And Just Like That, It's Over

We took leave of the Lives Under Construction Boys Ranch today.  It’s always a bit difficult to leave as we leave a little bit of our hearts behind, having gotten to know and love the people here, really enjoying the Ozark Mountains, and loving the extension of great Fall weather because of our more southern location.

I managed to finish the project I was working on, spending time this morning grouting the floor I had just repaired and tiled and then early this afternoon setting the toilet back in place.  It turned out rather well and, I gotta say, that throne is pretty solid.

These projects always involve supply trips.  In this case, I had to run to the wood shop numerous times for tools, fasteners, and the like, and I put 18 miles on my bike just running back and forth.  Most of the roads are steep, curvy, and made of coarse gravel, which made for a bumpy ride and an appreciation for an electric bike.

Deb was back in the thrift store.  This time she was asked to organize an enormous area full of plastic totes, sorting the dirty ones from the clean ones from the ones to be pitched.  This turned out to be a rather significant job, particularly since some of the stack needed to be moved to the other side of the 14,000 square-foot store, but she managed to make some semblance of order out of the pile.  She was rather exhausted when it was done and was even asked by one of the staff if she was OK.  “I think we gave you kind of a big job,” said the staff member.

We had our last lunch with the staff and the boys and said some of our goodbyes there in the lunch room.  Most of the boys were like, whatever, and went on with their chores as normal.  I’m sure there are so many volunteers that come in and out that we were just two among many.

Little Max, however was genuinely sorry to see us go.  We got a hug from him and he asked us when we were coming back.  He may be an off-the-wall, distractible kid, and we probably don’t see most of what goes on, although we do see him out on Con time quite a bit, but he is an endearing young man and we will miss him, too.

Normally we would be working until 3:30, but, as Steven said, there were a lot of big projects but he didn’t have any other small projects, so we were able to leave at around 1:30.  Steven said this as he was snaking out a sewer line for the mechanic’s shop.  The line was probably hit when a lean-to was put on the building and will have to be dug up and repaired.  “That will probably be a Con for the boys,” he told me.

Yeah, I wouldn’t want to dig that up either.  I’ll just go fix toilets instead. 🙄

It doesn’t take us long to disconnect and roll out of our campsite.  However, it took us over a half hour just to get to the end of the driveway.  We stopped by the metal shop and bade goodbye to Tim, a full-time volunteer that we’ve had many conversations with.

We stopped at the end of the driveway to take our group picture and there met up with Ken and Tracy, who rolled in with their big RV a few days ago.  Ken will be building a the chapel with cedar logs taken from the ranch property and milled and shaped by a local Mennonite sawmill.  They don’t know how long they will be staying: weeks, months, more?  But they felt called to come here to work for an undefined amount of time.

And then we drove for the rest of the day. 291 miles and we are stopped at a Cracker Barrel just east of St. Louis.

The story wouldn’t be complete without some sort of issue on the road.  An hour out of Springfield, we’re on Interstate 44 and suddenly there’s this rattling sound coming from somewhere outside.  Since no lights were on and it still seemed to be running fine, I continued five or six mies to the next exit and then pulled into a parking lot.  Looking underneath, nothing seemed to be amiss except for the tank heater on one of the waste tanks, hanging down and flapping in the breeze.  But rubber doesn’t make that kind of noise, so I crawled underneath and eventually found a heat shield had lost one of its retainer clips.  It rattled rather freely against the frame and the driveline.  I found another clip that could be taken off without making things too loose, and used that one to fasten the shield back in place.  Time lost: about ten minutes.

Looking back on it, this was probably one of our more enjoyable projects.  We were initially disappointed that we were the only SOWER couple here but that had some unexpected benefits.  With additional couples, the SOWERs tend to do things together: working together, devotions together, game nights, potlucks, and so on.  Instead, we got to know Steven and Christina, our ranch coordinators, rather well as we had devotions with them nearly every morning.  Because we ate in the lunch room with the staff and boys, we got to know them also.  And we had some conversations with other staff and volunteers as we were walking about in the evenings.

Plus, the ranch is in a beautiful location.  It may be a challenge to drive but it has that Ozark beauty to it, the steep rolling hills, the heavy wooded areas, and the nearby Table Rock Lake.  Lots to see and do here.  And the weather was great.  It’s supposed to rain buckets tomorrow, but it was great while it lasted.

If there was a project to do over again, this would be near the top of the list.  Even when reglazing showers and fixing toilets.