Fourth Work Day

On my way to breakfast this morning I noticed the grounds crew was already working--mowing and fertilizing. Breakfast was gallopinto, scrambled eggs, toast w/peanut butter and/or jelly, bananas, and . . . Nicaraguan coffee. It takes two cups of that delicious stuff to get me going in the morning.







We started out with tractor trouble (again!) First it wouldn't start. When it finally did, and Bud drove it pulling the trailer out the the worksite, some wiring shorted out, leaving it useless until a mechanic can be called out (again!) to fix it. Meanwhile, we loaded stuff in the white pick-up and carried it that way.
Guess we won't be hauling off cut-up trees today.






One of my hobbies is wildlife photography, but I didn't expect to see much here. This white egret landed out in the pasture and posed for me.

During a slack-time in the morning's work, somebody found a golf club in the bodega, and John Nafziger attempted to hit a rock off Josh Houtzel's face with it. The rock went 300 yards, but Josh's teeth went only 50. (Pastor Ted says we shouldn't tell lies.)

A large number of the panels the shop crew pre-fabricated in the bodega (warehouse) have been set in concrete. The next step is to join them together.
Here Bud and John are working on that.

Lunch today was one of the best of the whole week (Joel and Stephanie's cookout excepted). We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and cole slaw with watermelon for dessert. Truly delicious.






Bud Ritter and John Nafziger used a generator and welder in the back of the pick-up to weld the cross-pieces to the frames, completing the support for the chain link fencing.
My job was "fireman." I stood by with a shovel and a bucket of water, ready to put out any fires started by sparks from the welder. There were no major incidents of that, however.




The second casualty of the day--after the tractor--was the air compressor falling off the truck en-route to the work site. That meant Ted Mitchell couldn't do the touch-up work on the fence framework with the spray gun, so he and Marc Hinrichs had to apply it with brushes.













Ron Schaad and most of the rest of the crew laid out a section of chain link fence, inserted quarter-inch steel rods in the appropriate places for attachment to the posts and horizontal supports. Then they heaved it up and used wire to hang it in preparation to be welded into place.

Tom O'Donnell and Abuerto, who works at Los Cedros, enlisted the help of Kerling, one of the three boys who live here, and David, Joel's brother, to continue digging post holes. By the end of the day they had 15 more holes dug for the second week's construction team to fill with posts set in concrete.







I've noticed that littering is as much a problem in Nicaragua as it is in the U.S. Not on Los Cedros property, though, but on a lot "across the fence."









Also in preparation for the second construction team, Margaret Naylor washes another shipment of pipes that will be welded together for fence supports. She gives them a preliminary wash with water and follows up with a paint-thinner wash to get off oil or grease that might affect the welding.









On the way back to the bodega the truck hit a nest of baby rabbits. One of the Los Cedros boys, Marvin (pronounced "Mar-VEEN"), picked up a survivor and held him for me to take a photo.









Marvin seems to have a penchant for catching wild things. Not much after catching the bunny, he came up with a baby dove. We hear the doves around here a lot, but seldom see them. Those on the mission last year say Marvin caught a wild parrot and showed it to them.







I did see Jason Shaad working today, but I can't remember what he did. As usual, however, at the end of the day I found him in the thatched-roof pavilion relaxing in a hammock with Marvin and Moises attending to his comfort.

Supper was a rice casserole dish, baked plantains, plantain chips, and watermelon.

Pastor Ted Mitchell led us in devotions, and we had free time until bedtime.