Texas 2 update 4                                                                                                                                      9/7/19

Happy September!  It’s Labor Day afternoon and I don’t have much else to do so I’d better start another update.

There is not a lot especially new but some past week’s events will come to mind.  Of course, we’re still working on a lot of past flooded houses.  I’ve helped in the final stages of the work on 4 different houses since I’ve come.  There will, of course, be more.  Photo 1378 is a house that only had 8 inches of water in a lower level living room.  That required a new floor that someone else put in but it also required new baseboards and quarter-round that I installed.  Photo 1379 is a large house owned by a single man that had raised his daughter there but has now started college and his mother had lived with them but was killed in an auto accident.  Water was up to 3 ½ feet in the house.  Note the FEMA trailer beside it that he has been living in.  Also note the smoker BBQ under the left tree and the size of the trees.  Photo 1380 is the huge tree in the back of the house.  These are called some kind of oak tree but they are different than any oak trees in Wisconsin.  The one in back virtually covers his whole backyard and is over 100 years old.  Our many clients are very different.  I installed 3 doors, put on a lot of trim around his windows and doors and some baseboard and he shook my hand and hugged me with tears in his eyes because he was so grateful.  He asked if I had tried Cajun Boudin sausage and when I said I hadn’t, he insisted he BBQ some on his smoker out front and served it with corn-on-the-cob and spicy beans for lunch.  Then he insisted I take 9 sausages home with me.  It looks like bratwurst but has ground pork and rice in it and is fairly spicy but not real hot.  It was good!

Saturday afternoon I walked through Shangri La Botanical gardens and nature center here in Orange.  Photo 1389 is the entrance gate.  It is a large swamp land near a lake and bayou.  I never thought of beauty in a swamp but I guess beauty is where you look for it in God’s world.    There are a lot of boardwalks over standing water with all kinds of native vegetation, trees, and flowers..  Photo 1382 is of water lilies in a pond.  Photo 1383 is of a small lake with a picturesque view of trees behind.  I took many more but won’t bore you with them.

I had 2 visiting men from Louisiana stay in the barracks with me Monday night.  We had a comical time getting together, partially because Port personnel had fixed and closed the security gate at the entrance to the barracks.  See photo 1390.  I finally got the code for entry and it closed 30 seconds later.  Then I tried to figure how to get back out, or open the gate so the “guests” could get in! It finally all worked out and now I regularly use the code to get in, it closes 30 seconds later, and I drive up to the gate to get out so that it opens automatically and closes again after I leave.  I think they are more concerned about the security of the equipment inside the gate than about me, but I’ll accept the extra measure anyway.  I keep the doors locked.

I’m quite happy and proud that granddaughter Katie is now in veterinary classes as a Wisconsin resident and granddaughter Lizzie has gone back to New York City for 2 or 3 month gig as a professional theatre stage designer.

It’s now Saturday and a new (volunteer?) from Louisiana moved into the barracks with me yesterday.  He does drywall and finish “mudding”.  Neither I nor he knows how long he will be here.  He’s done work for iconnect before. 

Christians Together!

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