Enjoying Thanksgiving

Grandma enjoying time with Cole on Thanksgiving

     We enjoy our family a lot. This past Wednesday we headed down to Jeb and Lisa's to spend the Thanksgiving holiday. Thursday morning was consumed by lots of meal prep in the kitchen. The aroma from the kitchen was amazing as we waited for family members to show up for the 1pm dinner.

Nancy (Joyce's sister) checking out the turkey

Lisa slicing sweet potatoes

     The meal was delightful and as usual everyone ate too much! In addition to turkey we had dressing, corn, cheesy potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, cinnamon jello, cottage cheese, fruit salad on the menu. To satisfy the sweet tooth we had cookies, cheesecake, apple, pumpkin and cherry pie to eat. It was an amazing feast for which we were all thankful. We are truly blessed and need to appreciate how much we have to eat compared to many people around this world of ours.

Almost time to eat

Grandpa & Grandma Stuart ready to eat

     The most enjoyable thing of the holiday is the time together with family.

 Great grandma and Olivia playing with the I-pad

Cole was enjoying all the action

Emma and Olivia enjoying time together

    Overall it was a great holiday time together with family. In my next couple of entries I will cover some of the other things we did as a family over the weekend.

NOMADS - Uskichitto Retreat Center - LeBlanc, LA

      When we arrived at Uskichitto Retreat Center in southern Louisiana last March we were amazed at the beautiful scenery all around us. The Azalea's were blooming and were everywhere you looked. We were warmly welcomed by our NOMADS team leaders Jan and Marshall Neill. We also were greeted by in force hungry mosquitos looking to sample our blood. We found a beautiful campsite and settled in anxious to go to work. 

Uskichitto Retreat Center - colorful Azaleas everywhere

       Each morning, Monday thru Thursday, at 8 we would meet at the
 dining hall for devotions, followed by planning our days work. 

     Besides Jan & Marshall from Texas, we had Larry and Nina Weber
 from Illinois, and Bill and Carolyn Gast from Iowa on this project. 
We also enjoyed working with Matt the camp director and his assistant 
Sarah throughout our time at URC.

Larry and Nina leading music during morning devotions 
*notice the can of mosquito spray on Larry's hat!

Our nice full hook-up campsite

Jan & Marshall - our leaders

  Some of the projects we worked on at URC:

•  converting part of Cabin 5 to a 1 bedroom apartment retreat for pastors. We installed a new kitchen sink, drop in range, painted and decorated in this conversion. 
• power wash swimming pool and fill for season
• various plumbing and electrical repairs in the cabins 
• trim trees and shrubs, haul to burn pile, burn brush
• install vinyl skirting around the bottom perimeter of five cabins, office
• clean and reorganize maintenance shop
• completely rewire maintenance shop installing new lighting and receptacles
• build and install sound panels in chapel/activity building

   

 Larry sawing vinyl skirting

 Jeff and Bill working on kitchen in Cabin 5

 Joyce on the tractor - hauling brush

Bill and Sarah building a new cabinet at the maintenance shop

     Several times we were treated to lunch at the camp by volunteers from local churches, former camp workers, and even a NOMADS couple who live in the area and are no longer active members.

    NOMADS enjoy eating out! We ate Cajun quite often and even did Mexican once. We made a 20 mile trip to a DQ just to satisfy everyone's
longing for a Blizzard ice cream treat.

     We took a tour of some of the wildlife refuges in the area and saw lots of Gators and water fowl. We also were able to see some of the areas that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. 

    Overall we had an enjoyable 3 weeks at URC in Louisiana and enjoyed meeting and working with fellow NOMADS. We would love to return here again some time in the future to do another project.

NOMADS Project in Tucson AZ - Jan 30 - Feb 16, 2012

NOMADS Team - (L to R) John & Carol Herr, Gary & Jeanne Judson, 

Betsy & Bill Losey, Joyce & Jeff Fetters, Phyllis & Gene Noteboom,

Midge & Bub Morris

     Late last January we arrived at Hope United Methodist Church in Tucson Arizona to participate in our second NOMADS project. When we arrived at the project we were warmly greeted by our team leaders, Gary and Jeanne Judson.
After setting up our trailer in one of the full hook-up campsites provided by the church we took a tour of the facilities we would be working on for the next 3 weeks. Sunday evening we all met together to discuss the work projects that we planned to accomplish while there. 

Bub power washing the exterior of the church

     Some of the projects accomplished by the NOMADS team while there;

• Power washed church, education building and basketball courts.
• Sanded, caulked and cleaned windows in preparation for painting
• Removed weeds, brush, stumps and trimmed trees throughout property
• Primed and painted all windows, doors and trim on the church building
• Located water main and dug out to prepare for backflow preventer installation
• Painted outside cross and poles on basketball court
• Repaired broken fencing on baseball field
• Painted interior of Thrift Store, including new restroom
• Cleaned and painted air-conditioning units and vents on roof top
• Painted, made repairs to tables & chairs, and cleaned inside the church
• Worked at Billie's home (church member dying of cancer): plumbing, repaired closet doors, main entry door, and yard work.

 Jeff, Gary and Gene - spraying primer on church eves

Joyce painting trim above the front porch

 

Bub picking and digging that hard Arizona ground

     We enjoyed meeting and working with our fellow NOMADS who came from all over the US: Kansas, South Dakota, New York, Wisconsin, Indiana 

     During off times we went out to dinner together, traveled to Tubac AZ, visited San Xavier Mission, watched the Super Bowl game outside at John & Carol's motorcoach. 

 San Xavier Mission

Touring colorful Tubac, AZ

Enjoying the Super Bowl @ John & Carol's

    We had a wonderful time at Hope UMC and enjoyed meeting Pastor Jimmy and his church family. Frank Mendoza, the church liaison, was very helpful and we enjoyed our time together. Gary and Jeanne were excellent project leaders and we would love to work with them again in the future. We accomplished a lot of work together and had a lot of good times during our 3 weeks together.

NOMADS Project - Coleman MI

The NOMADS team @ Coleman, MI Faith UMC 

Leaders Bill & Lee Miller, 2nd & 3rd from the left

     We did our first NOMADS project in July 2011 at Faith UMC in Coleman, MI. We worked with 3 other couples, including Bill & Lee Miller, our leaders for 3 weeks. Faith was busy building a new church building on to their existing fellowship hall/kitchen. This new construction included a new sanctuary, offices, conference room, nursery, youth room, restrooms and choir room. This relatively small church was very fortunate to have an architect, and large electrical contractor among their congregation. They were doing the majority of the construction with volunteer work and had many talented and willing workers on site. The electrical contractor was very generous in loaning a lot of machinery to the church for the project. (excavator, back-hoe, bull dozer etc.)

 Dave watching Ruth screw OSB sheeting to wall panel

     We worked during a heat spell with temperatures in the 90's most of the time we were there. One of our assignments was to pre-fabricate wall panels from blueprints. We also worked on installing weeper tile and backfilling and compacting sand around the foundation. I was able to install about 85% of the rough underground plumbing while we were there. Joyce was my excellent helper while installing the plumbing.

 Dave running a compactor

Some of the plumbing underground rough-in

     We enjoyed our time on our first NOMADS project a lot. The team members were a great bunch of people. The people from the church were wonderful to work with as well. 

 Each morning we would meet at 8 for a short time of devotions, followed by a time of going over our work plans for the day

NOMADS do enjoy going out to eat

     We had a real nice introduction to the NOMADS on our first project. If you are interested in learning more about NOMADS check out: 

www.nomadsumc.org

Inside the new sanctuary - April 2012

Exterior - April 2012

     

Volunteering in Retirement

     When we were making plans to retire a few years ago we decided we wanted to have an "Active Retirement". We were't planning to just sit around and watch the world go by. 

     We wanted to travel and see places throughout our country. (we plan to take our pick-up camper on a trip to Alaska one of these summers) 

     We wanted to enjoy the challenge of long distance hiking trips. (so far we have hiked the Appalachian Trail from Springer Mtn. in Georgia to Duncannon, PA - over 1100 miles up and down mountains in all kinds of weather) 

     We didn't want to spend the long, cold winters in Michigan. (around New Years we head with the trailer to AZ and other points south until April)

     We were interested in finding volunteer work to do as well. (we joined the NOMADS and have done 3 projects with them, one in Michigan, another in Arizona and the last one in Louisiana) By the way, we learned that one of the jokes told at NOMADS projects deals with what the letters in NOMADS stand for: Northern Older Methodists Avoiding Deep Snow. We thought this was pretty funny when we first heard it.

     I will try to give you a little idea of what NOMADS the organization is all about and give some background on the 3 projects that we have worked at.

John & Joyce building walls for Faith UMC in Coleman MI

     NOMADS are people who...

• Are usually retired or close to retirement
• Enjoy traveling in a RV
• Are looking for a purpose and personal mission
• Want to share their Christian faith
• Enjoy using their skills in service to others

     NOMADS projects include...

• Building projects, maintenance, repairs, new construction, office work, painting, sewing, childcare or gardening
• Work at United Methodist-related agencies such as churches, church camps, homeless shelters, children's homes, mission agencies, disaster relief agencies
• Work at homes of needy families through host agencies

     NOMADS furnish...

• Their own RV and all costs for traveling to the mission sites
• Their own meals while at a project
• Their work time for three weeks, four days a week - totaling 24 to 28 hours per week
• Most of their own tools. Specialty items usually supplied by host agency

We camped behind an electrical contractor's shop in Coleman

     There are around 1100 active NOMADS throughout the country. In addition to the 15 normal 3 week work periods, there are often Disaster Rebuilding projects that are on going for several weeks at a time. Currently we have 2 in Alabama (tornados), 1 in Texas (wildfires) and 1 in North Dakota (flooding).

     I will follow up this entry with more specific details on the 3 projects that we have worked at in future blog entries.

Autumn Chores

Tamaracks changing colors before their needles fall

      Autumn is one of my favorite times of year. I enjoy the beautiful colors as the leaves change. The ferns go from green to yellow to brown over a short period of time. The temperatures are moderate to cool and the bugs that annoy you during the summer are gone. 

      It's a nice time to take long walks in the woods, go camping without the summer crowds, etc. Even though autumn is listed as 3 months in duration on the calendar it is in reality only about 2 months long here in the UP of Michigan. That's why it seems to go by too quickly every year. In addition there is always so much to do to prepare for winter which is just around the corner: raking leaves, trimming raspberry bushes, cutting and stacking firewood to sell, winterizing the travel trailer, changing oil and adding Stabil to the fuel tanks in the lawn tractor, mower, roto-tiller, sno-blowers, etc., putting shrubbery protective covers over the front bushes, etc. 

      One of our favorite things though is filling the hot tub with water and firing it up for the season. On a cold night relaxing in the hot bubbling water does wonders to your cold, tired and sometimes aching body. We enjoy using the tub at night the most, especially when the skies are clear and you can see the brilliant stars above, an occasional airliner or satellite traveling through the sky overhead. Some nights we are lucky enough to see a few falling stars while we stargaze.

      As mentioned before we have been quite busy cutting, hauling, stacking and selling firewood. We have lost count of how many cords of wood we have sold, but the total so far this year is in excess of 30 cords. It's a lot of work but it's good exercise and always fun to be in the woods. My chain saw broke down last week and we are awaiting repair parts. That has kind of forced us to slow down on the firewood a bit and focus on other chores around our place. Hopefully the snow will stay away awhile longer and we can continue working in the woods.

Firewood piles

 Thimbleberry unloading firewood