Whispers of Hope Horse Farm - NOMADS Project P3 -2014

NOMADS Team Period 3 @ Whispers of Hope Project in Wichita Falls TX

L to R - Mary Elizabeth Pearce (Director), Martha & Kent Mason, Betsy & Bill Losey, Pat & Don Fowler, Dave & Cathy Smith (leaders), Mary Lou & Paul Stark, Joyce & Jeff Fetters

Concrete slab & foundation for new offices and 20 stall horse barn

     While working Period 2 on a NOMADS project back in February we noticed that there had become an opening for the Whispers of Hope Horse Farm in Period 3. We were scheduled to work there during Period 4 so we volunteered to work the last 2 weeks of Period 3 at Whispers and were accepted. That gave us a week to relax and take our time driving from Arizona to Texas before starting there. We arrived Saturday, Feb. 22nd and were greeted by our leaders Dave & Cathy. We parked our trailer and settled in. Gradually over the weekend we met the other members of the NOMADS team. Bill & Betsy Losey from Kansas, Kent & Marsha Mason from NC, Mary Lou & Paul Stark from New York, Don & Pat Fowler from Nebraska along with our leaders Dave & Cathy Smith from Michigan. 

                         Horse Arena  >  

<<<<< NOMADS RV parking area

Whispers of Hope is a non-profit program that helps physically and mentally challenged children along with Wounded Warriors. It's a equine therapy program operated strictly by volunteers. It has been in existence for more than 12 years. http://whispersofhopehf.org

     Due to waiting for contractors to erect the steel building we continued to work on other needed projects around the farm: 

 

Kent & Don make repairs to playground equipment

Martha & Joyce cleaned and painted the restrooms

 Bill is painting one of the awards stands that he and I built

 Joyce and Martha using wire wheels to prep fence for painting

Joyce painting road front fence and new gates hunter green

Kent and Don heading back to work in the Mule

Finally on Tuesday of our last week the metal starts going up.

It was exciting to see the progress made each day.

    We had a great time with this group of NOMADS. It was especially interesting as this was only the second project for "Newbys" Kent & Martha. While many of the others have been doing NOMADS projects for many years. We all blended well together. We were very lucky to have lots of musicians in our group which made morning devotions a lot more fun. Martha played the keyboard, Kent played his violin, Mary Lou played her mandolin and Paul had a variety of guitars to choose from. We had weather that was like being on a roller coaster with one day only reaching 20 degrees, while others were in the 70's.

    Next time I will cover Period 4 at Whispers of Hope!

Wesley Community Center - Phoenix - NOMADS Project

NOMADS Team @ Wesley Comm. Center - Period 2, 2014
Enjoying a meal together: L to R, Charles, Carol (leaders), Rose, Irv, Debbie, Thom, Steve, Sandy, Emma (Wesley Operations Director) Betty (Wesley Exec. Director), Joyce

    We arrived at Wesley Community Center in Phoenix Saturday, Jan. 25th and set up camp in their parking lot. We had a total of 5 NOMADS couples on this project including our leaders Charles & Carol Townsend from Washington state, Irv & Rose Barrett from Portales NM, Thom & Debbie Abrahamson from Lemoore CA, Steve & Sandy Drake from Tulsa OK. Thom & Deb and Steve & Sandy are full-time RVer's. 

    The Wesley CC is community health center primarily and has a very active after school program as well. During the 3 weeks were there we completed numerous projects for them.

We built a center privacy wall in the lab

We built a new reception desk & counter

Sandy painting the new short wall

Irv & Steve installing new cabinets in office

New swinging door we built and installed

The restrooms were cleaned and painted

The janitor closet was given fresh paint

The ladies cleaned and organized the kitchen

     We had a fantastic 3 weeks working with our fellow NOMADS. The people at the medical center were friendly and very cooperative as well.

     While in the Phoenix area we went over to my sister, Gwen's house to visit her and my parents. We try to do some chores that they need done while we are there visiting. This year we built ramps to the back door and the storage shed.

New ramp to the back door

 New ramp to storage shed

New power lift for dad's scooter

Briefly Visiting Our Friends in Texas

Erma "Flame" & Tom @ Dallas Arboretum

     We have been traveling in warmer climates since New Years, and from the sounds of things back home this winter it was a great decision. We spent the winter in Arizona and Texas doing volunteer work with the NOMADS and visiting my family. (I will write about our NOMADS projects in future blogs)

     I haven't blogged in a long time due to lack of consistent internet service while traveling along with procrastination. We recently completed our last NOMADS project in Wichita Falls, TX and headed to Edgewood to visit our friends Flame & Tom for a couple of days. We arrived Tuesday afternoon and were, as usual, warmly greeted by Flame. Flame had just recently returned from a tour of New Zealand and Australia. We spent the rest of the day catching up and enjoying photos from her trip. After a late supper of salad and pizza we were all tired and soon headed to bed. The next morning after breakfast we headed to Terrell TX to visit the British Flight Training Museum. In 1940 while England was under attack from the Nazi's they sent young men via Canada to Texas for flight training using our American flight instructors. It was a rather secretive program until we declared war in December of 1941. The museum is free and is nicely done. I would recommend taking time to visit there if you are in the area.

     After leaving the museum we headed to the Dallas Arboretum to enjoy the colorful blooms.

This was a great time to visit as the tulips were in full bloom. I will let the following pictures speak for themselves. I was so naturally beautiful, that we spent close to 2 hours strolling through the colorful gardens. If you visit Dallas this should be on your "must do" list.

     After we visited the arboretum, we went downtown to see a really neat cattle drive sculpture display. It is quite amazing to see.

     On the way back to home we stopped in Terrell for a nice Mexican late lunch/early supper. As we drove thru town we noticed a few of the buildings had murals painted on them. 

     We had a great visit with Tom and Flame even though it was short. Thursday morning after a quick breakfast we hooked up the trailer and said our good-byes. Thank you Tom & Flame for the great time as always. We miss you already!!

We Do the Sugar Beet Harvest...Say What?

Sugar beet pilers @ St Thomas, ND

     Before we were offered the hosting position at Colwell Lake late in June, we had sent in applications to work the sugar beet harvest in the Red River Valley along the North Dakota / Minnesota border. We decided that it would be a good way to supplement our retirement income. The extra income would allow us to avoid using any of our 401K funds or personal savings to fund vacation travels, NOMADS volunteer work projects travel and maintenance needs (tires for the truck, etc.) We had talked to friends of ours, Simon and Susan, that did the harvest in Sidney MT last fall. They said the work was hard, long hours, dirty and paid well. They also said they thought we would enjoy it. 

    Well around mid-July I received a call from Chad, head of the harvest in the Drayton district. We had an enjoyable conversation about the harvest and I was offered the chance to work as a foreman trainee this year based on my previous work experience in supervision. The seasonal workers are hired by Employment Express, which has an office in Grand Forks, ND. We were told to plan on reporting to them on Monday, Sept. 16th. The harvest hires both local seasonal workers and work-campers (those of us who travel with our RV's. The nice part of the deal, in addition to decent wages, is that Crystal Sugar pays for all of our full hook-up campsites. 

 Our campsite in Grafton, ND

 The park where we were camped

Part of the Disc Golf Course we played

     After we visited Employment Express in Grand Forks, where we received our orientation, we were assigned a campground in Grafton, ND. The site was nice and located a beautiful city park. The park was bordered by the Park River and had many flower gardens throughout. One enjoyable part was the Disc Golf course that we played several times.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

North Scale-house where Joyce worked @ St Thomas

 Trucks lined up 2 abreast at piler #1 

      The sugar beet industry in the RRV is huge. There are over 2800 farmers that have created a co-op that grow, harvest and process the sugar beets. There are around 430,000 acres of sugar beets planted in the RRV each season. The annual harvest is close to 11 million tons of sugar beets. There are something like 38 piling stations spread throughout the valley. Most piling stations have 2 pilers, while St Thomas where we worked had 4 pilers and at the Drayton factory there were 8 pilers. 

     The first 2 weeks we were doing pre-pile which is piling beets that are immediately transported to the sugar plant for current production needs. This time period gave us a chance to learn various piler jobs and I was able to get certified to operate the Skidsteer and pay loader as well.

      Joyce and I started the full harvest on Tuesday evening of October 2nd. The full harvest runs 24/7 thru the majority of the harvest which usually lasts around 3 weeks. We worked a 12 hour shift from 7pm to 7am due to Joyce being offered a position working the scales with Phyllis her partner. Phyllis is from the local area and has worked the scales for many years. Phyllis was a good trainer and she and Joyce had a good time together. My position was called Assistant Foreman, which as best I could tell was used to train you in a variety of positions at the station. Our foreman, Michelle, was a hard worker that treated her people well. I spent the first week mostly working on the ground at piler #1 due to staffing shortages. After that I did a variety of positions including relieving piler operators for breaks, working with the oiler/mechanic, Simon, lubing the pilers, relieving piler ground positions for breaks or shortages, testing for frozen beets when temps dropped too low, etc. Michelle spent time with me explaining the foreman's duties and various problems that may pop up. Our agriculturist, Rich, and Chad asked if we would be interested in coming back next year and would consider being a foreman. We will see what is offered...

     At this point we feel we will be back next year. We met a lot of nice people. The work was hard, challenging, and the hours long, but we feel that it is a great way to earn excellent wages for only a few weeks work. 

          We are happy to be home, but are very happy that we took the time to try out the sugar beet harvest in North Dakota. Another adventure we have enjoyed in retirement.