first night in the storage yard, and enjoyed watching Arnie Armadillo rooting around in the yard just after dark.

There was time the first day for us to make a trip to Newton to visit with my cat lady friend and see her new house. Unfortunately she still has some problems with shoddy workmanship in her home, and also problems with harassment from her neighbours. She was delighted to see us.

We pass by all kinds of flea markets and there is little point in stopping, as there is virtually nothing I need, either at home or in the R.V. However we did stop at one very interesting little place just out of Jasper and there was a bobblehead Aunt Jemima piggy bank which will be perfect for my Aunt Jemima collection…only $2.00.

We left our R.V. at Jasper while we traveled back to Beaumont to see our friends at the Ben Rogers Welcome Centre who were so helpful to us last year. Then we checked in on Miss Jane in the Alzheimers wing of the Care Home. She has deteriorated considerably since we left her in February. I had a little visit with her and left her a couple of photos and a stuffed animal and can only trust that God is holding her in the palm of his hand as she lives out her life in that facility. Travelling through Cheek, we stopped in to see Miss Orma and Mr. John, our two favorite homeowners, both of whom were happy and healthy and thrilled to see us. It was great to see quite a few more new homes have been built in that poor area since we left.

Texas weather has been superb. It was 80 degrees for 3 days, one of which we understand it snowed in Prince Albert.

Well, now I have to tell you my “turkey” story. The Walmart greeter at Jasper welcomed us inside the door. A few seconds later, she hurried after us, saying she forgot to tell us that there was a big sale on turkeys. She said some people were going out with 6 and 8 turkeys. I told her I would be going out with the same turkey I came in with. We all laughed. As John waited for me at the checkout, he learned that the older round gentleman sitting beside him had been at a family Thanksgiving in Newton, Tx. where we had been invited two years ago. When I was done at the checkout and joined John, this fellow’s wife came over with her cart as well and she showed me the price of the turkey she had just bought. It was a large turkey for under $4.00!!! Anyone who knows Linda knows that 25 cents a pound is simply too good a deal to pass up. So despite the fact that John thinks turkey once a year at Christmas is one time too many, that we just had turkey for our Thanksgiving at home and that our oven in the R.V. is too small to cook a turkey, a small one was purchased. I can probably make it for a pot luck and our friend Nettie won’t mind putting it in her oven,. Went in with one turkey, came out with two…

Crossing the Border Oct. 22nd

CROSSING THE BORDER

The day came when we were scheduled to cross the border – October 22nd. We said our sad goodbyes to Warrior Jake and his wife Rita.

The border crossing was excellent. No delays and no problems.

The truck runs just great on the highway. I am very impressed with the running lights at night. It lights up like a Christmas tree!

It seems to be election season in the U.S. as well as in Manitoba. There are election signs EVERYWHERE.

Driving through “corn country”, the combines were out in full force, well into the evening.

As we drove south, we found a fantastic Classic Country radio station. We were disappointed to be losing the station as we drove on. However, on pressing the “seek” button on the radio, there was another station with the same music, and another. All through North and South Dakota and Nebraska, we enjoyed our favorite country classics and never heard the same song twice all day.

It was interesting to see Buchanan a short distance from Melville, as in Saskatchewan. In South Dakota, we noted that Minnehaha is a hop, skip and jump away from Humboldt. That’s one we don’t have…

We stayed our first night in a motel where we had stayed two years ago when the starter went on our old truck. There were just as many pheasant hunters in the motel, but we didn’t witness any problems with all the hunters and dogs this time.

One strange sight I noticed as we drove was a farm with a large body of water in the yard. There were several cows hanging around the edge of the water - nothing strange about that, but one cow was right in the middle of the water, up to its belly. I don’t know if it was stuck, or what…

John noted that Poverty Valley, South Dakota appeared to be ineptly named, with many huge mansions on the hillside.

The weather has been great for traveling. It was 74 to 78 degrees.

When we saw “Yesterday’s Café” coming up on a sign coming into Yankton, N.D., we knew that was where we would be eating our lunch. The 50’s décor was very impressive, the staff was superb and the food was excellent. John usually gives waitresses a hard time, and our feisty little waitress, Becky, was ready for him, returning as good as he gave. She got an extra tip out of that…

What a refreshing sight we encountered driving into Yankton. There were hundreds of high school kids running, in gym clothes, everywhere we looked, in the park alongside the highway. There was obviously some kind of a meet happening where all of the schools had come together, but no one we asked seemed to know exactly what it was. It was an excellent indication American high school students are getting good phys ed training.

Another interesting sight was a pumpkin orchard. Hundreds of pumpkins were laying in the field and you could go and pay for a pumpkin and pick your own.

Love this country – almost every home alongside the road has a verandah, with pillars, and at least one rocking chair, with someone usually sitting in it.

Saturday night brought us to Hesston, Kansas, the birthplace of Mennonite Disaster Service. Last year we stopped in at Hesston briefly. This year we decided to stay over and attend the Hesston College Mennonite Church. The congregation was extremely friendly and we were even invited to a home for lunch afterwards.

With the publicity about the bed bug infestations these days, we have checked out our motel rooms before paying for them. So far they have been clean and bug-less. Apparently bed bugs have even been found in motels in Brandon…

As we are gadding about heading for Jasper, Texas, our daughter is welcoming a new feline into our home. She found one she wanted at the SPCA and the only way we have met him is in e-mailed pictures. It appears Minx is settling in nicely. He’s a mature long haired tabby with a little stubby tail. Sounds like our dog Abby and the new cat have made a good start, and we look forward to having a cat again when we get home for December. My motto has always been: A house without a cat is not a home.

Texas-bound - Langenburg and Brandon

Texas-Bound

The day has arrived. As we try to remember everything we are going to need to take along, I check off the items on my list as they are packed. The passports, the pills, the border-crossing letters from MDS, and some grocery items we are not able to get in the U.S., for example, Harmonie margarine, decent peanut butter and Cheese Whiz, and Dristan tablets for colds.

Our little Maltese dog has known for weeks we are leaving and she has been glued to my side the past few days. No dogs are allowed on the MDS sites; besides, this is John’s time that he does not have to share my attention with the dog…

We enjoyed having the grandchildren over for sleepovers the last weekend. It is comforting to know that we will be home for December. We have committed ourselves to volunteer for November in Marble Falls. We are flying back from Austin on December 3rd, returning on the 27th and then have to move our RV from Marble Falls to New Iberia, LA, where we are stationed for January and February, 2011.

My husband is very happy to be travelling down the road in his “new” 2001 GMC 3500 Sierra SLE dually with a 6.6 Duramax diesel and an Allison transmission. He has realized for some time that we needed a bigger truck to pull our large RV and this year found what he was looking for. I was hoping for maybe “a step up” from our three-quarter ton diesel, but this is the “full meal deal”. Hopefully the benefits will outweigh my objections to having a dually 4 x 4. We toyed with the idea of hauling our Toyota car behind the truck, but decided against it. Time will tell if that decision was a good one. Riding like the one-ton it is, it certainly is not easy for me to write notes as we drive on these bumpy Saskatchewan roads!

We arrived in Foam Lake in time to catch the local coffee shop packed with farmers discussing this year’s harvest. It was a little late for lunch, but we were hungry.

Langenburg was our destination for our first stop. Things are quite laid back at my Mom’s house. She retires early and gets up early as well. Saturday evening we were invited to Ken and Miss Jackie’s for a feast to thank friends who helped with their threshing this past summer. Mom had been there for Thanksgiving the weekend before. She is hard of hearing and does not enjoy it when everyone is talking at once, so she declined to come with us for the supper. We arrived home at 7:30 p.m. to find her in bed already!

The wind was so cold this week, it already felt like snow.

We got to catch one more Roughrider game before leaving Saskatchewan, even though it was quite disappointing. How many of us watch the game and wonder why we haven’t made the effort to enter free at Safeway for the prizes they award when we get a touchdown? As John always says, no tickee, no laundley.

Arriving in Brandon, we are visiting with John’s brother, Jake. He and his wife have just returned from a week-long Prostate Cancer Canada Network Annual Meeting in Toronto. Jake is 78 and has been living with prostate cancer for 14 years, and diabetes for several years. Five years ago, the cancer spread to his bones. He has had surgery and every treatment available and is now taking a type of chemo, a combination of Zomeda and Prednisone. The doctors cannot understand why his bone deterioration has apparently been stalled - whether it is his excellent attitude, or a result of the Omega 3-6-9, calcium and Vitamin D three times a day, and Vitamin B1. He has always had a VERY positive outlook on his illness and it is certain that this has contributed to his longevity. Jake indicated his reason for attending the convention was not for anything that could be done for him, because he feels it is too late for him, but rather to learn what was coming down the pipe that he could share with his sons and grandsons and friends. He was very excited to learn about the innovations in prostate cancer surgery using robotic lazer treatment and bring the information back to his prostate cancer group in Brandon.

For your information, Movember, an organization that started in Australia, has taken as its cause prostate cancer awareness programs. They raised over $20M in Australia, then came to Canada and last year raised $7.9M in Canada for prostate cancer awareness research projects. They sponsored this annual conference for all prostate groups across Canada. “Movember” is prostate cancer awareness month. Men are letting their mustache grow and ladies are encouraged to wear false mustaches for prostate cancer awareness. When you see a two-tone blue sticker on a car, comparable to the pink ribbon for breast cancer, or a lady with a false mustache, be aware this is with respect to prostate cancer.

We are pleased to enjoy our visit for this week and make our way south Friday morning, October 22nd.

Shopper article leaving home for Nov. MDS posting

WE’RE OFF TO MARBLE FALLS, TEXAS

Most of the fall season projects with MDS Senior RV Program begin October 4, 2010. However, the project that we have been assigned to starts on November 1st. We will be returning to the “hill country” of Marble Falls, Texas. The RV site at Camp of the Hills, where we had parked in spring of 2009, was by far the most beautiful scenery of any we have encountered since we have been with the Senior RV Program.

This summer, we had learned of the disastrous fire which destroyed the beautiful main Lodge at the Camp of the Hills. Googling “Camp of the Hills” and seeing the structure in flames was horrific. The building was insured; however, the insurance will only cover a portion of the losses.

Camp of the Hills caters to inner city homeless street children, sponsored by various area churches. MDS has volunteered to provide the workers to build 3 new buildings to replace the Lodge. Formerly, the Lodge’s main floor housed the business office of the Camp Director (the only paid employee), washrooms and the huge dining hall and totally outfitted kitchens. We recall admiring the awesome gigantic rock fireplace in the dining hall which is now gone. Camp Counsellors’ quarters, which also housed a full storehouse of all sizes and types of clothing that young campers might require, were on the lower level, as well as the nursing station with closets full of all the laundry and cleaning supplies for the camp. They also lost all their audio-visual equipment and computers.

The website advises that despite the loss, with the help of a lot of people who had a heart for the camp, they were able to accommodate their campers this summer.

Here at home, all our yard work is done, garbage hauled to the dump, everything put away for winter, our annual little farewell party with our neighbours was enjoyed by all…we’re ready to leave a bit ahead of time. My Mom will enjoy another visit en route, and we also want to spend a couple of days with our favorite brother, Jake, in Brandon. He has been battling prostate cancer for 13 years now and his doctors cannot figure out why he is not in more pain, with what they see on his scans for the past year. He is a testimony as to how a positive attitude in such an illness can be your best asset. We expected him to be failing when we returned from the south earlier this year, and they were just returning from a Carribean cruise with their daughter! They were totally thrilled with the VIP treatment they got at every hand, using the “transporter chair” which allowed him to participate in all of the activities without tiring out his legs too much. He even went scuba diving for the first time in his 79 years.

It will be nice not to have to drive in snow going down. It should take 4 days to get to Jasper, Texas, where our RV is stored. We have allowed time to stop in the Beaumont area and visit some of our friends from our last term. Does Mr. John still live in his house? How is Miss Jane doing in the Alzheimers wing of the Nursing Home? The girls from the Ben Rogers Welcome Centre will certainly remember us! They were very hospitable about letting me use their telephone with my phone card. This year we have a Magic Jack telephone which can be used on the computer, with free long distance. It has worked out well.

Next week’s article will be done on the road. We hope you enjoy your trip as you share our travels.

First newspaper article for P.A. Shopper Oct. 2010

Hello – we’re back to share our summer with you, before getting into our upcoming MDS experiences. We have greatly appreciated all the positive comments about our articles last winter and hope you enjoy coming to Texas with us in two weeks.

Aaah – summer in Saskatchewan. It started out like summer, but we soon wondered what happened to the good old summers we used to have!

I have always thought it would be neat to spend a week in Texas in summer, just to experience some nice HOT weather. It was always windy on the Gulf Coast. The residents informed us that the wind is a tremendous blessing down there; I had never considered that if it were not for the wind, they would not be able to tolerate the heat in summer. After a week, I probably would be plenty ready to go back to a Saskatchewan summer! Recently, we received an e-mail from MDS friends in California advising it was 103 degrees there. We could have used a day or two of that, at least…

After doing renovations to our home, which meant I could not have a garden last year, I was excited to be landscaping and getting ready in spring to plant a small garden again. That included bringing out all of the yard ornaments, and our two water fountains which did not get used last year.

Putting the clothesline back up was first on my agenda and to my great delight, John quickly had that task accomplished.

In May, our very beloved purebred Himalayan cat, Gizmo, insisted on being let outside after dark, never to return. He had been acting a bit strangely and it appears he had gone away to die in peace. We certainly miss his beautiful furry face at our patio door.

My mission this summer was to ensure our three grandchildren have some special holiday memories with Nana and Grampa from their childhood. Our family always spent most of the summer at Madge Lake where we had a cabin. Nowadays, young families have such hectic lives. Both parents are busy with their jobs and barely even get two days off at the same time to enjoy any kind of holiday with their kids.

We offered to take the grandchildren for 10 days to my Mom’s in Langenburg, Sk., as there were two sets of festivities scheduled. First was the goal of my cousin from Tennessee who comes up to his family farm every summer, to have 10 threshing machines running at one time in 2010. John was his “straw boss” for the occasion.

Over the years, Ken and Jaqueline have welcomed and entertained the local residents with a day of threshing, visiting and an old fashioned picnic several times during the summer. This weekend brought over 300 people to the farm to share in the old time festivities. Included in the roster of entertainment, our 12 year old granddaughter, Keely, sang two songs with my accompaniment and everyone said she was wonderful. Dressed in a pretty heritage dress complete with a hat, she sang “In the Highways In the Hedges” and “Let the Sun Shine In”. Bryton, who just turned 9 while we were on holidays, looked just like a young lad out of Wind at My Back, in his pair of overalls, striped T-shirt and a flat, brimmed tweed hat. Five year old Emily charmed all of the old-timers and captured Miss Jacqueline’s heart.

Everyone who attended tremendously enjoyed the day and not only did Ken achieve his goal of “10 in 2010”, but he also was proud to see the full page write up of the occasion in the Western Producer!

We then stayed the following week to take in Laff ‘n Linger Days, which only happens every 5 years in my home town. Great-Nana’s one bedroom senior duplex was hard-pressed to accommodate three extra adults, three children and a dog. John decided this “zoo” would be too much for him and there was work to do at home, so he left and came back for the weekend. The rest of us played “musical beds” with the hideabed and the tent and someone sleeping with Great-Nana. Keely wanted to see what Manitoba looked like, so we made the short trip to Russell. They spent many hours in the town pool and got a taste of living in small town Saskatchewan. Bryton slept over at Uncle Paul’s for a few nights, and would walk the three blocks back to Mom’s in the morning, with his pyjamas slung over his shoulder, just a singing away. It was neat to hear him comment “I love Langenburg”

Laff ‘N Linger Days included a very large heritage parade (for a small town of 1500 people). My cousin’s wife insisted she needed us to help her with the Mack Family Float. It was a large hay wagon pulled by an old tractor. John and I had made them a large sign for the entrance to their farm yard, as they did not have one. We put the sign on the back of the float and it looked wonderful! Miss Jacqueline, a cousin’s wife from B.C., and the children and I were all on the float, dressed in our heritage costumes. We were thrilled to win first prize in the heritage division! John and my Mom were “parade watchers”. All in all, our summer holiday with the kids was all we had hoped it would be and we have the pictures to prove it!!! Needless to say, it was also a summer holiday my 87 year old Mom will always cherish.

Pictures from summer 2010

Summer 2010

It looks like I must have been too busy to blog at the end of our last MDS tour, as there were none past the middle of February… I was still sending articles to the newspaper and it was too much.

We arrived home on March 11th, stopping in Brandon on the way. We were delighted to see John's brother Jake hale and healthy as when we last saw him.

I was excited to get back home to enjoy my new sun room, see the kids and grandchildren and Abby and Gizmo.

The end of April, we made a trip to Edmonton to see our old friend, Charlie Dixon, and his family. His wife, Joan had passed away suddenly from ovarian cancer in January and we had not been able to attend her funeral. My Mom agreed to travel with us, as we were also going to visit some of my relatives in Edmonton, and there was a new great grandchild she hadn’t met yet. We had a great trip! Also visited with relatives from Mom’s side of the family in Sylvan Lake where John’s sister Anne lives.

Unfortunately, John ended up in hospital at Red Deer with internal bleeding and Mom and I got to do most of the visiting! Thankfully, he was released in 2 days with the diagnosis of bleeding caused by taking Alleve for his arthritis. It may be that it was because he doesn’t eat breakfast and you can’t take Alleve on an empty stomach. It certainly did work for the arthritis pain though!!! More pills and he was on the mend.

We enjoyed having Jake and Rita spend a week with us in May. We joined Grace Mennonite Church in Prince Albert in May. We have enjoyed attending church there and decided we may as well become an official part of their congregation.

On May 19th, we were distraught to have our cat disappear. He had not been feeling that well, and because we know after 9 years, if he was alive, that little black face would be peering in our door in the morning, we did not make any efforts to find him. He was certainly an enjoyable addition to our family for that 9 years. Probably the nicest cat we ever had.

We made another trip to Manitoba in June for Jake and Rita’s anniversary and had a little visit with MDS friends Bert and Doreen in Winkler. Then when we got home, we enjoyed a visit from Andre and Suzette from St. Jerome, Quebec, for three days. It was interesting to see how well our two older grandchildren, who are in French Immersion, could converse with “real” French people!!

Jeanie’s Mom was hospitalized with cancer in mid June and passed away on June 24th. That same week, we learned that John’s brother Hank’s wife, May Braun, had passed away in Didsbury, so we attended her funeral along with Jake and Rita. It was nice to see some of the rest of the family for a change.

In between all this traveling, John was working on finishing the outside of the house and sundeck. I was very happy to see the original plan for the deck changed to accommodate the gazebo and lawn swing. What a lot of work though. The whole back of the house looks like a brand new gorgeous home, while the front and sides are still the old house.

We built a new fence on the west side of our property and revamped the back yard and I planted a small garden. The end of July was slated for holidays at Langenburg including my cousin Ken’s mission of having 10 antique threshing machines going at one time in 2010. Mission accomplished, and he was proud to have a full page dedicated to the event in the Western Producer!! Then there was Laff‘Linger Daze to stay for. We took our three grandchildren, as their babysitter was having surgery. John came back home for the week to get some things done and I stayed at my Mom’s with the kids. My goal was to make them some wonderful memories, and I think that goal was accomplished as well. We had a great time. Shari had holidays as well, so we got to take Abby too. Participating in the Mack family float in the Parade was a highlight for us all. We helped decorate the float, and it won first prize in the Heritage category. All three children were right “into” the whole process in their heritage costumes! John and I had made a yard sign for my cousin, Ken and his wife, and it was just perfect to put on the back of the float.


We certainly had our share of inclement weather and rain this summer, but thankfully there were enough hot sunny days to still get a nice sun tan,. The garden “took off” while we were in Langenburg and I have lots of peas, beans and cucumbers, and raspberries. The tomatoes are just coming now. And the Lavatera are gorgeous!! The grass seems to need cutting every third day…

So, that’s a catch up from the Brauns. I will send the pictures in the next post.

Second week of February at Cheek

Looks like I'm getting lazy here. I am attaching my latest newspaper article for our blog as well. Am having trouble finding the pictures so will attach them when I can find them...

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel on Mr. John’s house. John and I have been working on this house finishing the baseboards and window trim. There are so many finishing details to do yet. Thankfully we have one couple who has experience at laying floors, and they have completed all the flooring that needed to be done.

The King house was a major disaster when our crew arrived. I did not see it until most of the clean-up had been done, and apparently only pictures can do justice as to how bad it was! Our men have been cutting out the bottom of the gyproc so that the house can be re-wired. Re-wiring not been in the work order, but when they checked out the electrical, they found a very sad state of aluminum wiring. SETIO “found” sufficient funds to provide the material to wire the house. Our Office Manager, Mary Ann, took on the task of painting KILZ on the top half of the walls. New kitchen cabinets were also not in the plan for the King house. However, when our ladies saw what a huge difference there was with the drastic improvements in the rest of the house, it was unanimously decided we had to go back to the organization to beg for funds for new cabinets. These old cabinets simply would not do. We had saved SETIO a substantial amount of money by re-boarding only the bottom half of the walls and salvaging 95% of the ceilings. In the end result, they did agree that they would provide new cabinets. The homeowners, Miss Mable, Miss Mary and Mable’s adult son, Chris, will certainly feel they are living in the lap of luxury to have practically a whole new house (we hope). Thankfully, the general construction of the house is very sound and it is practical to make all these improvements. We can only hope that Chris will take the initiative to have some pride in their newly renovated home and ensure that it is maintained.

We had been so looking forward to seeing our new friends from Quebec, Andreˊ and Suzette, with whom we worked last year in Marble Falls, Texas. They are working at an MDS site at New Iberia, about 5 hours away from us. Several of our couples were also interested in getting together with other friends who are stationed there. As a result, it was arranged that their group and ours would meet half way, at Lake Charles, Louisiana, for a meal and visiting. As of the first of February, there is also an MDS R.V. group at Johnson Bayou, and when they learned of this, they said, “We want to come too”. So, all said and done, we were 33 people, and called it the “Second Annual MDS RV Reunion”. The first Annual MDS RV Reunion was held at Newton, Texas, in February last year and it came about in precisely the same way – totally unplanned. We would have preferred to spend a lot more time visiting with our French friends, but greatly enjoyed our brief visit with everyone. We were very surprised to see Bruce and Martha Isaak from Medstead, Sk. were in New Iberia for February. We have to come all the way to Texas to visit with them!

Ironically, that same weekend, our good friends, Don Buller, the designer and head of the Senior R.V. Program and his wife, Marilyn, along with our friends, Walt and Pat Willems, all from California, were in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, attending the Annual All-Unit MDS Meeting. By e-mail to them, I was lamenting first of all that we could not be there to welcome them to Saskatchewan (neither couple had ever been there before) and that they didn’t get to experience some REAL Saskatchewan weather! After all, -18 degrees is hardly what we call frigid…

The group at Johnson Bayou is headed by a first-time R.V. Project Director who was a worker with us on two previous occasions. They have three couples working with them, none of whom have been MDS volunteers before. We are told they are very hard workers and their job is to do the finishing on a new house which has been built by the regular MDS crew stationed at Cameron, LA.

Our group attended Church at Johnson Bayou last week, while their group enjoyed the Cowboy Church at Orange! It’s a good thing we were not all there together, as the church service is held in the Pastor’s double wide trailer livingroom since Hurricane Ike took out their lovely big church, and there would not have been enough seating room! We learned that morning that 92 year old Mr. Archie, the old original Louisiana cowboy, whose home we had renovated on our second tour of duty, had passed away two months ago. We regret we were not able to attend his funeral, but know he is “up there” riding into the sunset on a fine Louisiana Appaloosa.

Missing picture

I finally found the picture of our "headless volunteer", Jim Martens,. We originally thought this photo had been digitally created; however, he was just looking down so as not to mis-step on the ladder!

February 8, 2010 from Cheek, Texas

Photo: Casper the Friendly Ghost aka Agnes Martens


It’s February already!

It’s the beginning of our last month of service at Cheek, Texas. Much of the week we had heavy rain. We were very happy to see the sun by Thursday.

Painting and finishing is in progress. It is so difficult to believe the shape this house was in when we first started. It looks so much different! Mr. John has been back at home for much of the time, but with Miss Jane still away, he has no one to keep him company at night, to keep him fed, and to sweep his floor. We are trying to get him meals on wheels, but so far have been unsuccessful. WE are his meals on wheels for the time being. It’s not really part of the MDS program, but it is a need that we are meeting temporarily.

Our crew has had the go-ahead to do whatever renovation is required at the King house, keeping in mind that money is tight and they are relying on us not to overspend on anything. The house has been mostly emptied of contents which have been put into a “pod” storage container in the yard. The residents of the home have made arrangements to stay with relatives as their home is being fixed up. Two of our volunteers spent two days opening up the bottom half of the walls in preparation for re-wiring.

Agnes, in a white Tyvec full-piece suit, was out in the yard painting on a cool day. John came in and said, “You have to take a picture of Casper”. I didn’t know what he was talking about until I went out with my camera, and there I saw little Agnes, looking like Casper the Friendly Ghost, painting the baseboards. The suit was so big on her that she appeared just to float around…

In viewing our photos, we also came across one of our volunteers who appeared to have no head in the photo. Our first reaction was that someone had doctored the photo; however, he was just looking down to be sure he hit the step on the ladder…

SETIO (South East Texas Interfaith Organization) advised that there was a short-term group of MDS volunteers from Pennsylvania in the area for the strict purpose of doing roofs. As we drove by one of the houses in Cheek, we noticed a bunch of young people tearing shingles off, so we stopped by. They were indeed the group from Pennsylvania, which included about 15 young men, two young ladies (who were not up on the roof, but picking up the shingles as they were being thrown down), and one little 3 year old girl playing in the tool trailer. They had arrived at the house by 9:00 a.m. When we talked to the homeowner, he advised he couldn’t believe all those people were UP ON HIS ROOF. By the time we had stopped by at 10:30 a.m., about half of the shingles had already been removed. We are advised that the new shingles were not delivered until 2:00 p.m., by which time the shingles were removed, all of the debris had been cleaned up, and that by 4:00 p.m., the roof was totally shingled and they were gone. We know that the homeowner certainly felt blessed by that group. It doesn’t get any better than that!! Apparently the Pennsylvania group did 7 roofs in the week they were here.

It worked! P.A. Shopper Article Feb. 1

Pictures not necessarily in the right order:

Paul the trencher
King house with garbage from one room on lawn

Cockroaches, lizards and mice

We are advised that Miss Jane will not be allowed to return home from the Nursing Home until such time as she is taking her medication as prescribed. Obviously she has not been doing this yet, as we have not seen anything of her all week. The other day, we went over to her house and picked the oranges that had fallen off her orange tree in her yard – they were not any good.

Mr. John is getting totally spoiled – now he holds his hand out for Fig Newtons when we arrive!

The work on his house is progressing slowly. Until the wiring is completed, we are unable to finish drywalling and painting the back bedroom. The electrical panel is installed on the inside back wall of that bedroom.

We have had great weather for working this week. Our friend, 74 year old Paul, dug a trench for the sewer line – 2 ½ feet deep and 80 feet long. It took 3 days. I was wondering if he was thinking as he was digging, “I am way too old for this!!” He said he took is slow and easy.

Our Project Manager had a couple of our ladies start scraping the ceiling on the next project, the King house. I believe I have referred to the term “culture shock” in one or two previous articles. Well, this house is many times worse than the house we are working on, and we thought this one was bad! An older lady, Mable, and her mentally challenged sister live there, along with Mable’s son, Chris. Chris is a friend of Joe’s (Mr. John’s grandson). The house is three blocks down Lowhorn Road and one block right on Bluebird Lane. On Thursday, John went over there to install two exterior doors – the front door was completely destroyed and the other one was badly burnt.

It appears this house should have been evaluated more closely by the SETIO authorities. Our work sheet indicated minor repairs. However, on closer scrutiny, it requires major renovation. It needs to be totally rewired (only two or three lights and plug-ins work now and the wiring is aluminum – not acceptable). All the gyproc should be removed and the house gutted in order to eliminate the extensive black mold. We now have to wait for SETIO to confirm that they have the funds for this major project.

The auntie is an avid hoarder, as seen on the T.V. show. When my husband first arrived to let them know we were coming to work there, she shrieked that NOBODY was supposed to go into her bedroom, they were not even to touch the door knob. The second day our ladies arrived to scrape the ceilings, the auntie was not there. When it appeared that the auntie could not tolerate our presence in the house to fix it, she was carted off to the hospital for a while to see if she could be calmed down. She has an “administrator” in charge of her affairs, and the decision was made by this person and other family members that they simply had to enter auntie’s room and clean it up while she was away.

What they found, in amongst her bedroom furniture, was clothing, boxes and bags of mice-infested toilet paper, laundry detergent and other “stuff” piled so high that she has had to sleep on one of the three livingroom couches, because there is no room for her in her bedroom. John was there as they were hauling out clothes on a blanket, and he saw mice hopping off, mouse droppings throughout, and bugs galore. By the end of Thursday, the family members had 5 pickup loads of garbage in the front yard out of that bedroom! This was done with a great feeling of guilt on the part of the relatives, knowing there will be repercussions when auntie returns, but with the knowledge that it was totally necessary in order to clean up and have a healthy environment rather than the hell-hole they have been living in.

In addition, Mable and Chris agreed that two of the three livingroom couches had to “go”. When they moved the couches, the insides just lay there, all eaten out by mice and full of bugs.

The first day our ladies were scraping the ceilings, they did it with very heavy hearts. The whole atmosphere was very depressing and intolerable. When they saw the action that was taking place the next day on behalf of the residents, there was a little ray of sunshine and hope that these people were in the right track to a better home.

The rest of us were attempting to see some progress on the other project. The carpet in the livingroom in Mr. John’s house was taken up on Thursday and we got a start on lifting some tiles in the hallway to be re-used where necessary.

We also now have a resident pony in the yard, the same one the child was riding in the picture in my last article. The neighbour brought it over to eat the grass. It gets its share of attention from our crew too.

Last week of January 2010

I have not been very attentive to our blog lately. I am going to just copy the last article I sent to the P.A. Shopper, so I have something recent here...

I called it "Cockroaches, lizards and mice". It's not exactly "heartwarming" as the editor was looking for, but it's what is happening here.

First of all, cockroaches are a fact of life down here. Thank heaven we do not have them in Canada. Some people can keep them from infestatation by cleaning and ensuring that when they see one, they take appropriate measures to make sure they get rid of them; others simply let them get out of control. We do not see cockroaches inside mr. John's house very often, but I saw ONE in the cupboard under his sink today. We have seen them in the walls outside.

Little geckos are also plentiful. When we first came to Mr. John's, they were frequently seen inside the house. Some green ones and some striped. Apparently they eat other insects so they are not unwelcome. We really haven't seen any inside since re-doing the walls.

Mice are the same as in Canada. They come in and if you make sure you trap them right away, you can stop them from multiplying. If not, you get more mice.

The following is my article: It will not upload onto this post so I will try to put it onto another one.

Third week of January, 2010

Photo 1; Sleeping Beauty - Miss Jane having a good rest on Mr. John's sofar
Photo 2: Dark pink + dark blue = purple

The renovation at Mr. John’s home is progressing one room at a time. This home will be remembered for the PURPLE master bedroom. The homeowner’s grandson who said that will be his bedroom, had requested a maroon or purplish color on all the walls of that bedroom. SETIO, the organization providing the materials, had advised that they had gallons and gallons of paint at their storage facility and we were free to help ourselves to whatever we needed. As SETIO is quickly running out of funds, we made the decision to attempt to create the color from their assortment of paint rather than buy new paint from Home Depot. After consulting the internet as to how we could make maroon out of the dark pink paint we had to start out with, we began our mixing. With several cups of dark blue paint, we soon had a color which we believed would be passable. The two of us who were painting thought it looked maroon in the pail. However, after it was painted onto the walls, it came out more dark plum than maroon. Our women all LOVE it; none of the (white) men care for it at all. Joe, the grandson, said he was happy with it. The master bedroom has quite a large closet which we painted a dark beige color that really complements the rest of the room - not that anyone will notice when the bifold closet doors are installed…

We were delighted to see Miss Jane back home this week. She was as happy to see us all as we were to have her back! However, when we stopped by Mr. John’s on Friday to see how he was doing and she was not there, he informed us that her family had taken her to a nursing home. This was very disturbing news, as she had appeared to be better than ever upon her return from hospital and we cannot fathom her consenting to being removed from her home. We are still hoping it is not so.

On the instructions of Joe, we painted the second bedroom off-white rather than the light blue requested by Mr. John. In my heart of hearts, I was painting it light blue, as we have become very fond of the old geezer. We are already getting the hint that Mr. John may not be sleeping in this bedroom for long, and that his family may be considering a nursing home for him as well. We know that this would not be his choice, but these are circumstances over which we have no control. We pray that he can continue to enjoy the attention he gets from our being there at least until we leave.

As we were working at the one site, some of our volunteers finished up the soffit and fascia and installed new posts on Miss Louanna’s front porch. On Martin Luther King Day, the children had a holiday from school. As Cheek is a predominantly rural community, many of the families have horses, and they had a visit from one of the grandchildren of the homeowner on his pony.

This week, John’s arthritis in his hands was acting up worse than it ever has before. The knuckles were swollen and he was having trouble flexing his fingers after a night’s sleep. It was time to bring out the unflavored gelatin again. Years ago when he was complaining about arthritis in his hands, an old friend of ours had told us that she had used a tablespoon of unflavored gelatin in her morning coffee to alleviate very bad arthritis. He tried it at that time and found that it worked well. He was skeptical about how helpful it would be this time. He was very surprised to find that after one cup of coffee with the gelatin dissolved, there was a noticeable difference. The swelling went down and although some of the pain remained, it was not nearly as bad. With the plumbing, drywalling and lifting he is required to do on this job, it is very difficult with hands that hurt. We will be “doctoring” his coffee every morning for the foreseeable future! The gelatin has to be softened in a bit of cold water before putting it in the hot coffee.

This weekend, Friday and Saturday, Ford Park was the site of a Hot Hearts Youth Conference. We have never seen so many cars and buses in their HUGE parking lot as there were this weekend for that event. We learned that there were 7,100 youth and chaperones attending this conference and it was a life-changing experience for all. We in our RV’s were quite surprised to realize that we no longer were disturbed by the heavy rock music emanating from the building. It is obviously true that a person can “tune out” noises, such as loud repetitive noise or a train going by.

On Sunday night, there was a rock concert to raise funds for the disaster victims in Haiti. The organizers must have been a bit disappointed at the turnout, as there were not very many cars in the parking lot.