On the last full day we were in Jamestown, we left work a little early to hike the mountain behind the town. A forest fire had come through in 2003, and most everything is still bare!
At the top! The mountain is over 1100 feet tall. It took us just under an hour to climb and a little less to descend.
With Jesse being my only companion, I mostly took pictures of him.
Don”t Fall! Sorry about the bandana, somebody had tied it there.
It was hot! The work site was already in the shade, and around 5 °C. Up there it was still maybe around 15 °C!
After a little while at the top, I climbed down a bit to take some pictures of the rock face we were on.
Zoom out!
It was very steep! Well, not quite THAT steep:)
“For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name.” Amos 4:13
On February 20th, Jesse, Dad and I went with an MDS group to Jamestown, Colorado to work on rebuilding homes. Jamestown was a mining town way back when, so it is situated by a small mountain creek.
Back in September of 2013 James Creek turned into a raging torrent that flooded the town, requiring evacuation for everyone. So, now in 2016, MDS is finishing up their work in the town, and we went to help. MDS is working on 2 houses, 1 nearing completion, and another, just recently started. Here is some before and after pictures of the house we were mainly working on.
I don’t have pictures of the concrete being poured into the wall forms on Monday or preparing everything for the trusses on Tuesday but this is what it looked like Wednesday at 1:00 p.m.
Wednesday at 5:00 p.m.
Friday afternoon! The first sheet of hardy board is up! We left work a little early on Friday to do some hiking, which I will post about later. This area was already shaded and cold. Up across the valley we hiked in the sun!
One of the ladies we were building for used to live in this house which was mostly carried away in the flood.
Another house in town that got the side washed out!
The group leader that brought us down from SK, slipped and fell on the icy streets as we were walking to the job site the morning after it snowed over 8 inches! He ended up having a problem with his back, so Dad went with him to Boulder hospital twice during the week.
Here are some pictures of us working.
Jesse helping to sheet the roof (he’s the one handing the sheet of OSB up in this picture).
Dad nailing hurricane clips to the rafters. Yes, I did work too, but was the one who took most of the pictures:) I worked on papering and strapping the house, insulating in the attic of the other house, clean up, etc.
The other house (they are side by side) is nearing completion. it was started in the beginning of January. Dad and Jesse spent a day and a half in the crawl space that was barely big enough to crawl in, spreading poly for radon barrier.
The truss truck was stuck! One of the tires on the far side isn’t even touching the ground. A track hoe fortunately was digging the sewer system, so we got it to come pull it out!
Coming up the hill.
A lot of the houses in town are up on the sides of the hills. Including the two we were working on. After it snowed, it was very icy, and the trucks were trying to get up the hills and would be slipping all over and getting stuck!
A house on a hill!
The scenery was just beautiful and we were thankful to God to have this great opportunity to serve here.
In the past month we’ve gone skiing 2 times to Eb’s trails, which is just a little past Duck Lake. They have a nice number of groomed trails, some of which have a few hills. On an unkept side hill, Dad lost his balance and skiied into a pine branch, and hurt his head a bit, which you will see in the video:)
For many years we have made crafts for seniors in Rosthern. This year we made Christmas Tree decorations from recycled cards.
How to make them: Cut the picture side from a used Christmas card. Draw lines across the back and then punch holes in it and cut the strips. Stack the strips on top of each other in order and put brad fasteners into each side. On one side put a gold or silver string on the brad before putting the strips on. Bend the stack in the middle then spread to make it into a ball.
On New Years Eve a number of people from our church came over, and we had the second New Year’s Eve Crokinole Championship! We also had lots of fun skating, skiing, and playing other games.
The winners of the Crokinole Championship!
And the runner ups!
We also had a sharing/prayer time while 2016 made its entrance! For us 2015 has had many excitements and challenges, and we look forward to what God has in store for us in 2016! Happy New Year!
