boat update

Hi. Rusty and I were able to get the boat motor going. We ran the motor for five seconds with diesel oil in the crankcase and transmission then drained them. We then filled them with the correct oil and ran the motor for 4 hours. The motor ran better than it did before sinking--no exhaust smoke and smooth idle. After the 4 hours and cool down, Rusty changed the oil again. The hardest part was getting the fuel pump primed. The fuel tank didn't get any water in it.

The hull of the boat needs to be coated with a new flexible epoxy. The process involves taking the boat out of the water and completely drying it out. And then coating the hull inside and outside. There is a place that does this but the cost of the material alone is $8000. Rusty's ministry doesn't have that kind of money yet.

We are relocated to Dothan Community Church where we will be finishing rooms in the children's addition. Our organizational meeting is tomorrow morning. At that time we will learn the details of what work we will be doing.

nlsower

sail boat

Hi everyone. On Monday morning I headed down to the dock to help paint the 65-foot sail boat only to find out the boat sank on Sunday night. Thankfully the bay is only about five feet deep so the water was only up to the main deck. We used three large pumps to raise the boat. The bad part--the diesel engine was completely under water. Pray that there is no serious damage to the engine. Rusty took the starter to be cleaned.

Tuesday morning I helped Rusty remove all the soaked beds etc. Then scrub the deck with dawn dish soap--works good to remove the oil.

Today we hope to paint the deck--there is a wedding planned for Thursday. Tight schedule.

CC has been beading each morning--I think she is addicted. Ha.

Tomorrow we will be moving to our March project.

Bye nlsower

Camp Baldwin and Community

Elberta/Foley/Gulf Shores is an area that has been affected by hurricane Ivan and also the oil spill. The beaches have been cleaned up but there are crews working on other beaches. The boat below was beached by Ivan. Camp Baldwin lost about 200 trees during Ivan.

Camp Baldwin is blessed with many tall pines and these live oak trees. They stay green all year but shed leaves continually.

This is the sign that greeted us on hwy 20 as we approached Camp Baldwin. This camp is a ministry of the Baldwin Baptist Association. It is both a summer camp and retreat center. The facilities are continually being updated and is well maintained. It is located on Wolf Bay about 8 miles by water from the Gulf of Mexico. The camp is developing a new outdoor program including sailing and boat building. The programs director has a dream of building a lighthouse for the classes. He lived on his sailboat for ten year sailing much of the Gulf.

This is the 65-foot sailboat that Rusty uses for his classes. He took us for a two-hour ride in the bay. As we were getting ready to set sail, a dolphin swam by our boat--about 30 yards away.

Women SOWERS February 2011

Two of the SOWER ladies cleaned motel rooms. Marilyn and CC did laundry and made beds.
They also worked in the gift store and made angels to sell in the store. They made dolls for the children in the Appalachian Mountains. The dolls are given out by missionaries to help explain the way of Salvation.

Men SOWER Feb 2011

The stairway leading from the gym floor to the room where Tom and I spent 3 weeks dividing the large room into two smaller meeting rooms.

Tom cutting studs and plates to frame in the steel beams and purlins.

I am taking a break from insulating. Note the mask on the saw horse. Itch and Itch some more.

Tom resetting some screws as we were taping. Thankfully the ceiling is suspended so no upper seams.

We got both rooms taped with the first coat and one room with the second coat then the project was done. Next month they will finish taping and maybe put in the suspended ceiling. Another project will to build a human foos ball court. That sound like fun. There will be at least five SOWER couples during March. Tom will be there in March so he will be able to let the new group know where we left off.

pictures after Jan project

A farmer doing his spring field work by Bonifay FL--plowing a cotton field. BD and BC were on a road trip to check out a tractor salvage yard--lots of "rusty iron".
Part of the old fort is St. Augustine.

BD and LD by the Alantic Ocean

BC and CC by the Alantic Ocean

The Ladies found a place to buy some beads in St Augustine/

Too busy to blog

Hi everyone. We finished teen challenge and took a trip to St Augustine for three days. We didn't take the RV's so we had to be back by Wed to pack and move out by Thursday morning (SOWER rules). B & L headed north and B & C headed to Camp Baldwin in Elberta AL.

Camp Baldwin is mainly a summer camp with some weekend retreats. When there is a retreat we help serve the meals which means we get fed. Very good food. The ladies do the laundry after the retreats and clean the rooms. They also make angels for the gift store. They also are making dolls for missionaries--the ones with closed eyes on one side and with open eyes on the other side--also a way-of-salvation neckless.

The two of the men are painting and two of the men are dividing a large room into two rooms--sound simple--the room is up in the roof structures--cables in the way, the ceiling is slanted, wind bracing to frame around, a wall AC to frame around that is setback like a fireplace--it keeps the brain active. We have lots of the framing done this week. We should be able to start sheetrocking next week.

The weather has been very cool--frost in the morning and 40's in the afternoon--maybe in the 60's next week. It has rained several times so it is good to be working indoors.

I will get my act together and post some pictures. nlsower