Week 16

First of all a note about donations: For anyone using WePay for recurring monthly donations you have probably received an email saying they will be closing. I know this is really annoying but we had to switch to Paypal. You'll see the button to the right on here and it's also on our website's 'Support' page. They said the last day they will process payments is March 12th, so you'll have to either cancel your WePay subscription or wait until after the 12th and sign up for Paypal recurring payments. It should be really easy but we apologize for the inconvenience!

So on to our week!

We had a surprise call from the realtor Monday morning saying a guy was going to come look at the property sometime that day. Well that resulted in a 2 hour frenzied clean up! Just because of the painting and stuff going on the yard and beach were a bit messy, but we got it looking nice in time :)  The guy said he really liked it but we haven't heard anything else.

The rest of the week Joel worked on on hammering all the boards on the lodge's south side that had pulled away where we could see outside.

He also worked on painting the rest of the blue we had left on the first level under the deck, and when he ran out he did the trim. He got to fishing a couple times too and we ended up with a nice meal of snapper :) 

Thursday we got to go to our friends house for the day. It was so fun to go somewhere different. Joel went to work on a backhoe but Sage and I got to enjoy ourselves all day!  We hadn't been up the river before, it's really cool, check out that color:

Sage even had fun on the boat:

 Joel worked on this backhoe all day and it's finally up and running. They had to take the whole thing apart, as in pull it in half, to get at the parts they needed to.To add to the fun after they installed the clutch it didn't work the shop that worked on it adjusted it all the way in to work on it without informing them. So after they put the whole tractor back together they had to start all over just to adjust a few screws out on the clutch. On the upside they were good at it by then and almost got it apart and back together before dark. Our friends were able to finish the rest on their own in a short time a day or two later. 

We had a lot of rain the end of this week, we're glad to have all the tanks full before it quits raining altogether. 

We enjoyed a nice visit from some other friends yesterday for a few hours, it's so nice to have people here that care about us :)

We've had an invasion of large red ants this week too, they only come out at night and they're a lot like the army ants and we're still trying to find out where they're coming from. That and the rat, hopefully we'll pick up a rat trap this week and get rid of that problem.  

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Week 15

This week was all about prepping and painting the north side of the lodge. This is a big project. So Joel started out by bleaching the top section and then painting it:

Then came the fun part. A LOT of the wood on the bottom section was rotten, as in so rotten a paintbrush would go right through it. So after he tore out all the bad stuff it looked like this:

NOT a fun project! But it sure looks nice now! He also made a new shutter for the window and stained it. 

And he made new flashing for under the windows like he did on the front to keep the moisture from dripping down again and took down and put the gutter back up so it's straight now.  

Now it's ready for more paint! Unfortunately when he caught a ride to Dangriga yesterday to get paint they were out. They said several other people were painting their house the same color. Guess we started a trend ;-)

Sage and I are always doing little projects, this week we made a path the the orange cabana where there was none before. We also planted some trees and things that were in plastic pots and replanted some of the nicer pots with flowers. It's fun to make things look pretty :)

Week 14

Happy Sunday!

Well this last week we had winter again. There were several days of 'cold' - I'm not complaining at all but we were actually quite cold! Remember we pretty much sleep outside and it was rainy and in the 60's. Apparently we're used to the heat because we were so cold we were wearing layers of long sleeves, sweatshirts, socks, and shoes, it was really strange! It also made showering impossible without the heater so I'm really glad we had that option. And now it's over. For now anyways, I suppose it could get cold again.

This week was a lot about painting. So here's what it looked like BEFORE:

And now the top front (the deck area) is done, check it out:

We call it Maxwell House Blue with Cream (creamer?) trim ;)  Ok so it's not exactly (or at all) the color we thought we were going with, but it's really growing on us and the fact that the nice oil-based paint makes it look so much newer really helps.  There's a LOT left to do. Joel had to replace a bunch of boards and clean a lot of the wood before painting it:

Of course before working up there he had to fix the ladder (there's always something). The guide that keeps the 2 parts of the ladder together was missing on one side so he had to make a new one. Out of an aluminum gas tank.

He also refinished the front door, it looks awesome:

Along with getting all this painting done Joel also spent a couple days fishing with some guys from the village. He loves this because he gets to do one of his favorite things, help someone out, and of course get to have church all day on a boat :)

Yesterday he went to our friends house and worked on taking his backhoe apart because it needed a new clutch. Well this was right up his alley and made him feel like he was back working in Georgia :)

Looks about the same too ;)

So if you hadn't noticed yet, a friend of ours gave us a camera to use! I'm super excited about this, what a blessing :)

So since we've been here we've had a parrot. We don't know much about him other than his name is Jessi (or it may be Jessica, no one seems to be sure since there were two). Recently we had been talking about taking him to a bird rescue place in Belmopan since we know he's not happy in a little cage, and especially without his friend. A couple days ago our pastor, Kenny, called and asked if we would give Jessi to Belize Bird Rescue .  His brother-in-law works there (or knows someone who works there?) and had asked him if he knew of any parrots that might be surrendered. So he called us! The timing was just crazy. So the next day they came and picked him up! I saw on their facebook page he is doing great, eating a lot and making lots of noise :) If he does well at rehab (lol) he may even be released into the wild! He was really fun but we are so happy that he's going to be happy :)

They didn't have lifegroup (the new name for house church) this week because the hosts were both sick with the flu :( But they will be back to it next week!

There is a team coming the middle of February and we got a lot of their details so Joel spent a day in the village with Kenny figuring out all the logistics of what everyone will be doing and eating and how to transport them etc. There's a lot to do to get ready for a team, I can't imagine doing it every week or every other week like they used to! We still have bunch to do but they got a lot figured out already. That should be fun and gives us something to look forward to. Also my parents are coming to visit soon after that so we're all (especially Sage) really looking forward to that!  

Week 13

Well we've had a nice week. Joel started out the week concentrating on the shower upstairs. The third floor of the lodge has 2 rows of bunk beds and a shower room and a bathroom. The shower floor has been leaking for awhile, since we've been here anyways, and whenever people stay up there and use it there's a huge puddle in the 2nd floor boys bathroom. Here's what it looked like before, not that it was bad, the leak just needed to be fixed:

Sorry the pictures are really bad, we're using our video camera for pictures lol.  Anyways he tore out the tile and shower floor and moved the plastic floor against the wall. Then he put up a new wall on the left side and covered all the walls with vapor barrier:

He put cement board over the vapor barrier and covered that with brown polymer grout. The floor in front of the shower was leaking too so he poured a little cement pad and put a drain in the middle. Then some stained wood to hold up the shower curtain and new paint and it's a beautiful functioning shower!

The pictures don't do it justice, it's really pretty :)  

He also made a boat ramp for the small aluminum boat. This makes it take like 5 minutes to get in the water if we see birds/fish out there or for when people come here to fish. He's going to paint it yet but here it is:

So the boat just rolls right down the ramp and is super easy to pull back up.

In his spare time (lol) Joel's been prepping the lodge for painting! We went to Dangriga this week and got paint (and visa's and groceries and supplies and car parts etc.) so we could start working on it. A big problem was the windows on the lodge condensate and drip down the wood so there's mold under all the windows. He made flashings under the windows so the moisture won't drip any more and bleached and cleaned the wood underneath. Here's what they looked like:

  

He made a break to bend all the metal the right way:

Then here's them installed under the windows:

So the front of the lodge was all prepped so we started painting!  Basil and Vera let us pick out the color (this was rather stressful lol, especially since when we went to get the paint all they had were primary colors....ok I'm exagerrating a little but pretty much there were light and dark of each color and nothing in the middle) so you'll have to stay tuned next week to see the color we ended up with!

Joel went to bible study on Wednesday and there were a lot of people like 20, that is so cool. He is really enjoying getting to know people and share in their lives and walks with the Lord. Pray that people continue to come and encourage and pray for each other.  

The dogs are doing great, if you read last week they had an encounter with a wild animal that left them pretty tore up but they are back to normal and gaining weight again :)  And hopefully they learned not to do that again!

Sage's baby chicks are doing great too, the one loves her and climbs up on her shoulder when she plays with them, it's really cute.  

Joel has had the chance to go fishing a couple times this week so we have some fish for meals which is great.  Thanks to the new ramp it's even easier when people from the village come out to fish for them all to just get in the boat and go. 

We have been talking lately about how much we've learned since we got here. I am so thankful for the opportunity to live here. We get to spend time every morning in the Word. We are together as a family almost all the time. We have endless opportunities to teach Sage. Sage and I go for walks on the beach whenever the weather permits and discover new things, make stuff out of nothing, learn about sea life, the things that wash up on the beach are all potential toys. We'll discover something then go google it to see where it came from and what it is. I am continually amazed at God's creation. The way a coconut can drift out in the ocean and grow wherever it comes to shore, same with all kinds of seeds and nuts...Not to mention what we're learning about living with less, making things stretch, fixing things when they are broken instead of throwing them away. Appreciating things like long showers, being away from bugs (even if for a few hours), food....I could go on and on. I don't get to spend a lot of time with other people right now being at the base all the time so I try and make the most of any opportunity to talk with people and learn from them. It makes me appreciate that even more too. I've learned more about cooking, preserving, using every part of everything for something, buying in bulk, things like that. I believe that is exactly why God gave us the gift of creativity - to make things out of nothing when you're low on food or finances or materials or toys or whatever. There are endless ways to use that creativity!