Stuck Up High

It was a bit of a chilly night here, got down to 42 and it took a little while for the heater to have its effect.  I can hear the chorus of voices from Michigan saying, Cry me a river!  But, never fear, it ended up in the low 70’s, another perfect Florida day for working outside.

In a flurry of activity which started during morning devotions, the concrete guys arrived, Ace Hardware came and delivered a bunch of supplies, and Bo had to leave devotions to take a few other phone calls.  That is one busy guy!

First task was to strip the wiring off the wall in the kitchen where the doorway was going to be cut.  It took Rich and I a little while to find the right breaker to kill the power to that circuit.  We finally ended up just shorting the wires together, making some nice little fireworks and popping the breaker.  With the wires out of the way, the guys could come in with their sledge hammers and bust the hole in the wall.

Leaving them to their destruction, Rich and I gathered supplies to paint the outdoor patio.  I think the desire there was more to get some non-slip paint on the concrete than to have it look nice. It gets rather slippery when wet and we have a group coming in on Friday.  We got the patio cleared of the ever-present sand, gathered paint supplies, then it was break time.

Dave, a guy who lives nearby and helps a lot in this camp, stopped by during break time.  Since he was here and was familiar with the lift, we concentrated on getting that running.  It took some extra battery charge and some WD-40 squirted into the intake, but the old diesel took off and was soon warmed up.  Since I am the “electrical guy”, I was tasked with replacing all the non-functional street lights.

This lift is probably due for replacement as it leaks hydraulic fluid from the boom extension and the controls in the basket sometimes will stop working.  I had this happen once.  I just got the basket up at the height of one of the street lights and the thing started beeping like crazy.  It does this when it thinks it is unstable.  After a few beeps it disables all the controls in the basket.  So I was stuck up high with this thing beeping incessantly, unable to get down.  Bo happened to drive by and stopped and lowered the boom using the ground controls.  He told me he has been stuck on a roof and had to climb down the boom a couple times.

So we assigned a ground crew.  Denny was the person who sticks around to lower the boom if the machine gets stuck.  It now is a two person operation.  He also became the EPA cleanup person.  We used the lift to replace the nets on the basketball hoops with chain-link nets and he strategically hung a bucket under the leak to prevent puddles of oil from forming on the new tarmac of the basketball court.

The women cleaned the chapel in preparation for the group coming this weekend.  Sand gets everywhere and it is a constant battle to keep it out of the buildings.  Also, the warmth and humidity encourages the growth of mildew so some of this needed to be dealt with.

Any special talents don’t go to waste here, and Debi is gifted at painting, so she is working on painting the eagle logo as a mural on one of the building walls.

And just like that, Day 3 is done.