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!
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