Wednesday, July 10, 2019

I woke up at 5:30 am, which was later than usual, but I was still early and had plenty of time before breakfast to make my lunch.   After breakfast and devotions, most everyone headed to the same job sites to continue their work.

Abe installed a bi-fold door and  then continued installing the cabinets, which turned out to be a challenge because the walls were not square and if the cabinets were installed as designed, there would be a 1 ” gap at the ends.   He did an excellent job of making the cabinets fit and look aesthetically pleasing.

John has become very good at installing the trim and he finished most of it after he helped me with cutting some of the bathroom wall tiles.

Sam Dyck joined us after 3 pm and started painting some of the doors.

We quit at 4:45 pm so that we could get back to camp for a special supper.   We had time to take showers before we left at 5:45 pm for supper at the Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ ( USCC ), who want to thank us for the work we were doing in their community by serving us a traditional meal.   The USCC is a religious community of the Doukhobours, who are Russians that adopted pacifism and were persecuted by the Orthodox church, as well as the Russian government, before immigrating to Canada to escape their oppressors.   Many settled in the prairies, however a large group settled in Grand Forks in the early 1900’s.   More information about the Doukhobours can be found at – http://www.usccdoukhobors.org .

It was fitting that the meal consisted of Borsht, however, the dessert was non-traditional lemon meringue pie.   The ladies gave thanks for the meal in Russian and also said a prayer, in Russian, after the meal. The soup was so good that I had 4 bowls.

After socializing with the ladies, we thanked them for the meal and headed back to camp, where everyone chose different methods to relax for the rest of the evening.

 

 

 

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

The morning activities were similar to the previous day.   After making our lunches, eating breakfast and sharing devotions, some of us loaded countertops for the Radek house on Sam’s truck and then John, Abe and myself drove to the ‘ Radek ‘ house and unloaded the countertops from Sam’s truck.

John continued install trim and some baseboards.

Abe installed the kitchen cupboards and the countertops.

We had to cut one section of the countertop because the drawings had placed the stove in the wrong location.   This meant that we had to make other alterations in order to make everything fit properly.

I started tiling the bathroom walls around the shower.

Cole led a large group, who were insulating the walls and covering it with vapour barrier, in the ‘ Redding House ‘.   Justin and Bethany continued installing trim in the ‘ Walter ‘ house while  Sam and Ernie did ‘ odd jobs  and ran errands..

It was a warm sunny day with a daytime high of 28 C ( 82 F ).   By the time we drove back to camp, it had cooled down a bit.

At suppertime, we were joined by Radek Grundel and his family for dinner.   After we ate the main course, they shared their emotional, traumatic experiences during the flood.  We finished the evening with some dessert and socializing.

Monday, July 8, 2019

It was cool in the morning, about 11 C ( 52 F ), at 4 am when I woke up but it warmed up to 22 C ( 72 F ) which is a comfortable temperature for working.

At 6:15 the table was set for us to make our lunches, and at 7 am we had breakfast,  after which, Peter reviewed some of the background stories of the houses that we were helping to rebuild.   Ike reviewed the job assignments with us and before 8 am we were all in our vehicles, heading to our job sites.

My crew consisted of Yvette, Deneise & John.   We drove to the ‘ Radek ‘ house and surveyed the work before walking over to the nearby storage trailers to get the tools we needed.

There were a lot of different small jobs to be done.   John, a retired landscaper and horticulturist, installed the baseboard heaters and then attached the baseboards.

Deniese ( who helps her father build real cabinets ) and Yvette built the kitchen and bathroom cabinets.   The cabinet  construction was not obvious so Deniese had to read the instructions.

I went to the ‘ Kirk ‘ house for the use of their saw,  where Justin and Bethany were framing the windows,

while Abe was installing the cabinets.

In the afternoon, I stole Abe from the ‘ Kirk ‘ house to start installing the cabinets at the ‘ Radek ‘ house.

During the afternoon, a gentlemen walked into the house and said he wanted to give us something.   I greeted him as he pulled $200 out of his wallet and handed it to me.   He told me that it was for us to use for whatever we wanted.   He informed us that his wife had died 2 months before the flood and  that he had been one of the fortunate residents whose house was just high enough to have been spared any damage from the flood and he wanted to help others less fortunate.  I was very moved by this gesture so I thanked him  for his donation asked if I could share his name with regards to the generous donation.   He said his name was Bill Hart and that he lived just down the street from the Radek house.    He left almost as fast as he came and I was left amazed and speechless.

Compared to this extraordinary experience, the rest of the day was anti-climatic.   At 5 pm we had cleaned up our job site, packed away the tools and drove back to camp.

At 6 pm we had supper, followed by a review of the work done at each of the job sites.   At 7 pm, a few volunteers helped with the dishes while the rest of us had some time to relax.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, July 7, 2019

According to wikipedia, Grand Forks, population 4,049, is a city in the Grand Forks, population 4,049, is a city in the Boundary Country of the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Granby and Kettle Rivers, a tributary of the Columbia River.  The city is just north of the Canada-United States border and approximately 500 km (310 mi) from Vancouver and 200 km (120 mi) from Kelowna.  The video by CTV about the flood that hit Grand Forks in May of 2018 can be viewed on the following link –

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1398625&jwsource=em

I was awake at 6 am, but I didn’t leave the site until 8 am for a 3 km walk to the city centre.   On my way there I spotted some unique carvings.

When I reached the city centre, I opted to have breakfast at the Wooden Spoon Bistro.   As I was returning to the camp site, I spotted two young deer grazing on someone’s lawn.   It was evident that deer in the area are quite common, because they looked up at me as I walked past them on the sidewalk but they never moved.  They only looked up and watched me a couple of times..

The temperature was mild all day long, not getting warmer than 23 C ( 74 F ), which, according to the locals is almost 10 C ( 18 F ) lower than the average for this time of year.

I returned to the campsite in time to relax for a while and change my clothes before going to the Sunday service.    After the service we all ( 13 of us ) went to the ‘ Station Pub ‘ for lunch.   This restaurant is a renovated railroad station and the rail tracks next to the station had been modified into a hiking trail.   After we returned to the campsite, I picked up some gatorade and walked back to the pub and then continued west along the rail trail.  As I looked at the mountain in the distance, I contemplated hiking it to the top, however, I would need a full day to do that.

The trail wound its way up a gradual incline and as I got higher, there were very excellent views of the mountains and valleys.

I had walked 7 km when I looked at my watch and noticed that I needed to start back so that I wouldn’t be late for supper.   When I checked the ‘ Altitude ‘ app on my phone I noticed that I had gradually climbed up 90 m ( 300 ft ).

Eileen had warmed up and enhanced some leftover food for supper.

By 6:30 all of the short term volunteers had arrived and we had our orientation meeting.  When the last volunteer arrives tomorrow, we will have 17 people at the site ( 19 including Peter & Susan, who will be leaving after Wednesday ).  After the meeting myself and the other crew leaders ( Sam, Cole and Justin ) met with Ike and Peter Thiessen to review the jobs for the week, after which we could relax for the rest of the evening.   I returned to my room to complete most of my journal and make some preparations for the week before I went to bed.

Saturday, July 6, 2019

I woke up at 6 am, packed my things and checked out of the hotel.  The temperature was 16 C ( 61 F ) when I woke up but it quickly warmed up to 22 C ( 72 F ) and stayed there for the remainder of my day, however, it seemed much warmer when the sun peaked through the clouds.

From the hotel I drove to a nearby Panera Bread franchise for breakfast.  I like to try something different once in a while so I ordered a Chipotle Chicken & Avoacdo Breakfast Wrap, a bear claw pastry and my second cup of coffee this week.    As always, it was all fresh and tasted very good.

I relaxed while I ate, played a game of Sudoku and then I leisurely made my  way back to the car to continue my journey.   I drove north on the 2, until I reached a junction where I turned on to the 395 to Grand Forks.

I always enjoy driving through the mountains.  The farms and grasslands  in the valleys, surrounded by the mountains, make spectacular views.   Unfortunately my camera never captures the scenes as well as my eyes , however, as you can see from the picture below, the traffic was light, which made for a very relaxed drive.

It wasn’t long before I reached the Canadian border and just before I crossed, I topped up my car with gas.

There was only one car ahead of me when I approached the border guard.   He had a few simple questions and then sent me on my way.

As soon as I drove from the booth, the signs for Canada loomed in front of me.   There was a sign for the conversion of speed limits to metric, as well as road weight limitations and a warning against bringing in invasive species.   There are inspection stations for boaters all through Montana, Idaho and Washington to make sure that no invasive species would be transferred into these states and British Columbia has similar laws.

From the border it was only 20 km ( 12 mi ) to the project site at the River Valley Community Church building in Grand Forks.    The project is using the an area in the back of the church, as well as, the basement for offices, sleeping accommodations and dining facilities.   The pastor’s wife is the person who suggested that MDS use the church building as a project site.

I met Abby, the office manager, who showed me the site and then I unpacked my car and settled into my room.

Once I had finished arranged everything in my room, I sat outside in a lawn chair and started my journal for the day, while listening to the rumble of thunder on the other side of the mountain.

By mid-afternoon, the project director, Ike Epp, asked me if I wanted to see the projects that are being worked on, so I drove around with him to each of the sites.  Before we left, we spotted a deer between the two MDS trailers and on our way back, we spotted more deer.   I was told that Mountain sheep can occasionally be spotted on the nearby mountainside.

When we got back, I relaxed for a while and then had some dinner and did a load of laundry.   In the evening, I met with the Project Coordinator, Peter & Susan Thiessen and most of the long term workers.

It a liesurely 2 hour trip from Spokane to Grand Forks.

 

The entire trip to Grand Forks took 54 hours of driving in just over 7 days.

I used 466 l ( 123.2 Gal ), costing $437 CDN ( $334 US ) to drive a total of 6000 km ( 3725 mi ), which included the side trips.

This averages out to 7.77 l/100 km ( 30.2 mpg ) for my car.

Friday, July 5, 2019

I slept through the night and woke up at 5:30 am.  The temperature was 15 C ( 57 F ) and it was foggy outside as I left the rest stop. I soon reached a small mountain range where the fog was thicker and the temperature was 13 C ( 55 F ).

Shortly after 8 am I reached Billings Montana, where I stopped for a small breakfast and completed my journal entry for the events of the previous day.   It was 12 C ( 54 F ) and raining at 10:30 am, as I continued my journey.

The mountains soon were much higher  than the ones I had seen in the morning and the countryside reminded me of a western movie so it seemed fitting that I was listening to the soundtrack to ‘ the Good, the Bad and the Ugly ‘ as I wound my way up, down and through the mountains.     The scenery in the mountains is both diverse and spectacular.   There were sections of grasslands with scattered trees on the mountain sides and the valleys, as well as rocky areas with trees that had their roots embedded in the cracks of the rocks, towering over wide rivers.  I was hoping to see some wildlife and at one point I thought that I might have seen a grizzly, close to a river in the pasture land of a valley.   He was a long way from the road and it was hard to see what it was at 80 mph, but I now believe it was just a brown cow from a nearby herd that had wandered off and was lying on the grass and eating its cud with its back turned to me.

As I crossed the continental divide and started to rapidly descend 300 m  ( 1000 ft ) from an elevation of 1940 m ( 6363 ft ) the soundtrack started to play ” The Trio “, which is the music at the end of the movie during the final duel between the Good, the Bad and the Ugly and it reached its crescendo at the bottom as I viewed the city of Butte Montana below me.

Summer is construction season and it seemed that every time I was moving along nicely at 65, 75 or 80 mph, there would be a section of road construction and I would have to slow down to 55 or 45 mph for long stretches.   This gave me a better chance to view the scenery in the mountains.

The temperature had changed significantly.  When I had left the rest stop in Montana, it was quite cool and I had considered re-attaching the bottoms of my zip-off pants but by the middle of the afternoon the temperature got as high as 31 C ( 88 F ) and I was glad that I hadn’t.

As I entered  northern Idaho, the time changed to the Pacific time zone and I gained another hour, which meant that I could drive an extra hour in daylight if I had wanted to, however, I decided to spend an extra hour resting at my destination for the night.    I arrived in Spokane at 5: 30 Pacific time ( 8:30 pm EST ), where I stopped for a soup and a sandwich and then checked into a hotel for the night for some rest and a much needed shower.

From Spokane, it should only take 2.5 hours of driving to reach my destination, however,  I was feeling tired, I wasn’t sure how much additional time it would take to cross the border and I wanted a chance to clean up.  With stops, my travel time was 13 hours to Spokane, 11 of which was driving time.

Thursday, July 4, 2019

The temperature was 22 C ( 72 F ) at 7 am when I left.   The traffic was very light, most likely due to the Independence Day holiday and it remained light for the during of the trip, even in the larger cities.   I drove a few hours before stopping for a light breakfast at Panera Bread franchise around 8:30.   As I sat, eating my Avacado, EggWhite & Spinach sandwich on a multi-grain bun, as well as, a bear claw pastry and  drinking my first cup of coffee this week, I wrote my journal for the previous day.   I didn’t realize how much time I had taken writing my journal but when I left, two hours had passed.  I had a lot of ground to cover so I decided I wouldn’t stop for long periods of time for the rest of the day.

At this time of year there are a lot of insects, especially butterflies in the area as witnessed by the collage of carcasses and stains on my windshield and grill.  Many an insect sacrificed it’s life for this piece of art and every time I filled the car with gas, I needed to clean my windshield.

I drove towards Omaha, Nebraska and I missed my turn from the 80 to the 680 without knowing it and I ended up going south west of Omaha.  Fortunately I stopped for lunch shortly after leaving Omaha and when I continued my trip, my GPS instructed me to go back on the 80 East, so I pulled over before going on the highway to figure out where it was taking me.   After several attempts at resetting the map, it insisted that I go east.   It wasn’t until later on that I noticed that I had added an extra hour onto my trip by missing my turn.    There was nothing I could do about it, so I carried on.

At the end of the 29 North and on most of the I 90, the speed limit increased to 80 mph ( 129 km/h ).   The calculation on the GPS for ” Time to Destination ” is calculated according to the street speed limits, so I ‘ had to ‘ increase my speed up to 80 if I wanted to make it in the time it had calculated.    My 27 hour trip to Grand Forks from Wellman had been increased to 28 hours after my side trip, so I didn’t want to loose any more time, if possible.

As I drove through South Dakota, I remembered the grasslands of rolling hills and the ever persistent ” Wall Drug ” billboards as I neared Rapid City.    I took the picture below with my dash camera.

Halfway through South Dakota, the time changed form Central to Mountain time and I gained another hour, which gave me more time to drive but didn’t shorten my trip.

Storm clouds loomed above Rapid City as I approached it.  It was 7:30 mountain time and it would have still been sunny but the clouds made it very dark as it started to rain.    I was entertained by the numerous fireworks intermixed with lightening as I drove through the city.   The rain was quite steady and several times there was a torrential downpour and the traffic slowed down from the speed limit of 75 to 50 mph.  The temperature had increased to 27 C (  81 F ) but it dropped down to 18 C ( 64 F ) as I approached Rapid City.

I stopped just west of Rapid City and searched for a place to stay the night.   After 6 failed attempts to find a room in 3 different areas, including a campground, I realized that I would not be lucky in finding a room during Independence Day.   The cabins at the campground  were also full, however, there were campsites available, but I was not willing to set up my tent during a torrential downpour so I continued to drive west.

The further I drove west, the areas became more remote and there were less options available.   It rained, off and on, as I drove through the northeast corner of Wyoming and into Montana and by now I had made up my mind that I would sleep at a rest stop.   When I reached the small town of Broadus, Montana, it was 10:30 pm mountain time ( 11:30 CST ).  There was a rest stop just before my turn at the junction with the 59, so I pulled in, got out my sleeping bag and pillow, reclined the seat in my car and went to sleep.  The temperature had dropped to 14 C ( 57 F ) by the time I went to sleep.

With the unintentional side trip around Omaha, my driving time to Broadus Montana was approximately 14 hours.   With stops, I had been on the road almost 17 hours.

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

It was a pleasant 22 C ( 72 F ) as I left the hotel, shortly after 7 am.   It was a travel day and my goal was to reach Wellman, IA, by 5 pm and it would take me 8 hours of driving , 10 with stops, to get there.

I had contacted PR Schrock, with whom I had served in Saipan this past March and I had arranged to meet him and his family at his house.

I drove past the east end of Kansas City and continued to head north.   It was an uneventful trip until shortly after I left the rest stop on I35 in Osceola and turned unto the 69.   I had mistakenly assumed that there would be gas stations near the turn where I could fill my tank, but as you can imagine I was wrong;  not the first time but those are the things that make life exciting!! .

As I made the turn, my gauge indicated that I had 80 km ( 50 miles ) to empty.   Surely there would be a gas station near by, even though the terrain had changed to large farm communities, mostly with corn or grains.   There were houses spread in-between the vast farms and they needed to get gas, so my analytical mind told me that there would be a gas station near by.   To add a little suspense to my day, my cell service faded out shortly after I had turned on to the 69.  My Google Maps still worked and could show me the route and where I was relative to it, however, I couldn’t search for nearby gas stations.    No worries, a gas station would be along this paved road and the occasional house along the way.    As I got further away from the I35, I contemplated options, such as stopping at one of the houses and asking where the nearest gas station was or turning back.    As I gauge showed 30 km ( 18 miles ) to empty, my option to turn back was no longer feasible so I continued.  I seldom saw any other cars on the road, so it was obvious that it was a remote area.   And then I started to receive minimal cell service and I unsuccessfully tried to search for gas stations several times, only to loose the signal and have the search function ‘ time out ‘.   Finally I had 2 bars on my cell service and I quickly searched and found gas stations near my path and I entered one of them as my destination, before I lost cell service again.   On my way to the gas station, I came upon a ” podunk ” ( very, very small community ) and there was a Cenex gas station.   I opted to fill gas here instead of the one I had selected earlier.   As I looked at the gas pump, there were two grades of 87 octane.  One was $2.49/Gal and one was $2.78/Gal, so I opted for the one that was cheaper and as I was starting to fill the tank I noticed that that it was a detergent gas containing ethanol.   I didn’t know the composition of this gas and if it was compatible with my car so I stopped filling the tank and filled the last two thirds with the regular gas.    As I left the gas station, I listened for any hints that the gas was affecting the performance of the engine, but it appeared that there were no issues.    In checking the detergent gas later online,  I found out that it is compatible with any gasoline engine and it is meant to run ” cleaner “.   This was the most interesting thing that happened during my drive which explains how boring my trip was.

I drove the remainder of the way, winding back and forth along the country roads until I arrived at the Schrock mansion and met PR and his wife Sherry and their friends, a couple from Ohio, who had arrived shortly before me.

I had a wonderful visit and enjoyed a BBQ steak dinner with  a cherry cheesecake on gluten free crushed pretzels for dessert.   PR & Sherry’s son, Marshall, joined us for dinner.   He was planning to leave very early the next morning on is motorcycle for a trip to southern California.

As we visited, the time quickly slipped away before I realized that was almost 11 pm and PR graciously offered me a room for the night so that I didn’t have to go to Iowa City and look for a hotel.

It was very helpful to stay the night because my plan was to leave early in the morning since I only have 2 1/2 days to get to Grand Forks and there would still be 26 hours of driving left.

The map below shows the route I had taken.

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Tuesday, July 2, 2019

I got up early and left the hotel by 6:45 am to meet Daniel at his house in Hindsville.   From there we went to visit an egg packaging plant in Berryville.

We arrived there at 8:30 am.  Everyone at the plant is treated to a freshly cooked breakfast at 9 am, every Tuesday and Thursday, so we were fortunate to be invited to join the employees for a breakfast of freshly cooked eggs, bacon and hash browns.

After breakfast, Erik, the shipping manager took us for a tour.  The plant floor is restricted.  It requires special access codes and everyone entering the plant area is required to wash their hands as soon as they enter.

The egg packaging plant was very impressive.   It was very clean and well organized.   The robots were very delicate and precise with the handling of the eggs.

The line starts with a tow motor driver bring the skids of egg trays packaged by the farmers to the start of the production line.   An employee enters the farm information for each skid into a computer and then positions the skid for the loading robot.  The loading robot delicately picks up a row of trays and places them on a conveyer belt.

Another robot takes the eggs off of the trays  and places them on a conveyer belt so they can be washed.  At the same time it recycles the trays to be washed and packaged so they can be returned to the farmer.

The eggs then go through a wash cycle.

Then, they are dried.

The eggs are scanned with ultraviolet light for any imperfections such as blood in the yoke and then digitally tagged for quality control according to their location on the belt.   The eggs are picked up in individual baskets from the bottom of a conveyor and individually weighed for size.   At this point the computer knows the farm that the eggs came from and the size of each individual egg  and the quality of the eggs in the baskets.

The eggs are then sorted and put on packaging conveyors depending on their quality and size.

Eggs that are good, but less than perfect, are put in green packaging for use in products like mayonnaise.

The whole process is monitored and controlled by an operator who can see the packaging system below and is able to determines which size and quality of eggs will go on each conveyer by using a touch screen.

After the eggs are placed in the cartons, operators place the cartons in boxes and the boxes are placed on a skid for wrapping.

The skids are then placed in a cooler until they are ready to be loaded on a truck.  Daniel scanned  the bar code from one of the boxes to get the information about the farm where the eggs had originated.

Erik, our tour leader, is in charge of coordinating the ordering of supplies and shipments.

The complete tour took approximately 1 hour, after which we drove back to Huntsville where Daniel gave me short tour of area, before returning to his house.   From there I drove back to the hotel to meet my friend Don Woods, who had driven 3 hours from Cabot, Arkansas, to meet me for lunch and a short visit.

Don and I stopped at an Applebee’s for lunch and then he showed me the area in Fayetteville where he had grown up, including the fish hatchery and adjacent river where he sometimes still goes fishing.

We drove back to the hotel and before he left we had our picture taken.

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From the hotel I walked to the ” MarketPlace ” restaurant, where I met Daniel and Karen Swartzentruber, Peter and Mary Hochstetler and Micah Miller for supper and a visit.    I had worked in Saipan, rebuilding homes, with Daren, Peter, Mary and Micah in September of 2016.

It was a long day for me, but very enjoyable.

Monday, July 1, 2019

After a very nice hot breakfast in the morning at the hotel, I completed my journal entry for the previous day and then I called my out-of-province insurance broker to extend my health insurance for 10 more days, so that I would be covered until I returned home in August.

I then spent some time arranging meetings with my friends.   None of them were available on Monday, so I had to co-ordinate my visits for Tuesday.   This required several texts and a few phone calls.

After completing most of the arrangements, I made plans to hike Hawksbill Crag, upon Daniel’s recommendation.   I found its location on google maps and headed out just after noon.

The drive was going very well, until I lost cellular service near my turn on highway 5 and I drove 15 minutes out of my way before I realized what had happened.    I eventually figured out my mistake and backtracked to highway 5 which was an unpaved road next to the Buffalo river.   This mud and gravel road went straight up for 2 km ( 1 mile ) as the elevation increased by 300 m ( 1000 ft ).   The picture below doesn’t capture the steepness of the climb but I was glad that I had all-wheel drive and I found that it was best to use first gear on the steepest areas.

By the time I reached the trailhead it was just after 3 pm.  There were several cars already parked there and some people had just completed the hike and were leaving.  Anyone who has hiked the Bruce Trail in Ontario would find this trail very similar.

There were several warnings to stay away from the cliff edges, however, some people have been careless and a few lives have been lost; the latest incident occurred a few weeks ago.

There were a lot of rocks and tree roots along the path which was helpful for getting a foothold when climbing.

I reached a smaller version of the crag and had a picture of me taken out on the ledge.

The actual hike takes approximately 45 minutes ( each way ) depending on how much time is taken along the way.   When I reached Hawksbill Crag, I sat on the rock and  took a picture of the view down into the valley below.

Hawksbill crag was impressive and I could see how people could slip and fall from it if they were careless.

I met a couple of graduate students, who had attended the same college and had just completed their PHD programs in Economics.   She and her nine year old dog, lived in Fayetteville, AR and he was from Ohio.   I took a picture of them on the Crag to give a perspective of its size.

I talked with the couple for almost 30 minutes before heading back to the car and driving to the hotel.   By 6:30 I was back at the hotel.  Shortly afterwards I drove to the car wash to clean off the dust and then stopped at an Applebee’s for dinner.

The exercise was very good after all the driving the previous 2 days.