HOME SAFE AND SOUND

From left to right this is Nick (our guide), Miss Tammy (Nick's mom and our cook that took such good care of us and Mick (our other wonderful guide).

Everyone and Miss Jenny after we gave her our special surpises of the kid's room signs, the picture frame with all of us in a picture, and the terrarium that the kids made after the scavenger hunt.

The ride home was long but uneventful. Watched some movies, did some sleeping, played cards and games. We got home early, around 9:30 which was nice. I am sure everyone liked sleeping in their own beds. We had an amazing week. We were sad to say good bye to Eagle Ranch and everyone there, but we are already making plans for our return trip next year!

Thanks to everyone for all your thoughts and prayers during our trip. The kids will not forget the experience of the past week, and neither will the chaperones. Thanks again to Mr. C, Mr. Z, Mr. Kop, and Mr. Mack, without them we could never have done what we did. They are the absolute best and they were wonderful with the kids! We love you guys!

ON THE BUS

Right now we are on the bus headed home. thanks to modern technology we can post from the bus. It has been a long but uneventful ride home. Many naps and lots of card games. We will actually be home earlier than we thought which is good.We are all looking forward to getting off the bus for good and being home. Definitely too much junk food on the ride home. See everyone soon!

HOMEWARD BOUND TOMORROW

Tomorrow we will head out after breakfast. We have truly had a wonderful week. We are proud of the work we have accomplished. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel home. When you see us at church feel free to ask about our trip. I know all of the kids would love to tell you all about it. It has been a learning experience for all of us and one we will cherish and remember for the rest of our lives.
We'll let you know when we get home. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

WHITE WATER RAFTING!

The kids had a blast white water rafting. Even though many of them met the river up close and personal they still had a ball. It is an experience they will always remember.

OUR FAMILY AND GUIDE

Meet Nick, our Eagle Ranch guide for the week. He was with us all week long for everything. We met Nick last year when he worked with us and we all just fell in love with him. Nick wears hats and collects them so one of our kids bought a hat at home and had all the kids sign it as a gift from us. His mom is Miss Tammy and she is the cook here at eagle Ranch. She takes such good care of us coming in early to have breakfast for us an hour before the usual time, packing our lunches with all our special needs, and feeding us a super dinner every night. She is the best!

This is the family we have fallen in llove with and have worked so hard for all this week. Miss Jenny, Isaac, and Virginia. Miss Jenny works at Eagle ranch and is so sweet. We just love Isaac and Virginia as well. They are really sweet kids. We worked on Miss Jenny's house last year too. We are looking forward to coming back next year and doing all the finish work on the addition we built this past week.

DAY FOUR LATE MORNING ACTIVITIES

After we got back from working this morning, Eagle Ranch staff had a scavenger hunt planned for the kids. They collected a variety of things and then they used all the items to create some things for thefamily we worked for this week. They made name signs out of natural items for Isaac and Virginia (the kids) , they decorated a picture frame for Jenny (the mom) and put in a picture of all of us; and they made a terrarium for the whole family. It was a nice experience for them and they had a good time.

DAY FOUR MORNING

Instead of just heading out with a small crew this morning we decided to take the whole crew. We finished the piping for the wood burning stove, so now they have a safe exhaust system for their heat in the winter. We wrapped the addition with TYVEK and insulated at the soffit for winter. We also covered the window openings for winter. The girls did an amazing job putting up the TYVEK by themselves! Yeah girl power! The boys wanted to get in on the action toward the end so we let them help with a few areas.
Now we are back at Eagle Ranch and the kids are on a scavenger hunt. They are going to make a terrarium for Isaac and Virginia (the kids whose house we worked on).
When they are donw with that it's lunch and then WHITE WATER RAFTING! The kids are very excited. There will be some pictures of that tonight.
We are so proud of the kids. They have worked so hard and accomplished so much in a very short amount of time. Not one of them complained about getting up an hour early again this morning to head back to the job site on what was supposed to be a completely free day. Hats off to ALL OF THEM!








A special thank you goes out to our male chaperones! They are the absolute best! Without them we could not have accomplished what we did! Thanks guys! We love you!

DAY THREE COMPLETE!

Well we had another productive day today! We finished the stone work around the wood burning stove area so that is now complete and ready for winter use!

We worked hard all day outside. We were able to get all the walls sheeted, the roof built, and the tin layed on the roof. We started to Tyvek the addition to deal it for the winter but ran out of supplies. We were dissapointed we could not complete it. We are going to take a crew over tomorrow morning and actually finish putting up the Tyvek so the addition will be sealed for the winter. To everyone's shock and surprise we were able to build a 2 room addition in just 3 days! We could not be more proud of the kids. It has been hot and grueling working but they have all stepped up to the plate and worked hard. They have not complained at all during the day. We have gone through enough water to fill a swimming pool in the past 3 days! It was certainly worth all the hard work throughout the year getting ready for this week. The family we have been working for is so apprciative of what we have accomplished. We very much want to be the ones to finish this and are going to ask Eagle Ranch if we can have this as our project for next year. We will do the finish work in both rooms, and put on the exterior siding. If we had another 3 or 4 days, I have no doubt we could have completed that as well. Tomorrow is our free day. Some of the kids will do a scavenger hunt in the morning while the others go over and finish up with the Tyvek. We would take them all but there is just not enough for all of them to do. After lunch we are going white water rafting. Everyone is really looking forward to that! It has truly been a wonderful experience for all of us. We are sure the kids will have lots to talk about when they get home.

DAY TWO COMPLETE, WE DID IT!

Sorry for the late update, but we just got home from our night on the town dinner. We went to downtown Copperhill and had a great meal and a lot of fun.

Today was an incredibly productive day. We awoke to rain, but it stopped right before we headed out to the job site. Unfortunately it was hotter and more humid than yesterday. We once again headed out an hour early to try and beat the sun and heat.

Our goal today was to get all the walls built and WE DID IT! We are so happy and proud! The kids worked really hard, even in the brutal sun and heat. Inside we finished laying the floor in the hallway and we also got about 2/3 of the stone work done around the wood burning stove area.

We worked so hard and finished what we had set out to do, so we stopped by the "Blue Hole" on the way home and went for a swim. It was great to just cool off and relax a bit. The kids certainly earned it over the past 2 days.

We had to hurry after swimming to get cleaned up and headed right back out for dinner. After dinner, the kids took a walk to Georgia. They are having a lot of fun crossing state lines all the time. It is quite interesting here and so far we have been in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia and have been able to walk every time we cross state lines. Tomorrow is going to be another hard work day. We plan on getting the sheeting on the walls, the roof built and covered in tin, and the windows in so the rooms will be completely enclosed for the winter. We know we will have to push ourselves and work hard, but we are confident we can get it done, and the kids really want to finish this. They have all worked really hard and we are so very proud of them!

DAY ONE COMPLETE

Today as planned we got up early and had breakfast at 6:30. We headed to our job site by 7:45 and got a good jump on the sun and heat. We unloaded the bus, set up our work site and got to work. It was a good thing the guys went over yesterday and marked everything. We got right to work digging for the posts. It was hard work as we hit a LOT of rock! We got the holes dug, posts set and cement poured by lunch. After lunch we started attaching the under supports. We can honestly say those 2 X 12s are pretty heavy, but working together we got them up. After that was done we started on the floor joists. We got them all in and then we layed the floor decking. It was our goal to get that much done on day one so tomorrow we can start building the walls. We want to get all the walls built and in place tomorrow so we can get the roof on on Wednesday. We are confident we can do it if we work hard.

We also worked inside the house today as well as beginning the addition. We layed tongue and groove flooring in the living room and prepped the area around the wood burning stove for the stone work we will do tomorrow. We re-routed some wires which required some of the kids to go under the house. It was an adventure to say the least! We are very pleaed with how the living room turned out. It really looks great!

We did not get back to Eagle Ranch until 5pm tonight. A VERY long but extremely productive day. The kids worked hard and did a great job. We are very proud of them.

Unbelievably, many of them got in a quick game of volleyball before dinner after we got back. Now everyone is cleaned up, and just hanging out, playing some horseshoes, swinging on the swings, and just chilling (wish we were literally chilling). It is very hot and humid here, but we are keeping well hydrated and taking breaks to ensure everyone stays healthy and safe.

Looking forward to another productive day tomorrow. We will once again get up early so we can be on the way to the job site by 7:30. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers please!