THURSDAY

Our view every morning across the mountain...beautiful!

Chris putting the mud on.....

Dave sanding it off.

This is Henry's normal position...sitting and not working!

Dusty David

The 3 mudsketeers

This mornig we did some more mudding & sanding and then had time before lunch to take a drive to the lower farm about 7 miles down the road. On the way we saw several wild Turkeys in a field and 2 deer were standing in the middle of the road in front of us.
 After lunch Tom, David & Dave stayed back at the settlement & painted the columns out front of the dorms. Henry, Bill & I went to look at a possible electric job a few miles away for an elderly woman, which turned out to have already been completed, so we went for a little drive round the mountain. Funny thing is 30 min later we ended up right down the road from our job, so......... we stopped to see if the mud was dry & low and behold all the screw holes were dry so we stayed & sanded for an hour.
We came back to camp walked to the greenhouses to see the mums then vacuumed out the van. Tomorrow we will work about 2 hrs after breakfast then start our journey home. It has been a wonderful week of work and fellowship. Some of the other volunteers come the same week as our team every year so we have gotten to know them & look forward to serving with them each year.
Tomorrow we will say goodbye to all of them as well as to our homeowners and all of our friends here at the Settlement. Here are more photos from today...enjoy!

Bee hives made from hollowed out tree trunks......ingenious!

I am playing the little piano in the one room school house on the settlement.

Bill & Dave by the fireplace in the school house.

WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY

Today Henry & Bill finished all the electric for the room addition and the rest of us got our 1st coat of mud on the walls & ceiling. We wrapped up our work at 2:15 and headed back for showers. David decided to take us on a trip over the mountain to Cumberland Gap to have dinner. What an adventure! An hour drive on the edge of your seat, because we were literally driving on the edge of the cliff up & over the mountain. We were told the drive is not for the faint of heart...we now know why. Tom was riding shot gun and could not pry his own fingers loose from holding on to the dashboard to even take a few pics of where we would end up if we got our tires even a little over the line along the side of the road. If you heard the sound of rumble strips it was already too late, you would be over the edge.
While in Cumberland Gap we visited a tiny one room bicycle museum and walked a few blocks after a nice meal of Fried Green Tomatoes, Okra, Catfish, Fried Chicken and Ham Steak. The guys just walked down to the country store for ice cream, when they get back and then we may play some cards and have Bill do another magic card trick then it's off to bed. Thanks David for an exciting evening.  

Beautiful view on the hill outside our dorm.

The Stone Mountain Band

Although Bill has knee pads on he chose to sit on the floor to wire all the receptacles.

 All Henry did today was hold this flashlight....just kiddin, he wired the switches and all the lights work now. Bills receptacles worked also....good job guys!

                                                Here are the Master Mudders hard at work.

David buys doggie treats for all the dogs we encounter on our trips. This is Coco our homeowners dog.

Bicycle Museum

This is a bed & breakfast in Cumberland Gap

TUESDAY

We heard there were thunderstorms & some flooding back home today. It rained most of the day here in Kentucky as well.
We started the day off with a trip into Tennessee for some electrical supplies.  On the way back we stopped at a house we got Honey from last year to see if we could buy some to take home with us again this year. While the guys waited in the van I went for the honey. The Honey lady was in a chatty mood & told me the story of her miracle grandson who was not supposed to live. Her daughter had a brain tumor and was on Chemo and later found out she was pregnant. They said she would not be able to carry a child and that if she decided to go through with the pregnancy the baby would surely be affected adversely by the drugs. His name is Landon and he is now a healthy 8 month old. What a great story to start the day off.
When we got to our job site we hung more drywall  & tied into the electrical panel box. Till the day was over we figured we would have another day to finish hanging and applying the 1st coat of mud. We should be done this job by Thursday!
Here are some photos from our day;

Get that insulation done we have drywall to hang!

 We couldn't get the right box for our exterior light so we had to improvise. If they ever have to open up that wall I can image the look on their face....maybe we should have included an explanation in writing  on the wall behind the insulation.

While Tom was on the inside, Henry was on the outside.

Here is a shot of the room addition from the outside. Did I mention it is going to be a teenagers bedroom? Look there David has his broom out again, sweeping up at the end of the day.

It is now 7:30 pm and everyone is in the community room listening to a local Bluegrass band entertain us this evening. What a great way to end the day.

MORE PHOTOS!

Look at this lovely rainbow that peeked out at us this morning.

Here is Jerry & Jerry....with their little tool box. Now you know why they don't go out on the jobs with us. These guys are a hoot!

 Here is Chris waiting patiently for the work order for our job.... we are next!
                                                   Henry is sitting down on the job again.

Look closely, yes that is a satellite dish turned upside down and being used as a covering for a tractor.

RAINY DAY MONDAY!

After morning devotions at 7:00am we walked outside & were greeted by a very faint but visible rainbow.... how cool! We walked to the dining hall for breakfast and then to the shop to talk about the projects. We got off to a slow start which is normal for the 1st work day. Until you get the paperwork & gather tools you have enough time to run to the job site & check out the project, meet the homeowners & get set up before we headed back for lunch.
At the job site it started raining and poured all day. Dave started immediately drilling holes so the wiring could be run and David volunteered to work on insulation even though he forgot his long sleeve shirt back at the dorm...... guess he thought we would feel sorry for him & say he didn't have to do it. At the end of the day we used up all the insulation we had but were still a little short to complete the walls & ceiling. Henry & Bill spent some time under the mobile home searching for a way to run some new wire up to the main Electric service panel box. I drilled some holes, cut drywall & bossed the guys all day...good I did or nothing would have gotten done. When we were ready to leave we all saw another side of David. He grabbed the broom & was insisting that the work area needed cleaned up before we left. We watched & he swept. We were not going to argue with him because today is his birthday!

Here are a bunch of photos from today;

 Check back for more pictures after our meeting tonight.

Kentucky On My Mind!

We head out Sunday at 7 am for Henderson Settlement in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky. This will be the smallest team we have had go to Henderson so far. The team consists of myself (Chris) and 5 guys....... sounds like a burger joint....haha.
Seriously, I have been on trips with all these guys and I know we will have an awesome week. David, Dave, Bill, Henry and Tom all are great guys and we all have a passion to use our talents and skills to help people in need. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we will be wiring, insulating and drywalling a room addition on a mobile home for a family of 4. Follow us on this blog next week to see how we are doing.