**Josh was so excited to open one of his birthday presents before Daddy left for work**
*****We love you so very much Joshua Daniel!*****
Friday, January 31, 2014
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
1-29-14 Caddie Woodlawn
In 1864 Caddie Woodlawn was eleven, and as wild a little tomboy as ever ran the woods of western Wisconsin. She was the despair of her mother and of her elder sister, Clara. But her father watched her with a little shine of pride in his eyes, and her brothers accepted her as one of themselves without a question. Indeed, Tom, who was two years older, and Warren, who was two years younger than Caddie, needed Caddie to link them together into an inseparable trio. Together they got in and out of more scrapes and adventures than any one of them could have imagined alone. And in those pioneer days, Wisconsin offered plenty of adventure to three wide-eyed, red-headed youngsters.
Thus begins Caddie Woodlawn.
Written by Caddie’s granddaughter Carol Ryrie Brink in 1935, this true story was a very worthwhile read for all of us. From prairie fires to Indian massacres to falling through the ice and narrowly escaping death, Caddie’s experiences made for anything but a dull childhood, and we enjoyed every page of this riveting book.
Monday, January 27, 2014
1-27-14 Random
by Kaitlyn (and Mom)
Studying hard.
We finally started practicing music again because the boys are back.
Josh likes playing Duplos with Dad while we do music.
The boys still love watching the videos they took in OK. We other kids like watching them too, but the boys like them the best.
Josh likes watching his eggs get cooked.
The second cross stitch project I’ve done.
The Fuji apples from our trees have been staying very nice in the garage. Mom brought the last bucket of apples in this morning so they wouldn’t freeze.
THE END.
Mom’s 2c: Last week flew by in a blur of school, chores, projects, and play. With kids still schnotzing & coughing around, we haven’t gone far from home. Throw a little asthma in there with it and we’re just better off with a nebulizer handy. This post pretty much sums up our entire week: school, music, food prep and other chores, and play & projects. Along with coaching several novice cross-stitchers, I also got a few skirts altered that have been patiently waiting for several months and got other patching caught up while I was at it. Word Search books and Ultimate Dot-to-Dot books are frequently seen lately. Legos, matchbox, Lincoln Logs, K’nex – all those things that get completely ignored during three seasons of the year have been heavily used this season. Computer times every day. A few videos when chores are done. I’ve kept kids inside more than most years because for one they’re cough-y, and for two, it’s so wicked cold. Way colder than recent years. Great for the rink but almost too cold for the skaters. They’ve been out some, but when the high is around 3, and our country wind drops it another ten or so degrees, it’s pretty raw out there and they don’t last long. Hopefully soon it’ll moderate and they’ll be out again.
Today’s highlight -
Jesse was checking fence and creek right then and likely scared this cute little guy out; here it looks to me like he’s watching Jesse.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
OKC Part 1
Intro by Mom, excerpted from our Apostolic Christian World Relief webpage:
“On Monday afternoon, May 20th 2013 a powerful EF-5 tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City area, shredding everything in its path. A total of twenty-four lives were lost in this storm.
“Among the victims were two infants and eight young children, several who were students at one of the elementary schools that was destroyed by the tornado. Beyond the school, a small hospital and entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble.
“For nearly twenty miles, a path of destruction was carved through residential areas and businesses. At least three additional tornadoes did extensive damage to other communities in the Oklahoma City area during this time period.
“In all, more than 15,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. In the time since the May tornadoes, crews have removed the debris in preparation for rebuilding and case workers have been working to evaluate the needs of those who had no insurance or whose homes were underinsured. These families need our help to recover.”
**********************************************************************************************************
The week as reported by Jesse (and Levi):
***photo credits to Jesse and the Sauders. Thank you Sauders for sharing your px with us all week. We looked forward to them each day!***
First, the group photo. The project coordinators, referred to as ‘long-termers’ are denoted by the asterisk*.
L-R Back Row - Derek Wettstein, Levi, Josh Strahm, Gabe Koch, Arrow Sauder, Echo Sauder, *Barry Kloter, L-R third row - Lloyd Wettstein, Talon Sauder, Willow Sauder, John Sauder, Corey Rollins, *Curt Kaeb, Craig Koch, Lynn Kipfer, Jon Wettstein, Brad Eland. L-R second row – *Luanne Kaeb, *Maria Reugsegger, Jessalyn Strahm, Elizebeth Schrenk, Mariah Strahm, Amy Rokey, Lydia Meeks, Abigail Schrenk, *Kathy Schifferer, *Tom Schifferer. L-R front row – *Glenn Reugsegger, *Shane Fiechter, Mahlon Steiner, me, Willy Beutel, Mike Rokey, Bruce Schafer.
Not pictured is Barry’s wife *Joyce who is taking the picture.
Unloading supplies into the dorms Sunday afternoon upon arrival.
It took Corey about five minutes to get his name tag on, even with Levi helping. I also have a hilarious video of his efforts.
We spent our spare time working on this puzzle in the main area. We got it completed about Wednesday night but there was one piece missing. It was very disappointing.
Evenings often included consultations with Curt about the next day’s work.
Levi was placed in charge of building a house on this site.
It started with nothing but the footings and the cement parking slab next to them. Most Oklahoma houses don’t have a full foundation, let alone basement. On the first day, his crew built this knee wall and placed a main beam down the center of the house. Levi and Derek are trying to figure out the placement of the beam supports, and the other three are building the beam by nailing 2x12s together.
Getting acquainted and relaxing after supper.
Packing lunches before breakfast. Everybody packs his own and puts it in the cooler which will accompany him to his jobsite.
Screwing hurricane straps onto the subfloor. Hopefully the house won’t fly apart so easily next time.
Foreground, building wall ties. Background, trying to lay out the first wall late on the second day. I was on Levi's job that day, so I was privileged to be able to screw up three headers.
Levi comment: It wasn’t Jesse’s fault. It was sort of mine.
Our campaign to chase people to bed early. We got one table to leave within ten minutes.
The jobs and corresponding teams/vehicles for the week.
The kitchen duties sign-up list for the week.
Talking with Susan Atnip, whose daughter was trapped in the Plaza Towers Elementary School for an hour and a half and whose house had both tornado and flood damage.
Levi's team for the week. Teams varied some depending on the job and what needed to be done on specific days. Because Levi's site was one of the busier ones, he usually had more than the four pictured here.
The group I was with for the week. Shane was the team captain.
John's team.
Lynn’s team.
Abigail was the assigned skid loader operator for the week, so she would sometimes get left with the loader to level a lot for an hour or two. Shane is showing her how to get to the next job after completing the leveling of a lot where World Relief will eventually build a home.
While Abigail leveled the lot, the rest of us went to the Harris place. The Harris's were victims of contractor fraud. The entire house had to be re-wired, which meant all drywall and insulation had to be removed.
One example of poor wiring. Wires mashed between drywall and studs instead of ran through the studs. This particular wire was scraped pretty good where they put screws on both sides.
The Melton job. Also a victim of contractor fraud, although not as egregious as the Harris place. A tree fell through two layers of shingles, and the contractor just put steel over the top of everything. They actually did a pretty good job on the steel, but city ordinances say only two roofs can be on the house at a time, so we had to take the steel off, rip off two layers of shingles, lay down new paper, then put the steel back down. There was also some inside drywall work to do at this place where rain had come in through the holes in the roof.
The main registration area back at headquarters.
The dessert line after supper.
Gabe was trying to open the curtains and the valance fell off. It happened about 1 in the morning and we all laughed ourselves sick. It’s one of those things you have to be there for to get the full effect.
Levi’s crew hanging trusses after completion of subfloor and exterior walls.
The boss.
No, they're not all waiting; they had to move this port-a-john out of the way at the Bibbs place.
Moving a dilapidated truck at the Blevens place. Danny Blevens is on the left, his son on the right.
Sheeting for the roof at the Anderson place (Levi's house).
Sheeting the roof.
The dish washing crew one night. The little girl on the left is Corie Atnip. She survived an hour and a half under an SUV along with a friend and a teacher in the Plaza Towers Elementary School.
A little water got on the floor. No more than a couple gallons. Apparently it was pretty funny.
Ok Levi here. So we were doing dishes Thursday night and the washer opens from the sides but Gabe opened it from the front which is the maintenance opening or something. Gabe figured it was another door to put dishes in and that it would close when the sides closed. Well it didn’t work like that, and when Elisabeth closed it, it started but the front stayed open resulting in a miniature tsunami. For a second everyone froze, not sure what to do. Gabe tried to close the door but it stuck open. Finally Elisabeth thought to yank the side door open thus stopping the washing cycle. We all were dying with laughter as we mopped up the floor. Me and Gabe decided we would have done dishes every night if we’d have known it was that much fun in the kitchen.
Our dorm room. It got quite a bit more messy as the week progressed.
We had ten beds for five people.
A good way to stay organized: clean clothes on top, sleep in the middle, and dirty clothes on the floor. It worked great.
Barry and Joyce stay in the camper in the background.
Front of the place we stayed. Dorms are on the left.
Main World Relief trailer.
By Friday afternoon, most of the jobs were wrapped up for the week, so most of the people who hadn’t already left for home congregated at the Anderson place, where Levi's crew was finishing up the shingles. They had about ten rows to do by the time we got there.
Finishing up the soffit.
Corey’s workin’ hard. Or hardly workin’?
Apparently they had a rookie cutting the shingles at the edge, so a little trim job was necessary.
Inside walls will be framed this week, and windows and doors installed.
Corey and I were in charge of completing out each row of shingles for the top half of the roof (note, it was the bottom half that had to be trimmed).
It got a little crowded by the end.
It was pretty neat when we had three World Relief trailers (one out of sight, behind the van on the left), two vans, and five trucks at the end of Friday, all at the Anderson house.
Everybody left at the Anderson job Friday about 5:30. Bruce Schafer is taking the picture. Jon and Lloyd Wettstein and Brad Eland were also there but had left before the picture was taken.
From foundation, to walls tyveked, roof completely on, and soffit completed in five days.
Note the tired looking crew leader holding the blueprint he knew all too well by Friday.
Work week accomplished, we all went to a restaurant called Santa Fe. Here we’re eating peanuts while waiting for a table. Note the peanut shells on the floor and Curt’s shirt.
Friday night after supper, Gabe, Levi, Willy, Mahlon, Corey, and I decided to bomb around Moore for awhile. We went to Dick’s Sporting Goods for awhile and then drove around trying not to get into wrecks. We really didn’t want the week to end, so we came back and hung out by ourselves in the main area. We played some piano duets, listened to our favorite songs over the speaker system, and laughed at our favorite quotes of the week.
Of course, when young guys hang out, bad things are bound to happen. At least I had the presence of mind to take my shoes off. We got a little nervous when Bruce walked in on us, but then he held the chair. I guess he figured he might as well make sure no one got hurt.
We left our autographs.
Saturday morning we hit the road about 6:30. Gabe drove till breakfast, then Mahlon drove until right before St. Louis. This was past St. Louis so probably two or three hours from home. Corey took over driving duties.
We had taken out the middle bench in the van and replaced it with a cooler that had gone down full of food, so four people could face each other and play cards.
Some people were ready to get home.
Final pic in the Tremont church parking lot.
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