Biosphere 2

Today we decided to do a little sightseeing. Went to the biosphere 2 near Oracle AZ--very interesting--the tour was over an hour long--lots of stairs. Several climates from ocean to desert to rain forest. The food growing area is being changed into an area where they will study the effect of the ground's slope on water infiltration into the soil. We are interested in finding the book that was written by one of the women that lived in the biosphere when they were studying a closed ecological system. No one lives in the sphere now.

We also stopped at two SOWER projects--one was Pusch Ridge Christian Academy (Christian School) north of Tucson and the other was Youth Haven Desert Ranch (Ministry to needy children) at Picacho, AZ (off I 10 between Tucson and Phoenix).

The next few days I need to fix the radio in the truck, pack up tools, fix one truck tool box and work on taxes. Then off to Prescott on April 1st. I can't find any summaries of the work that other SOWERS did on that project so you will have to wait until we get there before I can let you know what we will be doing on that project.

I sure like my new GPS--it directed me right to each stop on our trip yesterday.

nlsower

twiddling my thumbs?

Hi everyone.

I thought I was going to just sit and twiddle my thumbs for a month but..........no time for twiddling. We went to a college play with Helmsetters and Ploegstras, to the Mesa flea market with Zilmers, to a tractor show in Apache Junction with Brother Jim and Carol, plus fixed the wall and closet door track for Conrad and Dorothy--oh yes and painted the interior of a town house in Mesa for a friend from Willmar. And of course, out to eat a million times.

Carole went to the Greek Orthodox Monastery one day while I was painting. She has also been finishing some quilts for the missions quilting club at this RV park. She has also been working on her own quilts plus a little scrap booking.

We are enjoying the beautiful warm days and cool evenings. It is so nice to sit out in the evening and look at the stars with no bugs.

Who ever said nothing grows in the dessert. Even the cactus are blooming.

The before picture (partially done--replaced some wall with wood and foam).

The finished wall.

Jim, Carol and Carole at the tractor show. Standing by 1939 ford 9N tractor which is similar to the one Jim has.

Carol and Carole patiently waiting for Jim and I to look at all the tractors.

The town house where I painted the interior.


We are looking forward to two more weeks at Coolidge then off to Precott for our April project.

Coolidge is a agricultural area--several large dairy operations so have lots of alfalfa fields plus other crops. Interesting to see how they flood the fields. Otherwise the fields look like powder dust.

Until next time, nlsower

feb project 3

More pictures from Sahuarita Christian Academy.
Adding sand to the basketball stands.

The basketball court within a few minutes after the court was finished.

Assembling two helicopters for playground--crew number one.

Crew number two with second helicopter. I didn't take a picture of the 15 kids lined up waiting for us to finish the helicopters. They were so excited to try them out as soon as we finished.

At the end of the day, some of us would just hang around and talk. We also poured the slab under the lean-to (shown in this picture.) This slab was not in the plan but the concrete truck had extra concrete so we didn't want to waste any--made a nice outdoor work area.

Our final projects were to clean out the future laundry area, install a faucet for a garden (this included locating the water line--four dry holes before finding the line; yes dug by hand but only 18 inches deep in dry clay) and installing a tee in another water line (hole was already dug) oops it leaked when we turned the water on. We had lots of fun and fellowship.

The whole group. Great workers and great project.

Thanks for your prayers. nlsower

feb project 2

SOWERs do a variety of tasks.

Moving park benches for an outdoor convocation for students.

Looking over the site for the basketball court.

Time to dig and dig--of course old men have to rest some too. If you don't have a shovel to lean on just pretend.

More digging. Digging out 3 inches of clay that is packed down like a parking lot. A quarter of an inch at a time. Oh well the the pay is heavenly.

The group leader setting forms.

Some times the group leader got tired of trying to keep us going so he just laid down on the job. Ha!

The cement truck is here!!!!!!!! This is only the first one.

The concrete is down and we are all still alive.

Taking a break.

Final brooming--it wasn't perfect but the kids will love it.


Now what? Two semi trucks of gravel to spread by hand. Well just one shovel full at a time--you know that really works--several hours later it was all leveled out--sore muscles and one callous--right Gary.

More pictures later. nlsower

Feb project 1

Here are some pictures of our February project at Sahuarita Christian Academy.




Main classroom building and offices. This building is used for high school.



Temporary classroom building, one of four. These are used for elementary grades.

A view as we went to devotions in the morning.

An afternoon view from the playground.

A picture of the pecan grove behind the school. That is B standing by one of the trees--these trees are huge.

The men start the project by putting in 6 ft high chain link fence. By the time the project was done we had put up about 800 ft of 6 ft fence.

We put up about 100 ft of 5 ft regular fence. The ground is so hard that we needed to use a water jet to bore the holes for the fence post. It sure worked great.

Pounding in the T fence post after boring the holes with the water jet.

The ladies worked with the kids. Some worked in the classroom and some on the playgrounds. This is C with her class.

I will post more pictures soon. Must get ready for church. nlsower

Finished the Sahuarita AZ project

Hi. We moved to Coolidge AZ yesterday--just an hour and half north of Sahuarita. We are visiting Carole's cousin for the month of March. Good thing we are not going to a project since I have a head cold--been sleeping alot today. I will post some pictures and comments in the next few days when I feel better. I love the posting of the 50-day spiritual adventure. It is so good to keep connected to our home church. Bye nlsower

greetings

Hi. It is a beautiful day. I am watching the finches, cardinals and road runners as I wait for my computer--cell phone connection is really slow, but it works.

C is washing clothes while I do some computer work. When she is done we will bake a raisin cake (her mother's recipe). Can't believe how fast the time flies.

We went to a slide show on ATV tours this morning. Fun to see the pictures--don't think we have the time to take a tour. Bible study at the park tomorrow. Coffee and donuts before we leave on Friday.

We try to walk around the park each day. Bye nlsower