Back to the Hill Country of Texas

Our last week at Ozona was fairly relaxed.  We finished scraping, priming, and painting the parsonage.  Also, the handicapped shower for Mariano was completed.  Some of us stopped by to see the work our group did.  Lupe (Mariano’s wife) had prepared peach cobbler and wouldn’t let us leave without some.  Yummmm!  The hospitality shown to our group everywhere we went was incredible. 

Bell Choir with Carollers

The banks in town hosted community open houses 2 days in a row.  One bank had theirs on Tuesday with the young elementary school children performing.  On Wednesday the other bank hosted an open house with the Bell Choir and older elementary kids performing Christmas music.  One of our members, Steve, got corralled into playing Santa Claus at this event (we think he rather enjoyed it!).

Last Thursday we finished up our work at Ozona with a Mexican lunch, provided by the church’s secretary.  Thank you Esther!  Early in the afternoon we returned to Canyon Lake, TX where we had been 3 weeks ago, with some other Nomads who have been working on rebuilding a number of homes which had been destroyed by the flooding of the Blanco River in 2015.

Thinking about our time in central Texas, we realize that it is a whole different lifestyle when services are so far apart.  Where Bob grew up, homesteads were 160 acres, and only a few “big farmers” had more than a section (640 acres).  In west Texas, acres don’t count.  A rancher needs many sections to support any livestock.  Eight to ten sections (5,000 to 6,000 acres) is very common.  One member of the congregation had a “hobby ranch” of only 600 acres for a little retirement project.  Many families have their ranch house and a second house, in town, for use when school is in session.  A weekly trip to San Angelo (80+ miles one way) for shopping is quite common.  That’s probably why 75 mph speed limits are common on two-lane roads.

Here, near Canyon Lake, there are a lot of housing developments with costly new homes in the country.  Commutes to San Marcos and San Antonio are only 35 to 45 miles each way.  The biggest change for us is a choice of TV from either Austin or from San Antonio.  After 3 weeks with no TV, we are grateful!

One week until we see the kids and grandkids again.  So excited!  To everyone out there – Merry Christmas!!

Still Working

We are coming into our last week in Ozona, Texas at our Nomad project.  We are looking forward to a move at the end of this week, being able to watch TV and have better access to shopping and other services.  However, we’ll miss the people at the church and those on our project. 

As we worked in houses in this community, we are much more aware of all the blessings we have.  Linda is a woman with multiple health issues; COPD, back issues, and more.  She rarely leaves her house and spends most of the time with her beloved cat.  She had holes in her bedroom ceiling that resulted in her waking up to a racoon looking down at her.  There were other rooms with holes in the ceilings also.  We repaired what we could, tried to seal up leaks on the roof, removed any tripping hazards, and replaced some floor tiles.  Her kitchen is basically not useable; appliances don’t work and she can’t navigate in there.  It is not a home I would want to live in but she is so thankful for the work we have done for her.

We also repaired 2 ceilings and replaced and painted outside siding on another house.  This woman was a widow with a 20-something daughter.  This daughter was severely disabled and could not talk or move.  Mom had to carry her to from her bed to a wheelchair or a device that held the daughter in a standing position.  Again, this woman was so appreciative of our help.

The project we are finishing this week is a handicapped shower for a man who fell off a work truck several years ago and is paralyzed from the chest down.  A shower was built for him by a contractor, however, the floor of the shower is tilted away from the drain so water is left standing and the drain was not created properly.  We took out the bench he sat on and re-shimmed the base, so it now drains properly.  He is a gregarious man who had built this house and he spends much time in his wheelchair traveling around town to visit his friends.  His wife made a pot of soup and corn bread for the folks working at the house last week.  They also are so thankful that someone is helping make their life easier.

As we work at these homes, we’ve learned how a big component of our work is spending time listening to their stories and giving them validation.  What they don’t realize is the impact they have on all of us doing the work.  They help us to align our priorities with what’s really important in our lives.

Where and Why?

Where we are is Ozona Texas.  Some might ask “Where is that?”  One answer is that is at the far western edge of “Hill Country” and at the start of where West Texas begins.  It is also at the edge of the oil patch with some oil and gas wells and a lot of ranch land.  Cattle comes to mind first, but we have learned that the wool from sheep and goats is what really made this area grow, originally.

Ozona is in Crockett County, which was named after Davy Crockett, “King of the Wild Frontier”.  He was originally from eastern Tennessee but moved to Texas in 1835, shortly before his death at the Alamo in 1836.  It is a good thing that the county seat is here, because it is the only town in the county; its neighboring towns are all in the next counties.  There is absolutely no TV reception without satellite or cable (neither of which we have).  There are 2 FM radio stations however.  The nearest Walmart is 80 miles north, in San Angelo.

We are here at the request of the local Methodist church which has hosted Nomads once before.  That group did most of their work at the church itself, whereas we are working at homes throughout the community.  West Texas doesn’t get much rain, but the rain can do a lot of ceiling damage if roofs leak.  There is a lot of that type of repair for us, as well as remodeling a bathroom in the Community Center.  We are here with 5 other Nomads, and we will be joined soon by 2 others.  At one time or another, we have worked with all but one of them, so there is a feeling of “reunion”.

Why Are We in Wimberley?

On May 23, 2015 a massive storm system dumped as much as 13 inches of rain on the area feeding into the Blanco River, near Austin Texas.  The rushing rainwater quickly became a “wall of water”.  The river rose 36 feet in 4 hours; at one point, it rose 5 feet every 15 minutes.  Before it returned to normal, more than 15,000 trees, 350 homes, and 11 lives were lost.  More than 6,000 volunteers donated 47,000 hours helping with the recovery which is still on-going after almost 18 months.   The Nomads and a couple of other groups are still working here. 

Our team is parked at a former church camp about 15 miles out of town.  We have 9 individuals in 5 rigs and are working on 2 homes.  There is room here to park 7 rigs and, after a short break for Christmas and New Years, there is work planned through the end of March at least.  There is that much work remaining to be done.  We will be here for just this week only, before moving on to Ozona, in west Texas for the next 3 weeks.

We have previously worked with 2 couples and a single woman and just met one couple from Missouri.  It’s a nice combination of reconnecting with some folks and meeting new folks.  We will work for 2 ½ days this week.  On Wednesday we work ½ day and then go out for lunch as some people will be leaving.  We plan on working Wednesday afternoon to decorate for a community Thanksgiving dinner in Wimberley.  We will attend that dinner on Thursday.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Now in Austin

Once again the time has come to update our followers.  Because of our medical issues in Duluth, we had cancelled out of a service project in southern Missouri for late October and into early November.  We had worked with most of the other volunteers there at other places and times, so we were disappointed to not see them again.  One of the other couples, the Hilmo’s, we have known for a couple of years, and we’ve met them on the road many times, but we have yet to work with them.  We knew they were headed to the Escapees park in Livingston TX after their work was done in Missouri.  Since our service at Winnebago had gone so smoothly and quickly, we decided to push hard for Livingston and meet the them before they moved on.

After 1500 miles in five driving days (including the “little” side trip to Sioux Falls) we finally parked in Livingston on Tuesday morning – Election Day.  The park was nearly full, and we could get a site for only 4 days, departing Saturday morning.  In the meantime, we had time to recover from the back-to-back driving days and to spend some time with the Hilmo’s.

With 2 weeks to go before our next project starts, we headed west and stopped near Austin Texas.  This is about halfway but, more importantly, has TV over the air.  We had a chance to watch news and network programming again.

While relaxing in Austin on Saturday, we realized that other friends were working on homes needing repairs due to 2015 flooding, and they were only an hour away.  We met up with them on Sunday and decided to continue our recuperation this week but to join them in working during the week of Thanksgiving.  We just can’t seem to stay idle too long.

Today we did a little sightseeing in Austin.  The weather here is sunny and warm so it was good to get out for a drive.  Here’s a picture of Lake Travis from a restaurant high on a hill.  Lots of very expensive, huge homes in this area.

On the Road Again, and Back “Home”

It has been a busy week in the Riewe household.  Last weekend was our quiet, stay-at-home, rejuvenation time at the cabin.  It now seems to have been so long ago.  Trouble was the weather: cool and wet.  It stayed that way into Monday, when we moved groceries and utensils back into the motorhome, and did our final laundry.  Tuesday morning was when we closed things up for the winter, opened the main electrical breaker, loaded the motorcycle, and hooked up the truck. 

Ready for Winter

We topped off the propane tank on the way into Duluth and set up outside of Steve’s house.  Tuesday evening we had a “going away” dinner with Paige’s mother, cousin John, and cousin Steve and his wife, Deanna.

Wednesday Bob had his last eye appointment early in the morning, and Joyce had a medical assessment later in the morning.  As soon as both were completed we hit the road to Elk River for a quick visit to see the granddaughters and have a turkey dinner at Brett and Jen’s.

As soon as the girls left for school Thursday morning we, too, hit the road again.  This time for Winnebago’s factory service center in Iowa.  We didn’t have a reservation so we took a chance on getting onto their drop-in list, hoping they could get us in on Friday.  We got there by noon, they had us in by 1:00 and had replacement parts scheduled for installation Friday morning.

Friday we had an invitation to lunch at the farm of friends Russ and Nancy Elmer, our next door neighbors at the cabin.  Just as we got there, Winnebago called to say our service work was complete. That gave us time in the afternoon to park the rig for the night and take off in the truck for our “home” in Sioux Falls.  In order to renew our drivers licenses we need to provide a receipt showing the two of us have spent at least one night in South Dakota.

Saturday morning it was back in the truck and back to Iowa to pick up the motorhome then head south.  It was a sunny, warm day here and apparently the weather was also beautiful at the cabin as we received pictures from Steve and others.  One of the nicest weekends this fall and we missed it!!

We still have a few more days of driving ahead of us.  Once we get to Texas we will sit still for a couple of days to relax.

Things are Winding Down

Here at the lake, it has been very quiet: little traffic on the road and even fewer boats on the water.  Most of our neighbors have put their boats onto trailers and pulled their docks out of the water.  There are about 100 households in our cabin owners association but less than 5 live here year-round.  The color of fall leaves is long gone and we can see through the branches where the leaves had been.

    

We got Paige’s mother moved out of rehab and into her new apartment and she is settling into the new social scene.  There is a good feeling to having this completed before we leave for the winter in the south.

 

Last week we had a little “field trip” to the Twin Cities.  We loaded some of Joyce’s extra furniture for delivery to David, had a nice dinner out with Dave, LeJoy and kids, took time to get our flu shots, and attended a badging ceremony, where Brett was officially promoted to Captain in the St Paul Fire Department – Congratulations!

This weekend we will make a smaller-than-normal batch of lefse for Holiday meals, and finish closing things up around here.  We plan to move groceries and utensils back into the motorhome on Monday and relocate to Duluth on Tuesday.  Wednesday Bob has his last eye appointment and Joyce has another assessment, then we will head to Brett and Jen’s place for a quick, early Thanksgiving dinner before hitting the road south on Thursday.  We need to get some motorhome maintenance done in Forest City, Iowa – hopefully!