Starship III

We have had a blessed, safe, and uneventful trip home.  God is so good!  We must have seen at least 25 deer on the side of the road that had been hit by cars in central Texas.  We just prayed that God would give us safe passage as we drove through the Hill Country westward.  It rained on us a lot and the wind blew like crazy!  Flags were straight out and fluttering endlessly, which means wind speeds of over 25 mph.  We normally only drive about five hours a day and like to get settled in an RV park early so we can relax (and watch Jeopardy!)  Time spend with friends and family on this trip have been greatly cherished!  Thank you all for your special memories.  We are already planning our next project and will keep you posted on plans as they are finalized.  It is so rewarding to know you are helping someone recover from a disaster.  We have never been through a natural disaster, and hope we never do.  We just can't imagine,...

We finished our three weeks volunteering at Port Lavaca on Thursday.  Wish I had the foresight to take before and after pictures of the house, but I didn't.  We got there, unloaded tools, then started in.  By the end of the day we were all too tired to think about pictures.  The last two weeks we hung lots and lots of sheetrock, and taped and mudded lots and lots of sheetrock!!!  There were other jobs to be done too, like fixing flooring, doing some electrical work, wood siding, etc. but the majority of work at this point on the house was getting the ceilings and walls up and prepped.  This house had the roof blown off during Hurricane Harvey in 2017.  The homeowner has been living with relatives for two years.  We hope the rest of the volunteers can get her back in her house before they have to quit for the winter before Christmas.  The weather has been in cycles.  Two or three pretty days, then a front comes in, then two or three ...

Our first week is finished and we have somewhat recuperated.  We work Monday through Thursday from 8 to 4.  This may not seem like much to most of you, but we are all OLD!!!  We enjoy what we do but we work intensely.  The house we are working on was pretty much destroyed.  It would have seemed easier to have leveled it and built new, but the cost would have been much more, so we are doing what we can to get the homeowner back in her home.  Bill installed a new toilet and bathroom door, did some electrical work. I removed some floor tiles. He and I hung sheetrock.  I started mudding the sheetrock.  Other team members removed some rotting flooring and replaced the plywood.  I learned how to remove popcorn ceiling.  This is a depressed area, many homeless here, possibly because of the many hurricanes and they cannot afford to go somewhere else.  The church where we are staying has a meal on Monday night, and about half were homeless...