Outreach Project, Odem, Texas 2021

 We arrived in Odem, Texas on Friday, February12, 2021, the weekend of the now famous winter storm that hit south Texas.  We had freezing rain most of the weekend and even some snow on Sunday afternoon.  On Sunday night we lost power to the entire area and it did not return for several days.  At the same time, the water lines in our RV park at the church froze and burst.  We spent a large part of Monday fixing those water lines.  Later that day, things warmed above freezing for a short time and then we discovered that water lines in the ceiling of Fellowship Hall had frozen and burst and the kitchen was totally flooded.  We proceeded to turn off the water, and clean up the flooded kitchen. We were not able to repair these pipes for several weeks because the freeze had affected such a large part of south Texas that there were no parts available to repair the plumbing.  Later that day, the town of Odem turned off the water to everyone because they could not pump water to the tower due to the protracted power failure and it was most of the week before water was restored.  Power did not return until Wednesday evening so we had maintained our RV's with bottled water, the generators of our RV's running 24/7 as we scoured the courtry-side to find propane and gasoline.  Did you know you need electricity to buy gasoline and propane? Anyway, we went to work at the church while we waited for heat and water.  Week 1 was confined to that work.

We were asked to convert the platform built last year into a ramp for the front exit of the sanctuary.

We raised the one end and attached it to the doorway then cut 2x4's to extend  the length,

covered them with rough plywood

then stained and sealed finished plywood to finish the extention.

Others removed damaged ceramic tile in the sanctuary doorways

patched the cracks

and installed new tile

in both exterrior doorways

and prepared prepared them for grouting.  After drying, grout was installed.

Still others prepared new baseboards for the sanctuary

while others removed the old damaged ones

and cleaned the area.  

The weather improved, so the group was divided into 3 teams.  One team stayed at the church to work on projects there.  Another team went to Ricardo's house to remove damaged siding and install new Hardee board siding.  Our team went to Gracie's house to complete the outside work which was started last winter

 

This is the "before" of Gracie's house in the rear.  All the old siding and sub siding need to be removed.  

The electric service will also have to be moved so we'll work around that until the electrician gets here.

Removing begins.

All 3 layers have to go.

Bees had previously nested in the wall and left a residue.  Some of the studs are bad also.

We put a coat of primer over the bee debris to keep them away and began replacing damaged studs.

We leveled the sand around the house so that our ladders could be handled safely.

Insulation installed

then house wrap.

The team from the church came out to help by

pre-painting the siding.

Starter strip is installed while

another cuts the siding.

Then first course of siding.

The electric still has not been moved so we'll  work around the windows and get all the trim installed

with the help of our painters.

We start the siding

with the help of new "gecho's"  that we bought to assist the installation.

Electric moved and we were able to work all the way to the corner.

The "after of Gracie's house in the rear.

Caulking is added

painting of the previously attached facia,

and installation of the soffit

completes the effort.

We reattached the handrails 

to the front porch which had been removed last year.

 Back at the church, the other team had finished the grouting and baseboards in the sanctuary and moved outside.

The facia and soffit had rotted in several places around fellowship hall

and this team was removing the damage and building replacements.

After construction, caulk and paint were applied.

They were able to save some of the soffit so they pieced in replacements and it worked well.

.

We were not able to get pictures of the work of the third team but after 3 weeks, we accomplished most of what was planned despite the weather and it's time to head on down the road.

Week 3, Rio Grande City, TX

 On the weekend, we celebrated Karen's 70th birthday on Saturday evening,

and on Sunday, got a group picture with Pastor Kelly.

Our last week in Rio Grande City was spent working around the Church, St. John's UMC.

Some folks cut down a large group of palms that were blocking the sidewalk.

and Harry is trying to remove the stump and roots.

Stump removed, hole filled and area leveled with additional dirt.

Irene and Linda pruned the various plants that were around the courtyard.

Jim worked on fixing the hardware for the pews.

The rest continued clearing brush from the grounds

and cutting down dead trees,

and preparing them for hauling to the disposal site.

The campground at the church had broken or unusable sewer connections

so we replaced all the connections 

with updated couplers and caps.

The church was getting water entering on this side of the sanctuary so we began preparing the downspouts to drain away from the bldg  and across the sidewalk.  First we removed a few more palms that blocked the spouting.

Then we built forms to add concrete drains across to the sidewalk and filled the area between the sidewalk and the building with dirt to prevent water pooling.

Preparing the proper slope 

and completing all 8 downspout "spillways".

Others continued to trim dead tree branches

and dragging dead trees to the disposal site.

As we come to the end of this project, this is the evidence of the cleanup we had completed.  The city will come along and gather all this debris.  The place looks much better now so we are ready to move on "down the road".