SV Orion - Annapolis, MD
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Late January - Another Year Older

1/31/2023

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PictureHappy Birthday Dave!
We spent much of the last 2 weeks of January making as much progress on the new rooms for Beyond 90 as we could. We took a few breaks though, including ending the month with Dave’s birthday celebration.

PicturePat, Dave and Fred raise a new wall.
Framing Work
​

Under Fred’s direction, we managed to raise 2 walls in the 2nd of 4 rooms being modified for Beyond 90, and began clearing the space to do the same in the 3rd room. Since the room ceiling is slanted toward the center of the building, determining an accurate stud height has been an on-going challenge. With the 1st 2 rooms framed, we had room to take delivery of more supplies from Lowe’s, including dry wall. As we moved forward into the next rooms, we were now positioned to enable others to begin hanging dry wall soon in the rooms recently finished.

PictureMike Pat and Dave position new roof frame at Neptune Beach
 We were asked to break away for a day to consult on a project at nearby Christ UMC  in Neptune Beach. A Nomads project was scheduled for mid-February, but Mike, the church coordinator, wanted some help validating and buliding a prototype of the roof design. We joined Pat, Fred and Joe to refine the design, and then built a 12 ft section of roof beams to provide a pattern for the many sections to follow. As a thank you, Mike treated us to lunch at nearby Bono’s, which was delicious.

PictureDave and Butch replace faucet in Kim's Open Door classroom
We juggled a few other tasks, which took time away from the new rooms for Beyond 90. Kim’s Open Door had a sink that developed a leak and needed a new faucet and a repair to the drain. She also had a few tables that needed “re-assembling” as well. And the church’s Accounting / Payroll software had on-going problems with a badly designed year-end version upgrade. At any rate, it’s all in a day’s work.

PictureSetting up the Portabote one last time before it sold
Boat Stuff

Our efforts to lighten the load on Orion Jr pretty quickly yielded results after we posted our first ad. A number of items sold within days – PFD’s, tethers, our mast Top Climber, etc. But a couple of the more significant items that sold were the Portabote dinghy and the composting toilet. There are still a number of things left, but the initial response is encouraging, and Jr is certainly getting lighter.

PictureCathy Evalyn and Dave by the carriage barn
Parks and Celebrations

​The town of Mandarin is a Jacksonville suburb that sits on the St. John’s River 's eastern bank just south of the city. Walter Jones park preserves some of the historic buildings from this community and tells some of the stories of its past. We joined Evalyn to visit the park one day when all of the buildings were open and staffed with interpreters. One of the more interesting buildings was the Post Office / General Store where one of Walter Jones’ descendants was present to talk about her family’s history at the store.

PictureCelebrating with friends
And, as the month ended we took advantage of an unseasonably warm night to enjoy some fellowship and great seafood in a birthday picnic celebrating Dave’s birthday. Pat made a delicious birthday pie that topped off the evening on a sweet note.

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Early January - New Year

1/17/2023

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Picture
With several major projects happening simultaneously, Faith has been a busy place since the start of the new year. Our focus has been transforming several rooms into space for Beyond 90. And we have started lightening the load on Orion Jr in preparation for her sale.



PictureAssembling a new wall
Reconstruction​

Anticipating a move and expanding services, Beyond 90 needed some changes made to existing room layouts within the church’s A building. This building formerly housed classrooms for the school, but are currently not being used. After meeting with Lori and Barton from Beyond 90, we reviewed their plans and worked with Fred and Pat to develop a list of supplies. Cathy turned this into a Lowe’s VSP request and got a discount through them for the initial purchase, which we picked up the same day.  

Picture
Then the construction began. By the end of the first week, the first wall was framed and much of the demolition work had been done for a wall to be removed. It’s been a while since we were actually hammering nails or cutting wood, but we have no complaints.

Not all of the reconstruction at Faith involved lumber and dry wall. Dave continues to work on restoring the church’s computer infrastructure from last summer’s lightning strike. After a lengthy conversation with Lenovo, he was able to get them to move forward on repairing the livestream computer’s ethernet port. He was also involved in upgrading the church’s accounting and payroll software to the latest release so payroll checks could be run and year-end processed.



Picture
Before
Picture
After
Cathy and Pat made a trip to Pastor Jacob’s to repair the support for a dangling bathroom fan. Thanks to lots of suggestions, some awkward maneuvering and some persistance, they were able to install a support arm and connect the fan housing to it. Luckily Pastor Jacob still had the original trim for the fan, or the finished product would have looked less – well - finished. ​
PictureThe rotten deck behind Peeler was unsafe and little used. Joe removed it.
Meanwhile Joe was removing some severely rotted decks behind a couple of the buildings on the property. He also helped us and Pat trim the crepe myrtles in a single day – a new record. While the Nomads volunteers refreshed bathrooms and began remodeling the kitchen, we assisted with a couple of shopping runs, answered questions and helped with the occasional RV repair.  For example, shortly after her arrival, Jane discovered her batteries lacked the power to open her slide.  About an hour later they were working OK, but over the course of the next 3 weeks, Dave and Fred worked with her to buy and install replacements. 

Picture
Dave and Fred installing Jane's new batteries.
PictureDave amid Orion Jr's clutter
Boat Stuff
When we arrived back at Faith the boat cover on Orion Jr was in sad shape. The forward part of the cover had parted in the last hurricane (Nicole) that had passed through. While Cathy contemplated remaking it, we decided the time had come to take more decisive action on the boat. So, we started cleaning it out with the intention of selling it. ​

It was much easier in the cooler weather of January to get on board and sort through the supplies. Several bags went to the dumpster. Several to the thrift store. A small number of items came back to the RV. We reserved a few items to convey with the boat, and the rest would be sold if we could find a buyer. It takes some persistence to keep whittling away at the stuff, but we are slowly but surely making progress.

Picture
Look Who’s Here

While Carolyn was attending a conference nearby at St. Simon’s Island, she took a break for a visit to Jacksonville on a chilly Sunday afternoon. We enjoyed some time together over a late lunch /early supper before saying goodbye again. It was a nice treat to see her again so soon.

Picture
Parting shot

​We got one of the best looks we’ve had from Jacksonville of a rocket launch one evening.  
​

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