3rd Week In Conway, Arkansas

 On Monday, we started a new project at the Flores residence in rural Conway, Ar.  They lost their house on the hill in the background in this photo with the tornado and now they have this used mobile home.

They built this addition to their mobile home for more space for their family but ran out of "steam" and money so the Methodist Conference has taken them on to complete their construction.

Our job is to complete the "mudding" of existing drywall, install dryway where needed, and add tape and mudding as needed.  Here Sue is repairing tape that was not mudded properly.

And Ginny is taping this corner.

Sarah is mudding as much as she can reach of the corner.

Pat is sanding drywall mud.

As is Jodi.

Somehow, Stel got the job of taping and mudding this very high ceiling and all she had was this one ladder.

Next day, she created her scaffolding system and was able to accomplish a lot more in less time.

Previous tape had to be sanded for another coat.

The guys were organizing their attack on installing the bathtub in the adjacent room.

Larry is measuring the area where the tub will go while holding the plans in his mouth???  Bob and John finally got the tub and surround and drain installed on Thursday and Stel was able to finish the ceiling and Jodi vacuumed the whole additonal on Thursday but we did not have the camera to show the results because........

.......the rest of the crew (here is Pat) were back at our host church (Wesley UMC) to help them paint the hard to reach areas of their church.  They have been working on painting for several weeks.

Sue and Ginny love to paint.

and paint.

They rented this lift to reach the cross and repaint it and to paint the wooden panels in  the front.

As Thursday was our final day of work as a group, we went out for our fairwell dinner.  From the left is Jodi, Stel, Sue, John, Bob, Ginny, Pat, Sarah, Larry and Dottie.  We'll see each other on down the road.  Larry, Dottie and Sarah are staying for another week.  Bob and Ginny and John and Sue and Pat are all headed home.  Jodi and Stel area headed home but because of a special request for help in Hayesville, NC at the Hinton Rural Life Retreat Center, they will stop there for 5 days before finishing the trek home.  We'll send a short update on that project next time.

Fall 2015 - Arkansas Week 2

 On the second Saturday, the group traveled south and west to visit The Heifer Ranch   This is a retreat/educational/training center for Heifer International which helps poor folks in the US and around the world by providing farming animals and tools and by training them to raise the animals and care for them and to make a productive living for themselves and others.  There is another group of NOMADS doing work at this ranch for 3 weeks to help with maintanence of the property and construction of new needs in the facilities.

We all got a tour of the property in this oversized golf cart.

Heifer Ranch used to raise the animals at these ranches for shipment overseas.  Now they secure the animals in the local area of need to avoid shipping and to aid the entire economy of the area selected.  Some animals remain for one reason or another including training.  This camel is old and was shipped here from New York because it could not tolerate the cold weather there.  It is enjoying retirement in the warmth of the southern sun.

This Lama is here as part of the training aspect.

This is part of one of the "villages"  where campers learn how it is to live in some of the foreign cultures.  These are animal pens in Guatemala.

This is the village of Thailand

In these animal pens, they learn how to capture methane from manure for cooking rather than destroying the rain forrests for firewood.

This is one of the cottages used by volunteers who come to work at the ranch.

This is part of the old farm now used only for campers and for training.  The large building in the middle on "stilts"  is known as the Heifer Hilton and is used by campers for dormatories.

Just a beautiful view toward the "Villages"

On Sunday, the group gathered after church for lunch. Jim and Shirley left at the end of the week and Pat (second from the left in the rear) joined the NOMADS team.  (Dottie is still in PA)

On Monday, it's back to work.  Sue is experimenting with trying to match the texture on the areas where we repaired the drywall.  This is dubbed the "dobber" method of apply drywall mud with a paintbrush to try to match the surrounding texture.

Pat is sanding the repaired areas and trying to catch the dust before it hits the floor.

Jodi trying a little of the "dobbing"

As does Pat.

Sarah is knocking off some of the high spots of the "dobbing"

Ginny is taping off the baseboard and quarter round for touchup painting.

and painting, and painting.

Stel trying to paint the patched areas of the ceiling.

Pat and Sue also painting.

Jodi removing paint around window frames.

Ginny and Sarah painting doors and trim.

Larry trying to adjust bifold doors.

And with the help of Ginny, installing other bifold doors.

Stel repairing the laminate floor so that the transitions can be installed.

and she is installing missing baseboard and quarter round.

John and Bob started the week by installing the new cabinets.

Because nothing is square, it took most of the 4 days  but the new cabinets look so much better.

Sue and Pat installing hardware on the vanities in both bathrooms.

Larry installed the plumbing in both bathrooms.

Stel replaced and routed handrails on the front stairs and deck

and Jodi sanded them all.

Stel and Jodi installed support brackets on all the blinds to keep them from sagging and/or falling down.

Sue and Pat hand cleaning all of the laminate floors.  What a huge job.

Stel and Ginny installing the shelving in the kitchen cabinets.

Another huge job.  Jodi is "binding up"  all the cardboard and debris from the cabinets and other building supplies.

The second week is over and this house is mostly finished, at least what we were asked to do so next week, a couple will return to complete the work here but the rest will move on to another house.  See you then.