End of April project

Compare this view with what it looked like three weeks ago.

We worked an extra hour to finish the steps and railing. The blob jump will be over the railing on the high deck. The water will be raised three feet.

Another view of the completed deck. When the water level is raised, it will be back under the lower deck.

This is the group of SOWERS working during April 2010. We are heading for MN Friday morning.

April 17, 2010

We have had a fun week. We even took time to roast hot dogs.
You can see it was the men's turn to cook.

Of course, no meal is complete without dessert--apple crisp in the dutch oven--very good.

These are the crew. Boyd and Marci

Dennis and Marilyn

Edroy and Judy

Frank and Kathy

Chuck and Sue

Harold, Phyllis and Molly

We are making progress on the deck.

Judy painting way up high.

More progress on the deck.

Judy did come down for lunch. We have only 4 more days to finish the deck and railing. The weather forecast is favorable--mostly cloudy so not too hot.

Yesterday and today have been rather quiet--I made chocolate cake in the dutch oven yesterday afternoon. The other SOWERS came over for cake, coffee and conversation--talked a lot since dinner wasn't until 7pm. There were eleven groups coming in so dinner was late. Today there were about 360 for lunch. I even had time to wash the truck and camper yesterday. We are starting to pack up since we will be heading to MN next Friday--should be in NL by Tuesday. Maybe I'll get another posting done before we leave. nlsower

April 9th already!

Hi everyone--It is Friday which means we have completed one week of this project at Trinity Pines, Trinity TX.

Some of the jobs that we have been doing are shown below but we also repaired the vertical siding on the end of a cabin--needed to keep the bats out. Some of the ladies have been doing exterior painting on a house. Also one lady has been sewing on chair cushions. CC has been painting on rocks for the gift store.

Chuck and Dennis (shown below) have been working on the facia on the gazebo plus they worked on the vertical siding.

BC, Frank, Harold and Edroy are building a double deck by this pond. The pond will be raised 3 feet so the water depth will be 12 feet. The upper deck is for jumping onto a blob below. Don't know what a blob is? It is a big inflated "blob" where someone sits on and another person jumps onto the blob which in turns propels the first person out into the middle of the pond. The lower deck is 24 by 40 feet and the upper deck is 16 by 20 feet.

The first picture is before we started. That is Lake Livingston out in the distance.

Tractor with auger--several of the holes filled with water immediately. We didn't need any water for the concrete. It is a trick to drill straight holes on the hillside--also the auger is only 12 inch and the diagonal of the post is almost 9 inches--this required lots of hand work too!!

Three rows of poles set and two to go.

Another angle of view.

All the poles set and some notched ready for beams.

Three rows of beams set--next step on Monday will be to bolt the beams to the post. If the weather continues to cooperate we should make good progress next week

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This is one of the areas that the camp needs suggestions on how to landscape. There are six more areas that suggestions are needed. Got any ideas let me know (I have more pictures). Right now the camp has unlimited supply of plants from the place that use to supply (I can't remember which) Lowe's or Home Depot.

There has been eleven couples from a church camping club from Houston area here all week. They have been they have been siding a new cabin, painting and gardening. Since that group was here, we got meals all week--sure makes it hard to diet. We are thankful since we are too tired at the end of the day to cook.

See you about the end of April. nlsower

Arrived safely

We are at Trinity Pines Bible Camp and Conference Center. We arrived yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful drive through the pine forests and wild flowers from San Antonio, TX to Trinity, TX about 275 miles. There are six couples working this project--three are from MN.

I have included some recent pictures from San Antonio and the trip yesterday.--Enjoy.

This is the life of a relaxed SOWER between projects.

Vern pulling wire for the new circuits on a mobile home.

CC enjoying reading while supper is cooking.

Our new Dutch oven--I laid the thermometer on top so I didn't burn our supper.
Beef and noodles--very simple and delicious. A few days later we made ground beef, corn chips and bean hotdish--also very good.

This is how the yucca bud starts.

These are "weeds" along a fence by the street where we took a daily walk.

This is what the yucca looks like as the blossom opens--some of the blossoms are about 3 ft long and a foot in diameter.

Some Indian Paint Brush along the road. They completely cover the ditches in places.

Texas Blue Bonnets along the road.