NOMADS Drop-in Project @ URC in Louisiana

     Wow, I sure have been lazy about updating my blog lately!!
We headed south after spending Christmas week at Jeb & Lisa's and after enjoying a brief family Christmas get together at Joyce's sister's place. It was fun to see all of the kids and their spouses, including the recently married Alan & Janell. 

We left on Monday the 29th and drove to a Walmart in northern Arkansas to sleep overnight in our trailer. After a good nights sleep we headed down towards Monroe, LA to camp at a nice state park on Lake DuBonne? They honored my US senior pass which allowed us to camp in a full hook-up site for $12 a night. We stayed thru New Years Day, leaving Friday the 2nd to drive to Uskichitto Retreat Center down in the southwest part of LA. While we were in the Monroe area we had to stop by the Duck Commander warehouse to visit Duck Dynasty land. 

We settled into a nice campsite at URC and planned to start working Monday on some of the priority projects that Matt, the camp director had requested. Sunday we went into Lake Charles and attended the contemporary service at St. Luke - Simpson UMC. We grabbed a bite to eat and went grocery shopping before heading back to camp about 30 miles away.

Our first project was a big one. Cabin #4 had become unusable due to rotted floors in front of the showers in the 2 restrooms. The existing vinyl flooring was in poor condition and we
took it out. We cut out the rotted flooring in front of the shower in each restroom and beefed up the floor joists before replacing the plywood. After that we installed hardy board and Joyce started painting the walls before we started laying the new ceramic tile floor. By Thursday afternoon the ceramic was down and walls all painted. We decided to start the grouting on Monday. After we finished the grouting and sponge wiped the floors 3 times, I made some new baseboard out of old material that was left over. After painting the trim white I installed it while Joyce rehung light fixtures, mirrors and new shower curtains. I also made new transition thresholds and cut the bathroom doors off about 3/4" and reinstalled them.

The finished bathroom on the north side of Cabin 4

We wire-wheeled and painted 6 metal tables and 20 chairs that will be used at the pool this summer.

Top of yurt that was leaking during rains

Building a frame to cover the center of the yurts using scrap wood from the camp

Frame installed to yurt

Installing vinyl ribbed roofing

Installing vinyl ribbed roofing to frames

     Besides repairing the roof leaks on the yurts we also spent a day cleaning and organizing the maintenance shop building.

     

One of the weekends we drove over to New Orleans and visited the National World War II Museum. This is an excellent museum and was well worth the time and money spent to see it. We were both very impressed.

Flowering shrubs at URC

Visitors at the camp doing the high ropes and zip line

Deer Season...Family Fun Time!

Olivia and Cole check our Great Grandpa's 6 point buck!

Cole seems a bit nervous.

     Deer season in the UP is an important time for many Yoopers. Many gather at family deer camps for the majority of the 2 week long season. Normally we have Joyce's parents come up for the first few days of the season. This year was extra fun because in addition to Joyce's parents our son Jeb and his family were able to come up for a few days. Jeb had just completed 3 weeks at flight school in Columbus, OH being trained and type rated in a Cessna Excel Jet that he will fly for Netjets. He was given 12 days off which timed out good for deer hunting. We also had our nephew Scott, from North Carolina, fly in to Kinross to join in on the hunt. We were sad that his wife Melinda couldn't come too.

     It was a good time for all. Great grandpa was very happy after shooting a 6 point buck opening morning around 9:15. Jeb and Scott started hunting in the cedar swamp back on state land beyond our land. Jeb had a couple of wolves follow his tracks in to where he was sitting about an hour after daylight. One got within 30 or 40 feet from him before he scared them away. He later got a shot at a spike horn after he moved back out to the hardwoods.

Scott never saw much of any wild life other than a few birds. That's more of what I expected this year. I thought there would be a lot less deer considering the long cold winter last year along with the wolf kills. 

About 5 days before deer season opened I found moose tracks going through our yard and south through Joyce's parents property next door. I sure would have liked to have seen him in person...maybe someday??

Great grandma and Olivia doing some school work together

A fancy pancake for Olivia's breakfast

Mr. Cole having breakfast

Pretty cookies that Olivia and grandma made

Olivia loves helping grandma make cookies

 The kids always enjoy spending time in the hot tub when they are here

 The kids enjoyed watching a small doe eating apples that drop from our tree.

She came in several times so the kids named her "Snowflake"

Cole having fun playing with Legos

 The deer loaded and ready to head back home

     After a few days it was time for everyone to head home. We had a great time with all and the time passed much too quickly. Joyce made great meals for us to enjoy as we had fellowship together around the table during evening suppers. We were able to play some games together evenings. Our home is quiet now. We have been busy blowing snow most days since everyone left for home. We probably have picked up more than 18" additional snow since everyone departed.

    Tis the season I guess. It will be winter in another month.

Sugar Beet Harvest 2014

     We just returned from our 2nd season at the sugar beet harvest in the Red River Valley along the North Dakota / Minnesota borderline. This year we worked at the piling station near Stephen, MN which is about a half an hour east of St Thomas, ND where we worked at last year. I received a call back in July asking if I would be interested in taking a foreman's position this season. I accepted and was offered the day shift foreman position at Stephen which also had an opening in the scale house for Joyce. We were excited to get days and quickly looked up the campground at Stephen on Google along with a satellite view of the area. The campground was very nice with grassy, roomy full-hook-up sites, including cable TV and Wi-Fi less than 5 minutes from the piling site. We were asked to report to Express Employment on Sept. 11 or 12 to do our orientation and paperwork along with my drug test (required for foreman position).

 Our campsite in Stephen

We enjoyed the Disc golf course that surrounded our campground

 Stephen Scale House

 Karen & Joyce - the scale house girls

Karen ready to weigh another truck out

Joyce at her station receiving loaded trucks

      I worked pre-pile for several days before the main harvest started on Oct. 1st. This year was very unusual in that we did the full harvest 24-7 non-stop for 13 days. Normally you are held up at least a day or 2 along the way due to weather problems (heat, cold, too much rain) We finished our last truck at 8pm on Monday Oct. 13th. We had a great bunch of people to work with this year. Our agronomist, Todd, was a pleasure to work with. Karen, from Cambridge, MN, which is north of Minneapolis, was a wonderful working partner for Joyce. They enjoyed their time together in the scale house a lot. Our piler operators and ground crews did a great job and were lots of fun to be around.

 L to R: Hosea, Maria, Todd and Rachel enjoying a break in the scale house

Rachel and Julia, with Karen in the background - Julia always had a smile for us

 View of truck unloading beets into end dump from piler operator cab

 View of main conveyor running beets into the hopper which separates the dirt and sends them to the pile on the boom conveyor

 The 150' long dirt pile of mud and spilled beets that the foreman cleans up from around the pilers...the road became very muddy after receiving a small amount of rain the night before.

 Piler #2 control panel operated by the piler operator

This is the Chop Shack - where we inspect truck for frozen beets, or too many green tops or mud balls in a load. 

 Inside my John 524 front end loader

 Truck receives dirt back after unloading beets...Julia & Hosea working as ground crew

 Looking at Piler 1 and scale house from piler #2

 Julia shoveling spilled beets out of the way for JD loader to clean up

Looking down the center transit road  at the 2 piles we made in a couple of weeks

Transit truck heads to the sugar plant in East Grand Forks

A pile of sample bags...24 hours worth

Some of our crew helping load the sample bags into the loader bucket for me...I then drop them in the semi trailer to be taken to the lab at the sugar plant

A truck unloading sugar beets at Piler #2

I spent a lot of hours in this machine during harvest

 The sun sets over Piler #1 at Stephen as we conclude our 2014 harvest in record time with near perfect weather!

Happy Birthday Week!

 Olivia's "Elsa" cake and Cole's "Pirate" cake

     This past Saturday we celebrated our grandchildren's birthdays. They were both born the last week of August, ( Olivia the 25th & Cole the 31st ) so they celebrate together with one party. Lisa tries to make the whole week special for the kids. Olivia turned 6 and Cole 3 this year. We drove down on Thursday to help get ready for the party. 

      Also, we were excited to pick up our daughter Jenni at Metro Airport on her return from South Africa. The kids are always happy to have aunt Jenni visit. 

 Jenni, Olivia and Lisa

 Even Roman was dressed for the party

 Olivia and Cole dressed for the party

     Saturday at noon, family and friends from church showed up to celebrate the kids birthdays. We enjoyed some yard games, pizza, pasta salad, cookies, fruit and of course cake. Then it was time for the kids to open their presents.

 Olivia opening gifts

 Time to blow out candles

 Cole helping Aunt Jenni and Great Grandpa put together his new work bench

At 3 he really enjoyed opening gifts this year and could hardly contain his excitement 

 After gifts it was time for all the kids to enjoy cans of Silly String

Olivia made sure daddy got blasted as well