And Today is Wednesday -- I know, I know, I missed a day...!

Because we've been BUSY! We have such an ambitious crew, it's been work just keeping them supplied with materials and work.

But this is what they still have the energy at night to do:

We gave one of the young Old Order Amish boys (from Pennsylvania) a really bad time at dinner yesterday about the young woman who showed up during the afternoon in a blue convertible with a "gift" for him. It turns out she was his (non-Amish) San Diego cousin whom he had called and asked to bring over a volleyball net and ball. She even brought lights so that they could play after dark.

Wednesday evenings at MDS projects are always a special evening. Tonight we invited Steve and Elsie to come to dinner and share their story with the group. The Harris Fire of October 2007 roared through these mountains and canyons driven by Santa Ana winds. Their house and the Bible Camp they had on Echo Mountain were destroyed by the fire. They are living on the property in a FEMA trailer and watching their new home being built -- the interior walls were painted this week and the kitchen cabinets are coming tomorrow. Steve shared their inspiring faith story.

As their part of the evening our young Amish men shared in music:

This morning we got job cards signed by the home owners for the fourth house that will be built by this project. The fellows marked out the foundation this afternoon so that the backhoe driver can dig the trenchs tomorrow. This is a bit different than any of the other projects we've worked on as all of the houses are completely new builds.

Today is Monday

Today is Monday and here is a picture of Auntie Violet snugged into place beside the office trailer on the left. She's been complaining that her posterior is sagging a bit -- the site was pretty wet where Forry backed her in and she's gone a bit downhill...


The crews were all out and on the job bright and early this morning. From the reports this evening, they got a lot accomplished today.



We've seen this plant occasionally -- usually a ways off of the road and wondered what it could
be. One of the new crew of long-termers was visiting her brother in Ensenada before they came. She said he told her it was known locally as a wild lilac. It does look a bit like a small lilac blossom, but it certainly has no odor.



It's only 8:30 and we are ready for bed. This getting up for breakfast at 6:30 is NOT what we are used to!

And We Have a Crew...

Tonight we are 30 strong. Forry and two of the LT (long termers) took our large van and a pickup to San Diego, rented another van and went to Chula Vista to pick up 16 short termers from Pennsylvania who will be here for the next week. They are Old Order Amish, (which means that none of them drive) all between 19 and 22 years old and are old hands at MDS work. I think only one has not been on multiple trips to Mississippi. The fellows had come out on the train last Thursday and have been sight-seeing in San Diego and across the border in Mexico. It's a good thing we decided to send the pickup along -- they have a MOUND of luggage! (Including snow boards to use on a side trip on the way home.) We also have one lone man who also comes from Pennsylvania who had flown in and rented a car.

It looks like our cooks are going to be good ones. Unfortunately, they're only going to be here for two weeks. They aren't supposed to cook on weekends -- everyone is supposed to be on their own -- but they've pitched right in. They fixed a great salad for everyone after church and cheerfully barbecued hot dogs for the whole group tonight when we realized there was no way the Amish guys were going to be able to eat before we picked them up.

This morning, we moved Auntie Violet from Diamond Jack's to the MDS camp. We didn't hitch up the toad, I just followed Forry in the coach. I did laundry this afternoon while he was picking up the crew; worked on the one-pager I'm supposed to already have sent in for my high school class's 50th renunion in May; and tried to organize some of the stuff I've collected the past couple of days.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we start our first week as Project Directors!

We're All Here!

The last four of our long-termers (those volunteers staying for at least a month) arrived today. Some of the previous long-termers left at 4 AM in order to catch flights home; the previous Project Directors left by car late this morning. We have two couples and a single young man who will be staying over longer. That brings our LT team to 13 members.

We sat out on the deck between the trailers, enjoying the 87 degree temperature and sunshine while I was able to review all of the notes I have taken during the last week with our construction foreman and the fellows who will be crew leaders. We're going to have to be sure everyone has hats and sunblock!

After the cooks returned with the van from their food stocking expedition, we loaded up most of the new crew and took them out to see the three current project sites as well as the new one that hasn't yet been started. We didn't keep exact track, but Forry drove over 45 miles just getting to all four sites -- none of them are close!

Auntie Violet will finally get to travel to the Dulzura site tomorrow. The fellows moved one of the trailers to the side so that there will be room for her! It will be nice to no longer be driving back and forth.

It's Friday ----

And I'm tired! It's been a busy week. Today we took a look at where a fifth house may be permitted. It's just a few miles back into the hills from the MDS site. These people have a spectacular view from where their house was (and where the new house will be). It hasn't been through all of the permit process yet, so we'll have to wait to see if it transpires.


This little orange tree sits right in the middle of the drive entering the MDS site. It's just loaded with blossoms. You can smell it throughout the whole camp! There have been 4-5 little hummingbirds buzzing around it most of the day. We think they are black-chinned hummingbirds... You can occasionally get a glimpse of their purple throats as they flit by.

We sat and watched them this noon while sitting out on the deck waiting for Forry and Kerry to bring back the pizza that is the closing tradition for this MDS crew.

This afternoon we went to the San Diego airport with one of the fellows to pick up our cooks for the next two weeks who came in from Phileadelphia. The couple has cooked for many camps. We took them out to dinner with us at the little diner a couple of miles down the road from us and had an enjoyable visit.

Orientation Continues

We are gradually getting things figured out as we try to pump the minds of the current Project Directors for every tidbit of information we can think of to ask about. This morning we met the local Mennonite Church coordinator at the bank to add our signatures to the bank cards so that we can write checks. We had met Mel before when we were here in December delivering the Hitchhiker RV and the pickup. Mel took us to the airport for our flight back to SeaTac. It was good to see him again. We took him to lunch at Denny's after we got all of the papers signed.

In the afternoon, we met up with Kerry, the current PD, and went out to two of the current house sites with him.

These pictures are of House #3 as the fellows are unloading bales of shingles from the back of the pickup and putting them up on the roof. They plan to start shingling it tomorrow. When Forry and I first saw the house last Monday, the inside walls were up and they had just hauled the roof joists up ready to install the next day. It's amazing what has been accomplished in these few days. The sheeting is up on the roof, the windows are in, the house has had the reflective siding put on and been wrapped with vapor barrier.

We then went House #2 which is going to be solar heated. It, too, has doors and windows in and the sprinkler system installed. We didn't go to House #1 today, but the crew reported at supper that they had finished sanding the wall board and put the first coat of paint sealer on.

We did go to check out the site for House #4. It's WAY back in a canyon up a road that turns from asphalt to gravel to dirt. It's going to be an interesting spot to get cement trucks and supplies into.

We had lasagna for supper at the project site tonight. I was impressed with the high spirits and morale of the mostly Canadian crews who have put in a very busy week.

One thing we noticed today was the increased presence of Border Patrol vehicles along the various roads we traveled. Kerry mentioned that he had observed the same thing. We wondered if it had anything to do with all of the arrests of members of the Sonoran Drug Cartel they were talking about on the news yesterday.

Costco; the Van Hunt

Today was one of those days that makes you wonder where it went -- and what was it you did?

We went to San Diego today for a Costco run, but first had to swing by the MDS site to pick up my iPhone that I had left in the office yesterday. I decided that I had to start driving in this mountainous country, even though I'd just as soon let Forry do the driving. If he's going to be making the runs for building supplies and airport pickups, that means that I'll have to be on my own checking on sites, going to meetings, etc. So, I drove the stretch from Diamond Jack's to the MDS site. It's only about seven miles as the crow flies, but it's a s-l-o-w fifteen miles by road and takes at least a half hour. The road is VERY curvy with lots of up and down.

We were going to take a new back-country route by Otay Lake to San Diego, so Forry wanted to drive that stretch. We had hoped to see lots of birds at the lake, but saw lots of fishermen instead. Once you pass the lake, you are out of the country and into populated areas with housing subdivisions and strip malls. We were thankful to have Sally, the GPS unit, with us. She took us right to the store. We had only a few things to pick up. It seemed funny not to stock up on fruits and vegetables like I usually do, but we will be eating at the MDS site for the next two months so didn't need to.

We have a group of 16 short term volunteers coming in this weekend by train. We don't have enough vehicles at the project site to pick them all up (they are Old Order and do not drive) and then to ferry them to work sites during the week. We drove over to the airport to check on renting a large (12 passenger) van, but couldn't get any answers from folks there. So, I've spent a good share of the evening on the computer checking out rental places. It seems there are not very many available. We may just end up renting a 7 passenger minivan and using the 10 passenger one at the project site. They may end up holding their luggage in their laps!

Dulzura; the Border Patrol

These are pictures from the Mennonite Disaster Service's Dulzura Project site:

Theses are some of the RVs being used for housing by the long-termers. We will probably move out and store the one that is second from the right and put Auntie Violet in its place (we're only permitted for six living units on site).

This is the office trailer.

From left to right: the bunk trailer, the shower trailer, the kitchen trailer (the short one) and the dining hall.

We had lunch today with Project Director Kerry Eidse and the two representatives from the Salvation Army and the Long Range Planning Committee, Robin and Dawn. It was a good session. I have a much better handle on what we'll be needing to do over the next two months. We're going to have an interesting weekend as some of our long-term workers will arrive before this session's people leave on Saturday morning...

On the way back to Diamond Jack this evening we once again passed through the Border Patrol checkpoint: The first pictures are of the lot that is FULL of green and white Border Patrol vehicles.

The next pictures are the "line-up" as you approach the checkpoint.

I think they are getting used to us -- or maybe the MDS magnetic signs on the toad -- today they just looked and waved us through without any questions about our citizenship.

At one of the houses MDS is building, you can see the town of Tecate which is partly in Mexico and you also have a good view of the fence that is being built between our two countries.

Checking out Dulzura

Today we drove over to the Dulzura MDS Projct site. It took about a half hour to get there from Diamond Jack's. We met Jo Eidse one of the co-directors, but didn't get a chance to meet Kerry.

We looked over the site. It looks a whole lot different than it did when we dropped off the Hitchhiker RV in December. They have built decks between the bunk house trailer, shower trailer and the kitchen trailer. Jo has also planted flowers and three palms.

We got addresses from Jo and sent to take a look at each of the three houses that they have started. The first was getting its second layer of mud on the drywall, the next was awaiting solar panels (they will not be on the electical grid) and installers for the sprinklers before they can move on to insulation and drywall. At the third house, the crew was hauling the roof trusses up onto the framed house.

We saw a femaile black chinned hummingbird today at the MDS site and a Cassin's kingbird along with all of the other ones we've been seeing.

BIRDS!

Boy, is Diamond Jack's ever loaded with birds! It's been here quite a while, the trees are very mature -- and the man across the yard has three feeders out. There are at least three kinds of woodpeckers -- the acorn we saw yesterday, a downy woodpecker and red-breasted sapsuckers (another life bird for Forry). We saw scrub jays, Western bluebirds, Oregon Juncos, ravens, an oak titmouse, and a few that we are going to have to watch for a better look to identify them.

We drove down to Highway 54 later in the afternoon to pick up some groceries -- and get a Coldstone ice cream fix. We came back to Diamond Jack's via the direct route -- and I know why they don't suggest that one bring an RV that way! I wouldn't even say they were s-curves, more like J-turns, making a tight turn then immediately turning back the other way!