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

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.