Friday the 13th..but we don't worry :-)

I'm back again. Last night I didn't have too much to report and I just wanted to veg. We started the morning again with an excellent breakfast (see left). Yesterday I did more siding and we got a good amount of wall covered. Today, we're much slower again because we had to fix a number of areas. For instance, the front fascia backer board was all rotted away and we had to cut the rotten section out and replace it with new wood. Because there was a large tree just in front of the house with branches hanging over the roof line, I had to do a lot of tree trimming before I could reach the fascia properly. These are just some examples of what we're up against when we continue to rebuilt this old house. John Tjaarda, one of our crew, spend a lot of time putting up soffits and fascia cladding. This is also a "fiddly" job. We still have to rebuild a large section of fascia at one side of the house. We all think that they made a big mistake in trying to rebuilt this old house. It would have been cheaper and a lot quicker to have torn it down and rebuilt from the ground up. But that's all water under the bridge now and we just do the very best we can to make sure that we end up with a house that is safe and looks good. One of the problems is that not only are we fixing water and storm damage from Katrina, but also neglect and lack of proper maintenance. The house is basically totally rebuilt with new electrical wiring, new plumbing, new A/C and heating, new bathroom, new kitchen, new hot water tank, new flooring, new and better insulation and list goes on. The lady that owns this house is an 85 year old single lady. She's presently living with family somewhere in Texas. It's too bad that we haven't been able to meet her. The other houses we work on have their owners or family members drop in regularly and they have some nice times of fellowship with them. On the other hand, the neighbour across the street is a good friend and she comes over from time to time and takes pictures that she sends to the owner. She's a very nice lady as well. All in all, we find that the people around are very nice and easy to talk to (as long as you can understand their southern accent).

Annie was assigned to cooking and cleaning duties yesterday and she thoroughly enjoyed doing that. It's a lot easier on her and the kitchen staff consists of some great ladies. In the afternoon when the kitchen staff had a couple of hours free time, they walked to the Mississippi river, which is only about 10 minutes walking from here. The ladies are standing on the levee on the north shore of the river. The Mississippi is about one mile across here and flows quite fast. Even here, you can notice the influence of the tides. During flood tide, you see a cross-current going upstream which is interesting. On the picture, you can see that area at the foot of the levee on the riverside is flooded. This is the after affect of the storm surge of hurricane Ida, the only visible sign here that we had a hurricane in the area. Large sea going ship go right up the port of New Orleans and barges are going up and downstream all the time loaded with raw materials.

Today however, Annie had to go back to do some real work again which consisted of sanding drywall (this one of the least liked work apparently). Luckily, it's now done and she only had to do it for one day. As you can see in the picture, the sanding crew got a little greyer than they already were before. They should get to the painting stage by Monday. However, I think that on Monday, she's working in the kitchen again though.

Today we completed our second week of work and are looking forward to some relaxing time on the weekend. We have plans to see and do a few thing on Saturday, but I'll write about that after we've done them. The best thing of these working trips is the fellowship with each other. We have really bonded as a group and appreciate each other's gifts and contributions. Our construction supervisors are Ed and Sonia Buisman. Ed has a lot of construction experience and can always be relied on to figure out any of the problems we can't. Sonia, or Sjoukje as she prefers to be called, is his wife and able assistant. In this picture, you see the ladies doing handcrafts. Last Wednesday, they had a special ladies night when the ladies did their crafts and the men got to do the dishes.

Well, I'm writing this blog before our supper and it's just about time to go down so I'm putting a period to this blog. BTW, I think tonight's supper includes brocolli salad, taco salad, banana bread and mystery desert. Good night (or good day depending where you are) to all of you.

Remembrance Day/Veterans Day

Yesterday, I just didn't have the oomph to write my blog. Also, because there was an AA meeting here, all the DRS people were crowded into the lounge.

Yesterday my crew finished tweaking the inside of the house to get it ready for drywalling. We were all very happy that this phase of the job was over because it was very finicky and at the end of day, you saw little or no progress after working your butt off. We also had to remove part of the front steps and when we did, hundreds of cockroaches rushed out and skittered off all over. Also, a large nest of ants was inside these steps. It's a good thing we didn't have any women in our crew :-) Annie did more mudding yesterday and today she had to sand. Sanding is a very dirty job but she's going to work in the kitchen for the rest of the week and possibly next week. I think she'll enjoy that more. It's not so physically exacting for her. Today my crew put on a lot of siding. We have about 40% of the house done now and it's starting to look so much better already. The electrician came today and we hope that by Friday, he's finished. Also, the heating and AC crew was in today. They removed all the old ducts and heating unit. They should also be done by the end of the week.

Today, the kitchen staff toured the three sites we are working on and handed out icecream sandwiches to all. Needless to say, in the hot weather that was appreciated very much. The weather is beautiful here today, 75 deg F and sunny with a bit of a cool breeze to prevent you from overheating too much. As I predicted, hurricane Ida was a real flash in the pan for us here in New Orleans. We never got any rain and the winds were moderate. The only thing noticable was that the temperature was just below 70 deg F and we had overcast skies.

After working all day, we usually quit around 4 o'clock. When we get back to base, we take a nice hot shower and relax before supper. Grace usually arranges "happy hour" in the "Cafe Lamour" (sic). This involves setting up an area in the dining hall with tables and chairs and serving grape juice and hors d'ouvres. This is of course well appreciated by all.  Yesterday Annie and I had to do the devotions. This is done a rotational basis. It is a real time of fellowship where we can share our concerns and blessings. We conclude with announcements and then we sing a number of songs together. After that, everyone is free to relax and do whatever they want. A lot of the guys watch sports, primarily football. Some play games and others do their email correspondence or read. By 10 o'clock, nearly all go to bed and try to get in a good amount of sleep to be ready for the next day.

We remembered our fallen soldiers and veterans today, it being Remembrance day in Canada and Veterans Day here in the US. Tom read the poem "In Flanders Fields..." and we had various stories of what this day meant for Canadian and Americans alike. Please click on this link to view the video Soldier's Song

Tonight, the kitchen staff had a night off and we had supper in the local Baptist church. It cost us $5.00 per person and was worth every penny. They put on an excellent meal and we talked to a number of people from their congregation. Everyone here is very friendly and makes us feel really welcome. This is about it for today, I hope this blog allows you to get an idea of what and how we're doing. Goodnight to all. We are always thankful for your prayers and keep you all in our prayers well.

Ida....Much ado about nothing.

I didn't feel like writing a blog yesterday, so here were are again today which is Monday. Yesterday being Sunday, we of course went to church after sleeping in till 7:30 or so. This time we visited the First Baptist Church, which is only a 7 minute walk from where we're staying. This is a large church capable of seating around 700-800 people or so. It wasn't very full either but more people attended here than in the Methodist church, at least 350 or so. We had a great service with lots of praise hymns. The church has quite a good music program as well. The preacher was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed the sermon. We, as DRS reps, were officially recognized by him upon which we received a warm applause from the congregation.

In the afternoon, Annie went into New Orleans with a bunch of people to a Black Southern Gospel Fest. She enjoyed it, but everyone complained about the high sound levels. Our people were the only white people in the audience and were warmly received.

Today, all the news is about hurricane Ida. The news anchors are spinning this story from every possible angle and if you wouldn't know better, you'd think that the end of the world is near. It now appears to land near Pensacola as a tropical depression, which is to the east of us. Here in New Orleans, we'll get up to 60km/h winds and maybe up to 2 inches of rain tonight. Not exactly something that would worry me a whole lot. By the time we get up tomorrow, it'll be mostly over and we expect a mix of sun and cloud. Today we had a few sprinkles and it was overcast with a temperature of 69 deg F.

Our crew continued prepping the house to hang drywall. We had to do more blocking, shaving and shimming. We worked hard, but with little visible signs of progress because it is slow and exacting work. We were hoping that the electrician would come today to install the wiring. However, as is typical here in the south, he never showed up. We hope to continue applying vinyl siding tomorrow, depending on the weather conditions. Annie did more mudding and has graduated to doing inside corners. They are almost done with their second coat and hope to finish the final coat before week's end.

Also, today the last couple of our work crew arrived and was warmly welcomed. They are not yet retired and could only spend 2 weeks here.

BTW, the pictures in this blog are "clickable". When you click on them, you can view a much larger copy with a lot more detail.

Annie and I really appreciate your continued prayers and any feedback you give us, either via email or blog feedback. Thank you so much!

Well we hope that tonight we can sleep soundly when the storm hits. We wish you all God's blessing and a good day/night.

A rest day...or is it?

Today we had the luxury of sleeping in. It being the weekend and we're not working. This morning we had breakfast with a goodly number of our crew at the local IHOP. For those of you who haven't ever visited IHOP, it stands for International House Of Pancakes. We had a great breakfast selection of the usual egg dishes and a large variety of crepes and pancakes. After that, a bunch of us went downtown New Orleans to do the tourist thingy.  The first item on our itinerary was a visit to one of the old cemetaries here. Because the ground water level is only a couple of feet below the surface, the graves are in above ground tombs or sepulchres. They are in a variety of styles and sizes. Modest ones, just a bit larger than a coffin as well as palatial grand edifices. It was interesting to see that the cemetary we visited had graves all the back to 1823. There are mostly French names on the tombs. You can certainly notice the French and Spanish influence in this city.

Wedrove to New Orleans with the six of us but once we had parked, split up into three couples and each went our own way. After the cemetary we visited the French Quarter. This is the old section of town and is famous for it's jazz, bars and carnival. It's quite "touristy" with high prices and lots of stuff you can spend your money on. The French Quarter has a lot of character. There are street artists everywhere including cartoon artists, painters, mimes, jazz musicians, street sellers and much more. We walked along Bourbon Street, made famous by its Jazz music and the movies. The interesting architechture here includes the balconies on the buildings complete with cast iron railings. There are also lots of horsedrawn carriages you can hire to tour the area. We visited the French Market which is kind of like a flea market where you can buy all kinds of items such as T-shirts, jewelry, food, etc. We had a good time just browsing around and enjoying the summer like weather.

We then walked along the Riverside Walk along the Mississippi river. We saw a couple of Mississippi river boats. You can go on them for a tour on the river and the harbour. The one that was moored played a few tunes on a caliope. This is a steam powered organ that can play real loud, just like a bunch of steam whistles.

There is no visible damge in the downtown area of New Orleans. When the French originally built New Orleans, they selected one of highest parts along the Mississippi mouth. During Katrina, only a few inches of water ever covered the French Quarter. After strolling along along for a few hours, we got a bit tired and drove back to our temporary home in Kenner. All-in-all it was an good and interesting day. We concluded the day with supper in a large buffet style restaurant and stuffed ourselves with lots of good food (just kidding, we took just enough to be pleasantly full).

We did some laundry and then retired to the lounge to play games and have a good time with the rest of the crew.

Our first week is done!

Here it is, the end of our first work week. I must say that I look forward to some R&R. The week has gone by surprisingly quick though. Even when the day starts at 6 o'clock, the days are so full that the time is just flying by. I did more framing today and we can now see the end in sight for that part of the job. It is a real challenge to make everything straight using a mixture of old rough cut 2X4's and new 2X4's. They are not the same size and we need to slice off a part of the old 2X4's and in other places shim them to get an even and straight foundation for the wallboard.

The plumber finished his work today and we'll be ready for the electrician on Monday. We cleaned the inside as best we could so he has access to the walls for placing the outlets and switches and fusebox. We have worked inside while the weather outside was just beautiful. Today again it was sunny and 73 deg F. Now that we're ready to continue to put siding on, the weather promises to be cooler and wet. Oh well.. you can't always get what you want.

Annie is still mudding and getting better at it all the time. It's something that will come in handy when I'm ready to renovate the basement at home. The owner of the house she's working in came to see how eveything is progressing. He's disabled and in a wheelchair. When we reconstructed his home, we took his handicap into consideration and he will be able to get around much better after everything is finished. He was moved to tears when he saw how much had been done. Needless to say, the DRS people were quite moved as well. One couple from California, John and Audrey Tsjaarda, presented him with a quilt that their church had provided. He was really thankful for that as well.

It maybe interesting to tell the folks back home how our day kind of goes. I'll describe the start of our day here today and the end of the day at another time. We get up at around 6 o'clock and get dressed and do our thing. We then go to the dining room around 6:30 to make our lunches. There are always a lot of food items to choose from, including sandwich makings, yogurt, fruit, snacks, drinks, etc. We pack our lunches into our coolers with an ice pack and since I'm the "waterboy" of my team, I fill a large water container with water and ice to take along. I usually have a cup of coffee and read the paper after making lunch. At 7 o'clock we have breakfast. One of the couples (this rotates on a daily basis) opens with prayer and then we eat. There is usually fruit, porridge, grits, toast, cereal, eggs, coffee and a whole bunch more. One thing we're not doing, is starving. There is an abundance of food at all times. After we're finished, the designated couple leads in devotions and finishes with a prayer of thanksgiving. Tom then tells everyone what the weather is in their home towns and reads a funny or interesting story. Any housekeeping items are discussed by either Tom or Grace. Our construction manager then gives us information and tips about the work sites for the day and usually also has a funny remark. We then stand up, hold hands and sing "This is the day". It has a special sencond verse related to the work we do as reps of DRS. Our construction supervisor is Ed Buisman ably assisted by his wife Sjoukje (Sonia). Sjoukje is a sister of Agnes Wyga.

Tom and Grace are doing a marvelous job here in Kenner. They bring a sense of fun and excitement to this venture that is uplifting and appreciated by all and they just make everything run smoothly. The best thing is that we can really feel the Spirit at work in this group. It's like a small group in that we can share our concerns and joys without judgement.

Annie and I are thankful for the people back home that are praying for us and surely appreciate that very much. So endeth the story for today. God bless and have a good night (or day) to all.

Oh the pain....

Today, we did more of the same work that we've done so far. I'm still helping put in ceiling rafters and prepping for putting the wallboard up. I did a lot of overhead hammering and my shoulder and arm muscles are a little tight right now. I wish we took my daughter Caroline with us. She's a massage therapist and could really help not just myself but also a lot of the other people here.

We had to remove a lot of old stuff before we could get our new rafters in. All in all a good day though. We work really well together and have quite a bit of fun too, which is a blessing. At break times we get into some real good discussions sometimes. The weather is staying very nice. Today is was 76 deg F and sunny. Yeah, I know you're all jealous I suppose but I feel is at least some compensation for the work we're doing. Annie did a lot of "mudding" again and she probably will be doing that for some time to come yet. Annie has become good friends with Carol Schuitema. She's also mudding, primarily in the various closets and joked that by the end of the day she could finally come out of the closet.

We had a couple of guests tonight for dinner. Cynthia, who is the sister of the owner of the house that Annie works in and Margaret who is a long time member of the church here. Margaret is 83 years old and is the only surviving person of the original founding members. She's a lovely spry lady and told us a bit about the church here and still teaches adult sunday school every Sunday. Cynthia also told us about her family and how hurricane Katrina affected them all. She had to move to Texas for 2 years to wait for her house to be reconstructed. She's glad that she's  been back here again for the last 2 years. Her brother, the home owner is handicapped and she's dropping by the house almost every day to check on the progress for him. She's a warm outgoing black lady and so appreciative of the work that we're doing here. She had a number of family problems and Grace prayed over her on our behalf, which she really appreciated. All in all, we had a lovely time.

This it it for today again and I hope to add to this blog tomorrow.