NOMADS Project @ Blue Lake Camp

Our camping sites at Blue Lake Camp

           We left our project at Moss Point by 0800 hrs Friday March 6th and headed to Blue Lake Camp in Alabama. Along the way we spotted a Wal-Mart and stopped to resupply. We arrived at Blue Lake around 1130 hrs and set up camp. We had lunch and at 1330 hrs we met with Mark (Facility Maintenance Director) and Terry (Camp board member) to check out what projects they had lined up for our NOMADS team. Saturday morning we welcomed Keith and Kris (full-time RVer's) the first of our team to show up. We had been invited to eat lunch at the camp dining hall, so shortly after they were set up we all headed for lunch.

      Brian and Marnie (brand new NOMADS from Minnesota) showed up next and settled in early afternoon. Roger and Beverly (also from Minnesota) showed up next and found a campsite that fit their motorhome. 
      Sunday morning we all headed into Andalusia to attend church at First UMC followed by a great lunch together at Larry's Bar-B-Q. After we arrived back at camp Bill and Ogie (full-timer RVer's from Hawaii), were waiting for us. Now our team was complete.

      We held our opening meeting around 6 that evening which gave everyone a chance to get acquainted and learn about the projects the camp had scheduled for us. 

 Roger and Brian installing a window at Pinewood

Brian cutting trim for the windows

 Roger checking out Bill's caulk job

 Ogie sanding the new queen bed frames we built

 We built and stained 23 new queen frames

 Keith and Bill taking bed frames up to the 2nd floor at Oakwood

Roger and Mark look on as Bill ties down the load of bed frames for delivery

 Bev and Marnie pre-drill slats

 Joyce, Ogie and Kris install new slats on the upper bunks

Roger and Bill digging it

We had to raise lamps up where we installed new bunks

 The water lines needed protecting at Pinewood

     We had several projects to work on during our 3 weeks at Blue Lake Camp:

Removed 8 single hung windows and replace with new casement windows at Pinewood. Also installed metal siding on a storage building at Pinewood. 

We built, sanded and stained 23 queen bed frames for Oakwood. These were placed in the 2nd floor over at Oakwood. We also moved six bunk beds up there and relocated several twin beds and frames thru-out Oakwood. We also repaired 4 doors and replaced a window at the nurse station. 18 new light fixtures in the solarium area in Oakwood. Several hundred 1x4 pine boards were stained and installed on bunk beds at Pinewood and Dogwood. Wood work in the solarium was washed down as well. Three protective covers were installed at Pinewood over water mains.

We enjoyed a game night - guys game & ladies game

Marnie made some great soup for game night along with these Dolphin fruit cups

Keith and Brian relaxing at the campfire

Smile Bill

Roger, Kris and Jeff roasting hot dogs - the rain hit about 15 minutes later

Marnie and Bev put on a fantastic meal for our last night together on the project as a team 

Thank you ladies for the great meal

Beautiful Blue Lake 

Love the color

     We had a wonderful team of NOMADS to work with and were truly blessed by each and everyone.

Community of Hope NOMADS Project 2015

     We left our drop-in project @ URC in Louisiana around Feb. 12th and drove to Moss Point, MS to lead a 3 week NOMADS project. This was the first project that we have been leaders at. We were hoping to give both the agency we were working for and our NOMADS team a good experience over the next 3 weeks.

Biloxi Lighthouse

     Our project was to work on homes in the Moss Point, Pasquagoula Mississippi area. Some of the repairs involved homes that still were suffering from damages  or faulty repairs left over from Katrina. Others were homes with terrible termite damages or needs such as barrier free ramps. The agency we worked for was Community of Hope that is aligned with United Methodist churches in the area. They provide a great deal of help to needy families in the area whenever possible. Our leaders from COH were Jack and Dee Boreing a wonderful couple who came to the area from Georgia shortly after Katrina to help organize repairs to the devastating damage from the hurricane. After 3 weeks they decided this area felt like home to them so they moved here permanently. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the area and the friendship, help and advise Jack and Dee gave us. 

Dee & Jack

      We had our opening meeting with our NOMADS team Sunday evening at Caswell Springs UMC. After greeting and introducing ourselves to each other we tried to answer questions about the first project we would be working on starting Monday morning after devotions. We then enjoyed sandwiches, chips, and ice cream and brownies for a treat before dismissing.

     We had a wonderful team of NOMADS. Herman & Levina (new NOMADS from Prince Edward Island, Canada), Roger & Beverly (from Minnesota) and Jo Perri (from North Carolina) *the above pic was taken at the Biloxi Visitor Center

     Our first project was at a home that a family of four lived in that was in need of a new living room floor. Some volunteers had installed cement board and ceramic tiles there after the Katrina disaster but the floor was now caving in and many of the floor joists were rotted by moisture. We began by demolishing the complete floor. We then placed a support 4x4 under the kitchen floor to eliminate the bounce out there. Next we installed new treated floor joists in the living room and put a support 4x4 under that space. Next we installed a 3/4" treated plywood subfloor with luan glued and stapled to that. We then installed a nice laminate floor on top and added fresh paint and trimmed out the room. We also installed 4 new window sills and purchased new 2" window blinds to finish things up. Outside we replaced a rotted fascia along the side of the carport. 

 Joyce helping with the demo

Roger installing beam under kitchen

 Jo removing old lumber

 Levina taking measurements down

Roger in the hole - ready for more plywood?

 Levina paints while others install luan

 The new laminate is down

 Joyce presents a bible from the NOMADS team to the family

Roger - lots of hugs and tears to go around

     The next project we worked on was to build a ramp down the rear deck at Miss Virginia's home. She is recovering from an injury and needs access to her outside storage building. The team built at nice ramp for her.

    One other project involved replacing the floor joists in a bedroom of an elderly lady that were rotted out due to termite damages.

     Our final project was to replace the ceiling in Miss Valetta's bedroom that had caved in. This once again was the work of termites. We demolished the rest of the ceiling that had not yet fallen and replaced all of the joists with new 2 x 8's, placed 1 x 3 slats every 16", installed new drywall, taped and mudded, painted the complete room, and installed new crown molding. 

 Termite damage

 Miss Valetta's home

 Miss Valetta surrounded by her loving daughters

 Roger, Jeff and Herman ready to install sheetrock

Putting on the final touches 

Miss Valetta excited to see her new bedroom

     We did spend one rainy day at Caswell Springs UMC doing various tasks:

patch and painting a large meeting room, refinishing window sills in the gym,

replace ceiling tiles, etc.

     Like all good NOMADS we enjoyed some after hours times of playing games and eating out.

 Game night

 Bozo's - great sea food for lunch - more than once!

Leo's - good food in Oceanside, MS

     One weekend Joyce and I went over to Mobile to tour the Battleship USS Alabama. In the park there was many military items: tanks, several planes, a submarine and of course the battleship. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and would recommend it to all.

Looking to the rear from the bow

 If you get tired...take a nap

      We found this huge tree while driving to the park for lunch one day...it was 25' around

Roger is still a kid at nearly 70...so up he climbs!!

     We really enjoyed leading this project. The agency COH (Dee & Jack), team members, project families, and others we met along the way were fantastic to work with. This was our first project that we have led and we were very pleased with how everything went. We hope to return to this project again in the future.

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