OWL, Again

We arrived at the OWL Center in Duback, LA a week and a half ago.  Officially it is the Outdoor Wilderness Learning Center, or OWL for short.  It is a rural facility affiliated with the Methodist Children’s Home of Louisiana with headquarters in nearby Ruston.  We got here early so that we could get our taxes done, and get some body work on the truck scheduled.  It’s such a peaceful, quiet place!  We were here two years ago for a project so it was familiar and we looked forward to our return visit.  This is the first site that we’ve had a repeat visit since we’ve been involved in Nomads.
The other team members arrived last Saturday and Sunday.  We have a total of 9 of us working together.  We are from MN, IL, GA, KS, and MO. The week started off with a detailed tour of the facility on Monday.

There are many projects on our list – which is always good!  The men started by removing a horse shelter and started the building of a newer, bigger shelter.  Lots to do there yet.  The women started scraping the front door for repainting only to find that it was almost rusted through so that project turned into the purchase and installation of a new front door.  We also prepped an office for painting and, the big project, was washing and cleaning conference center tables and chairs.  There were over 200 chairs and many round and rectangular tables.  This was a huge job which ended on Thursday with the guys helping so we could finish before the weekend  (thank you, guys!).

 

On our day off, Friday, we took a field trip into Monroe, LA which is the closest large city and the home of Duck Dynasty.  We have some fans of the show in this group and they were excited to see some of the local sites featured in the show.

 

We also toured the Biedenharn Gardens and Home which is where a local family started the Coke bottling business.  Very informative and the gardens were beautiful.