Second week at New Iberia, January, 2011

Agnes scraping diningroom wall


Painting bedroom closet doors

SECOND WEEK IN NEW IBERIA

Monday morning we were ready to get to work. We had advised the family of the elderly homeowners that the toilet would be out of commission for at least one night and it would be best if they had another place to stay for a couple of days, until the bathroom was finished. Then, as they spend all of their day watching TV in the living room, they would have no place to sit while we were painting the living room. They were very reluctant to leave their home for even one night, but finally agreed to go to her daughter’s place.

Finishing the bathroom was the first priority of our crew. The ladies painted the bathroom and then the men removed the old flooring, covered it with a sheet of new plywood and installed the new lino. The “stool” as it is called down here [toilet, to us] was put back in place and also the newly-painted bathroom vanity. Carolyn used every cleaner at her disposal, including her “Awesome” to try to make the very stained bathtub match the rest of the newly painted room. The curtain rod was put back up and the shower curtain hung back on. Agnes repainted the bathroom door and John installed a slide-bolt lock on the bathroom door after it was dry.

The walls in the house had not been primed when they were painted years ago and, accordingly, the paint was peeling off badly. In all rooms except the bathroom, we had to scrape it off – in some places the paint came off freely in sheets and in others, it simply could not be scraped off.

John and I stayed late Monday and texture sprayed the spare room. Tuesday, he prime- coated the ceiling and then the ladies helped cut in and paint the walls. I chose the job of painting the shuttered closet doors. Did they ever look fine with a nice new coat of white paint! We also texture-sprayed the living room on Tuesday, but it took “forever” to dry. Wednesday was a SUPER day: Wednesday morning, we primed the walls of the living room, but again, it took longer than the 2 hours it was supposed to take to dry. The men decided to lay the lino in the living room during the drying time. By 2 p.m., John and his ladies had the finish coat on the ceiling and walls completed. By 3:30, all the crown molding at the ceiling was on, all of the quarter round at the baseboards (which had also been purchased and painted this day) was installed, all of the beautiful 8 inch wood baseboard was cleaned up and the floor was cleaned up. The furniture was put back into the room, including the 72 inch flat screen T.V., the beautiful three-section black entertainment unit and couches along the walls, and the curtains put back on the windows, ready for Miss Rosella and Mr. Calvin to come home for the night. John also put the ceiling fan put back up. In addition, all of the paint supplies in the spare bedroom were removed and the floor was cleaned up and vacuumed in preparation for installation of the linoleum. The lino was laid, then the quarter round at the baseboard installed and repainted. What a day!! It was nothing short of a miracle.

Miss Rosella and Mr. Calvin were there on Wednesday morning, delighted to be back in their home, even though we were basically working around them again.

Thursday, we were treated to boudin sausage and cracklings for lunch, brought by a relative. Some of our crew enjoyed the spicy sausage!

The weather all week was on the cool side at night but nice sunshine during the day. Warm but not hot.

On Friday, our day off, we all enjoyed a tour through the Jeanerette Museum which told the story of the sugar cane industry in the area. The sweet little elderly Cajun lady who was the volunteer guide charmed us to pieces with her Cajun accent and knowledge of the area. She had lived here her whole life.

Saturday morning, John and I went out for breakfast. It was 10:35 a.m. and we were disappointed to find no fast food places served breakfast past 10:30. We ended up at Duffy’s Diner, which was a very unique 50’s style diner with beautiful memorabilia displayed. We struck up a conversation with a local retired couple, who advised that they come there often. She said she did her share of cooking when she raised her family and then her grandchildren – now she makes the choice not cook at all. They go to various places during the week and to some on a regular basis. Somehow, I cannot imagine not cooking and eating EVERY meal out.

As we deal with the work days, we are also dealing with worries about how brother Jake is doing up in Brandon. From our daily phone calls, we learn he has been placed in a private palliative care room and has a lot of bad days, but there are good days as well. We are thankful he is still able to spend several hours back at home on alternate days. We do not know if we will able to fulfill our commitment to MDS to stay here for the month of February. Time will tell.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

We put in quite the day today. We arrived at the house at 8:30 and worked until 3:30 (our usual time to quit) and had a coffee break of about 15 minutes in the morning and a lunch break for about 40 minutes at noon.

LIVING ROOM:

John had texture-sprayed the whole room yesterday and it was not dry enough to prime by day’s end. John prime coated the ceiling and then started on the walls. The ladies cut in the corners and around the windows and helped paint the walls. Because the original paint had been put on without a prime coat, the paint was falling off the walls and everything that could be scraped off, had been scraped off. Some of it would simply not let go. When we applied the primer coat, some of the old paint that could not be scraped off let loose and caused some problems. It was then realized that we would not be able to apply the final coat of paint in the usual drying time, but would have to allow the primer to dry COMPLETELY.

While the prime coat was drying, the men laid the lino in the living room. By 2 p.m., John and his ladies had the finish coat on the ceiling and walls completed. By 3:30, all the crown molding at the ceiling was on, all of the quarter round (which had also been purchased and painted this day) at the baseboards was installed, all of the beautiful 8 inch wood baseboard was cleaned up and the floor was cleaned up. The furniture was put back into the room, including the 72 inch flat screen T.V., the beautiful three-section black entertainment unit and couches along the walls, and the curtains put back on the windows, ready for Miss Rosella and Mr. Calvin to come home for the night.

John put the ceiling fan put back up.

We felt that to have this room completed from beginning to end, plus finish off the bathroom, in one day was nothing short of a miracle.

BATHROOM

Carolyn used every cleaner at her disposal, including her “Awesome” to try to make the very stained bathtub match the rest of the newly painted room. Norm had the new pipe to hook up the plumbing in the sink, as well as installing the second handicap bar. The curtain rod was put back up and the shower curtain hung back on. Agnes repainted the bathroom door and John installed a lock on the bathroom door after it was dry. Linda and Carolyn washed the plastic potted plants that were the only decoration in the bathroom.

SPARE BEDROOM

This room had been finish painted yesterday. Today, all of the paint supplies, etc. were removed and the floor was cleaned up and vacuumed in preparation of installation of the linoleum. The lino was laid, then the quarter round at the baseboard installed and repainted.

HALLWAY

The ladies started scraping the paint off the walls getting it ready to be painted.

ALL IN ONE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

First week in New Iberia Jan, 2011

FIRST WEEK IN NEW IBERIA, LA

It is always exciting to look forward to working with new people on a site where you have never been before. Some friends we have met on various sites had been in New Iberia and they had enjoyed it. The work here is classified as “revitalization”. We expect it to be much like we did at Cheek, Texas.

There was some confusion as to exactly where we were supposed to park our RVs, but we managed to get it all straightened out and now we are situated in the very nice KOC RV Park just outside of the city. New Iberia is about the same population as Prince Albert, but we are told it is fairly difficult to drive around in if you are not familiar with the streets. We will see soon enough.

First of all we have to get to work. We have never before worked with Project Director, Nelson, and Office Manager, his wife Patty, although we had met them briefly. Norman and Carolyn are the “experts” on the New Iberia area, having worked here on many projects. It is great that they can share their knowledge with those of us who have not been here before. Bernie and Agnes were with us in Marble Falls and have signed up here for the month of January. The other couple, besides ourselves, is Art and Hilda from Michigan. This is their first time with MDS RV. They have been going south for the last 5 years, but wanted to “do something productive” this year besides tour and enjoy the warmth.

The first home we are to work on is in Jeanerette, a small town about 12 miles south of New Iberia. Most of our clients are elderly, and this couple is no exception. The lady, Miss Rosella, a real sweet black lady is already simply loving to have us around. Her husband is kind of a crusty old gent and she has her hands full looking after him. He is able to walk, but just barely. They have home care for his needs.

Their home is a grand old home with 9 foot ceilings and huge rooms. It is relatively clean and uncluttered but in bad need of repair. On the sidewalk there was an indication this house was built in 1946! That makes it one year older than me… John immediately set to work drywalling the spare bedroom . They just put new gyproc on the ceiling, as it would have been more work to repair it. The outside wall had to be forced back in, as there was a 2 inch gap at the floor. John said what they need is eavestrough to prevent the water damage to the walls! He taped all the corners and fixed any spots that needed fixing. Now that bedroom is ready for the ladies to paint. We also have to paint two sets of shuttered closet doors.

The ladies have been working on scraping and painting the two large porches. Then the guys put up spindles on each porch (it didn’t have railing before) and put new screen all around. Painting the porches made the whole house look 75% better already. They figured they’d get that done before the forecasted rains and cold came.

We attended the local Cowboy Church Sunday morning and found a very friendly congregation. Sunday night our group traveled to Lafayette and attended a Southern Baptist Gospel Concert featuring the Southern Plainsmen at a Baptist Church. The group is from this area and their concert was excellent – the harmony was absolutely fantastic and they added just enough comedy to make for a lovely evening!

Mixed up messages

I just realized I had not posted my article from the trip home from Texas in December onto our blog, so I have just posted it and apologize for it being out of order in dates. I am glad I can include more pictures on the blog than in the paper.

I would be interested in knowing who'all is reading this blog. If you are, would you please let me know by e-mailing us at redwingbraun@hotmail.com. Sure would appreciate that.

Now I will post the next article from New Iberia.

Have a good day!

Leaving Marble Falls Dec 1, 2010

Minx


Miss Kaki in her new kitchen


The month end for MDS projects was November 26th . As our flight home was not until December 3rd, and there were still finishing touches required to Miss Kaki’s cottage, we worked an extra 3 days. At the last minute, the plumbing was not working and required further attention.

John had just learned “the rest of the story” regarding Miss Kaki. He and Mel had been visiting up at the concrete pad, and Mel told him that she really deserved this blessing of a special place to live. During the time she had been at the camp part time as a volunteer co-ordinator and commuting from Fort Worth, her daughter and son-in-law together with their grandson had ended up needing a place to live. Kaki moved into the basement suite in her house and sold the house to them for a low price, on the understanding that she would be able to live in the suite when she was back in Fort Worth, and would have a place to live in retirement. Since then, her daughter and her husband had marriage difficulties and divorced, requiring the house to be sold. This would be the first actual home Kaki had since this all happened, so everyone was very excited for her, and we were blessed to be a part of her excitement!

As our “project” was still not ready to begin, Mel said he had another job for the other ladies – I was still assisting with the cabin. His wife noted that the doors in their home were in dreadful shape and could use a paint job. The wife does not live with him full time, as they have two children they are putting through college and his job with the camp does not pay that well. She works for the University in a nearby city and they get together when they can. The ladies took all 15 doors off, including closet doors, removed the hinges and knobs, etc., and gave each door two coats of paint. They had been wood doors and were being painted white. When they were just about finished, they found another 4 doors in another wing of the house! The first two days, they were able to paint on Mel’s back patio, overlooking the lake and the meadow where our RV’s were parked. When it turned cold and windy, they were forced to take the rest of the doors to the large shop in the yard to be finished. Putting them back together again proved a bigger challenge than removing the hardware and required some assistance from the men.

Our tour at Marble Falls ended, we drove to Austin to catch our flight home on Friday, December 3rd. We could not have wished for a better flight. Everything was on time and went smoothly. We changed planes in Denver, where there was no snow yet. The first snow we saw was when we landed in Saskatoon. When we left Austin, the weather had been 75F degrees and we were happy to see it was only -8C in Saskatoon and the roads were clear.

So, don’t be surprised to see us in Prince Albert, from now until we fly back to Austin on December 29th. We will be spending Christmas with our family and traveling to Brandon to visit with Jake and Rita. Last word from there was that the radiation did not help the pain in his shoulder and he had had to double up on his medication. Unfortunately Rita has had a fall and injured her shoulder as well, so they will be happy for a visit. My Mom is also looking forward to having us home for at least over night.

Our daughter has adopted a cat from the SPCA in Prince Albert since we left, and he is a handsome fellow. Minx is a 9 year old neutered tabby/manx cross and has made himself quite at home with his mistress and the dog. However, with two new people in the house, he is having to adjust further. Probably by the time he has warmed up to us, we will be leaving again…

It was great to be back with our church family again. If you are looking for a church to attend over Christmas or at any time, we would love to invite you to Grace Mennonite across from the South Hill Mall. It is a small congregation with a fine young pastor and friendly welcoming people.

Ready for service in 2011

The month at home passed so quickly. It was already time to catch our plane back to Austin and carry on with our MDS work. Despite all the difficulties people in Eastern Canada and the U.S. were having with flying, our connections were all right on schedule and the flights were excellent. The Saskatoon airport was abuzz with young people in their shorts and sandals headed to Mexico to party big time. Made you wish you were young again! There were also several wedding parties headed to warmer climates to get married.

Driving from Austin to Marble Falls, we realized that we would miss this part of Texas, as the Louisiana countryside is much different. We were pleased to be back in summer weather.

Before heading out to Louisiana with our R.V., John noted that the two tires on one side were very weather-checked. We had a flat with a weather-checked tire last year when traveling, so he decided not to risk it and bought two new tires. The tire shop was very slow and we were in and out with two new tires in about 15 minutes!

Our first stop was at Brookshire. We were coming into Houston just before rush hour and decided we would wait until morning to go through. It is a very easy city to get through, as I-10 goes right through the centre of it and the markings are very clear in the pavement. The Good Sam campground was a little more expensive than we would have liked, at $33.00 a night, but it was nice and the lady gave us a $3.00 coupon which helped. I was pleased to have internet access.

Our second stop was Ben Rogers Welcome Centre in Beaumont where we hoped to say hello to our old friends, LaRue and Jessie; however, they were both off for New Years. The only one we knew was Joe, the maintenance man, so we gave him a big hug for them, and carried on to Johnson Bayou, LA. There were several friends I had hoped to see, but with the large RV and the road being quite narrow, it was not comfortable to be driving in places where we could not get in and out. The only place we could stop was the RV park where we had stayed when we worked there, and 76 year old Miss Flora Belle Trahan lived next door. Although we did not work on her house last year, our MDS friends did, and she remembered us from when we were there two years ago. It was obvious she did not get very many visitors, as she was totally delighted to have us show up on her doorstep, even if only for a few minutes. Her husband had passed away 9 months ago.

Then we continued on to New Iberia. We were not familiar with the area east of Lake Charles and chose to take a secondary road instead of I-10, as it looked like a good highway on the map. We soon realized that we should have taken I-10 all the way, as this was a poorly maintained two-lane highway. We did get to see country that we would not have seen otherwise.

We could not believe all the fireworks that were set off during New Years – New Years Eve and New Years Day and even the day after, it was like being on a firing range with the pop, pop, pop, starting at dark and going on until late at night. There are fireworks stands on just about every corner.

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.