I think you could almost say "ditto" from yesterday about today. Except we worked on the bays on the passenger side of Auntie Violet. We combined some maps and books into one container and actually ended up with some empty space. We have quite a few construction books that we used at Mennonite Disaster Service sites along with our tool belts that we will be taking over to the church for the new tool trailer that the Washington State MDS unit is putting together. (I only wish that we were still physically strong enough to tackle volunteering for MDS. I guess that is a chapter in our life story that is pretty much finished...)
The man who actually farms our ranch stopped by tonight with some sausage and some apples for us -- looks like we've got some good eating ahead of us! We've been extremely fortunate to have Jeff and his family living on the home place. He and his boys are good farmers.
We had hoped we would be heading out tomorrow, but in the usual nature of jello, that plan has changed. Forry wants to take the Suzuki into Moses Lake tomorrow to get the oil changed and have his Schaeffer Oil used. He also wants to pick up enough Schaeffer Oil for another oil change for Auntie Violet.
We have been watching the election results on television tonight with great concern. It was a great relief when the electoral votes finally added up to enough to re-elect our president. If only now we can start converting those blue and red states into purple ones where we all start working together!
Showing posts with label Mennonite Disaster Service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mennonite Disaster Service. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
A Recovery Day
I was thinking today about the first trip we took across the US in our RV almost six years ago. We were supposed to report to our Mennonite Disaster Service work site in Louisiana the first of October. Because our church hosts the Washington State MCC sale, the Mennonite Country Auction, the first weekend in October, we made arrangements with MDS to leave right after the sale.
We drove pretty much straight through from Washington State, stopping at rest areas for four to five hours of sleep and an occasional hour's nap, then continuing on. I think we made it to the Diamond, Louisiana work site in just three days. I cannot even imagine trying to do that now!
Nowadays, a three hour drive is about all we like to do. That means we leave late enough in the morning to avoid the morning rush hour traffic and make it to our new site before the evening rush hour. It means we get set-up when it's still daylight and have a bit of time to relax before supper.
Then we usually use the next day as a recovery day, staying at home in Auntie Violet and just taking life easy. (Which for Forry means a couple of naps in his recliner and plenty of time with his Sudoku...) I may or may not catch up on the laundry, but I usually spend most of the day reading or knitting. If we're planning to go sight-seeing in an area, we usually plan that for the next day.
Neither Forry nor I are morning people, so this kind of schedule suits our retired life-style. Because we have been on the East Coast with the three hour time difference, we often end up watching Mariner's home Seattle Safeco Field baseball games starting at 10 PM at night. Depending how long the games last -- and whether they go to extra innings -- we may not get to bed before midnight or later.
Today was one of those recovery days.
We drove pretty much straight through from Washington State, stopping at rest areas for four to five hours of sleep and an occasional hour's nap, then continuing on. I think we made it to the Diamond, Louisiana work site in just three days. I cannot even imagine trying to do that now!
Nowadays, a three hour drive is about all we like to do. That means we leave late enough in the morning to avoid the morning rush hour traffic and make it to our new site before the evening rush hour. It means we get set-up when it's still daylight and have a bit of time to relax before supper.
Then we usually use the next day as a recovery day, staying at home in Auntie Violet and just taking life easy. (Which for Forry means a couple of naps in his recliner and plenty of time with his Sudoku...) I may or may not catch up on the laundry, but I usually spend most of the day reading or knitting. If we're planning to go sight-seeing in an area, we usually plan that for the next day.
Neither Forry nor I are morning people, so this kind of schedule suits our retired life-style. Because we have been on the East Coast with the three hour time difference, we often end up watching Mariner's home Seattle Safeco Field baseball games starting at 10 PM at night. Depending how long the games last -- and whether they go to extra innings -- we may not get to bed before midnight or later.
Today was one of those recovery days.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Mennonite Disaster Service All Unit Meeting
We came to Sarasota, Florida to attend the All Unit Mennonite Disaster Service meeting. The posted schedule said that the meeting would start this morning at 8:15. So we were up early in order to be there on time in order to pick up our registration materials before the meeting started. When we got the new schedule, we discovered the meeting was not going to start until 9 AM! We could have slept another hour!
Like any Mennonite gathering, this one is full of singing. The group has been singing old favorites from one of the older hymnals -- wonderful four-part harmony. Mennonite Disaster Service is made up of all the parts of the Anabaptist family, so there are Old Mennonites, Amish, Conservative Mennonites and Mennonite Church USA folks.
We were treated this noon to the singing of this very musical family. I took the picture with my iPhone and we weren't sitting very close, so it is what it is. The parents have four children under five. The little boy and girl in front sang with their parents -- the little girl sang a solo. The little guy the Dad is holding is sound asleep and the one the mother is holding is just one year old. What a talented family they are!
At this evening's banquet, we listened to this bluegrass trio, the Shenk Bluegrass Group. The two on the right are twins while the other is a friend. The middle brother got a lot of teasing about his "skunk-striped" beard with offers to auction it off...
It's been interesting to touch bases today with many of the people we've worked with on various MDS projects over the years. There are people here from all over the United States and Canada.
Like any Mennonite gathering, this one is full of singing. The group has been singing old favorites from one of the older hymnals -- wonderful four-part harmony. Mennonite Disaster Service is made up of all the parts of the Anabaptist family, so there are Old Mennonites, Amish, Conservative Mennonites and Mennonite Church USA folks.
We were treated this noon to the singing of this very musical family. I took the picture with my iPhone and we weren't sitting very close, so it is what it is. The parents have four children under five. The little boy and girl in front sang with their parents -- the little girl sang a solo. The little guy the Dad is holding is sound asleep and the one the mother is holding is just one year old. What a talented family they are!
At this evening's banquet, we listened to this bluegrass trio, the Shenk Bluegrass Group. The two on the right are twins while the other is a friend. The middle brother got a lot of teasing about his "skunk-striped" beard with offers to auction it off...
It's been interesting to touch bases today with many of the people we've worked with on various MDS projects over the years. There are people here from all over the United States and Canada.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
On to Sarasota
Today we packed up all of our stuff, chairs, bike, trike, etc. and headed up the highway to Sarasota. It was a short trip, taking us around the top of San Carlos Bay on Interstate 75. When I opened the door on Toad, I discovered that this cute little lizard had hitched a ride. I tried to catch him, but he jumps a good foot at a time. I finally got him to jump out of Toad and disappear. Then I discovered his big brother had also hitched a ride on our lavender plant!
We are parked behind Bethel Mennonite Church where we will be attending the All Unit Mennonite Disaster Service meeting Friday and Saturday. Bethel Church has a very large piece of property. They have water and fifty amp power for RV hook-ups. There is a large grassy area behind where we are parked (their cemetery is in one corner). When we looked out to that area this afternoon, we saw this lone sandhill crane --
I took these pictures with the telephoto lens on my camera -- it was quite a long ways away. It is unusual to see one of these by themselves; they are usually in couples or family groups.
We saw this hawk fly into the pines on the edge of the church property. The brownish coloring and the two distinct white stripes on its tail make us think it is a Red-Shouldered Hawk.
We got a phone call shortly after we arrived from our friends Darryll and Linda who are also here for the MDS meetings, inviting us to join them for dinner. Gene is also here from Washington. He had rented a van, so we all piled in with him and went to one of the Amish buffets for dinner. (Sarasota is a popular Amish vacation spot.) We all ate too much, but had a great time catching up on all the news from home.
We are parked behind Bethel Mennonite Church where we will be attending the All Unit Mennonite Disaster Service meeting Friday and Saturday. Bethel Church has a very large piece of property. They have water and fifty amp power for RV hook-ups. There is a large grassy area behind where we are parked (their cemetery is in one corner). When we looked out to that area this afternoon, we saw this lone sandhill crane --
I took these pictures with the telephoto lens on my camera -- it was quite a long ways away. It is unusual to see one of these by themselves; they are usually in couples or family groups.
We saw this hawk fly into the pines on the edge of the church property. The brownish coloring and the two distinct white stripes on its tail make us think it is a Red-Shouldered Hawk.
We got a phone call shortly after we arrived from our friends Darryll and Linda who are also here for the MDS meetings, inviting us to join them for dinner. Gene is also here from Washington. He had rented a van, so we all piled in with him and went to one of the Amish buffets for dinner. (Sarasota is a popular Amish vacation spot.) We all ate too much, but had a great time catching up on all the news from home.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Mississippi, Louisiana, Mississippi, ALABAMA!
We got an early start this morning (even for us), leaving Movietown RV Park in Canton and heading south on Interstate 65. Our GPS Sally really wanted us to go east on I-20 and argued with us almost half the way -- she so wanted us to cut across to the other side of the state and go down I-69!
This is a small portion of the VERY large automobile factory just outside of Canton. Opened up just a few years ago, it has a great deal to do with the improved economy in this part of Mississippi --
The Nissan factory covers acres of property and is its own small town --
It was an overcast day. We had an occasional drizzle, but seemed to be running just behind the real rain storm. There was lots of water on the road being sprayed up by the trucks. As we left the North Delta area of Mississippi, we were no longer in farmland, but in the pine barrens.
We drove south through Mississippi and into Louisiana, driving north of Lake Pontchartrain on I-12 until it changed into I-10 and took us back through the 'heel' of Mississippi along the Gulf Coast. What a different looking route it was from the first time we had driven it following Katrina. You have to really look to see some of the broken-off trees still visible amongst the greenery. It felt sort of funny to see the sign pointing towards Pass Christian, which was where our folks from Menno did our first service with Mennonite Disaster Service following the hurricanes.
It was a l-o-n-g day, we had driven twice as far as we normally do when we finally crossed into Alabama. It was another fifty-three miles, close to four-thirty and almost dark when we found our site at Styx River RV Park. I don't think anyone will be getting up very early tomorrow.
This is a small portion of the VERY large automobile factory just outside of Canton. Opened up just a few years ago, it has a great deal to do with the improved economy in this part of Mississippi --
The Nissan factory covers acres of property and is its own small town --
It was an overcast day. We had an occasional drizzle, but seemed to be running just behind the real rain storm. There was lots of water on the road being sprayed up by the trucks. As we left the North Delta area of Mississippi, we were no longer in farmland, but in the pine barrens.
We drove south through Mississippi and into Louisiana, driving north of Lake Pontchartrain on I-12 until it changed into I-10 and took us back through the 'heel' of Mississippi along the Gulf Coast. What a different looking route it was from the first time we had driven it following Katrina. You have to really look to see some of the broken-off trees still visible amongst the greenery. It felt sort of funny to see the sign pointing towards Pass Christian, which was where our folks from Menno did our first service with Mennonite Disaster Service following the hurricanes.
It was a l-o-n-g day, we had driven twice as far as we normally do when we finally crossed into Alabama. It was another fifty-three miles, close to four-thirty and almost dark when we found our site at Styx River RV Park. I don't think anyone will be getting up very early tomorrow.
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