Completion of the October 2012 Project

We have come to the end of another project and will have a little time off to see some of the sites.  But the week ended with a flurry of activity.

The students of Barnabas Prep have written a play and have been practicing for six weeks.  Now it is time to perform.

I'm not sure how they managed it but they have written a play with Mary Poppins, Spider Man and a whole list of other BIG names and they are all at the rodeo.

Here you see the lovely Mary Poppins in her gown and with her escort.

Remember the poodle skirts.  Here they are!  The girls liked them so much they decided not to return them to the wardrobe room but will take them home with them.

The activities got quite animated.

As you can plainly see the students are really getting with it.

We even have a calf roping!!

At the end the contestants from the rodeo received their medals, even the calf.

With the change in temperature the trees are really putting on their wonder fall wardrobe.  God has such an imagination.

The colors are soooo different, yet they never clash.

Just AWESOME!

The Prep students and the staff took a little break after the big production but now they are beginning to return to campus.

When you drive through the gate of the camp this is the sight that meets you.

The maintenance manager and his wife gave us an evening of entertainment as the project drew to an end.  He even barbecued salmon for us.

And a fine meal and time to fellowship it was. 

But there were still a few projects to finish.  This is probably a lot easier than it was 200 years ago but it is still really tiring---

---and the kitchen still has to be spotless for the next ones to use it.

There used to be a window here, now it is a door out to the SHHHH (hot tub)!

One thing that doesn't ever loose it's significance is Inspiration Point.  Each name tag on the cross of a child who has attended Camp Barnabas and later passed on.

And finally, after weeks of no activity, the bird feeder is going empty about every three days.

This is the end of the second week already!

WOW, we have come to the end of the second week of this project already.  This week held several new experiences for us and was a fun week.

 

When Sunday arrived the morning was quite cool so Billie was able to wear the beautiful fur coat that a lady from Miller had out grown.  It really is a beautiful thing.  The coat is nice too.

This is the road leading to the campsite.  believe it or not, there is room for a 40 foot motor home pulling a pickup to maneuver down this path.  It is pretty tight in some spots but passable.

 

While we were walking around on Monday we spotted damage to the old pump house.  We were asked to repair the damage and as we started deconstructing the building we found that the termites had almost eaten the whole back out of the building and the falling limbs had destroyed the roof.

 

Two days later we had removed the bad sections, rebuilt the back and the roof and shingled said roof.

 

Meanwhile, the campers have planned a "show" this coming week end so the ladies started cleaning and organizing the costume room so they could find just the right costumes for the show.

Boy, there are a lot of costumes to be sorted and stacked! 

 

We were just ready to start another project when Roger,the young guy in the picture, got an emergency call form the "Fish House" (where the campers are staying) that the elevator had gone to the top and would not go down.  That is a real problem as there are several of the campers in wheel chairs.  After several hours of searching we found that of the cables had caught on the frame of the elevator on the way up and broken two wires in the loom.  After a splice job and a test, the elevator was back in business.

Meanwhile, the girls decided that they would like to have several poodle skirts for the show.  Since there weren't any poodle skirts in the costume room, the ladies set to work making them.

The job of cutting, sewing and fitting the skirts took a couple days....

 

...and nights to complete.

 

Roger and his family live in the house called "The Crossroads".  It has been used for several things in the past but now it is their residence.  The area leading to the bedrooms was open to the living room on the top and they wanted it closed.  So, we set to adding the wall extensions to make it soundproof.

To keep the mess at a minimum we did all of the cutting outside on the street in front of the house.

 

There were too many costumes for the available hanging space we we purchased a roll around rack for them on which to hang the costumes they planned to use.  Some assembly required?

Friday was a rainy day so we decided to take a drive.  We ended up in Branson at lunch time and decided to eat at the College of the Ozarks, also known as Hard Work U.  We visited there last year and were really impressed with the quality of the dining and the fact that the students were the servers.  On our way into the dining room we passed the dessert tree.

After consuming our lunch we stopped for a photo with our server.

Them Billie took some time to sit by the fireplace in the lobby.

The school is very supportive of the nation and military.  The above photo shows a group of the founding fathers kneeling in prayer and the US flag being sewn.

 

Fun begins at Camp Barnabas

We arrived at Camp Barnabas last Thursday and went right to work on Monday, October 1.  There was a group of high school students from New Covenant Academy in Springfield, MO.  They came here to do a service project and were very helpful.

Check out this gate.  It took a welder (and artist) two years to complete it.  Great way to show off God's creation and the gifts He gives to men.

 

Here is our camp site.  Right in the middle of a bunch of beautiful oaks.

 

Now we are officially here, the cloths line is up and ready and our name tag is displayed.

 

We have another couple sharing this project with us.  They are Ralph and Joyce Rockwood from Michigan.  They are on their way south like we are.  They have been on the road part time for 14 years.

 

When the campers are here, some 500 of them through the summer, all of which are physically and/or mentally handicapped, the camp has a full staff of doctors and nurses and this is the facility they live and work in.

 

In 2005 the camp was the reciepient of an Extreme Makeover.  At that time the crew now only built a new house for the Teas, the couple who started the camp, but they also built a building to house the summer helpers and a building where the kids could go on a rainy day.  This is the rainy day building.  The seats of the chairs are made from 10,000 TV guides which were bolted together about 25 at a time.

 

Of course there has to be a place to feed all of the campers.  Isn't it wonderfully named.

And out back they have one of their cooking venues.

About 9:45 this morning these busses pulled in from Springfield.

 

Here is the crew they brought in. 

  

Last year there was a lot of wind that blew through the camp, uprooting a number of trees and breaking off a lot of smaller limbs.  These kids raked leaves and picked up limbs as well as moved all of the wood which had been cut up by an earlier group.

 

Here is the stack of wood which the boys and girls picked up today.  Some of the pieces we larger than I would have picked up but the students teamed up and threw them on the trailer.  Note the pile to the right of the stack.  Some of those logs are 5 feet long and 20 inches in diameter. 

 

This is Purdy, Missouri.  It is about 7 miles from the camp and this memorial is in the center of town.