A Little Between Time

Wednesday, April 15 – Saturday, April 18, 2009

Wednesday, April 15

Happy Birthday to Aunt Glennis Wright in Marianna, Florida!!!

This morning before saying our goodbyes to the volunteers in Ethridge, Tennessee, we took time to have one last photo with our “Toccoa” friends Mike and Renee from Ohio and Lynn and John Worley from Georgia.

After having the morning devotional and breakfast with the group, and then as they all drove off to the new church site for the day, we turned our attention to getting Big V ready to travel again.
Getting ready to move includes straightening the inside up so the slideouts can be pulled back in, disconnecting the water and sewer lines and the electricity, and then backing Big V up to the trailer so we can prepare to load the Vibe. All in all, it takes nearly an hour to have everything loaded and buttoned down so we can head on down the road.

Around 8:30 we pulled away from the church and started off on the day’s journey to northern Georgia, between Blue Ridge and Blairsville. The route took us south on Highway 43 to Lawrenceburg and then east on U.S. 64 to Chattanooga.

We did just fine until we got on a bypass loop around Dalton, Georgia, and missed our cutoff. When we drove back into Dalton, we realized that we had done something horribly wrong, so we stopped and got directions from one of the local store managers. Armed with information about what to look for, we continued the trip without incident, although Barbara did call our friends, Jere and Gwen Akin, to let them know we were going to be later getting to their home than we anticipated.

All went well though, and we arrived at the cutoff to Jere and Gwen’s house right at 4:30. They were at the highway to meet us and guide us back up to their house. We needed the guiding service, because there is a quarter mile of narrow gravel road that we had to follow along the way, and they went ahead to stop any oncoming traffic, since there was no way that two vehicles could meet and get by each other for that short length of the road.

We arrived at the house in time to get a quick tour and then left with them to attend the Wednesday night supper and Bible study at their church, First Baptist of Blairsville, where we met some really friendly folks, got reacquainted with Pat Baldwin, one of the ladies we worked with at Toccoa last fall, enjoyed a wonderful supper, and had a tremendous Bible study-an introductory lesson about the lives (and deaths) of the 12 Apostles. My only regret was that the series would be a tremendous history lesson and we wouldn’t be there to hear it!

We returned to the house to unload a few things from Big V since we were staying in their gorgeous upstairs guest room complete with a breath-taking view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Then we visited the rest of the evening away, catching up on each other’s activities since we last saw each other in Toccoa in October.

Since it had been a long day for all of us, we called it a night fairly early and headed for bed and a good night’s sleep.

Thursday, April 16

What a fun-packed and adventurous day this turned out to be!

First, I awoke very early and went downstairs to check my email. Jere soon made his appearance, did his morning workout, and then we went out to the hot tub that sits on the lowest landing of the house and overlooks the joining of the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains to the north…a great way to begin a morning.

While Jim and Jere were out enjoying the hot tub, I did some photo taking of the views around the Akins lovely home. Some of these photos were taken later in the day by Jim as he surveyed their land. Awesome place!
When everyone began to seriously gin around, Gwen fixed a wonderful breakfast for us and then we headed out for the days adventures.

The first stop was at First Baptist Church, where we got to see the inside of the sanctuary. They were doing some remodeling inside, so we didn’t take pictures, but it truly is a beautiful facility.
From the church, we drove down to the town square to visit the old county courthouse, (photo on left) which is now a museum and a site for local concerts. The upper floor of the building, the courtroom, is now used as a small concert hall. The museum houses a number of northern Georgia’s historical artifacts and has a special room just for military history.

We left the museum and began the drive out of town through the Chattahoochee National Forest toward Helen, the quaint little German-style village that Bob and Nell took us to last fall. Before we had gone very far, Jere stopped at an old grist mill that is not only still in operation (they were grinding grits this morning), but also houses a little market where we saw a wide variety of jams, jellies, preserves, and syrups. Of course, we just HAD to make a few purchases there.

Back on the road again, we wound through the mountains, stopping at a couple of specially marked scenic views to take some pictures. While the pictures turned out very nicely, they can’t begin to capture the grandeur and scope of the beautiful northern Georgia mountains…some things are just meant to be enjoyed in person!
We arrived in Helen around noon, looked through a couple of shops, and then decided to have lunch at a little restaurant, “The Troll,” on the banks of the Chattahoochee River. Since it was midweek, there wasn’t much of a crowd, so we were able to sit outdoors and enjoy the view as we munched on brats on a bun and German potato salad.

After eating, Barbara and Gwen visited some of the shops while Jere and I sat outside in the town square and enjoyed the warm sunshine while doing some serious people-watching.

We left Helen and headed back to Blairsville on a different route, this time going through the town of Hiawassee where we stopped to get tickets to an upcoming concert at the fairgrounds. Then, it was back to Blairsville for more visiting while Gwen cooked up a virtual banquet for us.

We whiled the night away by talking and showing Gwen and Jere the DVD that Barbara made of the church building project for Liberty Hill Baptist Church.
Soon, it was again time to call it a night. Jere was scheduled to get up and out early so he could join some college classmates for a golf tournament tomorrow morning, and we needed to get things put together so we could load Big V and take off on the next leg of the journey.

Friday, April 17

Even though I woke up earlier than usual this morning, I just missed seeing Jere before he left for his golf tournament. But, Gwen stayed behind and fixed us breakfast fit for royalty…if we stayed here much longer, we’d have to leave the car parked and just walk up and down the mountain to try to keep up with the calorie count!

After saying our goodbyes and thanking Gwen for their wonderful hospitality, we loaded Big V and followed Gwen down the mountain (she led the way so she could stop any oncoming traffic) and then took off toward Toccoa, traveling back through Hiawassee and Clayton before coming to the cutoff to Toccoa.

We arrived at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center around 12:30, checked in at the office, went to the dining hall to visit friends there, and then, after leaving the trailer in the lower parking lot, drove Big V and the Vibe up the hill (and narrow, dusty road) to the campgrounds, where we located the site we wanted, parked, and set up housekeeping for the next three or so weeks.

As it did last fall, our site overlooks Lake Louise and the beautiful woodlands that surround it. Now though, we see the gorgeous spring colors and green trees…what a beautiful place to come serve our Lord!

We spent the afternoon and evening cleaning house, washing clothes, and doing all the thousand and one chores that come with setting up the RV, and then went down to the dining hall to enjoy an evening meal and meet with Jesse and Nancy Fairfax, coordinators for the volunteers, who had also come in a couple of days early to line out the job assignments for the volunteers who will arrive between now and Sunday evening.

Saturday, April 18

With the house set up and no chores to take care of today, we decided that even though we had been driving or riding the last couple of days, we’d go off for a little quiet time together. So, we threw a change of clothes into the Vibe and headed off to see the mountains, driving through stretches of the Chattahoochee National Forest, the northern Georgia and southern North Carolina reaches of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the southern section of the Great Smokey Mountains.

No chores, no responsibilities, and a beautiful Saturday…what a way to spend some time away together to regroup and refresh before starting a new volunteer mission in Toccoa!

“Without Friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” Aristotle

Hiding away in the Great Smokey Mountains,
Jim & Barbara

A Little Time in Middle Tennessee

Saturday, April 4 – Tuesday, April 14

We awoke to a bright and sunshiny Memphis morning, just perfect for another stretch of traveling. We pulled away from Agricenter International at 8:05 and made our way a few miles northeast to I-40, where we joined the interstate traffic headed east on the big road.

Just a few miles past the Jackson exits we turned off on Highway 412 to wend our way through three hours of beautiful Tennessee countryside. Words can’t express the beauty of the scenes we saw, and we didn’t take pictures along the way, so you’ll just have to take our word for it, this area is beyond beautiful during the spring!

We arrived at our destination, the building site for the new Liberty Hill Baptist Church near Ethridge, Tennessee around 12:30. After greeting Lynn and John Worley, friends from our previous mission trips in Lady Lake, Florida, and Toccoa, Georgia, we met George and Margaret Bradley, who are the volunteer coordinators for the project.

When we got the Vibe off the trailer, I moved Big V out of the way so one of the workers could hitch it to his pickup and park it at the site (there wasn’t room for it where we would be parking Big V).

Meanwhile, Barbara started taking pictures of the construction site and then was asked by Margaret to be the official historian for the project.

Unfortunately, we weren’t here when the work started yesterday morning, so we didn’t have any pictures of the “blank canvas, but we found that a crew of more than 35 volunteers from a church in the northeastern part of the state had arrived Thursday night when there was nothing but a concrete slab. By the end of the day on Friday, all of the ironwork and wall frames had been erected and stabilized. When we arrived on Saturday, a small crew of volunteers was setting in the steel trusses for the roof.

We took a couple of hours to take Big V to the parking lot of the temporary church facility in town to get set up for the duration of our stay. The Disaster Relief Team of the Tennessee Baptist Convention had provided a special shower trailer for the volunteers that had not only six shower stalls, but a compartment holding a washing machine and two dryers. George Bradley told us that he had overseen the design and construction of the trailer, which was making its maiden voyage on this project.

While I made some final adjustments to our setup, Barbara took advantage of the time to wash and dry the load of dirty clothes that we had accumulated since leaving East Texas. Then, with our house set up, the laundry done, and my tools all gathered and placed in the Vibe, we drove the seven miles back out in the country to the worksite and began our volunteer activities.

The crew that started work yesterday had at least six construction contractors and a number of construction workers, and had a lot of experience working together. That being said, I found myself starting out on the project as a general flunky (which really is an important job because it keeps a skilled construction worker busy at what he does best, rather than fetching and hauling). My job for the afternoon was to wait beside the building with another volunteer while two other men brought the long sheets of roofing metal to us. We would then hold the sheet until one of the men on the roof called for it and hand it up to him so he could slide it to the workers who would place it and bolt it down to the trusses.

The first thing I was taught about this job was that as soon as the roofing sheet was out of our hands and being pulled up to the roof area, we were to step as close to the building as possible, the reason being that if the man on top should lose control of the sheet and drop it, it would slide to the area where it left our hands with the full force and cutting power of a guillotine blade…not something that anyone would want to have happen!

The work went well, and by quitting time at 5:30, about three-fourths of one side of the roof was covered. Meanwhile, another crew was working on the other side, setting in the channels to which the roofing material will be attached when we start the next session.

Barbara immediately went to work taking still photographs and movies around the construction site to document the rebuilding project.

With the site straightened up and the trash of the day thrown away, we returned to the church in town to change clothes, rest a bit, and have a wonderful home cooked dinner of spaghetti and meatballs with the volunteers before going into Big V to settle in for the night.

Sunday, April 5

Happy Birthday to Aunt T.J. Logan in Mineola!!!

It was a wonderful day for us today. First, we slept in, and then took our time getting ready to attend the morning worship service at the temporary home of Liberty Hill Baptist Church.

A few minutes before the service began we walked over to the church and met some of the members, all of whom went out of their way to introduce themselves and let us know how happy they were to have us here with them.

Then, we went into the sanctuary and enjoyed a great time of singing, worshipping, and hearing a much-needed and very meaningful sermon from Pastor James Nave.

Following the service, we made a run to the nearest Wal-Mart (about 4 miles from the church) to get some bread for an informal luncheon with the volunteers who were sticking around for the weekend.

Then, it was time for some Sunday afternoon downtime, including reading and a nap. We figured this might be the last chance to get a nap for a while, and we shouldn’t waste it.

Margaret had heard me practicing my trumpet last night, so when we got up from our naps and ventured outside, she asked me if I would mind playing something during tonight’s service. I said that of course I wouldn’t mind, so I grabbed the hymnal and looked up a couple of hymns that I thought followed up on the pastor’s morning message.

Late in the afternoon our friends from Virginia, Rod and Ruth Kunkel, arrived to join the volunteers, so we visited with them for a bit and then we all went to the service. Pastor Nave said that he wanted to do something a little different tonight, so we had a very informal time of singing and sharing. In addition to playing the trumpet, I ended up singing bass in a hastily put-together gospel quartet.
We had a great time worshipping and sharing together in a service that helped set the stage for the coming days of working together on this special building project. When the service ended, the pastor’s wife, Corinne Nave, asked all the women to stay behind. We men weren’t paying much attention to what was going on, but we found out later that Corinne each of the ladies a rose to welcome them to the Liberty Hill Baptist Church family and thank them for the work they would be doing.

Monday, April 6

Happy Birthday to Cousin Lynette Sandley in Birmingham, Alabama!!!

After joining the crew for breakfast at the church, we discovered that the weatherman was, unfortunately, correct with his predictions for today…cold, cloudy, and rainy…not the optimum conditions for construction. However, the large crew of roofers and others gathered at the work site and got down to business.

Rod and I spent the day framing windows and setting the hat-channels that will eventually support the steel siding on the building. Meanwhile workers were busy all around us doing the many different tasks associated with building construction…roofing, installing windows, cutting and shaping the various pieces of steel, etc…much more work than one imagines when looking at a finished building.
Even with the cold, wet weather, the concrete people showed up to pour the slab for the fellowship hall, a building that will be 70 X 40 feet when completed. Because of the weather conditions and our time frame for construction, they had to mix special chemicals in the concrete so it will set up and harden faster.

Because it was so wet and cold, we all went back to town for a hot lunch that was prepared by Joyce and some of the other ladies…it was becoming very obvious that this will not be a dietetic mission trip!

The afternoon was more of the same, as we continued preparing the outer framework of the building for the siding that will eventually be installed by a group of Baptist Builders, and then we dragged ourselves back to town around 4:00, looking somewhat like a couple of nearly drowned rats and trying unsuccessfully to get the wet, red clay out of our boots and off of our jeans.

After I showered and changed into some clean clothes, Barbara and I drove to Wal-Mart to find an electric space heater for Big V. Because we are on only 20 amp power, we are very limited as to what we can run in the house, and found out the hard way that the electric heat pump pulls all the available electricity and then shuts down.

What we found when we got there was that they had been sold out of space heaters for several weeks, so we satisfied ourselves with buying a handful of necessities and then returned to the church for our evening meal and some visitation with the volunteers about the day’s activities.

The weather and work had taken its toll on our minds and bodies, and we were in bed and asleep by 8:30.

Tuesday, April 7

After a somewhat fitful night (we both woke up around 3:00 and I didn’t get back to sleep until 4:30), we awoke to the sound of our alarm clock going off, letting us know that it was time to get up and hit the work again.

We ate breakfast with the rest of the crew and then Rod and I drove out to the work site to begin our efforts, while Barbara and Ruth stayed behind to review the many, many photographs that they and others had taken of the church rebuilding. There is no doubt that with all the folks taking and sharing pictures, this will be a very well-documented project.

The first order of the day was to get a fire going in a large barrel so we could occasionally wander by and warm our hands. Then, we all settled in to the jobs that John Worley assigned us.

Because Rod and I had worked together on the Crossroads Community Church in Lady Lake, Florida, John had us team up and start to work correcting some problems that had occurred during the framing of the church. It seems that in their haste to put all the walls together, someone had overlooked the fact that there was supposed to be a door at one corner of the building. So, we set about cutting out the channels that someone had so laboriously installed so we could install door frames. Now, keep in mind that the two building we are working on are steel buildings, and there is nothing easy about making changes. But, we soon had a new doorframe installed and tightened down, and were ready to move on to our next project.

Again, we were working on a door, but this time we had to take the door that was already installed at floor level and raise it exactly 21 inches to accommodate a platform that someone had added into the building plans. This was a bit more of a challenge, but in a couple of hours, we had cut out or unscrewed enough channels and beams that we could get up on ladders, grab the existing doorframe, and lift it into place before screwing everything back together. When it was finished, no one knew that it hadn’t been planned that way. Meanwhile, Barbara was busy taking pictures and setting up a blog site just for the church rebuilding project. Margaret and George Bradley, the project coordinators, wanted some way to let the folks back home know what was happening here, and Barbara explained that she could set up a blog site and add to it each day, letting everyone who cared see a daily progress report.

Since it was still a little cool and breezy, we went back to town for lunch and a little break and then returned to the work site. The original plans were for the ladies to bring lunch out to the site, but the weather was refusing to cooperate today.

By early afternoon it started warming up and Rod and I were able to move over to the new slab, the foundation for the fellowship hall, and start measuring, cutting, and putting together the base channels in which the beams would be set.

It was at this point that I was reminded of the importance of the work of the instructors at our vocational-technical school in Liberal. I always admired and respected Ed Poley and his faculty at Southwest Kansas Vocational Technical School for the way they worked with our Liberal High School students who wanted to pursue that education and training. Ed and I worked closely together to give those students every possibility to get the best training possible, because they would be the ones who would be building houses, working on our cars, and assisting with important medical services in the future.

When we had completed the church project in Florida back in 2007, I told Ed that I had a whole new appreciation for what his staff was teaching. For those who don’t know, construction work involves a whole lot of practical mathematics, including theory and practical measurements, and the skills necessary to apply them at the work site; “close” and estimation aren’t good enough.

In that project and the one we are working on now, a small error in measurement at the beginning of a wall magnifies to a huge problem at the other end, resulting in having to do the whole thing over…wasted time, effort, and money Luckily, that hasn’t happened to me (yet), but I’m more aware than ever of the importance of precision, not only in the planning process, but in the execution of the plans, and I have the utmost respect for those who do this work on a daily basis.

Okay…enough of the sermonizing…by the end of the day we had set one side of base channels and other crew members moved in to help put in the beams (which are laid out on the slab, spaced, held together by steel half-channels and at least a kazillion screws). Finally, one wall (70 feet long, with a peak of nearly 35 feet), was nearly finished and ready to be lifted into place.

Weary with well-doing, we returned to the church in town for our evening meal and a night of rest.

Wednesday, April 9

What a day!

Today was jam-packed with activity at the work site, keeping me busy with the construction and Barbara busy with taking, editing, arranging, and publishing pictures for the church blog site.

The main task for the day was to raise the wall we finished putting together yesterday, spending quite a bit of time with it. Even with the help of the crane, it took a lot of manpower to raise the ends of the wall. At 70 feet in length, the wall had a great deal flex in it, so we men would lift up the ends and walk them to a vertical position while the crane lifted from the center. Barbara got some great movie shots of the lifting, but they don’t transfer into anything that we can put on the blog or in the journal; however, her camerawork was very impressive when she transferred the footage to a DVD.

When I got a little break from working on the wall, I grabbed the camera and got a shot of some of the wives who were patiently waiting for the men to raise the walls and get on with the building.

When the back wall of the fellowship hall was in place, we began the construction of the front wall, a duplicate of the back. After raising it, we then constructed and raised the two end walls, a much easier task, but still time-consuming. In fact, it was nearly 6:30 p.m. when we finally called it quits…11 hours of straining and sweating, but a lot of pride in the accomplishments of the day.

Needless to say, the entire crew was beyond dog-tired when we got back to the church for supper, but with a good meal under our belts, we were able to participate in the Wednesday evening service before heading to Big V to collapse for the night.

Thursday, April 10

While today was not as lengthy and difficult as yesterday, it was still full of activity for the crews as we straightened beams and secured the walls we put up yesterday. The key words in construction, as we have found, are “level,” “square,” and “plumb.” When each piece or segment meets those qualities, the structure is at its strongest, and will allow the siding, roofing, and other elements to add to stability, strength, and appearance.

With that in mind, we checked every beam to meet the requirements so that when it comes time to set in the trusses and panel the roof, there will be minimal problems. As John Worley explained to me, the first part of the job is done correctly, there is a good chance that there will be fewer problems down the line; however, if the first part is incorrect, there is a hundred per cent chance that everything that follows will be wrong. As I stated earlier in the week, it is all about precision measurement and execution of each task.

While some of us were working on the skeleton of the fellowship hall, another crew was building the steel trusses for the roof, and yet another crew started putting up the siding on the back of the sanctuary building…plenty of work for everyone, and more than enough photography for both our blog and the church blog.

At day’s end, we were very close to being ready to start lifting the trusses and setting them in place to form the roof of the fellowship hall, but that would be a lengthy task, and many of the crew members would be leaving us tonight to return to their homes in other parts of the state, so we cleaned up the work site, put everything away, and headed back into Ethridge for supper and some much-needed rest.

Friday, April 11


Rain came in this morning and more was promised for later in the day, so Rod, John, Lynn, and I found ourselves as the construction crew for the day. Pastor Nave delivered parts so we could build two 30-foot scaffolds, and the construction of those kept us busy for quite a while. Tom, one of the church members, came out for a bit to give a hand, but for the most part, it was the four of us taking care of some of the loose ends that needed to be fixed before we could continue construction next week. Meanwhile, Barbara and Ruth stayed behind to review photographs from the week and work on a DVD presentation for the Sunday night church service.
The weather was a little unsettled, but mostly we were getting clouds and cool winds. That is, until all of a sudden the sky turned black and it started raining and hailing. Rod and I quickly finished framing a door and then the three of us packed away our tools, secured the site, and headed back to Ethridge…it was already noon, and we decided that it was time to call it a week.
When we got back to the church, we found that we were under a tornado warning, so those of us who were here for the weekend huddled in the church to listen to the emergency weather broadcasts and have some lunch.

When they announced that a tornado was crossing over from northern Alabama and was on a course for Ethridge, Barbara and I ran to Big V, closed in the slideouts, gathered our computers, cameras, Bibles, and my trumpet, and got back into the church, just in time for the bottom to drop out of the clouds.

While there is a “tornado room” in the church, we spent most of our time in the dining room area so we could listen to the weather radio and watch out the windows as the storm approached. We really got concerned when we saw the rain and hail blowing from left to right in front of the church and then suddenly switch directions and blow back with equal strength from right to left.

As it turned out, there was tornadic activity, but the tornado didn’t set down in Ethridge as predicted, not that we were disappointed. Since a second wave of activity was to hit our area later, we all stayed in the church until around 3:30. By then, the clouds had blown away and we were treated to clear skies, almost as if nothing had happened. Still, we couldn’t help but reflect on the fact that it was only one year ago tomorrow that a tornado struck the Liberty Hill section of the county, destroying the Liberty Hill Baptist Church and several houses, an event that brought us all together this week to join in the rebuilding of the church…what a dramatic anniversary remembrance!

Thank goodness we were all safe and sound, but the news reports were full of coverage of the devastating tornado that struck Murfreesboro, Tennessee, about 90 miles to the northeast of us.

We spent the evening visiting with Rod and Ruth, who would be returning to Virginia tomorrow morning. Since we don’t get to see them nearly as much as we’d like, we wanted to take advantage of every minute we could have with them.

Saturday, April 11

We got up early this morning to have a light breakfast with Rod and Ruth before their departure and then returned to Big V for a Saturday morning “sleep-in.”

When we did finally get ginning around, we took care of some chores around Big V, including doing some laundry and working on our TV system.

We haven’t had any TV reception since we got to Ethridge, and I thought that maybe we couldn’t get anything here without cable or satellite, but I found that John and Lynn, who are parked right behind us, get excellent reception in their Airstream trailer.

John came over for a few minutes yesterday to check out our system, but he was as baffled as I was. This morning, I checked the system as thoroughly as I could, from antenna to receiver, but still had no luck getting a signal. Finally, after several hours of disconnecting and reconnecting cables, and climbing the ladder on the back of Big V to get to the antenna, I gave up and we moved on to other things.

In addition to having TV problems, we have found lately that our cell phone batteries were running down far more quickly than they should. Barbara located a Sprint Store in Columbia, about 30 miles away, so we decided we’d drive up there and see about new batteries.

When we got there, we found that our batteries were bad, but that it would cost far more to replace them than to buy new phones, so we ended up replacing our old phones with newer models.

After leaving the Sprint Store, we went across the lot to eat at KFC and then found the local Wal-Mart, where we bought some ingredients we would need for lunch tomorrow. I also bought a new cable for the TV connections, just on the off-chance that it might help solve our problem with reception.

On the way back to Ethridge we received calls from both Leah and Mike, letting us know that they had seen a Facebook entry from Jeremy Denton, a former band member who graduated with Mike in 1994. In it, he just stated that he was in Murfreesboro and had survived the tornado. We asked both kids to try to find out a phone number or email address so we could contact Jeremy if at all possible, and, a short time later, they both called back to say they would email an address to us. What are the odds that we might be able to catch up with one of my former students and one of Mike’s best friends, in this place, all because of a tornado!

When we got back to Big V we put away the groceries and I started re-cabling the TV system. Hallelujah, we had reception! It turns out that one of our cables had a bad connector, resulting in the failure of signals to travel from the antenna to the signal booster and on through the digital convertor.

So we spent the rest of the evening finding out that nothing much was on TV, but we did have clear pictures of it…what progress!

As luck would have it, Mike and Leah both had somehow been able to leave a message with Jeremy Denton on his Facebook page, and we received a phone call tonight from Jeremy, who happily agreed to meet us at Spring Hill tomorrow to visit and get caught up with what had happened in our lives since we last saw each other 10 years ago.

John and Lynn came over to visit when they returned from a day trip visit to one of our Toccoa friends, Ken Hogan, who lives about 35 miles from here in Alabama. We stayed up late talking about each other’s day and showing John that we could get reception after all, even if there wasn’t anything worth watching.

Sunday, April 12

Happy Easter Everyone!!!

We got up fairly early this morning, even though our church service didn’t start until 11:00 a.m. Barbara stayed up until midnight last night putting the finishing touches on a 26-minute DVD that showcases the first week’s work at the new Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church, and we wanted to get into the building as soon as possible to see how it looked on their TV. Since the biggest portion of tonight’s service will be the DVD presentation, we thought it would be prudent to make sure it worked.

Once we found that the DVD was going to be okay, we returned to Big V and Barbara made multiple copies of it while I alternately practiced my trumpet and printed and attached custom labels to the newly-burned DVD’s.

A few minutes before 11:00, we made our way to the sanctuary along with the regular attendees, volunteers, and Easter visitors. As part of the service, I did a short trumpet solo. Several days ago Pastor Nave asked me what I thought of playing Taps to help set the mood of somber finality that the disciples and friends of Jesus must have felt following the crucifixion. I told him that I didn’t know that a full rendition of Taps might not be appropriate, but that I would come up with something.

As I thought about it for several days, I decided that I would tie in the opening strain of Low in the Grave He Lay and the final strain of Taps, both very familiar tunes that have a strong musical impact on most people.

Following a brief moment of meditation on the impact of the crucifixion and the playing of the trumpet solo, Pastor Nave preached a beautiful and very meaningful sermon on the meaning of the Resurrection and the few days following it.

The pastor and his wife, Corinne, invited the volunteers to join their family for lunch following the service and, not being ones to refuse food, we were happy to join in with their family celebration. Barbara made the potato salad that we learned about from Margarita and Maria, and it was a huge success. In fact, I later ended up making several copies of Cooking Puerto Rican, a little cookbook that we printed after our return from our visit to Puerto Rico.



It being a nice day and we being all dressed up, we also took a few minutes to have photos made with John and Lynn Worley, our friends from Ackworth, Georgia. We first met John and Lynn when we worked with them at Lady Lake, Florida, and have had several opportunities to either visit or work with them since.

When we had finished eating, we hopped in the car and started the drive to Spring Hill to meet Jeremy Denton; but, as we passed the first exit to Columbia, Jeremy called to say that he was in Spring Hill and there was no place to visit. So, we hastily changed our plans and agreed to meet each other at Wal-Mart in Columbia and then find somewhere to sit down and talk.

Once we got to Wal-Mart and saw an empty parking lot at the mall across the street, we realized that everything (except Wal-Mart) was closed because it was Easter. When Jeremy arrived, we decided to just go to the McDonald’s in the Wal-Mart store, a very fitting setting when one considers all the McDonald’s that we stopped at during band trips when I was the director and Jeremy was a band member.

It is said that it is an ill wind that blows no one good, and that certainly proved to be the case today, two days after the tornado in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, as we met with a former band student and one of Mike’s good friends from their days together at Liberal High School. Both Jeremy and Mike were percussionists in the marching and concert bands, and Jeremy was the drummer for the jazz ensemble, so we spent a lot of time together. Also, Jeremy’s folks, Bob and Ann, were very supportive and appreciative band parents.

We had lost touch with Jeremy after he moved to Michigan to work in the band instrument repair business, and we didn’t know which of us was more thrilled to be able to reunite today. We spent nearly two hours (and went through more than a few McDonald’s refill drinks), sharing the stories of our lives over the past nine years.

Jeremy, after working in instrument repairs for several years, became a backline tech for professional touring bands, and has literally traveled around the world in that job. He traveled with the Donny Osmond World Tour, has worked with Keith Urban, and is preparing to go on tour with Taylor Swift and Kellie Pickler…pretty heady stuff for a young man out of Liberal, Kansas.

We could have continued talking for hours, but we had to get back to Ethridge to prepare for the church service, so we took a couple of pictures, exchanged email addresses and telephone numbers, and went our separate ways with high hopes that we might be able to meet again as we travel and Jeremy tours.
Back at the church, we joined other volunteers and regular members for an informal service of singing, prayers, testimonies, and the DVD presentation, giving some of the members their first view of what was going on at the church site.

When the service was over, several of us went to the kitchen area and pulled out plates of leftovers for a makeshift evening meal and fellowship session…the perfect ending for a wonderful day!

Monday, April 13


The main job at the work site today was to finish assembling the six steel trusses for the fellowship hall roof skeleton. With several new crews reporting this morning, we had some specialists in ironworking, and they soon found themselves atop the scaffolds and lifts as the rest of us got the trusses ready to be raised up by our very able crane operator. Another thing I’ve learned from this experience is that a crane operator can make the difference between a very difficult day and a relatively easy one. We were fortunate that our guy, one of very few paid professionals on the job, made the day go by as well as possible.
By 2:00 this afternoon we had all the trusses set in place and tied together, finishing that part of the job just as another thunderstorm hit, driving us all under the roof of the sanctuary building. Lynn Worley stepped outside after the storm had passed and took this remarkable photo of the two structures…Barbara is still suffering jealousy pangs, wishing that she had been the one to take this shot.
We returned to work after the storm passed, with a couple of the crews squaring beams and checking to see that they were all plumb. The rest of us divided into crews and went to work putting up the steel siding on the front and back of the sanctuary building.

I worked with a group of men from Ardmore, Alabama. One of their members, Ken Hogan, had been at Toccoa last fall when we worked there, and will join us at Toccoa again next week.

We were more than ready when five o’clock rolled around…weary with well-doing, but also feeling pride in the accomplishment of another stage of rebuilding of this church.

We enjoyed another wonderful meal with the mission team tonight and then Barbara and I retired to Big V to work on the journal, two (2) blogs, and take care of some of our personal business.

Tuesday, April 14

We awoke to a cloudy, wet, and very cold morning, had breakfast with the other volunteers, and then headed out for our various chores.

I rode out to the work site with Mike and Renee Croy from Ohio. We met Mike and Renee at Toccoa last fall and were thrilled to have them join our little group here in Ethridge this week, even if we would only be with them through today. While I was working at the site this morning, Barbara was busy editing photographs and writing copy for the church blog site. She came out shortly before noon to take some more pictures and bring me a heavier coat, something I appreciated v-e-r-y much!

The weather never got any better than what we found when we woke up this morning, but we plowed on through the wet and cold, stopping often to go warm our hands at the fire barrel that Lynn Worley started shortly after we got to the site.

John Worley and his crew spent the morning getting the stabilizing steel on the fellowship hall while the rest of us tackled the siding on the sanctuary building. Our crew worked on the front, while another worked across the back of the building.

It started raining when it was time for lunch, so we moved all the tables and chairs under the roof of the front building and enjoyed our sandwiches and bowls of steaming hot soup for a few minutes.

When lunch was over, John took one of his crews and started putting up siding on the west end of the building while the other two siding crews continued work on the front and back. The crew I was working with had to leave at 3:00, so I called Barbara and asked her to come get me so I could go back to the church and start getting the trailer and Big V ready for travel tomorrow.

The rest of the team got back to the church around five, and we soon all met together for another wonderful evening meal, presided over by our chief cook, Joyce.

Tonight I worked on the journal while Barbara finished up the church blog and got it posted. Then, we settled in after a very busy day, hoping to get a good night’s rest before hitting the road again tomorrow.

Reflections on the Project

Each new project that we work on brings opportunities to learn new skills and meet new people. The bonding with new friends is pretty much instant; after all, teamwork is of the essence in a building project.

While we were busy learning and applying new skills at Ethridge, we also were learning about the geography, history, and local culture of southern Middle Tennessee. For example, did you know that Middle Tennessee has a large Amish population? We didn’t either…we knew that the Amish had a strong cultural influence in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and were unprepared for what we were to see and experience daily as we drove to and from work.


In this picture, Barbara was driving and came up on horse-drawn buggies traveling in both directions ahead of her. She said she nearly drove into a ditch, but managed to snap this shot through the windshield of the Vibe.

The main highways have wide shoulders that allow the horses and carriages to move off the main lanes, but on the narrower roads (like the 6 ½ mile route we took each day) cars and trucks share space with the much slower-moving buggies and wagons.

There is even a Greyhound bus station that caters to the Amish. The station includes stalls for horses and places for the buggies to be parked while the folks catch the bus to travel longer distances.

To see part of what Barbara did while I was working at the site, you can go to http://libertyhillbaptistchurch.blogspot.com

“…I have called you friends...” John 15:15

From Ethridge, Tennessee,
Jim & Barbara

A Little Transition Time

Sunday, March 29 – Friday, April 3, 2009

Sunday, March 29

This morning found us ginning around and getting ready to attend church with Mother, Ernie, and Billee at the Harvest Acres Baptist Church in Mineola.

We got to town a few minutes early, so we made a stop at the donut shop to get an apple fritter and then drove to the post office to check the mail.

We got to church just a few minutes before the service started, so we had time to meet and greet with some of the regulars before we started the song service.

When church was over, Ernie invited us to come to the house to eat. Billee heated up some leftovers and fried up some hamburgers, so there was plenty for everyone to chow down on as we caught up on Ernie and Billee’s Saturday adventure of going to Fort Worth to see their daughters.

When lunch was over, I fired up the motorcycle and rode it out to the lake as Barbara drove the car. It was the first time since November that I had been out on the road on the cycle, and it was a perfect day for a ride.

We sat around and digested our lunch for an hour or so and then hopped on the cycle for a ride together…ended up driving twenty miles north across the lake and on up to Sulphur Springs, a city of around 15,000 people situated along I-30.

When we saw a Lowe’s, Barbara suggested that we go inside and look for a cordless drill/driver for me to use when we go to Tennessee to help build a church. As luck would have it, they had just what I needed, so we bought it and then had to find a way to get it back to Big V. By taking everything out of the trunk and putting it in one of the saddlebags, Barbara made room for the big box in the trunk, and soon we were off to do some more exploring.

It turned out that Sulphur Springs has a lot of really nice restaurants, shops, and name-brand stores…a place that we will look forward to visiting when we return to Holiday Village in May.

We managed to get back to the park shortly before the sun went down and it started cooling off, and spent the evening just vegging out in Big V.

Monday, March 30

Faithful readers noticed that we were a full week late getting a posting out, and ended up sending two weeks worth of journal/blog entries within an hour or so of each other. Sometimes we get so busy during the day that we don’t take time to make notes on our activities. Also, if we don’t write every night, we run the risk of forgetting what we did and who we saw.

“What brought that on?” you may ask (or you may not, but we’ll tell you anyway).

This morning we received an email from Barbara’s sister, Nancy, pointing out in her gentle and inimitable manner, that we had failed to mention that she and Tom had come to visit us on Saturday, March 21. We checked the entry, and sure enough, we had messed up big time…the greatest danger of waiting too long to start writing.

To set the record straight, while we were burning leaves that Saturday morning, Barbara received a phone call from Nancy and Tom, wanting to know where we were. They were out on a Saturday motorcycle ride and wanted to know if we were in visiting distance.

Since they were still a couple of hours away from us, we told them we’d meet them for lunch in Alba, but first we had to make sure the fire was completely out.

We finished our work, hopped in the Vibe, and drove across some back roads to Alba, a small community north of Mineola on Highway 69. When we got there, we looked for a restaurant and found one that looked interesting, T.J.’s, Café…”The Best Home Cookin’”.

We decided to take them at their word and when Tom and Nancy arrived on their cycles, we went in, sat down, and ordered from the menu. Tom and I ordered chicken gizzards and livers, while Barbara and Nancy ordered steak fingers. When we got our orders, we found that not only was the price right, but the orders were humongous…far more than we could all eat at one sitting.

When we had done all the damage we could do, we led Tom and Nancy back to the park and showed them our new lot and what we had accomplished. They looked around the place, but had to leave soon in order to get back to Cleburne.

All that is what SHOULD have been in the journal/blog, but since we didn’t even start writing entries until the following Thursday, our memory chips dropped some important information. Thanks to Nancy, the record is now straight, and does show that they took the time and made the effort to come visit us, and we were so glad they did.

Now…on to today. This was a housecleaning day. With our departure imminent, we decided that we’d done all that we could do on the lot. The rest will just have to wait until we get back from Tennessee and Georgia.

While Barbara checked mail and paid bills, I started a deep-cleaning of Big V, something that was long overdue. Later, I went up to the lot and loaded up all the tools we had borrowed so we could return them to their rightful owners. I took Josh’s chainsaw to him at the park office and loaded all of Ernie’s things into the Vibe for a trip to Mineola.

Glen came over at 2:00 and went over the paperwork for improvements that we want to make on the lot in the next year. We also finalized the plans for bringing in dirt to level part of the lot and pouring a concrete pad; that will be done while we are gone on our trip. When we return, we should be able to park Big V in her East Texas home.

Later, we drove to Mineola to drop off Ernie’s tools at the house and deliver a bunch of excess clothing at the Kindness Kottage. While deciding what we needed to take on the trip, we found quite a few items that we didn’t really need at all, so we gave them to a charity organization that T.J. recommended.

Tonight we all gathered at T.J.’s house to celebrate Cousin Angele’s birthday. It really isn’t until tomorrow, but her work schedule as a nurse in Tyler dictated that we celebrate this evening. It was a very fun time with lots of food and conversation as we got caught up on the latest exploits of Angela, Ladd, and their children.

All good things must come to an end, and soon it was time for us to say our goodbyes and make the 15-mile trip back to Holiday Village where we finalized our plans for tomorrow before heading to bed.

Tuesday, March 31

Happy Birthday to Cousin Angela Thompson in Mineola!!!

Today started early, at 1:45 a.m. to be exact, as a line of severe thunderstorms hit us with thunder, lightning, heavy rain, and some hail. Luckily, the storm system left us as rapidly as it came, but it also left us awake in the middle of the night. But, all was not lost, as we ended up exchanging emails with Barbara Clingan, former LHS English teacher who now lives about 30 miles away from us in Gilmer. It seems that she, too, was spending a sleepless night the same way we do, with the computer up and running and checking to see who else is out there.

When we finally started the “real” day, Barbara took me to Mineola so I could ride with T.J. and Mother to Mother’s appointment with a cardiologist in Tyler.

While we were doing that, Barbara did some shop-looking in Mineola and then drove back to the park and spent her time in the laundromat, getting our clothes ready for the upcoming trip.

We finally returned from Tyler around 1:00 and Barbara got back to Mineola at 1:30. She and I said our goodbyes to Mother and returned to the park to take care of the 1001 chores necessary to get Big V ready for time on the road. We wanted to have as much as possible finished tonight so we can get an early start tomorrow, and that included getting the Vibe loaded and tied down on the trailer and packing away things inside Big V so they won’t “travel” independently when we start down the highway tomorrow morning.

We even found an hour or so to just relax and enjoy our home, do some reading, and make a timely entry for the journal/blog.

Wednesday, April 1

Happy April Fool’s Day!

With a long travel day ahead of us, we were up and around by 6:00 this morning. Most of our stuff had been stowed away last night, so it didn’t take long to finish off the rest of the jobs and get Big V ready to move. Since it was such a pretty morning, I decided to take a picture of the rig at the RV park in Holiday Village, hoping that the next opportunity for a picture here in the park will be when we return and can park it on the new pad in our own lot.

We pulled away from the park at 7:30, earlier than we had even hoped, and had a relatively calm trip going from the park to Sulphur Springs, where we pulled onto I-30 and headed east toward our goal for the day, Memphis, Tennessee.

We crossed into Arkansas at Texarkana around 10:30 amid all kinds of highway construction, but soon found that while there was a lot of road construction (mainly overpasses and bridges), there seemed to be precious little highway maintenance – Big V felt every bump and crack in the existing highway all the way across the state.

We stopped for gas at a Flying J a few miles east of Texarkana; not so much to get gasoline, but to fill a very nearly empty propane tank. While topping off the fuel tank was no problem, we found that, for whatever reason, getting to the propane tank was impossible today. The tank was located near the diesel lanes, several of which were closed, causing a massive traffic jam of RV’s and large tractor-trailer rigs. Trucks were backed up nearly a quarter mile on the road!

Giving up on getting a load of propane at Flying J, we got back on the interstate and continued east, sure that we would find a truck stop along the way that would sell propane. After a couple of stops without any luck (although we did get a great “brunch” from Taco Bell at one of the places), we decided we’d motor along until we got past Little Rock…maybe I-40 would have a better selection of stations.

Stopping at a truck stop east of Little Rock, we found that they didn’t have propane, but they directed us to a large RV dealership just a quarter mile away that provided that service. We were very pleased when we got to New River City RV of North Little Rock to not only get a tank of propane at a reasonable price, but to receive ultra friendly service as we looked around inside for some miscellaneous repair and maintenance items that we needed for life in Big V.

Back on the road, we continued the journey without incident through Arkansas, stopping about 20 miles before we got to the Mississippi River to refuel and take a much needed break. From there, we continued across the Mighty Mississippi into Memphis, where we joined the afternoon rush hour traffic (our sense of timing is such that we somehow manage to enter or leave major cities during either the morning or afternoon rush hour).

Luckily, we managed to stay in the correct lanes and soon found our way across the city to the RV Park at Agricenter International, the largest urban park in the world. It is a park that we stayed in two and a half years ago when we made our first trip to Richmond and one that is very convenient for our needs.

Arriving at the park right at 5:30 after 10 hours of traveling, we soon had the Vibe off the trailer and Big V all set up for three nights of rest and relaxation (and a great internet signal…very important to our way of life).

When Barbara got on the internet, she found that we had a complimentary night at a hotel in Tunica, a few miles south of Memphis. We discussed it and decided that since we’d been in such close quarters in Big V for quite a while and tomorrow would be our anniversary, we’d just give ourselves a gift by taking the hotel up on its generous offer; and, by 6:30 or so, we had Big V buttoned down for the night and we were headed south to Tunica, pretending that we were on a luxurious vacation, even if it was for just one night.

Thursday, April 2

Happy 15th Anniversary to Us!!!

We woke up to wind and cloudy skies that soon turned into a massive storm system across several southern states that spawned heavy rains, massive lightning displays, and tornados in several places, although we were spare the latter. If any of you watched the news reports about today’s weather across Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, please be assured that there was no exaggeration about the strength and destructive force of the storm system!

Our plan for the day was to celebrate our anniversary by going downtown to experience the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the legendary Beale Street, the historical jazz and blues center of the city, but decided that a cold, rainy day, was no time for that experience. We did that once upon a time on Bourbon Street in New Orleans and found that the ambience was lost when the weather was bad.

So, with all the storms going on around us, there was nothing to do but stay inside until the storm broke enough that we could make our way back to the east side of Memphis. The highlight of the day was lunch at a Paula Deen buffet, perhaps the best buffet spread we’ve ever found.

While Barbara sampled several Southern specialties, I discovered the mountain of oysters on the half-shell and piles of peel ‘n eat shrimp. I tried my best to whittle down the stacks, but they kept challenging me by adding more. I finally had to holler “uncle,” and waddle away from the place, certain that this was surely the best buffet bargain we have found in all of our travels.

When the storm finally broke, we hopped into Big V and made our way back to Memphis, arriving at Big V just as another wave of bad weather hit, hammering us with more rain, thunder, and a tremendous lightning display. There was nothing to do but check email, make a grocery list for tomorrow morning, and go to bed and read before dropping off for the night.

Friday, April 3

While perusing our email this morning, Barbara found a note from Betty Boone, our new friend who lives in Longview, Texas. In her message, Betty mentioned that she had spent yesterday celebrating her birthday, so this morning we wish a happy belated birthday to her and assure her that she is now in our permanent birthday file.

The main reason for staying in Memphis was to visit our friends George and Janie Estes. George was pastor of Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Barbara’s church when she lived in Lubbock, and officiated, along with Barbara’s dad, at our wedding.

We decided that George and Janie would come visit us at the RV park and we would fix them a meal in Big V (Janie visited us here a couple of years ago, But George had never seen Big V), so we took our grocery list and headed to the Wal-Mart just down the street from the park.

In addition to the items necessary for tonight’s meal, I had to get a new house battery for Big V. Several days ago at Holiday Village, we began smelling a very sour gas odor. After checking all around the place, we determined that it must have been an open sewer line somewhere near us (a not uncommon occurrence at RV parks). The smell was so bad that we had to turn on the vent fans to draw it out, but we assumed that the natural venting system in Big V was also drawing it in from whatever its source was.

Well, when we got to Memphis and I did a routine check of the electrical system (something I learned to do after replacing batteries that had gone dry because I hadn’t checked them regularly), I found a huge split in one of the marine batteries, with steam coming out of it. I still don’t know how it happened, but somehow one cell of the battery had split open and, as the battery continued to charge, the acid and water heated to the point of causing a toxic steam to come out, creating the foul smell that had surrounded us for the past few days. So, our “grocery” list was expanded to purchasing a new battery which was, thankfully, still under a partial warranty.

Back at the park, we unloaded the groceries and Barbara began building a crock pot meal of chicken breasts, potatoes, carrots, and onions, while I undertook the chore of cleaning out the battery compartment and installing the new battery.

During the afternoon we cleaned the place up and made it as orderly as possible, loading the Vibe on the trailer, and generally getting ready for travel tomorrow.

George and Janie came out a little after 5:00 and we spent a wonderful 2 ½ hours eating, visiting, and getting caught up on each other’s lives. George works out of the headquarters building now instead of pastoring a church, but occasionally temporarily fills a pulpit and does revival services, which was what he was doing the last time we came through Tennessee. I used to tell him after hearing one of his sermons that he could easily be a Baptist preacher, and he would fire back without blinking an eye that if I felt that way, maybe I was a Presbyterian at heart.

Our visit was way too short to say everything that we all wanted to share, but with a travel day ahead of us tomorrow, we finally had to end it, promising to stay in touch and come see their house the next time we pass through Memphis.

Spending time with friends in Memphis, Tennessee,
Jim and Barbara

“Mix a little foolishness with your prudence: It's good to be silly at the right moment." – Horace, Roman Poet

A Little Land Work

Sunday, March 22 – Saturday, March 28, 2009

Sunday, March 22

While we dearly love attending Sunday services at the Rim Rock Cowboy Church when we are in the area, we decided that this morning we would go to the morning service at the community center here in Holiday Village.

When we arrived shortly before 10:00, we were pleasantly surprised to see the large number of cars, pickups, and golf carts in the parking lot. But, we soon found that most of those folks were there for breakfast or the morning coffee group. Still, there were ten of us that gathered in the large commons room for the worship service.

The pastor explained that the song leader was in the hospital and that we would just dispense with the singing and get on with the lesson and sermon for the morning. Well, that just wouldn’t do, so one of the men got up and lead us in a couple of songs before we got down to business.

The purpose of the Sunday morning service is to offer a Bible-based non-denominational service, but we decided that it was decidedly Baptist in nature, because it wasn’t long before we were lifting our feet to keep from getting our toes stepped on!

When the service was over we spent a few minutes meeting some of the other folks and getting acquainted with what life at Holiday Village was all about.

After returning to Big V and having some lunch, we drove to Mineola to see how everyone was doing at Mother’s house. They were having lunch when we arrived, so we sat and visited for a bit and then invited Ernie and Billee to come out to see what we had accomplished since we started working on the new lot.

We came on back to the place, changed clothes, and started working again. Barbara continued her work of clearing the entry way while I went back to the main part of the lot and started trimming trees, pulling briars, and gathering up dead wood to put on the burn pile. Josh had brought a chain saw from his house to loan us for the week, so I fired it up and started cutting down limbs, and branches.

Ernie and Billee got out to the lot around 2:30. We gave them the grand tour and showed them what we had done. They had seen the lot when we first started looking at it, so they were able to be a little more objective than the ordinary visitor about the progress.

After Ernie and Billee left to go back to Mineola (about 13 miles south of the park), we continued our work and by the time we were finished for the day, Barbara had cleared much of the driveway and I had three large piles of limbs and briars stacked up and ready to burn.

Worn out after a full day of activities, we returned to Big V. While we were sitting outside and winding down, we got a phone call from George and Margaret Bradley, the project coordinators for the new Liberty Hill Church (Ethridge, Tennessee) that we have been planning to help build. They were calling to let us know that the project was back on schedule and wanted to know whether we would be able to join them. With that call, we started changing our travel plans, and now hope to leave the lake home on either April 1 or 2 and make our way to Ethridge for a couple of weeks before going back to Toccoa, Georgia for three weeks of volunteer work.

Feeling good about having a “plan,” we went inside Big V, fixed a light supper, and settled in for a nice quiet evening of washing clothes and watching the DVD of Bucket List that Ryan and Leah gave us for Christmas. What a fun movie! (Definitely one we could relate to.)

Monday, March 23

For once, the weatherman was right and we received the high winds that had been promised, and our plans to start burning off the trash piles were very definitely “gone with the wind,” so to speak.

Instead, we drove to Mineola and started a search for a small storage cabinet that we could put our lawn tools in at night. We’ve been loading everything in the car and hauling the rakes, pruning tools, weed-eater, and chainsaw back and forth with us, but that got old very quickly. So, we wanted to find something that we could use temporarily for a tool shed and finally as a dry cabinet for storing firewood.

We searched all over the area and finally found what we wanted at the local Sears store…even found it at a better price than anything we had seen at Lowes in Lindale. The trick was going to be getting it back to the lot, but with a little ingenuity and a lot of effort, we managed to get the big box loaded in the Vibe.

After a quick trip to Mother’s house, we talked Ernie into loading his lawn mower into his car and I rode back to the park with him while Barbara drove the Vibe.

When we got back to Little Hideaway (the proposed name for our lot), Ernie reassembled the lawn mower, got it started, and turned the controls over to Barbara, who started carving down all the grass that had been growing on the lot. Meanwhile, Ernie and I tackled the foolproof and easily assembled vertical storage cabinet (no tools necessary). After a brief glance at the instructions, we tackled the job and in only twice the time that it should have taken, we had the cabinet assembled and standing in a little clearing under some of the trees. By the time we were finished, Barbara had almost completed the mowing, so we waited until she was through and loaded the mower back into the trunk of Ernie’s car and he left to return to Mineola while we stuck around to take care of a few more chores. As we were working, one of the neighbors came by and asked about cutting out a huge cedar tree that blew down along our driveway. The tree is easily 50 feet tall and must have blown over sometime during the past few months. The problem is that when it fell, the top landed in the top of another tree closer to our yard, and evidently the cedar didn’t become completely uprooted. So, we have a giant tree that is growing out of the ground at about a 35-degree angle.
Gary, the man who wants it, said he would cut it down and haul everything away if he could keep the wood, which sounded like a good deal for all of us. We need it out of there but don’t have the necessary tools, and he wants the wood for building furniture…probably a better deal for him than us in the long run, but it still works for all of us.

Tonight we washed another load of clothes while we watched Something to Talk About, a DVD that our friend Beck Roark had loaned us.

Tuesday, March 24

With cold, wet weather forecast for today, we decided this would be a good time to take care of some business away from Big V and the park. So, we gathered up some paperwork and a large jar of coins that we have collected over the past couple of years, and headed across the country to Terrell, Texas, where we could find the nearest Wells Fargo Bank.

After making our deposit (so we can turn right around and send it to the Treasury Department to pay our income tax), we attempted to cash in all of our coins; but, as has happened before, the bank didn’t have a coin counting machine. I don’t know…maybe banks don’t deal with coins anymore…who knows.

As we were leaving Terrell to return to Mineola, we stopped at Home Depot to look at some tools that I will need for working on the church in Tennessee. When we helped out at the church in Lady Lake, Florida, a couple of years ago, some of the men had extra power tools that they loaned me. We’ve looked at cordless drill/drivers since then, but didn’t see the need in investing in one unless we were going to be on a construction crew again. With the phone call on Sunday letting us know that the Tennessee project was on as scheduled, we decided to make the leap and buy a drill/driver so we can help put up the steel buildings.

While we were in the parking lot at Home Depot we called our friend Bob in Georgia to see if he could make recommendations about good brand names (or let us know what brands we didn’t want). Then, armed with that knowledge, we waltzed into the store and started looking,

While we found some good deals in Home Depot, we still didn’t feel right about making the purchase there today, so we left without buying anything and drove back toward Mineola, stopping at the Lowes store in Lindale to see what they had to offer. As luck would have it, the store had exactly what we wanted, but we decided to wait until pay day to go pick it up…sure hope it’s waiting for us when we go back!

From Lindale we drove back to Mineola, stopped at the post office to check mail, and then went over to Mother’s house to see what great excitement was going on there. After a short visit with Mother, Billee, and Ernie, we returned to Big V and settled in for a quiet afternoon and evening.

Wednesday, March 25

Happy Birthday to Becky Terpening in Artesia!!!

Today was a workday at our new lot. We got over there around 8:30 and started raking, pulling briars, and clearing out the multi-year collection of leaves and other debris under the trees.

After a couple of hours of all that fun, Barbara suggested that we take the coupons that we received from the park and buy breakfast at the community center. Since there are always a bunch of cars around there, we figured it must be a pretty good place to eat.

Luckily, we go in there before they finished serving breakfast and found that not only is the food wonderful, it is priced right! Barbara ordered a pancake (about 9 inches in diameter) and a couple of eggs, while I ordered eggs, ham, hash browns, biscuits and gravy, and coffee. Since everything is cooked from scratch, it took a while to get our food, but it was well worth the wait…I’m sure we’ll be trying that again soon.

After eating, we walked back down the road to our lot and started working again, building three large stacks of branches, briar vines, and leaves, hoping that maybe tomorrow we will be able to start burning. Meanwhile, I was using the chainsaw that Josh had loaned us to continue building up our stash of firewood. When we had done all we could do and it was obvious that a new round of rain was coming in on us, we shut down the work, put all the tools back in the shed, and returned to Big V for a shower before making a run back to Mineola to see what was shaking there.

There wasn’t much excitement there, but we did stop at Wal-Mart for a few groceries for later in the week. While we were in Wal-Mart, we noticed that they had a coin redemption machine and decided that we’d just go ahead and cash in our coins, even if the machine took out 8%. It was worth it to not have to deal with all those coins anymore.

Thursday, March 26

Some days the best-laid plans are nothing more than well-laid plans. From the looks of things, we are in the middle of the spring monsoon season. With steady rain and several hefty thunderstorms, it was no day to work on the lot.

Instead, we fixed lunch here at Big V and carried it to Mineola for a family meal with Mother, Ernie, and Billee. T.J. had been invited, but had other activities on her dance card, so the five of us enjoyed visiting and chowing down on chicken spaghetti (Nancy Terpening’s recipe), salad, and homemade Italian bread.

Ernie and I went out to their storage shed to find an extension cord that was packed away there, and then went to the bank, post office, and insurance company so I could take care of some business.

With lunch out of the way, we returned to Big V to take a nap (all that driving and eating made us very sleepy.

Later we drove to Quitman to buy a couple of things that we will need for a Saturday meal. When we came out of Brookshire’s, we was a video rental/sales store and went in to see if we could find any more seasons of Monk. They didn’t have Monk in stock, but we did find several racks of movies that were priced at 4 for $20, so we scrounged around until we found four that looked interesting,

When we got back home we kicked back and at dinner while watching Robin Williams in Man of the Year. We weren’t sure what we were getting into with the movie, but it turned out to be very good…a blow for common sense in the elected government (obviously fiction; common sense isn’t all that common in the government) but a great story…one we highly recommend.

Friday, March 27

Happy Birthday to Jean Terpening in Artesia!!!

Today was a work day to end all work days as far as we were concerned. It was cool, cloudy, and a little misty when we got to the lot around 8:00 a.m. (although, as we found out later in the day, not nearly as “cool” and cloudy as Liberal, Amarillo, and Artesia).

Our main objective for the day was to burn off the three large piles of trash that we had cut out, raked, and carried to the main part of our lot. We weren’t sure whether, under the circumstances, we could get a fire started, but were willing to give it our best shot.

We discovered a couple of days ago that charcoal lighter fluid had no effect on this much green and wet wood, so this morning I brought the remnants of a can of Coleman fuel to give it a try.
We picked a stack to start with and I poured the fuel all over it, trying to get at least some of it down to the ground so the heat, when it started, would burn toward the top.

Barbara put some pieces of newsprint in various places on one side of the stack and was trying to get them lit, but had only spotty little flames going. Now, I was not aware yet that she was going to be in charge of the fires, and my job was only to feed them once they got started…a near-serious lack of communication. In my ignorance of the responsibilities assigned to me, I decided to help by sparking a light on my side of the stack while Barbara was still working on her side.

Those of you who have sufficiently warped senses of humor and even minimal knowledge of fire-building are probably starting to smile and chuckle already as you see where this is going. Although I had warned Barbara that the Coleman fuel could flare when lit, I wasn’t quite prepared for the instantaneous explosion that occurred when my spark hit a well-doused limb. As the ball of flame roared out of the stack (in all directions, I might add), Barbara fell back and started yelling, “You burned my hair…my hair is on fire!”

I went around the pile (which, by the way, was no longer was burning) to see how she was, and assured her that her hair wasn’t burning and that she was ok. She just looked at me and told me again that I had burned her hair…she knew I had, because she could smell it burning.

I looked as closely as I dared and told her that no one could even see where it had singed her hair and again let her know that it would be ok.

We decided to move ahead from there, but with charcoal lighter out of the question and the Coleman fuel flames burning a hole in the ozone layer 30,000 feet above us, all that was left was a little mixture of gasoline and 2-cycle engine oil that we’ve been using for the chainsaw and weed-eater.

After I had doused the stack with a little more than a half-pint of the mixture, we let it soak in for a minute or so and then I struck another spark. We still got a rush of flame, but this time it stayed contained (mostly) within the stack, and in a couple of minutes we had a fire that was going to work for us.

For the next three hours we kept the home fires burning, as it were, constantly adding wood and briar vines from the remaining two stacks as Barbara kept the flames stirred. I was able to trim off some of the larger limbs with the chainsaw and cut them up to be added to the ever-growing woodpile we had started on one side of the property; and, of course, I made a few forays into the wooded part of the lot to pull out as many briar vines as possible so I could enjoy watching them burn. Hey…that’s only perverse if you have never had a close encounter of ANY kind with briar patches – just spend a day working with those things and then let us know that you won’t be stocking up on gasoline and matches!

Anyway, things were going splendidly after our first little flare-up, and we were enjoying making progress in getting the lot cleared…all was forgotten and forgiven until Josh, the young man who first showed us around the park last month and who brokered the sale, came by to see how we were doing (everyone within five miles knew WHAT we were doing…in fact, everyone knows us as those people who are doing all the burning, but that’s another story).

Josh came over to where our fire was burning merrily, we engaged in some small talk, and then he looked at Barbara and exclaimed, “My gosh…did you burn yourself?!” Well, that only got the story going again, and Barbara told it with relish, sparing none of the details.

Aside from that hair-braising incident, the work went well throughout the day and we got a lot accomplished, burning off all three stacks of limbs, vines, and leaves, and getting the firewood pile well-stocked.

While Barbara tended the fire, I went to the clubhouse and ordered a couple of burgers to see us through lunchtime. Again, we were pleasantly surprised at the quality and cost of the food…two old-fashioned burgers (fully loaded) for a total of five dollars…can’t get a deal like that anywhere!

Gary, one of our neighbors, came by and again attacked the giant cedar tree that was gradually falling into the part of the lot that we plan to live on. He made such progress that I was there to help him pull down the top of the tree (it was hung up in another cedar). There’s still a lot of cleaning up to do, but we were thrilled to have that tree cut down.

About 3:30 I took Barbara back to Big V so she could start cleaning up and fixing supper. I then returned to the lot to watch until I was sure the fire was out and to pull a few more briar vines and cut some more firewood.

A little after 4:00, I returned to Big V and stepped inside just as the bottom dropped out of the clouds overhead…seems we were in a tornado watch, complete with high winds and heavy thunderstorms. It was when we turned on the TV to track the storms that we found that the Texas Panhandle and surrounding areas had been hit by a huge blizzard…wow…all kinds of weather excitement out there today and tonight!

Luckily for us, the really bad weather didn’t develop around us, so we spent the evening listening to a few wind gusts and the intermittent sounds of rain hitting the top of Big V. We were too tired after our full day of work on the lot to even think about watching a movie…just headed for bed to read and then fall asleep.

Saturday, March 28

We awoke to a very cold morning (we know, no sympathy from you folks in the Liberal and Artesia areas, but it sure felt cold and wet to us).

Ernie and Billee had planned a day trip to the Fort Worth area to visit their daughters, so we said we’d go to Mineola and spend the day with Mother. Besides, we planned a special meal as an early birthday celebration for Aunt T.J.

After grabbing a couple of breakfast burritos at the Sonic in Quitman, we drove down the road to Mineola and Mother’s house.

Mother was just starting to stir when we got there, so Barbara fixed her some breakfast while I hauled in some laundry that we brought along so we could keep the washer and dryer active.

We visited with Mother while she ate, and when she was finished, Barbara started on the laundry while I set up the ironing board and started ironing some of my shirts.

The day gave Barbara a chance to take care of some on-line business with a high-speed connection (something we definitely don’t have where we now are parked), and I got to tackle the inside of the Vibe, a cleaning chore that was way too long overdue.

T,J. came over for lunch at noon and we enjoyed a meal of roast pork, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, and a delicious cake that Barbara learned through an email from Nell in the Atlanta area. The best part of all was that T.J. was truly surprised (and very appreciative) by what we had done.

After lunch we all drove back to our lot so we could show Mother and T.J. what we had gotten done. They hadn’t seen it since we first looked at it over a month ago. They seemed sufficiently impressed.

We spent the afternoon doing various chores around the place. Barbara mowed the front yard while I ironed several of Mother’s blouses, and we both went through some boxes of clothes that we’ve been storing there at the house. With our upcoming trip to Tennessee and Georgia, we’re not sure what clothes we’ll need, so were trying to put together wardrobes that will handle both cool and warm weather conditions.

By 7:00 p.m. we had about “visited out” and had done all the chores we originally set out to do, so we got Mother some supper, fed the puppies, loaded the car with all our stuff, and drove back to Holiday Village to spend another quiet evening in Big V.

“Lord, help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that you and I can’t handle together.” (wallet card Barbara carries)

Spending time in the lake country of East Texas,

Jim & Barbara