Saturday, April 5, 2014

WEEK ONE IN LA VERNE, CA

 On Friday, March 28, we arrived at the David and Margaret youth and family center in La Verne, California. We were welcomed that night with the 5.1 earthquake in La Habra about 10 miles away. It really rattled our RV.
David and Margaret Home for children was established as an orphanage in 1920 by the Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr and Mrs. Henry Kuns donated an old hotel on 17 1/2 acres of land.  Today they house girls in  6 cottages here on the grounds. You can learn a lot more about the work here at www.davidandmargaret.org 

 We were parked behind the "white house."
 By Sunday everyone was parked.
 We have a nice room in the white house to have our morning devotions. Going around the table from left to right is Robert and Caren (new NOMADS), Walter and Anita, Ogie and Bill, Elaine and Gene and Larry. We celebrated Larry's birthday with pizza and cake on Sunday evening gatering..
 In 1925 a safer and larger all-concrete building replaced the hotel. It is now used for offices and the bargain store, which is opened to the public.
 This building is the cafeteria. They have very kindly provided lunch and dinner for us also. We won"t be losing any weight here.
 The air conditioning system on one of the school building here on the grounds, needed to be concealed.
 Walter designed the plans and started the work.

 Gene and Bill worked on the back part. It needed to be done this week while school was on spring break.
 Tiles put on. You never would know what was behind it.
 The driveway always flooded when it rained, so Larry and Robert put in a french drain. They rented a trench digger for two days and it sure made the work a lot easier. Robert also put in another french drain by the  walkway to the cafeteria.
 Another french drain was needed by the front office, but first some concrete had to be removed. Ogie had to try using the jack hammer, at least for a few minutes!
 Bill and Robert got the concrete removed and the trench dug. It was quite a muddy mess for it had rained the night before.

 Larry was always around to give some supervision, and a helping hand.
 Late Thursday afternoon we all pitched in to help install the drain pipes and finish this french drain. They are having someone come in and pour the concrete on Tuesday.
 Anita and I painted two bathrooms in the white house.

 Of course one bathroom led us to paint this hallway and the three doors.
 Ogie and Caren worked on painting three bathrooms, one in the white house and two in the front office.
 They even repainted some doors after we figured out if they were to match the walls or the trim.
 It is a good thing Ogie can fit in tight places.

 Elaine worked all week in the store. It is amazing the truck load of supplies they get in each day from different retailers. Here she is working in the basement where they store and sort the items before they are put in the store.
 With all our painting for the week finished by Thursday afternoon we were assigned to plant two trees.
 How big is this hole to be? 4 feet by 4 feet and 30 inches deep! Use the pick then the shovel, for the ground is hard.
 No time to plant the trees till Monday, but one hole is done, we hope!

Saturday, February 15, 2014

EPWORTH PROJECT COMPLETED


 Our second week at Epworth began Marvin and Jack building a counter for the pantry by the office.
 Now that this room had been cleaned out, paneling removed, drywalled and mudded it was time to paint. Paige painted the ceiling  and it sure brightened up the room.
 The skylight needed a lot of work. Tom put himself into the job, even his clothing. It looked great when finished.
 A paintbrush in Larry's hand?? Just doing a little touch up where he had hung a wire.
 We used chalkboard paint on this wall and then put a frame around it.
 Marvin put a window in this door.
 Janice and Barb found this wall hanging when they organized the closet in the sanctuary. We were making this room into the "Ark" for child care, so it was perfect.
 This is what the room looked like when we started.
 Sure is brighter and looks a lot different. Donna, a worker at the school here, is going to paint a mural of Noah on the wall, but she didn't get it started before we left.
 
  This is what the boy scout shed looked like when we arrived.

Barb finishing up painting it and it sure looks a lot better.

Bill and Ogie put in three new post and white paint on the pavilion.
Ogie spent three days power washing all of the buildings. Sure glad she had boots and a raincoat.
Jack did a lot of electrical work. He put conduit between the pastor's office and the sanctuary for a sound system.
Four handicap post were needed to be installed in the concrete. Bill and Bob worked on cutting out the concrete.
The jack hammer did the job in no time.
Henry explaining to Bill what he wanted done. Henry is a member of the church that came every day told us what needed to be done and got us the material. We kept him busy finding things for us to do, for we had finished everything they had planned for us the middle of the second week.
Post are in and Bob put on the signs.
Mary Louise spent many days pulling weeds and beautifying the grounds. They sure have a big property with lots of gardens.
Bill formed and repaired the curb. I think he likes playing in cement.
This huge pile of gravel had to be spread around. the grounds. Most of the guys worked on it all day, they said they slept real good that night.
The rose garden looks good.
Tom and Mary Louise planted some new rose bushes.
Marvin was always on the lookout for things that needed repaired.
The bench needed to be made more secure.
Bob repaired many of the sprinklers.
Paige put a fresh coat of paint on the benches.
The water leak by the building had been fixed now there was a leak in the parking lot to repair.
There had been a leak around  the air conditioner on the fellowship hall , so we fixed the leak and then Larry had to repair the ceiling in the dining hall.
It has a popcorn finish, so it had to be sprayed on before we could paint it.
Larry had a popcorn finish when he was done.
On Wednesday Henry told us we had worked ourselves out of a job. So the last thing we did was to help him straighten out the supply rooms.
 
Not all our time was spent working. On February 8 we hosted the Arizona NOMADS gathering. There were 43 NOMADS at the luncheon. There were three projects going on this period in the Phoenix area. It is always nice seeing and getting to know each other.
  
 Since it was near Valentines we did funny Mad Lib love letters. Lots of laughs were shared.
 We had our group picture taken.
 The second Wednesday Larry had to go to Mesa and have his crown put on. So we all stopped a little early and went over to Organ Pizza in Mesa. This building holds about 700 people. You order your pizza at the counter when you go in and then they flash your number up on a board when it is ready. The entertainment is the beautiful pipe organ that is played every half hour with lots of familiar songs.

 This Wednesday the church gave us a delicious pot luck dinner. They were amazed at all we had accomplished, but 12 people working for 12 days can do a lot. We had a good time and enjoyed our time here at Epworth.