Thanksgiving at our Campground

Monday and Tuesday Carolyn, Annette and I were sent to finish up work at Ms Linda's house. This included mudding, sanding and painting kitchen ceiling, putting up ceiling fans and moulding around the kitchen.

We joined the other crew members Wednesday at Ms Emma's where they were rebuilding the bedroom and bathroom floors to make them level. The 14' wide room sloped 4" from one side to the other. Since the homeowner did not want us working in her house on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) we worked a few extra hours on Wednesday and managed to complete the job. That included installing new carpet in the bedroom and linoleum in the bathroom, nailing baseboard, hanging doors that needed to be shortened, replacing the vanity and toilet. Short week. Only three days of work, but we sure did get our workouts again.

The street was a good place to reroll the carpet in the desired direction.

Jim was grateful that our director Norm rented a power stretcher for the rug installation.

The owners of Okatoma Resort and RV Park invited the resident campers for a Thanksgiving supper in the clubhouse. The turkey and ham were provided and each of the campers brought a dish to add to the feast. Nearly thirty people participated of which our MDS crew were ten.
So who else would be staying at a campground? Some folks that are travelling through and stop for a few nights, some living here on a temporary basis while working in the area and living in their RV's or renting cabins from the campground and still others who stay for a month or two before continuing south looking for warmer weather.
The gentleman that joined us at our table was a retired Amtrak train conductor who lived by himself full-time in his converted school bus/camper. Spending a supper hour with this man we learnt quite a bit about Amtrak trains. He was here in order to have eye surgery and also because he had a son living in the next town north of here. Some stay in small basic housing while others have large & extravagant diesel pusher motorhomes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. We are quite a varied bunch at the campground.

Saturday our group went for an outing at Landrum's Homestead and Village in Laurel, MS. This living history museum was decked out for it's 30th Annual Christmas. We enjoyed a walking tour of this late 1800's settlement with over 50 buildings and displays.

After several hours at the museum we enjoyed supper at the recommended local Charlie's Catfish House. Since we all ordered the catfish it was served family style. We were served fries, coleslaw and hush puppies with the fish. Two whole fish were served per person. And it sure was good!

We will be leaving here on Friday and don't know when we will be able to make the next post.

Where is Your Safe Place?

Annette checking out a tornado shelter. Since we are frequently in communities that have experienced severe weather it becomes important to know the location of safe places.
At lunch last Sunday our director received a call from his grandson about the green sky and the warning of tornadoes. Soon thereafter an EF4 tornado destroyed a community a few miles from their home.

In last weeks post we showed you the church/school that had severe damage. This house is across the street and has already been restored. These beautiful historic homes are very near to the decrepit ones we showed you last week.

This week we finished up work on Ms Wilda's house for now. We have been stopped in our tracks with installing  more new windows due to the house being considered "Historical" by the local historical committee. Her dining room with the standard wooden sash has an angled crack over an inch on one corner. Our director is determined to install the five remaining windows. MDS tries hard to make a house liveable for the homeowner, which means we go beyond the scope of the designated work and repair all sorts of obvious things we can improve on. When we arrived two weeks ago the front door and the screen would only open part way because they dragged on the porch and also on the floor inside. With no funds to replace a door we were able to make it function well by cutting the bottom and then building up the sill. There are no holes at the corners and the door latches securely to the frame.
One side of the house has the new windows while the other side is waiting for the okay from the historical committee to continue installing the windows.

Ms Wilda and all the MDS girls posing for a goodbye photo. Over the span of two weeks Ms Wilda overcame her shy and quiet nature by coming to see what was being worked on and  as we neared completion we were getting hugs and thank you's for the work done.

Wednesday we began another home by removing some water damaged drywall in the family room of Ms Linda's home.

On Thursday our whole team of 10 arrived at this house to do drywall repairs. While the women cleaned off the top of the cabinets and draped the cabinets with plastic the men were busy installing new drywall in the family room. By early afternoon the kitchen and family room were sporting new drywall with fresh mud. This home had received a new  living room ceiling by another organization. Since a few things had not been finished we took care of those also, so that the home owner could move their furniture back into this room.

 Eva and Annette clean up the two kitchen ceiling fans.

A Week of Contrasts

This is the headquarters of RS3M (Recovery Committee) and their volunteer housing. This is a historic building but was in derelict state before renovations.
The following pictures are evidence of damaged buildings from the February tornado. These are not places we will be working at.

A Christian school and church complex that is now vacant.

Tree damaged roof and wall.

Another week has passed and now it is time to tell what transpired. We find it a challenge to blog weekly and come up with new information when we do similiar tasks each week.

Monday we arrived at a new job site where we were to remove water damaged ceiling tiles and staples and put up new drywall in both the living room and kitchen. While part of the team did this a few others began removing and replacing windows with new ones. This house certainly had its challenges for our group and it wasn't the jobs we were doing, but the dirty and smelly conditions inside with some equally dirty and very overweight young adult boys living with their mother.
In order to work in the living room we needed to move three couches into the dining room, BUT as the last couch had its cushions removed we discovered a handgun and several bullets which we asked the homeowner to remove. We realize many homes here have guns, but this is the first time we have experienced this.

By the end of our week the two ceilings were done and seven windows installed. We will continue next week when the rest of the windows arrive. The dining room ceiling tiles will now also be replaced after earlier having received instructions to only paint the ceiling. The drywall ceiling will be a great improvement over the stained tiles.
We hope after we leave, there will be a new incentive by the homeowner to keep cleaning her home. The ladies went beyond the call of duty again by cleaning up glass and much more that was still present from February's tornado.

Now for the contrast. Some of our group started work at another home, a short distance away on Wednesday and Thursday. Here we replaced and painted some exterior trim boards and replaced a piece of drywall in the living room exterior wall that had been cracked by the force of the wind. Blown out doors and windows had been replaced by a contractor earlier. This home was clean, nicely decorated and came with a welcome note and a slow cooker soup ready for our lunch on Thursday. WOW!

This week we had Roy and Ruby join us from Ohio. This was their first time at a MDS RV location. Because of their limited time and also because Ruby spent most of the week struggling with a respiratory infection they left for home on Saturday. We hope to work with them somewhere in the future.

Time spent in the south is not complete without a Blue Grass Music concert. On Saturday a number of our group went to the next town, Collins, MS and enjoyed music by three groups.

The local organizing couple of Joel and Mechelle Duckworth started off with friends from the area, followed by Mississippi top Blue Grass groups, Alan Sibley and The Magnolia Ramblers and Breaking Grass.

 Alan Sibley and The Magnolia Ramblers

Breaking Grass
This group had  two 18 year olds playing with them. One played the fiddle and the other the mandolin. Both were amazing musicians and were state champions.

A House Blessing Brings Tears of Joy

Sunday afternoon group photo. This week we were joined by Bernie and Agnes from Ontario, rounding out our group to an even dozen.

Ms Stella's mobile home received a new deck and wheel chair ramp this week.

Our work at Ms Suzie's house came to  a conclusion this week after the final touches of installing the new living room floor that she purchased and a variety of smaller tasks - vanity installed, electrical covers, blinds, drapery rods, caulking and a final cleaning.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon Thursday for the house blessing. A good sized crowd came to wish Ms Suzie well including family and friends, R3SM staff, neighbors and our MDS crew.

Our director Norm (left) spoke words of welcome while tears of joy flowed freely from Ms Suzie (next to Norm) as she expressed her appreciation for the help she received. It is times like this that are dear to our hearts and affirms why we continue to volunteer.

Annette receives a hug after presenting Ms Suzie with a quilted wall hanging which she promptly hung on her living room wall.

An invitation from the Braithwaite, Louisiana MDS RV group gave us a reason to check our the community and surroundings that they serve in. We all enjoyed the lunch they provided on Friday. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive south of our location.
Hurricane Isaac came ashore in Louisiana almost 7 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina. This time, the stronger and higher levees around New Orleans held back the storm surge, but the water piled up against the levees and overtopped lower Plaquemines Parish levees, flooding Braithwaite and nearby communities on the east side of the Mississippi River that had not been flooded during Katrina.

Picking Satsuma oranges at a generous neighbor's yard a few hundred yards from the levee.
On the other side of the levee - ship traffic on the Mississippi River.

People - Food - Adventures

Another week is done - four days of work and three days to restore our bodies. Our MDS group spent their week continuing the work at Ms. Susie's mobile home.Tasks included installing the last of the drywall, while Jim and Carol continued on the mudding. Other jobs happening around the site were painting, installing a new window, trim for the windows, repairing doors and even replacing a sill.

Annette with homeowner Ms Susie.

We have been fortunate to enjoy our coffee breaks and lunch hours outside.

Ken has been at work in this room all week, first installing drywall, then mudding and sanding.

Annette's upper body can feel she has been doing a lot of painting. One more room to prime and paint next week.

In the past we have enjoyed food cooked on a disc (Disco) by Will and Karen. So this summer we decided to buy a large 20" wok to do the similar style cooking. We tried it this summer with our family at Bird's Hill Campground. We packed it and thought if we had a chance we would cook up a meal for our MDS friends. So this past Thursday was the day. All week long the weatherman talked about weather systems tracking eastward. But we thought and hoped they would be wrong. So on Wednesday night we chopped all our veggies and meat to be ready for Thursday evening. Then coming home on Thursday after work we heard that we had a tornado watch for the area, but it was not raining. We proceeded with lighting the coals and started cooking by 5 with hopes of supper being at 5:30. Had some trouble getting the fire hot enough and we delayed supper till 6. By then it was pouring rain. Thank goodness Jim had set up the fire pit under the awning and also used aluminum foil on half of the wok to keep out the rain drops. A little later than planned but the supper was enjoyed by all.
This stir fry consisted of ground beef, chopped farmer sausage, carrots, celery, onion, zucchini, sweet potato, red & yellow peppers, mushrooms, salsa, barbecue sauce/spaghetti sauce, garlic, spices, brown and white rice.

Saturday we ventured out on the roads of Southeast Mississippi. We explored small paved back roads choosing to avoid the 4-lane roads. Lucedale, near the Alabama border was our lunch stop. We found their Farmers Market hoping to find pecans. No luck here. The Community park and Greenway was a good place to walk and explore nature. We continued west to Wiggins where this town depicted their history through a series of ceramic murals. Of importance to the area were People, Pickles, Pines and Paper. At Lumberton we found the pecans and since our lunch was light we purchased some Chocolate Amaretto Pecans to snack on and of course a Pecan pie. What a great supper dessert. It was an enjoyable 300 km ride on a bright sunny day.