SOWER Projects 2015 | RV There Yet?

Not to be confused with “Half Baked”. 🙂
We’re halfway through our February project and it still continues to amaze me how quickly these months go by. It seems like we just got here, and now we’re only 8 days from moving on. Crazy.
Needless to say, we’re having a great month at thisÂ beautiful camp.

We’ve enjoyed a bit of a roller coaster with the weather, but for every day that’s been in the 40’s we’ve had two in the 60’s and 70’s. Â And NO SNOW. Â I’ll share more about the camp later, but I thought this might be a good time to catch you up on our workin’ days.
The guys have been totally rehabbing a bathhouse that is located right next to where we are parked.

How’s that for a sweet commute?
This is a pretty blurry “before” picture of one side of the building

but you can see that the demolition had begun. Nevertheless,Â there was still plenty of tearing down to do!

And yes, that wall needs to come down too.

By mid-week, the inside was nice and clear.

From there it was on to the ceiling and the new wiring.

The ceiling was like a putting together a giant puzzle.

From there it was working on Â skim coating the walls,

(Go, Jim!)
and aÂ Â little more time on the wiring and plumbing

ThenÂ they rebuilt the center wall!

See what I mean about the puzzle ceiling?

The guys made really good progress on the inside and then moved to a little outdoor project –

What do you think that’s going to be?

Meanwhile, Eula and I were working over on the conference side of the camp doing our own bit of refurbishing. Nothing quite as dramatic, mind you, but still. They needed us to paint a recently re-purposed room. What had been a supply room was now a break/lunch room. And it needed a bit of TLC.
We sharpened our skills at wall patching

and soon we were ready to paint.

By Monday morning, we were finishing up the shelves. It is a bit on the white side, but at least it’s no longer striped!

Phew, got that done!
Eula and I were oh, so, happy to turn in our paint brushes and rollers and take out our sewing machines instead! Next up – curtains! Not only is that in my skill set, it’s in my “happy dance” skill set!

Thanks for stopping by!

Before we get too far removed from our January project I think I need to fill in some of the details. We were the lone SOWERS there that month, but we still managed to get a fair bit accomplished. But before I give a little “Group Leader” report, let me tell you a bit about Forest Glen. First of all, it’s beautiful.

Along with hosting summer camps and weekend retreats they also host one of the Outdoor Education Program for the Houston ISD. So every week about 130 5th graders would arrive in their yellow buses and spend the next four days experiencing the beautiful outdoors. There are several learning centers around like this one along the lake’s edge

and if the weather cooperates there are canoes to paddle and horses to ride and fields to play in. And if the weather doesn’t cooperate –

I think they still manage to have a great time!
It was fun sitting in on the edges of all the activities
even if the dining hall did get a little noisy at times. 🙂

We kept pretty busy here too! Gary did some electrical work on the cabins, helped rebuild the housekeeping section of the maintenance shop, and along with his trusty helper (me!) moved thermostats in one of the lodges.

Don’t you just love how this guys really gets into his work? And isn’t he lucky to have such a good ladder holder?
They had him do some other plumbing type stuff and he even took a look at the big ol’ ice machine that was being a bit finicky.

While Gary worked on aÂ whole potpourri of activities, I was pretty focused (with the exception of my thermostat helping day)Â onÂ assisting in the office. And what they needed most was help with shredding!

Now you might think it was a pretty tedious time for me, but I totally enjoyed it! I was working 2 shredders, and the trick was to time it so that they both didn’t overheat at the same time. I wasn’t always successful, and then I was happy for the Keurig machine.

I also got to do a bit of data entry and even tidied up the supply room(I left my phone number in case they couldn’t find something!).Â I haven’t been assigned any kind of office work for quite awhile, so it was a nice change of pace. Â The folks in the office were great, and it was fun to see the behind the scenes of what makes this camp so great! Of course, when you work in the same spot for the whole time it also makes it hard to say good-bye to your new friends. Â And that is when things like the internet and Facebook can help you stay connected. Â I oftenÂ leave these projects with just a few new Facebook friends – and this timeÂ was no exception.

(Can you tell we had a good time in the office? I think we’re kindred spirits!)
We pulled out this morning, after some final hugs with the any staff member we could find.