Bert's Musings

Today the four of us put all the full sheets on the roof. (We still have two partial width sheets to cut and install) Kathy continued painting exterior doors and frames. The mornings work. And the afternoons work. This old guy was POOPED! About half way through the afternoon side I was about convinced that I could not help lift my half of another sheet up on the roof. That went on for about three sheets and then the Lord must have given me a shot of adrenaline because I was able to keep working until we finished, almost exactly at quitting time. Had I taken a break, forcing the other guys to take a break also, we would not have finished. God is good, I should have been asking Him for strength but even though I didn't He still gave it to me. Last nights low was 27 degrees, even though Weatherbug claims it was around 40. Water hoses don't freeze at 40 and ours was definitely frozen again this morning. I had expected it to be and had shut off the water at the hose bib, but the wat...

Why is Obama telling lies about the economy? Is he deliberately trying to stir up class hatred? The Lie From Obama’s Weekly Saturday address – October 29 th , 2011 “This week, a new economic report confirmed what most Americans already believe to be true: over the past three decades, the middle class has lost ground while the wealthiest few have become even wealthier,” said Obama. (One place that has certainly got "wealthier" is the Federal government. It is spending nearly twice as much per capita, in inflation adjusted dollars, as it did 3 decades ago.) The Truth From the Congressional Budget Office report cited by Obama. “For the 60 percent of the population in the middle of the income scale (21st through 80th percentiles), the growth in average real after-tax household income was just under 40 percent.” That means that a family that would have been earning the equivalent of about $50,000 per year in constant dollars in 1997 would be making the equivalent of $70,000 in 20...

I think that Logan Valley must be the coldest place in southeast Missouri. We know our thermometer is reasonably accurate because the hoses had frozen when it said it was 29 degrees one morning last week. Weatherbug and Weatherunderground both claimed that the early morning temperatures were in the low 40's while our thermometer showed a low of 30 degrees. We had a fairly heavy frost and it did not melt off until after the sun was up. Today was windy but mostly sunny. We went to church this morning and took naps in the afternoon. Kathy took a short nap and did some laundry while I took a long nap. We just got back from walking over to the creek and then down the road to the cemetery where the paved road ends. This is the creek back behind the main camp. The water level is actually about 5' below the bank with the vegetation.  This is the left side of the camp looking from the creek. Actually I was probably 100' from the creek. The buildings in the center are one of the dini...

We drove about 75 miles today looking at two springs in the area, and enjoying the beautiful day. We had thought about going to at least one more but it would have been another 70 miles. Since both of us were tired we decided to come back home and take a nap instead. The nap was great. We went to Blue Spring first. The name comes from its color. The spring is 310' deep and flows about 90 million gallons a day. Below is the parking lot the road that takes you to Blue Spring. We only slightly drug the bottom of the CR-V at one place getting down the 2.5 mile road to the parking lot. Kathy is checking out the information sheet at the trail head that leads to the 0.4 mile path that takes you to the spring. Here she is stepping on the stones that lead across a little stream that you have to cross to get to the spring.     Below is the right side of the spring area. I'm sorry for the lousy photography. The place is just beautiful.  I don't know what makes the holes in the ...

At 7 AM it was 25 degrees here. We know our thermometer is fairly accurate because last week, when it said 29 degrees, our water hose froze. The sun is out and there aren't many clouds in the sky. It is still (at 8:40 CDT) pretty frosty out, but the steam is coming off the side of the car as the frost evaporates in the sunshine.

We installed all the roof purlins today. Monday we will put the sheathing on the gable ends and by Tuesday we should start installing the metal roof. Bruce and David did all the roof work while I marked and cut the purlins. Kathy painted more doors again today. She also went to town for groceries, and to buy a different type of paint brush. Dave and Sue had a dinner for the "Red Hat Ladies" last evening. Some type of club. They had food left over and told David & Kathy and Kathy & I to warm it up for supper if we wanted. Dave and Sue left for St. Louis around noon. There were going to attend the World Series game. Kathy and I plan on going exploring tomorrow. Probably to see Blue Springs and then just wander around. Today's high was 56. It is 35 degrees here now. I just came in from taking the pressure off the water hose. I also removed the water softener and brought it inside and put a light bulb in the outside space behind the refrigerator, to keep the ice maker...

Today we set the roof trusses, by hand, and installed one row of starter purlins. Three of us set about half of them and we had a 4th guy help us with the other half. Tomorrow we hope to finish installing the purlins. Dave called in the order for the metal roofing at noon and it is supposed to be ready to pick up tomorrow morning. Kathy did laundry and cooked (for us) and cleaned and swept the dorms in "Africa" today. The temperature never got out of the 50's today and it was cloudy. Tonight's low is supposed to be in the mid 30's and tomorrow the high is to be in the low 60's, with sun. By the time we leave here next week (to head for Andy & Kelsey's) I should be in the best physical shape that I've been in for years, and I have enjoyed almost every minute of it. When I told the guys I have been working with that we would be leaving no later than the end of next week Bruce, the real carpenter, said he would miss me but wondered if I would leave my...

I only worked about 45 minutes this morning and we then were rained out. It has rained on and off all day, but never hard. The roof trusses were delivered to day so, if we don't get rained out tomorrow, I think we will start setting them. We had David, Kathy, Davie & Josh (their 3 & 1 year olds) over for supper. Since there isn't much going on here Sue is visiting one of their kids & grandkids. Dave stayed around but I think he is leaving Thursday to do the same, since there are no camps this weekend. We asked him to come for supper but he already has other plans. Kathy and I read, napped and worked caught up on our budgeting. (Actually she was caught up, I was the one who had not done anything on it for a couple of months.) Of course Kathy also cooked dinner and supper. Temperature went down to 49 last night. Todays high was in the mid 60's. Tonights low is supposed to be in the low 40's and it tomorrows high is forecast to be 56. I may have to find my long...

We have made progress on the new girls dormitory in the past couple of days. It will have metal siding and roofing. The next step will be to run horizontal 1x4's, spaced 2' c/c vertically, around the building. They will work as girts for attaching the siding. The roof trusses are supposed to arrive tomorrow. We have the building all braced and are also ready for them. The 3 of us will be putting them up by hand, that should be interesting. There are 34 sheets of 1/2" OSB board sheathing. I took all but three sheets off the trailer and stacked them on saw horses. Bruce and I chalked lines on them showing stud locations, carried them to the wall and set them in place. David did a lot of the nailing. We put up all the sheathing up in the morning. We spent the afternoon cutting out the windows, squaring up and bracing the walls and misc other work. By 4 PM, quitting time, I am always ready for the day to be over. Actually I am only working 6-7 hours a day. I don't go over ...

This morning we went to church at Faith Community Church in Ellington. Bruce, the carpenter with whom I have been working, is the Pastor. It is a small, but nice, church. Attendance was maybe 15 this morning. The music was good as was his message. I didn't realize it at the time but our discussions as we worked contained a lot of information about the message. I went back to the 6 PM service but Kathy didn't feel like going. There were only 6 adults but we had an enjoyable time. All the singing was southern gospel, which I love, and Bruce had another good message. I invited him and his wife for supper Tuesday night. To get to Ellington we can drive 0.2 miles of gravel road and then 9.2 miles of paved road (9.4 miles total), or we can go the opposite way and drive 2.7 miles of gravel road and then 3.1 miles of paved road (5.8 miles total). Following are some photos of the 2.7 miles. Below is a photo of where you cross the creek. It has been dry so there is very l...

I went over and had breakfast with the campers this morning. I didn't talk to any of them, just had some of the pancakes and bacon that was being served for breakfast. After breakfast we drove around to look at some of the springs in southeast Missouri. Big Spring near Van Buren, Missouri. A couple of statistics that I found very interesting are its average daily flow, over 250 million gallons per day; and that it carries away 175 tons of dolomite/limestone every day.  You can make her out Kathy is on the left, in front of the cave. On the right is a photographer and a couple who apparently getting married at the Spring today. The path up to where I was standing is about 4' wide. it consists of a combination of flat top rocks and level areas cut into the stone cliff. The drop down to the water was probably 50', but it looked like it was a LOT further. On the other side the cliff went up several hundred feet.  After our trip to the spring we went back to Van Buren and had...

The low last night was supposed to be 33 degrees. Kathy got up a little before 6 and when she turned on the water we didn't have any. The temperature was 29 degrees. I got up, got dressed and went out to check on things. I disconnected our water softener and brought it inside. The water in the hoses was frozen and there was enough ice in the freeze proof hose bib that I couldn't turn it off. (it is only freeze proof it you shut if off and let the water drain back out of it.) I disconnected the hose, put a bucket over top of it and set our small gas grill under it. After awhile it thawed it out enough to shut it off. No damage, everything is now back in service. Today's high was 61, tonights low is supposed to be 38. We worked on the new building again today. We have worked on it 3 days. Doesn't look like a lot of progress but I've felt like I've worked pretty hard by the end of each day. We all had dinner together tonight at the dining hall. I took this photo wh...

I worked all day helping on the new building. Started at 8, took a 1 hour lunch break and quit at 4. 7 hours of being outside, wrestling 14' long 2x10's and 4x8 sheets of 3/4" tongue and grooved flooring tired this old man out <grin>. I've enjoyed working the carpenter who is "bossing" the job. He works for a living but also Pastor's a local church. We should finish the floor tomorrow and get a start on the walls. Today Kathy touched up painting others had done previously. Someone painted poured concrete walls while but they did not do a good job of getting close to the floor. (They did do a good job of getting a lot of white paint on the floor.) Kathy went around the walls and touched up the places they had missed. A lot of bending over and/or scooting along the concrete floor. I finally regen'd our RV water softener this evening. To regen it you unhook it, drain out some of the water, dump in 2# of table salt, let it set 5 min, and then flush ...

No sweeping and mopping today, hooray! We started work on framing a new building for staff housing. It is 28' wide and about 40' long. The foundation walls were poured last week. today we put up the sill plates and half the floor joists. Tomorrow we should install the remainder of the floor joists and get a decent start of the floor. High here was a cloudy, windy 43 today. Low last night was 38 and low tonight is forecast to be 33. Tomorrow there are supposed to be fewer clouds and the high is supposed to get up to 54. I've been corresponding, via email, with a lady at a YWAM (Youth with a Mission) in Tyler, TX to see if they were interested in our being volunteers there over at least part of the winter months. She had given me the phone number of one of their Facility Managers and had asked me to call him. I talked to him today and he said they would be happy to have us come any time and stay as long as we want. He wasn't sure what we would be doing but was sure that t...

Nothing much happened yesterday or today. We cleaned both days. Cleaning up after the campers that were here over the weekend and getting ready for the ones who are to be here next weekend. I getting to be really good with a mop <grin>. Kathy has been cleaning the bathrooms and I've mostly been sweeping or vacuuming and then mopping. We are almost done with the cleaning. (We aren't the only ones cleaning, Sue and Dave, the people who own/run the camp are also working to be ready for the weekend.) It rained on and off last night and all day today. Tomorrow is supposed to be partly sunny with high of 50 so we may be able to do some maintenance painting. Lows are forecast to be in the 30's for the next 4 nights. Thursday night it is supposed to get down to freezing. Kathy fixed a pot roast for supper and we all (6 adults & 2 children) ate in the nearer dining hall tonight. Its tough getting 8 people in the RV for supper. Guess thats the news for tonight. Goodnight to...

The last few days have been busy. Friday we drove to Russellville. We left the motorhome at the camp and drove the CR-V. Friday evening was the viewing for Cathy (Kelsey’s sister-in-law who was killed in a motorcycle accident) and the funeral was Saturday morning.   It was good to get to spend time with her, Andy and that side of the family, even under such sad circumstances.                                    The beginning of the trip was quite interesting. I set up our GPS to route us from here to Russellville. We knew how to get out to the highway, going the way we came in, but it routed us back to the highway via some county roads. We gave it a try thinking we might save some time. WHAT A MISTAKE! The photo below is out of focus but it shows one of the county roads. The grass growing in the middle of the road e...

We did maintenance painting on some doors and door frames this morning. Kathy kept it up while I was at the Dentist. The good news is that it isn't going to cost us $1,200 to have a crown put on my broken tooth. The bad news is that they couldn't put a crown on it because the break went all the way down to bone. I had to have it pulled. The lady dentist worked one solid hour getting it out. That hour did not include the time she spent poking and removing the broken piece, nor the time waiting for the Novocaine to kick in, etc. The hour was just the time she was yanking and tugging on the tooth. She must have shot a pint of Novocaine into me, and I needed every bit of it <grin>. It rained here last night and thing are greening up nicely. Today the high was in the low 70's and the low tonight is supposed to be in the mid 40's. Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day. Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Yesterday Kathy did more cleaning. I varnished interior wood siding (they use a lot of tongue and groove wood siding on interior walls), installed some mirrors in the new bathrooms, re-cut a hole for a register grill (its in a new bldg and the opening was cut to small for the grill), and helped pick up enough walnuts to fill a big wheelborrow. Not much happened at my dental appointment. The looked at my cracked tooth, wiggled the loose piece around some, took an x-ray and the dentist said she thought that there was enough left to put on a crown. She won't know for sure until she removes the loose section. If there isn't enough left for a crown then the remainder of the tooth will have to be pulled. She blocked out a 3 hour appointment for me tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon to put on a temporary crown. It will take at least two weeks to get the crown made and then I will have to go back, have the temporary crown removed and t...

Yesterday was a good day at Logan Valley but it came with some bad news. Kelsey's sister-in-law was killed in a motorcycle accident. That is all we know at this time. Our day started with meeting Dave & Sue, the couple who manage Logan Valley Christian Retreat, they were in Chicago for the weekend when we arrived and didn't get back until very late Sunday night. I think we are going to enjoy working with them. We caught them a little by surprise. They didn't think we were going to arrive until late yesterday or even early this morning. I had emailed Dave about the change in plans, and left them a phone message, but they weren't home to receive either. Ever vacuum a gym? Our first task was to vacuum the auditorium or multi-purpose facility. It isn't quite large enough to hold two full size basketball courts. It took us nearly two hours to vacuum it and a couple of adjoining rooms. We then moved our RV to it's "permanent" location and got everything ...

We arrived at Logan Valley Christian Retreat just before noon yesterday. Getting out here from Ellington was more interesting, by far, (relatively narrow roads, no shoulders, often with STEEP drop offs on one side) than getting out to our property from Crossville. In hind sight it probably would be about the same now that we know where we are going. Overnighting at the Walmart in Poplar Bluff was interesting. I slept pretty good, even with all the noise. The kids there have a lot of loud, although they are just loud, not strong, sounding V8's. I didn't hear one rice burner wind out. There was a lot of tire squealing, but again, it all sounded like something from anemic V8's. I walked over to Hardee's and had breakfast. When I bit down on a tater tot I thought there was a piece of bone in it that jambed between one of my teeth and my gum. It wasn't a piece of bone, I broke a tooth. It must be one that had had a root canal because it doesn't hurt. The piece that b...

Jobs at no cost to taxpayers, no way the Feds are going to allow that to happen. Why is it that Democrats, and to a lesser degree Republicans, insist that growing government intervention is the answer to all problems? They think they just have to grow government to reduce unemployment, when in reality all they have to do is get out of the way. The oil pipeline from Canada is a perfect example of the Federal government dragging its feet on reducing employment. Because the proposed pipeline crosses our border with Canada the Feds just have to help. The construction of the pipeline would create 13,000 construction jobs and 7,000 additional jobs making the steel, pumps and other necessary equipment; AT NO COST TO AMERICAN TAXPAYERS! Not all the jobs would be American jobs, but most of the construction jobs would filled by Americans. The pipeline would increase our use of Canadian oil by around 500,000 barrels a day. Not a lot based on our consumption levels, but better to give our money to...

We left Crossville this morning in time to have lunch at Demo's in Lebanon, TN. As usual the food was great. We are staying the night at a Walmart parking lot in Poplar Bluff, MO. What a change! Loud pickups racing through the parking lot. Apparently there is a fire station just down the road because we heard a siren start up and in a very short time saw a fire truck and other vehicles, also with sirens blaring, going down the highway in front of the Walmart. I will have no problems sleeping, all I have to do is put my good ear on the pillow and I don't hear anything, poor Kathy won't be as lucky. She is in Walmart walking right now, trying to get a little exercise. I already walked in from the far corner of the parking lot, to get the manager's OK for an overnight. We did not plan on driving this far today but there aren't a lot of choices on where we feel comfortable parking for the night. Once you pass one you might sometimes have to go quite a ways to find the n...

It was another beautiful day here. I took these photos yesterday morning. I was standing by the side of Tom & Mary Lou's house looking out over their lake. This morning Kathy was sitting outside, I was just getting out of bed, and she heard some rustling down the drive towards T & ML's. She walked out into the drive and just  a short way down the drive a deer was standing. She stood still and watched four deer cross the driveway. They had probably been down at the lake getting a drink. This morning I went to Crossville with Tom to pick up a riding mower that he is to repair. Later, while he was bush hogging the garden I cut down a couple of small pear trees (5" trunks). Before I got back down there after lunch he had already pulled up the stumps and hauled the trees out into the woods. The pear trees were supposed to be real pear trees but after a several years of fruit the size of the end of your thumb, and nasty thorns, they figured it was time to...

Tom, Dennis (a friend of Tom's) and I worked cleaning up Tom & Mary Lou's garden this morning. We have it almost ready to be tilled for the fall. Working with these guys is just a lot of fun. This afternoon we (Kathy) drove in to Crossville and filled up with fuel and propane. Everything went well. It was another beautiful day here. I think the high may have hit 80 but the humidity is low and it doesn't feel hot. Tonights low will be in the high 40's again, great sleeping weather. Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

The mechanic installed the sensor this afternoon and things appear to be OK. Tomorrow afternoon we will make a test run into Crossville and fill up our propane tank. We have decided to give up on volunteering at Deer Run Retreat, we just wouldn't be there long enough to get set up, tear down, and still do significant work. We think we will go directly to a camp in southeast Missouri but aren't sure when we will leave. It was another beautiful day here again today. Tom and I loaded about half a pickup load of wood that I previously cut and then I split it. This afternoon Kathy and I dug potatoes for awhile. Haven't done that for a long time. The past few nights as we walk back up the driveway from Tom & Mary Lou's house to the RV, the moonlight has been just fantastic. Even thought the moon is not nearly full it is so bright that our shadows are pronounced. Actually it is also very pretty when we walk down for dinner/supper. The sun is going down, although we can...

The mechanic did not make it out today so we will be here again tomorrow. Being here is certainly not a sacrifice. It was another beautiful day here today. I cut some wood this morning and this afternoon I washed the car and the motorhome. We had a nice dinner/supper at Tom & Mary Lou's, along with two other couples. We know the Lord has a plan and that there is a reason why we are still here. We don't know the reason, but that is OK. Time to get to bed. Good night to all. May God bless you and yours.

It took some searching, but with Tom's help we finally tracked down someone who would come out and run diagnostics on our motorhome. The guy thinks it is a sensor, but there is a possibility that it is the injection pump. They ordered a sensor. It is supposed to arrive in Crossville tomorrow before noon and the mechanic is supposed to bring it out and install it in the afternoon. If that turns out not to be the problem we will have to have the motorhome towed into Crossville so that the injection pump can be repaired. It was a beautiful day to be here today. I did not see one cloud in the sky. It was cool enough that a jacket felt good most of the time. Kathy went to Crossville with Mary Lou, Wendy & Dean. This evening we again had supper with the Tower's clan. Kathy made "gooey buns" (warm ham salad), I had warmed up meatloaf. Tomorrow night two other couples are coming out to have dinner with us and Tom and Mary Lou. I like the guys but have not met there wives....

We finished packing up and were ready to leave about 11:30. The motorhome didn't want to start and when it did it wouldn't run correctly. Tom & I changed the fuel filter and it didn't help. Tomorrow I am going to call around and try and find someone local who can come out and plug in a laptop to the diagnostic connector. I called the Freightliner help line and for the first time ever they disappointed me. The guy just didn't seem like he cared, or maybe he wasn't that knowledgeable. I plan on calling back tomorrow. Hopefully I will get a different guy. It was beautiful here today. This is a great place to be "stuck." The weather is supposed to be great all week. I may get a chance to run my chain saw some more tomorrow. Tuesday Tom & Mary Lou are having the guys, and their wives, who helped cut up the BIG tree in Crossville, out to dinner. If we are still here it will be good to get to spend some time with them and meet their wives. Dean & ...

We are packed up and almost ready to move tomorrow. The plumbing is winterized at our building. It was kind of sad closing and locking the door. We aren't sure when we might be back. This morning we went to the Farmers Market and then to the Flea Market. We bought sweet corn at the Farmers Market, from the same people we bought some from two weeks ago. We had some for lunch and it was very good. Kathy made meatloaf for supper and we ate with the Tower's clan again. It hit 40 this morning but didn't make it into the 30's. There are frost warnings out for tonight. Next week it is forecast to hit 80 at Thompson's Station. Time to watch a little TV and then hit the bed. Good night to all and may God bless you and  yours.