RV There Yet? » Sower Project

Along the way

steph — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 01:42:17 +0000

This time the drive between projects was only about 160 miles. Easily done in a day. But why take a day, we say, when you can just as easily take two – and see some fun stuff along the way.

We pulled out of Camp Tejas on Thursday morning – a very misty Thursday morning at that!

Hey, wait for me!!!!
He did.
By the time we reached our first stop, the mist was beginning to clear.

Nothing like a brewery tour to start your day! Wink.
We actually had to wait until 11AM for the tour of the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, TX – home to one of Texas’s favorite beers – Shinerbock.

No cameras allowed on the tour (free and very interesting), but here’s a shot of just some of the copper involved in brewing this beer .
Oh, the shine of it all!
After our tour, and a bit of lunch, it was back on the road.

(Take note of the hills – they will soon be gone!)
We spent a quiet night at the Walmart in Port Lavaca

and come morning, we were back on the road for the final leg of the trip.
Here’s the Lavaca Bay in the early morning light -

Hello Boat!

And as the road stretched out in long strips of ribbon

(Good-bye, hills)
We were delighted to spot these big guys mingling with the cattle -

Love those Sandhill Cranes!
We made it without incident to our project – Texas Baptist Encampment, aka Palacios by the Sea. Here is our new view -

Pretty sweet, eh? That’s the Palacios Bay out there, which empties into the Matagorda Bay which empties into the Gulf of Mexico. (Check it out on a map HERE!)
Each project has its own “flavor” and since we’ve just been here a little more than a day, I’m not sure just what that flavor will be. But I know it will be different from our last couple of projects – beginning with our neighbors. November and December our neighbors looked like this -

As in, we had none.
January they looked like this -

As in, fair size group – a nice mix of SOWERs and other volunteers.
And this month, they look like this -

As in – Baby, we got us some Community going on!
All in all, a great start to what I’m sure will be a great month!

Later ‘Gator!

People, places and things

steph — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:54:59 +0000

We’re starting to wrap up our time at Camp Tejas, and I thought I’d “flesh out” our time here. First of all, we’ve met and worked with some great people. Not only were there three SOWER couples here -

But there were six couples from the MMAPs Ministry -

We didn’t necessarily work together, but we shared devotions and breaks and a couple of meals and general good times. It’s always good to meet folks who share our hearts even if we don’t share the SOWER Logo (though we did make them sing the SOWER song most mornings! )
And speaking of work – I know I shared a little bit of what we ladies did all month –

but I haven’t really covered all that the guys did. And believe me, they were plenty busy. They started off with painting (and in fact went back to that during any lulls between jobs)

but probably their biggest project was a covered walkway off of the dining hall.

Came out great, didn’t it? All they had to go on was – Make it look like the other one!
Gary also got to work on another “out of the ordinary” project – making an indoor shuffleboard game. Apparently they had a base and they had the board itself, but they needed the frame to hold the game board.
Here it is getting close to completion -

and here it is just waiting for the board to be installed.

I think it looks great – and I’m really happy that we aren’t in charge of moving it to its final destination!
Today, even though the project is officially over, Gary and Jay built a railing on the golf cart pathway -

We’ll be here until Thursday AM, so who knows what projects he’ll dig up tomorrow and Wednesday!

I think this is enough chatter for tonight! I’ll get to the Places and Things in my next post!

A little more Tejas

steph — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:50:07 +0000

During the week, things are pretty quiet around Camp Tejas.
The mornings are lovely

We go to work

and enjoy our breaks in a quiet dining hall.

The climbing wall and zip line are quiet

and the outdoor activity center lies still.

But on the weekend, this place really comes alive!
The zipline gets zipping

and that activity field?
Well, you might have thought that first picture was taken after a big rain, but that “activity” field is actually the play-in-the-mud field.

Yeah, that field is a happenin’ spot on the weekends – and while the girls weren’t quite as into it as the guys,

there were a couple of little kids there that were in mud heaven!

“Really, Mom, it’s OK for us to play in this?”
They even make cleaning up fun!

After everyone gets all the way cleaned up, then it’s off to the dining hall for another great meal, and when they leave the dining hall after dinner, they are met with the beautiful Lights of Tejas. They’ll be up until the end of February and they are lit on the weekends. I don’t know how the guests feel about them, but we think they are quite enchanting!

Oh yes, weekends here at Camp Tejas are quite a different story!

Camp Tejas

steph — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:06:48 +0000

Well, we’ve just finished our first week at Camp Tejas in Giddings, TX, and it’s been a good one. Weather-wise it’s been everything from early summer (sunny and 75) to blustery spring (hard rain for a day or two) to definitely winter (highs in the low 40′s with wind gusts up to 30mph and skies that look like it could snow at any moment. Brrrrrrr). Work-wise it’s been a little of this and a little of that. There are three SOWER couples but there are also six couples that work with the MMAPS Ministry (Mobile Missionary Assistance Program).

So there have been lots of hands to keep busy! We ladies started doing “detail” cleaning in some of the guest rooms.
These rooms are beautiful and beautifully kept, so what we’ve done is some of the less-noticed areas – picture frames, baseboards, bric-a-brac, and the like.

Unbelievably, when summer comes these rooms are emptied out and are outfitted with addition bunk beds for summer campers. I’m still trying to picture that!
We also spent one day removing the lights and dismantling the 75 Christmas Trees that were in their main meeting hall.

Camp Tejas has a HUGE Christmas Light Festival during December, and it was time to start the de-Christmasing!
Here’s that room without any decoration -

But since yesterday was that Sunny and Seventy day, I took the camera out for a walk, and enjoyed some of the sights around camp. I haven’t explored all of the ins and outs of the camp, but I have discovered that it is quite a facility.

Some parts of it are rustic-

And some are just downright lovely -

There are Lakes

And swimming pools

and kayaking

(along with zip lines and other teen-friendly activities!).
Here are a couple of other shots from around the camp -

(This building was made with all re-purposed material! It’s amazing!)

And one of my favorites of the walk -

Sometimes when we work at such lovely camps I wonder if they really need SOWER help. But what I’ve learned over the last seven years that even facilities like this rely heavily on volunteers to fill in the gaps and take up the slack. We’re blessed to be able to see what God has been doing here at Camp Tejas! And we’re honored to be able to be a small part of reaching people with the Gospel here in great state of Texas!

I love my job!

steph — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:57:05 +0000

I’ve been sticking pretty close to the office this month at Rockin’ C Ranch. I helped them catch up with their filing (like since about August!), and then I attempted to clean the different offices. Considering that these offices are located in the barn, you can only imagine what an endless job that is. But I gave it my best shot, and if nothing else, everything looked nice and shiny for a day or two. I even managed to throw out some 2010 Catalogs. Pretty radical, I know. But last week I was asked to actually help with some office work. That usually makes me pretty happy anyway, but when they said they were looking for some help with an e-mail marketing blast – then I really knew why we had been led to this camp for our December project! I’ve been using the same program they use for the last 7+ years and while I’m no expert, it was a delight to be able to raise my hand and say “Hey, I can do that!”. Then they taught me how to register campers for New Year’s Eve Camp (what a great idea and much more fun than a babysitter!) and introduced me to “Camp Brain”. As geeky as it sounds, I love learning new computer programs, and it was fun to not only learn how it worked (well, on a limited basis at least), but to then be trusted to actually Do It! All week I have been the “Hello, Rockin’ C Ranch, this is Stephanie, how can I help?” girl and it’s been fun! The best part is that if they ask a question I don’t know anything about, it’s so easy just ask them to call back after Christmas! Ah, the sweetness of being a Volunteer!

But wait – it gets even better. On Tuesday our boss asked me if I would mind taking pictures of their cabins – inside and out. Really? You want me to walk around with my camera and take pictures? If you insist!!!!!

I love my job!
While my job has been primarily focused around the office and the barn (don’t forget that feeding the barn-kitten job), Gary’s jobs have been all over the place!! I don’t know all that’s he’s accomplished, but I do know he’s worked on bunk beds (and you can see from the cabin shots there are plenty of those), made new lighting fixtures for the bath houses and lavatories, cleaned off roofs and then cleaned off the decks that were covered with the mess from the roof! He’s tightened (or repaired) toilets, repaired electrical fixtures, and made award plaques!

So it’s been a good month all around! A couple of really fun weekends in Waco, a nice quiet (but productive) weekend at home and great people and fun tasks here at the Ranch. God is so good to us!

I’ve vacuumed and dusted, changed the sheets and washed the towels. I’ve even (finally) hung my Christmas Wallhangings.
Must be time to hit the road!! Early tomorrow we’ll be heading to a lovely campground in Waco where we’ll be spending our Christmas break. In case I don’t get back here before then – may you all have a Blessed Christmas, and may this celebration of the birth of our Savior bring to mind His great sacrifice on our behalf.

PS – If you would like to see all the Cabin shots (exterior and interior) here’s that set.

If you’d like to see a couple more “project” shots – check ‘em out HERE.

And if you wanted to know how the turtles were doing….

it was another great day on the log!

Takin’ care of business

steph — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:38:01 +0000

After back-to-back fun filled weekends in Waco with Lara, it was good to spend a nice quiet weekend just hanging around home. Friday was cool and drizzly so we took off to town and did our errand running. Nothing too exciting there (though I did get off my final Christmas boxes! Yippee!!!) – just takin’ care of business. But Saturday dawned crisp and clear and after I spent a little bit of time taking pictures, we got to work with the main chore of the day – replacing the slide topper/awning.
Pictures first, though —–

Sure was a purty mornin’, doncha think?
This little kitty has become my buddy (one of my Sower jobs is to feed him/her in the morning).

“Get with it, lady – where’s my breakfast?”
I digress….
On to the awning chore. We’d been nursing this awning along for the last several months (it had started to tear, and was quite temperamental as we would move the slide in and out). This month we finally bit the bullet (Merry Christmas to us!), and ordered a new “topper”.

See – no awning over the slide. The replacement awning is in that tube on the ground.
This definitely was going to be a two ladder, two person job.
But first, the new brackets.

And then…

“Steph? Can you come out here? Time to get up on the ladder…..”

(Ok, so this is a little posed. But there was no one to actually document the work, since we were both (mostly) working.) We really could have used a third person to be inside working the slide,

but without too much fanfare, the task was accomplished!

Good to go!

The day had remained so lovely, that I couldn’t resist a little more camera time down by the lake. This time the turtles sunning themselves caught my eye.

As I tried to get a little closer, they scattered and disappeared into the lake. I continued across the bridge where I was once again struck with how much East Texas in late December looks like Pennsylvania in October -

As I was clicking away on the bridge, I noticed the turtles getting brave once again.

“Come on up, guys, the coast is clear and the sun is fine!”

Ah, the sunshine was pretty irresistible for lots of creatures that afternoon….

I won’t bother you with pictures of Gary & I napping. But trust me, it happened!

If you’d like to see additional picture of the ranch, check them out HERE! (Fair warning, I really like that bridge over the lake!)

Charis Hills

steph — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:56:32 +0000

We’re about to wrap up our time at Charis Hills Camp and Retreat Center, our November SOWER Project. And let me tell you, it’s been a great month! (I guess I say that with some frequency, but honestly, they all ARE!). Before I go into more detail about why this was such a special project, let me show you around!
Here’s Gary walking to work that first morning -

The main building (office and activity/dining room)-

is where we met Rand and Colleen Southard for our “get acquainted” meeting, and after sharing about the camp and their vision (its main focus is a summer camp for children with learning differences), Rand gave us a little tour of the place.
Here we go!

One of the cabins (there in the glare!)

Rand pointing out the area leading up to the waterfront.

The waterfront -

Some of the critters -

More shots of the “Lake Charis”

As you can see, it is a beautiful campus. What I don’t have pictures of is the archery range, rifle range, craft/science building, horse arena, etc, etc. It’s not a huge camp – max capacity is about 100 (over-nighters), but it’s got a huge heart! And the kids that come here during the are truly blessed as they experience Christ’s love in a fun and challenging camping experience. I encourage you to check out their website to get a full picture of this amazing camp.
But looking at this from a purely practical, SOWER job point of view – this project was just about perfect!
1. Look at this woodshop -

Oh yeah, baby – look at those power tools!! And not only were there great tools, but Gary even got to play with them. He made a pattern for birdhouse kits, and then cut out and packaged 75 sets of them.

Complete with pre-drilled nail holes, nails and the perch. Guess what those kids will be doing next summer?
Then he built 4 bat houses

two rifle racks

and two archery holder thing-a-ma-jigs.
.
He also built screens

and completed the “loafing shed” for the horses. Taking it from this-

to this -

So pretty much, he got to work with wood in a great wood shop all month. And that is pretty high on his list of fun things to do. But wait – it even gets better! THIS was the true icing on the cake!

Oh my, he was one happy camper!
My side of the equation was equally delightful! I started of the month working with Colleen on making curtains for the dining hall.
Before -

After -

They certainly aren’t the fanciest curtains around, but it was great fun working with Colleen as we tried to figure out the best way to make them. The fabric was actually upholstery fabric, chosen for it’s sound absorption qualities, so it represented some challenges along the way, but our tools were up to the challenge!

A total of six pairs of room darkening, sound absorbing curtains – now that’s my idea of fun.
Oh, and my assignment after we finished the curtains? Doing research on the computer. Sigh. Not a toilet to clean the entire month! Darn.

But even above the stuff we did, we loved the people we met -
Rand and Colleen -

And Marcia, who works in the office -

We were so very blessed to work here this month. Like I said, a small camp with a big heart. A big heart for kids, and a big heart for Jesus!

But the goodness for my birthday month continues. Tomorrow we head back to Lindale, TX (east of Dallas) and then on Sunday morning we pile in the truck and head to Ohio for Thanksgiving! Lara and Denali will be joining us for the ride, so I’m sure the miles will just fly by! By Thanksgiving day we’ll be holding babies and playing Sorry and catching up with life with the whole Conrad family. Ah, such goodness, such blessing! So much to be thankful for. Our cup is full to overflowing!

A bit of randomness

steph — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:02:18 +0000

Really. Has it been a week since I’ve updated this little journal of mine? Not quite, you say? Hmmmm…. It seems that sitting in three days of board meetings is much more mentally draining than you might think! The last week was largely spent either in meetings, thinking about meetings, eating with fellow board members where we TRIED not to talk about the meetings, or falling exhausted into bed amazed at how tired you can get sitting in a nice comfortable chair for hours on end. (Ok, so there might have been a trip to the DQ in there somewhere. Maybe.)

But I must tell you – it was a GOOD meeting. I really feel that the current board is exceptional in their dedication to the ministry, their willingness to serve, and their clarity of thought. And the office staff (who does a great job of actually implementing the decisions made by the Board) is also exceptional. We might not all agree on all the finer points of how things should work, but we are all on the same page when it comes to the integrity of the ministry and the desire to do it all to the glory of God.

I am honored to serve with these folks!

But since this post is about randomness -
How about those new tires?
Old Tires -

New Tires -

Thankfully those OLD tires never looked like this one -

Phew – I think we were closer than we realized!
Here’s the house looking a little toothless -

And here’s a shot from our tire day that I’m sharing just because it reminded me of the movie “Cars”.

(We’re being random, right?)
After the new tires came the alignment.
Do you know that in order to align the front tires of an RV it has to be driven over a pit on two little tiny platforms?

Ok, so they aren’t actually “tiny”, but even the experienced mechanic took it pretty slow. Gulp.

Wanna see the underside of our house?

See those pretty new tires? (Any questions about what anything IS under there should be directed to Gary!)
We had one more maintenance stop to make before we reached Texas, and that was at the ArTex Truck Center in Texarkana,AR (which is right next door to Texarkana, TX – go figure.) They checked a couple of items for us, and Gary watched while they did some maintenance (so next time HE can do it). I really felt like Lizzie (the house) was out playing with the big kids.

All in all I think we’re about done with our heavy-duty maintenance schedule for a while. But, the ol’ girl is 8 years old, has traveled 60,000+ miles, and has been used full-time for seven of those years so we are beginning to see some good old fashioned wear and tear. But we still love her!

Ok – one more bit of random goodness -

Little Weston at 10 weeks! Be still my heart!

And in real time…..
This afternoon we head to Waco to spend a long weekend with Lara and the folks/critters at the Parrott Ave Zoo!
See ya next week!

Wrapping it up

steph — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:13:06 +0000

Right now we’re half in and half out of a tire store in Fairfield, Maine and some guys is having a really hard time getting our back “dualies” off. More on that story later!
But for now, let’s talk about our time at Living Waters Camp.
We’ve already gone over the wonderful lakefront view, but here’s a new one in case you’ve forgotten!

Yes, this is a beautiful location for a camp! But this past month wasn’t just about the beautiful view. We did get some work done too! Honest!
I can’t say I have lots of pictures of the guys working, but I KNOW they finished up all the work that had been laid out for them in the first two weeks, and then the third week they worked on new RV sites at a different location! They did, as usual, lots of little maintenance jobs that had been piling up over the summer

but I think their biggest job was siding the back of one of the barn buildings.

I’m happy to report that Gary spent most of his time getting boards ready to be hung and not actually up on the ladders!

Gary in action – literally!
We girls spent our time in one of my favorite places – the camp kitchen. Of course some of our chores allowed us to work outside too, like peeling 100# of potatoes twice a week,

but we also got to help with cutting & chopping other veggies, stretching out homemade pizza dough, and even putting together lasagna for the masses. And we also endeared ourselves to the summer staff (mostly college kids) by staying on top of the dishes!

Yes, they loved us! Even if Rosie is a little fuzzy here!
Here’s a totally (as you can easily see) un-posed picture of some of our favorite kitchen people!

Yes, all the kitchen work was fun! One day it was pretty quiet so Rosie started doing a little cupboard cleaning/organizing. She came upon this grouping of gadgets all nicely labeled -

“Random junk that we almost never use so we hoard it here”
I think we ALL have those places – just maybe not so honestly labeled!
Here are a couple of other random shots from around the camp -
You know about Rock Gardens, right
How about a Crock Garden?

And in a nearby garden I spotted this interesting butterfly*

I was also delighted to catch him (well, it might have been a her) showing just a little more color!

Here’s our group shot (it’s a SOWER tradition to always take a Group Shot. The trick is to actually remember WHO is in the group!)-

And what a fun group and what a blessed month!

There are couple more Living Waters pictures here, if you’re interested!

As always, it was hard to say good-bye to such dear friends (including the new ones we made this month!), but there are some exciting things ahead for us too! Today, it’s new tires and alignment (and being happy for a high credit limit on the AMEX!). Tomorrow it’ll getting to VT and settling ol’ Lizzie (with her fancy new tires) into her parking spot in Bradford where she’ll be resting for a couple of weeks. Saturday it’s off to a wedding in Woodstock, Sunday it’s worship and lunch with some favorite family members, and then Sunday afternoon we’re off to PA to FINALLY meet our sweet little Weston.

And hug his dad and mom too!

*PS – For those of you need-to-know folks (kinda like me) my research indicates that the butterfly is a Hoary Comma (Polygonia gracilis). However, the he/she question remains unanswered!

East Grand Lake

steph — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 20:54:56 +0000

There is just “something” about lakefront view, isn’t there?

Our view of East Grand Lake was no exception!
Even as the day clouded over, the view continued to captivate me-

It’s been tough arriving for breakfast and having to look out the window at this -

Ah, the early morning mist!
With a view like this, the clouds are always painting a new picture -

and then just moments later, the canvas changes….

Ahhhhhh…..
Whether the sky was blue

or threatening

and whether we were watching kids getting ready for an adventure

or just hanging around peeling potatoes -

the view of this beautiful lake was always inspiring.

How very blessed are we!

“He leadeth me beside the still waters, He restoreth my soul”
Psalm 23:2b-3
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