Sowers4Pastors

Another bridge construction update

2012-02-17T12:22:00.001-06:00

This is another set of pictures taken on a day when a group of volunteers, from one of the nearby villages, was helping pour concrete to make the walls which will hold up the ends of the bridge.

If you look through the pictures, you can find:

-men carrying large stones, and throwing them into the wall panels

-men mixing concrete in large flat metal pans

-men carrying buckets of concrete, and dumping them into the wall panels

-men standing at the edge of the pit where the walls are being constructed, supervising

-wall panels (into which the concrete is poured and stones are thrown) about up to ground level

-men standing around, doing nothing at all (I have no idea what was holding up the work in those later pictures)

Maybe I have these pictures in backwards order, and the men were just gathering waiting for the work to begin. Could be . . . I wasn't actually there . . .

Cleaning the "Man Cave"

2012-02-16T09:57:00.003-06:00

My husband can fix almost anything. He's wonderful to have around when anything needs to be repaired (he's nice to have around other times, as well). However, having a handy hubby has come with a cost. He collects stuff.

To me, Allen's stuff appears to be of no value, and it's messy looking. I'm no neatnik myself, but I wouldn't save broken appliances, leftover screws, or bits of wire, for instance. Allen would - and he does. I'd complain about the mess, except that every now and then, when something around the house breaks, Allen goes into his messy pile of stuff and pulls out just what he needs to fix the broken item. So, I figure I'd better leave it alone, for the most part.

(An anecdote: A few months ago, I was attempting to pressure can some vegetables, and the pressure wasn't coming up on the canner. I took the canner apart, and realized that somehow, in washing and putting away the canner after the previous use, we'd lost a tiny plastic/rubber/something gasket thingie that goes around the screw which holds the pressure gauge in place. Without the thingie, the canner wouldn't seal, and would be useless. Allen found, in his collection, some sort of bolt with a similar plastic gasket. He removed it, cut it to size, and I was back to canning in a few minutes.)

Unfortunately, Allen doesn't like putting things away. He does like to be able to find things when he needs them, but he just doesn't like the cleanup part of any repair or construction job. So, occasionally, we have to neaten-up his stuff for him. Of course, we don't dare throw anything away, and we have to try to organize things in a way that will make sense to Allen. This job rarely falls to me, because I've never worked alongside Allen when he does construction or repair work. The kids have, and so they have a much better idea of what each tool or miscellaneous "item of value" would be used for. If I straightened up, we'd have plumbing tools and electrical supplies and carpentry items all mixed up together . . . and that wouldn't be a good thing, when I wanted a plumbing, electrical, or construction repair done around the house!

When Kirstin still lived with us, she handled the task of keeping the tools and construction/repair supplies situation under control, and she generally didn't leave it to become a complete disaster, but tried to straighten up fairly regularly. Since she's been gone, this job hasn't become anyone's personal responsibility, so things can get pretty far out of control before we step in and tackle it.

Here are some photos from the last cleanup. Gus took all the loose items off the shelves and spread them out on the steps, so he could see everything. Then, he put all the stuff into the appropriate containers, and got it all back on the shelves in an organized manner.

Ta Daaaaaah! I have to admit though, these pictures are a few months old, and the shelves currently are not as neat as that final picture (or as untidy as the top photos). I'd better schedule another man cave cleanup day . . . soon!

A disclaimer: If Allen had a blog, and posted pictures of one of my messy spots, I'd be mad. He won't be mad at me, which is nice of him. He's a good guy to have around!

Just A Pretty View

2012-02-15T13:11:00.000-06:00

I really, really like living up where I can enjoy the vistas!

Arachnophobia - an abnormal fear of spiders

2012-02-14T08:47:00.000-06:00

Arachnophobia. I hope you don't have it, because this post involves spiders. Many, many, many spiders.

Boo was wandering about our property, camera in hand, looking for pictures waiting to be taken. She saw what looked like an odd spot of moss, growing on the wall of the bodega:

Upon closer inspection, Boo found that this was a dense mass of spiders, something along the lines of a grand daddy long legs - or rather, a massive and tightly packed gathering of grand daddies!

As Boo stood watching, the spiders untangled themselves and started off, each in their own direction . . .

. . . until eventually, there was nothing left to show that a major grand daddy gathering had taken place on this spot.

Soft Pretzels!

2012-02-13T14:15:00.001-06:00

Good stuff has been happening in my kitchen lately.

Rachel used a copycat recipe we found on the internet. Since we've never eaten "Auntie Anne's" soft pretzels, we don't know if these are like that brand, but they were good eating!

Just for fun, Ben helped make lots of pretzel bits.

We don't recommend trying to keep these pretzels to eat later, as they are much better when fresh and warm. We did successfully toast some a day later, and they were very acceptable, but there's just nothing like a fresh, hot, soft pretzel!

Ugh. Head lice. Ugh.

2012-02-09T09:52:00.000-06:00

This morning, as I was combing my hair, I found a bug. Then another bug. And I knew. Sigh. Head lice.

In the course of 11 years in Honduras, this isn't our first bout with lice, but you never really get over the "yuck" factor. I'm pretty sure the kids picked up this infestation during some recent visits to the baby orphanage in Santa Rosa de Copan. Since we made those visits while Katy was still here, I now get to write an awkward email to her mom.

Sigh again.

Ben is getting all his hair cut off right now. That's the easy method for dealing with lice in boy hair. The girls and I will have to get rid of our lice the hard way. I almost have the urge to take the clippers to myself . . . almost.

Now I'm off to write that email. Sigh.

First lessons in milking

2012-02-07T12:28:00.002-06:00

Have you ever milked . . . a dog? Well, now Boo can say she has.

Bunny, one of our lab-mixes, presented us with four puppies over the weekend, one of which died during the first night. She had lots of milk for her three remaining pups. Whether due to the excess of milk, or whether it was a different problem, we don't know - but two of Bunny's teats became badly swollen, and then hot and tender.

I was concerned for her, so I asked a gringa friend, who has worked in the past in veterinary care, to take a look at Bunny. Our friend suggested we needed to get the bad milk out . . . that the puppies wouldn't nurse on those teats until we had fresh milk flowing from them. She also explained that the problem could spread to the other teats, and a serious infection could arise.

Sooo, Boo took on the job. She hand milked the dog several times over the weekend. Thankfully, this is a very easy-going dog! Today, for the first time, those two teats look like all the rest, and the pups are nursing on them!

Hurrah! Boo should be all set when the time comes to start milking the cows!

My Herd

2012-02-02T18:02:00.003-06:00

Aren't they a happy looking group?

There they go . . .

2012-02-01T12:42:00.000-06:00

The Christmas gifts for pastors and their families are going out the door!

When we first started distributing pastor gifts in Lempira, we took the time to deliver each gift individually to the homes of the pastors. This gave Allen a good chance to meet the pastors of the area and to get a sense of the towns and villages where they were working. It also took weeks and weeks to accomplish!

Now that a few years have passed (this is our seventh year doing a Christmas gift project in Lempira) we already know most of the pastors - especially as many attend (or have graduated from) our pastor training school. With Allen and Russell so very busy with bridge construction these days, we asked the pastoral supervisors for the various denominations to pick up and deliver the gifts to those working under them.

Today I'm posting some pictures of a supervisor (and some of his family) picking up the boxes for his denomination's pastors.

The supervisors give us a list of their pastors, along with the necessary information about each family. We make up the gifts, and let the supervisors know when the gifts are ready. When the supervisor comes to pick up the gifts, we check each gift off on their list, so there aren't any questions later about whether they received all of the requested gifts.

Katie and Boo check each gift off the list as that box is loaded in the truck.
Commando keeps cool in the shade of one of the trucks, fairly clearly giving the signal that he's on security detail.

This larger denomination required two pickup trucks to carry all the gifts!

Our thanks go out again, to everyone who helped with the Gifts for Gracias Christmas project this year!

Oh man, I hope we're not in trouble with Katie's Mom . . .

2012-01-29T12:46:00.003-06:00

Katie poses on the bike.

Allen takes Katie out for a tour of the area . . . on the motorcycle!

We'd offered to take Katie on a horse ride up Celaque mountain, but Katie is an experienced horsewoman, and a trail ride didn't offer much to interest her. Then Allen suggested he could take her out to see some of the local villages and such, on the motorcycle. Katie was gung ho.

Today, as they were setting off, I sent Boo out to take a couple of pictures of Allen and Katie riding away on the bike, to send to Katie's Mom. When Boo came back in, she told me, "Katie said she should go on a motorcycle ride now, because her mom might not ever let her go again."

Yikes. I could be in trouble here.

The Pig Fortress

2012-01-28T15:35:00.000-06:00

We've had all four pigs on the back porch of the team house, and this was a very unsatisfactory situation! This week, the guys were finally able to bring home enough wall panels to put up a better pig shelter. This is still temporary, but better than the porch, plus being dog proof. We aren't ready to trust that the dogs won't mess with the pigs, until the pigs get a bit bigger.

These wall panels are part of our construction equipment. You see them occasionally in the bridge photos, when we use them as forms for pouring concrete - which is their intended use. They're reusable and very strong, and can be assembled in any number of configurations. We've used them for puppy pens, and right now we have a temporary wall built of panels in our bodega/house, which sort of keeps the mess of the shipment out of the living area of the kitchen.

The pig shelter is extremely tall, and impregnable from all sides, which is why we've taken to calling it the pig fortress:

Because it doesn't have any side entrances, the kids - mostly Boo - climb up onto the roof, which covers part of the top, and lower down food and water. If needed, Boo will climb all the way in, as she's young and spry enough to do this.

The pigs have more room, and the kids aren't having to clean up after them as often, so this is all good . . . for now. Eventually I hope we'll have a more traditional pig pen set up, instead of the pig fortress we have now.

Branding Accomplished!

2012-01-27T20:11:00.001-06:00

As promised, here are the photos from the branding of our new heifer. I am trying, by the way, to use the appropriate bovine terms now . . . a heifer is a female which has not yet had a calf. Since this animal is a year old, and hasn't had a calf, she's a heifer.

Sorry the picture quality isn't great. The menfolk handled this task after their day at the bridge project, so this all happened this evening at dusk.

First, scrap wood was collected, and a fire started.

The branding tool was placed in the fire to heat.

While the tool heated, the heifer was brought into position near - but not too near - to the fire.

Then she was immobilized, so that she couldn't move while she was branded. This is the point where I left the scene. Sigh. I'm still too soft-hearted for this stuff.

Boo didn't record the moment of the brand on her skin . . . but this was taken just afterwards, as Russell treated the burn.

Can you see her brand well enough in the picture to read it? We ended up with S4P as our brand . . . hopefully you can figure out for yourself what that stands for.

As soon as this was done, the heifer was untied and allowed to get back up. She was pretty upset, and kicked a bit once she had the chance to do so. I totally don't blame her - I think I'd feel like kicking someone, too.

With the work completed and a fire burning, the family toasted marshmallows and ate them before dinner. Good thing we had a light dinner planned tonight!

Though she doesn't know it yet, the heifer will be much happier now that she is branded. We've been keeping her tied to a stake, so that she would be less likely to escape from our land, because without a brand she couldn't be identified as our property. Because the mother cow was already branded, we've been allowing her to move around with the rest of our little herd. The baby has been mooing for her mother rather pitifully, and now we'll be able to let her loose to roam with mom and the rest of the cattle.

The big bridge project - another update

2012-01-27T14:10:00.001-06:00

Allen says I need to post more frequent updates about the big bridge project. I am so far behind in my posting, compared to where they are with the project! In their mad race to finish the bridge before the end of dry season, the guys are pouring concrete twice every week. The pour days are long and stressful, and filled with hard physical labor, so this is a brutal pace!

The photo above, from the first pour, shows some of the guys throwing large stones into the trench during the pouring of the foundation.

The photos below are from the second pour. Now, instead of simply dumping the wet mixture into the trench, they have to pour it between the wall panels, which you can see just sticking up out of the hole.

The wall panels are held in place by straps which connect them across the void. The straps we have on hand are too short for the width of the walls, so Russell is welding them into longer straps. He's working here inside of the bodega the municipal government put up near the construction site, for use during this project.

More bridge pictures to some soon . . . I promise!

Cow-proof garden fencing, part 2

2012-01-26T15:03:00.003-06:00

The new, cow-proof fencing was installed around a much larger area than the current garden. This was done so that we won't need to re-fence again when (if) we decide to expand the size of the garden in the future.

The older fencing which goes right around the edges of the garden will remain in place. Even though it has been pretty mangled by the cows, it still keeps the dogs out of the garden, something the new fence can't do. I suppose sometime in the future we'll attach mesh fencing to the cow-proof fence, so that it can be both cow-proof and dog-proof.

There's the gate - site of many a broken fingernail! It's not Trish-proof, but it is certainly Trish-resistant.

Interjecting a question here

2012-01-25T14:02:00.004-06:00

I'm interrupting the riveting series of posts about garden fencing, to ask an important question.

Sometime in the next few days we'll be branding our new calf. Do you want a post with pictures, or would you rather not see this?

Just thought I'd ask.

Cow-proof garden fencing, part 1

2012-01-24T18:00:00.005-06:00

Do you remember my writing about our cow getting water from the barrel just inside the garden fence? (If not, you can read that here.) You can see, in the photo above, how easily the cow could push over the fence to get a drink. Unfortunately, the cow - and the bull - could also push the fence over to go into the garden and eat things. That's bad.

When we first fenced the garden, we had in mind keeping out dogs, not cattle. So, we've had to upgrade our fencing. Here are a few photos of our small crew of workers who help us out around the place, putting in our new garden fence.

First they selected small, straight-ish trees, chopped them down, and cleaned off the branches and the bark.

Digging the holes for the posts was arduous, as there are lots of large rocks right at the surface in the garden area. That's part of the reason we plant in raised beds.

To be continued . . .

Boo and Katie make Christmas gifts for pastors

2012-01-23T17:20:00.001-06:00

My house is always both a house and a bodega (warehouse). Sometimes it is more house, and sometimes it is more bodega. When we're working on the annual container shipment, my house is almost all bodega - we just keep a few pathways open to the bits of space where we sleep and eat!

We're in the thick of it now, with the production of pastor gifts in full swing!

Here's Katie, gathering information about the next pastor on the list, so that she and Boo can put together a gift specifically for that family.

This is the list the girls were working on today. To the left is the name of each pastor, and to the right is the number of children in that pastor's family - E is for girl, V is for boy.

Here's Boo, stuffing a gift box with items which have been laid out in categories, in plastic boxes along several tables.

Pay attention, Boo - not everything on that table is supposed to go into a gift!

Oh no . . . the BucketBoy got his hands on the camera!

Approximately 100 family gifts have been put together so far!

The big bridge project - the first concrete pour

2012-01-21T12:10:00.003-06:00

In the photo above, you can see our crew finishing up the digging for the first wall of the bridge. The deeper spot is one of those "teeth," giving the wall extra depth in spots along it's length. Where the trench gets wider is something Allen calls a "strongback." This is a spot where the wall will be extra thick, again adding strength with less cost than making the entire wall that thick.

Edited to add: Allen told me that I was mistaken about the "strongback." The spot where the wall has extra width will be where they will pour a column. The columns will support the strongback, which will be more like a horizontal beam. Sorry for my error . . . although I should get some credit for not making more of them, considering my total lack of construction knowledge.LOL

Water is collected for the mixing of concrete.

Volunteers from one of the nearby villages which will benefit from the new bridge gather to help with the pour. On regular work days we have our paid crew, on pour days we also have groups of volunteers. The local government keeps a schedule of which villages are to send workers on which days.

Bags of dry cement, buckets of sand, buckets of gravel and water are mixed together in a specific proportion. Generally our kids all go along on pour days, and act as supervisors, counting to be sure the correct proportions of cement, sand, gravel and water are maintained. This is extremely important to ensure that the strength of the final wall is sufficient for the weight it will need to support.

A member of our paid crew stands at the edge of the trench and supervises as the volunteers pour buckets of cement into the trench. At intervals, large stones are thrown in as well.

As this is the first pour, the men are creating a "footer." This is basically a flat slab, upon which the actual wall will sit. There isn't any sort of form or mold; they are simply making the footer the size of the bottom of the trench.

In case you missed them, here are the previous posts about this project:

Las Flores - Our biggest bridge project ever!

More on the big bridge project

Big Bridge Construction Project - still digging

Plant Identification Time: Chinese Lantern Plant

2012-01-20T13:42:00.003-06:00

I've never learned much about plant identification. I'd like to know more about the plants on our property, and I don't have many good resources to help me with plants which are specific to Central America.

I am starting to work on this, however, and I figured it would make sense to start with plants which have very unique characteristics, so that they would be more easily identifiable. The other day I found one of these plants growing as a weed in the vegetable garden:

Of course I pulled out the plant growing amongst the vegetables, but then I brought it inside to look it up on the internet. Now that we're watching for them, we've found many more of this same type of plant growing around the place. I believe these are a type of Chinese Lantern Plant. Check out this page, and see if you think I'm right:

http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/perennials/chinese_lantern.html

I don't expect that our "lanterns" will get as bright orange as those in the seed catalog, but I'm pleased to know the name of at least one of our wild plants. With the name, I can find out more about the plant, like with this page:

http://www.herbcompanion.com/garden-gnome/discovering-chinese-lantern-plants-physalis-alkekengi.aspx

Next on my list to identify is a weed we have all over our lawns, with spiky thorns growing out of the tops of the leaves. It is a scary looking plant - don't go around barefoot at my place!

Three Little Pigs

2012-01-19T08:17:00.000-06:00

The three little pigs - our new ones. The larger spotted one belongs to Russell.

Here are the three new pigs, with our older one, so you can see the difference in size. They seem to be getting along well together.

We still don't have a pigpen set up, and having four pigs on the back porch of the kids' bedrooms isn't the ideal situation. We are hopeful that we'll be able to set up some more permanent living quarters for the pigs this weekend. The big bridge project has been a real manpower drain around the home place, but our menfolk are working manfully to fit everything in when they can. (Notice I used forms of the word "man" three times in that sentence - just to let you know who gets the heavy work done around here.)

By the way, the girls have been working "girlfully" (that must mean working happily and steadily, but not using much muscle?) to make up those Christmas gifts for the pastors. I'll try to get some pictures of that work in the next couple of days.

Our Poor Cow!

2012-01-18T10:30:00.002-06:00

We have had a certain cow and her calf for a year, and until this week I had never seen them. This was the cow that was so pregnant she couldn't walk all the way to our place, so we left her in the care of a friend, whose property was near where she decided to stop walking. I originally shared the story here.

It's not uncommon around here for people to keep other people's cattle on their property. We have a neighbor's bull hanging with our cows on our place pretty much year around, except when the neighbor occasionally moves the whole group to his property (usually during the dry season, to try to keep the cows where there is the most grass). Our cow and her calf stayed all year on our friend's property, where she had given birth. Since the friend had his own herd of cows, ours were no extra trouble.

Recently, however, our friend decided to sell his entire herd, so we needed to collect our cows. Unbeknownst to us, however, our adult cow was in dreadful condition! She had recently become horribly skinny, and would probably not have lasted much longer if we'd not gotten her back when we did. We're not sure why she's doing so poorly, as her calf is beautifully healthy.

Now she's here, and we're feeding her three meals a day, plus she has access to grass between the meals (and we're treating her for parasites). Allen says she looks stronger already (we've had her for two days now), and Ben says she looks a tiny bit fatter. Her trip here was rough (we had to tie her down in our trailer, and the road is really rough), so just recuperating from the travel is a big deal.

Here she is, poor thing, looking like a bag of bones:

And here is her pretty little calf:

The same day Allen and Russell brought home the cow and calf, they also purchased three more little piglets and brought them home! Five new animals in one day is a big deal around here! I'll show some pictures of the piglets in a future post.

The largest of the new piglets belongs to Russell, but it will live here with our pigs. I'm glad we're having the opportunity to fatten up a pig for Russell, as Russell is always helping us out with the cows and dogs and such. I know when butchering time comes Russell will be here to assist with that, as well.

Oh, just for fun, here's a picture of our guest, Katie. I know her mom will appreciate seeing her enjoying a bit of puppy playtime.

How Cool is Thurmont Maryland?

2012-01-14T15:22:00.001-06:00

Dear Readers - this got long, and has no pictures. Sorry about that. I'll try to do better in the future . . . but read it anyway, okay? I think you'll enjoy it.

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It was 12 years ago this month that we moved into a rental house in beautiful, historic, small-town Thurmont Maryland - although officially the house was in Graceham, which is a teensy antique hamlet just on the outskirts of Thurmont.

Prior to that, we'd been living in a trailer on property we owned in another part of Frederick County. We had been planning to build a house on that land, but our plans changed when the decision was made, in late 1999, to pursue full time missions work instead. In order to make the big move possible we needed to sell our land, and we needed to move into less rustic living conditions - you know, a place with amenities like phones and internet access.

The first day after the holidays of 1999 I bought a local newspaper and checked out houses for rent. I found one in a good location with a price we could afford, and called on it. Judy, the woman who answered the phone, explained that her church owned the rental house, and that her husband (a trustee of the church) would be the one to show us the house. As you might imagine, as a prospective missionary the idea of renting a house from a church was appealing to me. In the course of my conversation with Judy I learned that she homeschooled her children (fellow homeschoolers often feel an immediate kinship). We hit it off nicely, and had a pleasant chat. At this point I still didn't know that my son Russell already knew her husband and her oldest son, Eric, through the Awana Program at our home church. We found that out when we met with her husband to view the rental house.

Later in the day, I spoke with Judy's husband. He told me exactly where the house was located, but also said that there were several other people interested in renting the house, who were in line ahead of us. I drove over to see the exterior of the house and the yard. I was convinced that it was perfect for us - and I was certain that one of the other two families would snatch it up first. Russell was delighted with the location of the house, because Dalton, another one of his friends from Awanas, lived just a couple of houses away.

That evening we met with Judy's husband to see the interior of the house. He told us that both of the other families had chosen not to rent the house. One of those people mentioned that they wouldn't want to live there because the house was situated next to a cemetery. That surprised me, as we saw the cemetery as an asset - you'll never have quieter, less intrusive neighbors!

So, we got the house. There were some immediate benefits to living in that house - like picking cherries, pears, and grapes in the yard. Twelve years later, our decision to rent that particular house, in Graceham Maryland, during our last year in the states is still having ramifications - in very good ways!

The house belonged to Graceham Moravian church, and is situated directly across the street from the church. Although we didn't regularly attend services at the Moravian church, they still totally treated us like family. In fact, they still do twelve years later! We've been back to speak at the church several times, their adult Sunday School class collects funds for our ministry work, and their church collects donations every year to contribute to our Gifts for Gracias Christmas Project.

During our year living in that house, we were invited to participate in a homeschooling co-op which was held in the church building. That was such a blessing to us. It was a busy year for me, and it would have been hard for me to commit to a regular gathering like this - except it was right across the street! My kids enjoyed the social aspects, and I had some of the homeschooling burden taken on by the moms who taught co-op classes. I also had the opportunity to develop some friendships with other women in the community, which I likely wouldn't otherwise have had, since I only lived there a year (including Judy, who answered the phone when I first called about the house, and our neighbor Anne, mom of Russell's friend Dalton) .

Right now, we have a young guest staying with us, helping with the Christmas gift project (and with whatever else is going on around here from moment to moment). Katie is from - you guessed it - Thurmont Maryland. We got to know her family while we were living there, as they were part of the homeschooling co-op. Of course, Katie was only 5 at the time, but she says she remembers us when we were part of the group. Of course, she also knows us from more recent interactions: when members of our family go back to Maryland for a visit, we frequently stay with Katie's family. Plus, Katie's home is our Maryland collection location for donations when we do our annual container shipment. She helped collect, package, and load the donations on that end, and now she's helping put together and distribute the gifts on this end. Pretty cool, huh?

All of these blessings and benefits came to us, over the course of the past twelve years, from our move to Graceham/Thurmont, when all we thought we were doing was renting a house. Do you see why we think Thurmont Maryland is exceptionally cool? And don't you think it was pretty amazing how God put us in that place for our last year of living in the US?

Big Bridge Construction Project - still digging

2012-01-13T15:00:00.000-06:00

Hey all - I'm just posting some more pictures of the digging at the bridge project in Las Flores. I'm behind on my bridge posting, as the work started back in early December and I first wrote about it on January 5th.

Above - digging
Below - throwing the dirt out of the trench

Soon we'll move past the digging phase, and you'll start to see the walls going up, I promise.

Gifts!

2012-01-13T10:43:00.000-06:00

We have a guest/helper staying with us right now - I'll talk more about Katie in another post - and she brought some unusual gifts. Some of the items in her bag were things Allen specifically requested, including a few pairs of water shoes (because working in the river is taking a toll on his sneakers), and some small replacement parts for the front end loader.

The other items were things we hadn't specifically requested. They were chosen for us by Katie's mom, who reads my blog. She sent:

several pounds of butter

some bags of bulgar and barley

some boxes of potato dumpling mix and spaetzle mix

a doorknob

Do any of you read the blog carefully enough (and remember well enough) to know why Katie's creative and thoughtful mom sent these particular items?

Allen's Birthday

2012-01-13T09:31:00.002-06:00

Yesterday Allen turned 51! He worked all day at the bridge project, as usual, but at least he came home to some special foods for dinner. These are foods he especially likes, and doesn't get to eat all that often.

He had liver (the rest of the family abstained).

He had pickled eggs and beets. Does that go with liver? I don't know, and I'm not planning to find out.

He had chocolate cake with no icing. Yes, that's right, no icing.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

More on the big bridge project

2012-01-11T15:15:00.002-06:00

One time consuming aspect of the current bridge project has been related to the fact that there have been multiple previous bridges built in this same location in the past. In the picture above, Rupe, a member of our regular paid crew, is pounding on a big piece of concrete, which is a portion of a foundation wall from two bridges ago. Unfortunately, it is in the way of the current construction location. Also unfortunately, two days of beating on this footer (not all by Rupe - the guys took 10 minute shifts) didn't make much of a dent.

Here's a shot from a different angle, so you can see what a major obstruction this is. At this point, the attack on the old foundation has ramped up to using a chipper gun we had in our supply of tools. The goal is to undercut the boulder-sized chunk so that it can be pushed out of the way with the front end loader.

Things were going much better with the little chipper gun, but at about this time our shipping container from the US arrived . . . and on board was a used jack hammer Allen bought in Maryland (not shown in this picture)!

The jackhammer sped up this work so much, no one got a picture of it at work on the old foundation. In the picture above you can see that the big chunk of foundation has been pushed out of the way, toward the river (at the right of the picture). In this photo you can also get a good look at those deeper spots in the trench (Allen calls them "teeth"), which will add strength when the weight of the bridge on top of this wall will put pressure on the wall, trying to make it fall over sideways - something we definitely don't want to happen!

Here's a picture of the new (to us) jack hammer speeding up the work of digging the trench for the new foundation!

Living with solar power

2012-01-10T14:57:00.002-06:00

I actually started a post on this topic a few days ago . . . and that was the day our power went out! After our power was restored, I wanted to write about the actual events of the day, not an overview post like this. Today I'm coming back to this topic: what is a regular day on solar power like?

Living with solar power is different. I wondered, for a while, if we were doing it wrong, because it takes so much more thought than living on the grid. I guess I assumed when your system was up and running correctly, the situation would be as mindless as flipping a light switch in a regular house. It's not.

In talking with others about this, I discovered that some people feel the "intentionalness" (I'm pretty sure I just made up that word) of living with solar power is a benefit. Those were more green-minded people, who worry about hurting the planet through excessive energy use. I have to admit, I'm usually too busy keeping my family from being buried in dirty laundry to worry about how much power the washing machine is using. But it is definitely true that nowadays our family knows, at most every moment of every day, how much power is coming into our system, and how much we are using. There's no question: we are not just carelessly using electricity without thinking about it.

Here's what this looks like:

When we first get up in the morning, we check our power level. How low has the charge on the batteries gone since sundown yesterday? How much sunlight is there now? The answers to these questions determine our next course of action. Because the electric coffee maker, the microwave, and the toaster are especially high energy users, we often choose not to use those at breakfast time. Allen saves previously brewed coffee and reheats a cupful in a pot on the stove, if he wants/needs a cup of coffee before we have enough power to make a fresh batch. We rarely bake a breakfast, as our oven uses electricity (for it's thermostat). Our stovetop works on gas, so we can cook breakfast with that.

As soon as the power level starts rising significantly, we plug in the chest freezer. We have enough power to run the refrigerator all night, but the freezer uses more power, and since we aren't opening and closing it as often the freezer stays cold much longer without power than the fridge does. We do want to run the freezer as many hours each day as we can, however.

Some days we only receive enough sunlight to power the fridge and the freezer (and maybe the internet and laptop) through the entire day. On those days we don't do any laundry, we wash dishes by hand, and (if necessary) we run the generator to have enough power to get us through the evening. Days like this aren't common, but when we do have this kind of heavy, cloudy weather it often lasts a few days at a time. The laundry can really pile up!

Assuming that we're not having a low-power day, the next appliance we add, once we have enough power to do so, is the washing machine. Our family needs to wash several loads of laundry every day, to keep up (construction work means lots of very dirty laundry), and we're often running the washing machine as long as the input of power allows. Most days, around 3pm or so (depending on the level of sunlight) we have to stop using the washing machine, as we want to end the day with powered-up batteries, to hold us over through the dark hours.

On normal-to-very sunny days, we have very large amounts of power coming in for a limited number of hours. Best case, this might be from 8am to 2pm or so. During those hours, we can often run the fridge, freezer, computer, washing machine, dishwasher, etc, all at the same time, and we are still throwing away extra power (so as not to overcharge the system). During these hours, we're always having to be alert to use whatever appliances we need to use, while the power is available. Making sure the washing machine and dishwasher get unloaded and reloaded immediately when they finish their cycles is high priority. We also try to do any baking during these hours. We can't think we'll be able to "get to it later." The batteries just don't store that much power.

Not long after we stop running the washing machine we also turn off the freezer for the night, and we gradually start changing our mindset from "use all the power you can, while we've got it" to " conserve all the power you can, so we'll have enough for our after-dark usage."

On an average power level day, we can probably bake something (something that doesn't need too much baking time in the oven), watch a movie, run lights in both houses, and run a laptop with internet between the time we stop bringing in power from the solar panels and when we go to bed. Since we're not a family that generally stays up late, it works for us.

What I have just described is, of course, only one level of activity around the place. At the same time we are also trying to get school and ministry work done, and care for the animals and the garden, while remembering to keep track of the incoming power and matching our usage to that level.

Yes, it can get frustrating. It's like a juggling act - would my best use of power be to quickly unload and reload the dishwasher, or should I bake something . . . oh, but the sun is broiling the garden right now, and if I don't rush out there and water it right now it could be bad . . . meanwhile the child who was told to sit tight until I get back to read them their spelling words is still waiting . . .

And that gives you some idea of what it's like to live with solar power, at least in our house. I'm still kind of hoping we're doing it wrong, and it will someday be like flipping a switch.

No rice for dinner - until MAY!

2012-01-09T14:10:00.001-06:00

Allen grew up in Southeast Asia, as his parents were missionaries. Presumably he ate a lot of rice during his childhood. When we married, he was very fond of rice, and wanted rice-based meals pretty frequently. As a family, we usually eat a good number of rice meals each week, since we like rice, and it's relatively inexpensive.

Now, however, Allen doesn't want me to cook rice. At all.

This has to do with the big bridge project in Las Flores. Allen, Russell, and our paid crew are fed a cooked lunch every work day. This is paid for by the local government, as part of the whole bridge deal. And every day, they have rice. This is not to say they aren't getting a good meal. There's a nice piece of meat, from a variety of meats. There might or might not be beans, and some sort of salad-ish side dish will generally be served. And of course, there are tortillas. It's not a meal without tortillas, and many of the men on our crew use tortillas in place of forks, as that's the generally accepted etiquette in the rural villages around here. But there is always, always rice, as the main starch of the meal.

After only a few weeks of these meals, Allen was riced-out. He doesn't want to eat rice at dinnertime, after having it so very regularly at lunch. I'm trying to comply, but I'm feeling a bit limited by the no-rice edict. I cycle through pasta, potatoes, and breads. Then I cycle through them again. And again.

I'm taking this as a bit of a challenge. We don't use yuca (casava) much, because it's not that different from potatoes, and potatoes are cheaper. Maybe I can find some interesting and unique yuca recipe? What about the wheat berries I grind for bread? Could I find a way to cook the grains for a meal - and a way that my family will like, and not just feel that it was something different? Also, how about different versions of potatoes? We boil, fry, mash and hash potatoes. I could bake them, but usually not in the evenings, when we're trying to conserve power (because baked potatoes take a long time in the oven). Or different types of breads: biscuits, rolls, dumplings, savory pie crusts, etc. What else?

Suggestions are welcome! But please, don't suggest rice - at least not until the bridge project is over in MAY!

The Kids!

2012-01-07T13:40:00.002-06:00

Recently several of you mentioned that you have trouble keeping track of which of my kids is which. I suggested I could put something up on the sidebar, for easy reference, but that isn't going to happen any time soon. I'm in the process of making some decisions about changing our main website (not the blog, but the sowers4pastors.com website) over to a different web hosting service, and dealing with questions like: "can I keep the same address in a different location," and "can I keep the same email address if I switch locations?" There is absolutely no room in my head for figuring out how to put another item on my sidebar, so you're receiving this info in a post, instead. I already know how to post posts, you know.

Kirstin is the oldest. At 24, she no longer lives at home (and we miss her). She's in the process of training to be an EMT, and she also works part time. Kirstin lives with my parents in Florida, and I hear she's a big help to them. I imagine that's true, because Kirstin wouldn't want to be a mooch. That's just who she is. We get to see her about once a year, for about a month, when she comes down for a visit.

Russell is next. You hear about him quite a bit on the blog, since he works alongside us in the ministry. He and his wife, Iris, live in the city of Gracias, which is nice for the people who need to meet with us for one reason or another - they can go to his house, rather than coming all the way out to our property. It's also extremely helpful that Russell is fluent in Spanish, as he assists us when our less-than-perfect Spanish impedes communication (which is embarassingly often). Russell and Iris are both 22.

Iris, of course, just joined our kids last year, when she married Russell. She's become a great help to the ministry, as she deals with lots of the visits of pastors, who come to Gracias to pick up food for feeding centers and to purchase Bibles from our supply. She and Rachel cook and serve the food for the Pastor Training School, as well. Iris is continuing to work on her English, as we work on our Spanish, and we're enjoying getting to know her better as we sort of meet in the middle - Spanglish, I guess!

Rachel is our middle child. She just turned 20, and we don't know what we'd do without her around the house! She's great at organizing, cleaning, cooking (for 5 people or 50, she doesn't care), baking, and coming up with creative solutions and then actually making the needed items to implement her solution. My house would look really different (NOT better) if Rachel weren't still living here. She is in a serious relationship, so I don't know exactly how much longer we'll have her at home, though. Rachel's ready to be a wife - she has major domestic skills!

Christopher is almost 18 - man that sounds strange to me! Seems like only yesterday he was 8! He's working on finishing up his high school studies (history is his favorite subject), and he plans to head to college in the states after that, although he may have to work a while first, to have money for this. He and Kirstin hope to share an apartment when he moves north. Chris is also known, completely interchangeably, as 'Gus.' When David was a baby, his version of 'Chris' sounded like 'Gus', and the name just stuck. I'm sure I say Chris sometimes, and Gus sometimes, on the blog. Just what you needed, an extra name to keep track of! Gus is a ferocious worker, and very responsible. He doesn't love to work, like his father does, but he wants to dig in, get it done, and get back to the things he enjoys. He likes reading, watching movies, and playing XBox. Chris is a bit of an enigma. He'll be seriously discussing history, theology, and philosophy one minute, and the next minute he's shooting dart guns or engaging in swordplay with his little brother.

(Boo's our regular photographer, and I'm having trouble finding a recent picture of her, other than this tricky shot she took of her own shadow. I'll keep looking.)

(Ahhh, here's a picture a recent visiting team member took. It seems to be the best recent photo of Boo we have. I need to make sure the camera gets into someone else's hands some of the time.)

Bethany (aka 'Boo') is now 15 - another amazing thing for me to try to grasp! She's scary-pretty, and she doesn't know it, which is quite endearing. She's a super worker, too, and has almost single-handedly kept our small garden going the past few months. Like her sister Kirstin (those two share the same birthday, by the way), Bethany is a worrier and a planner. It's hard for me, as the ultimate non-worrier, to really "get" my worrier kids. Sometimes I want to say, "Just don't think about that," because that's what I'd do in the same circumstance. The worriers can't do that, however. Boo is thinking of a career in medical missions.

Somehow, everyone seems to be able to remember which child is David. By the way, David has decided to change his name from the name he was given at birth to a name which is more clearly part of our family. He now goes by Ben (which happens to be my father's name, and also my brother's name). He chose that name because he knew that if I'd had another birth child, I would have given it a name starting with a "B", because we have a sort-of naming pattern. Kirstin goes with Christopher (think phonics), Russell goes with Rachel, and now Ben goes with Bethany.

And now I'm sure you won't have any trouble remembering which kid is which in my future posts. Or, you could bookmark this post and refer back to it when you forget - just don't go looking for this info on the sidebar, 'cause that's just not going to happen!

Yikes! Where'd the power go?

2012-01-06T20:22:00.000-06:00

There's an upside to having off-grid power at your house. Very frequently the power goes out in Gracias, and we still have power up here at our house. We don't have to wait around in the dark for the power company to repair their system.

There's a downside to having off-grid power at your house. When the power goes out, you're the one who has to make the repairs.

Today our power went out. There wasn't any warning, just one minute there was power, the next minute there wasn't.

Christopher and I didn't know what to do. We really needed Allen. Unfortunately, Allen was out working on the bridge project, and he'd left his phone in his vehicle. Russell had his phone on him, but the speaker on his phone had gone out, so he couldn't hear us trying to call him.

Rachel was spending the day in town. We called her, and since we couldn't reach Allen by phone, she jumped onto a bus, and headed out to the bridge project, which is about 20 minutes from town. Before she got there, Chris tried sending Russell a text message, and Russell got that. I have no idea how he realized there was a text message, when he didn't know he had a phone call, but at least we were able to contact them! (We called Rachel, and she got off the bus and headed back to town, without a word of complaint or anything - what a trooper!)

Over the phone, Allen coached Chris through the process of disconnecting our inverter from the positive charge, and reconnecting it . . . and like a miracle, we had power again! I guess it was like re-booting the computer.

Later in the afternoon the power stopped for a moment, and started right back up again. Based on this, we figured the end was probably near for this piece of equipment.

Last year we had a nearby lightning strike which damaged this inverter. Although it still worked, we knew it was damaged because after the strike the internal fan ran constantly, rather than coming on and off as needed. We've had a spare inverter stored for just such a situation as this. If we didn't keep a spare on hand, non-working equipment could mean doing without power for a long time, until we can get new parts to us down here.

So, when he got home tonight, after an especially long day at the bridge project, Allen switched out inverters - by flashlight, because of course there's no power when the inverter is disconnected - with the help of Chris and Boo.

And that's what happened today.

Any chance you'd answer a question for me?

2012-01-05T18:29:00.003-06:00

I know I haven't been very interactive on my blog. I'm not especially good at interactive - I guess that's why I'm pretty much a FaceBook dropout.

But . . . I've been wondering about something, and I was hoping a bunch of you would comment on this post, and answer my question. I'm wondering why you're visiting and reading my blog. I figure, if I knew the answer to this, I could do a better job of writing more on the topics that you are interested in reading.

So, are you here because you're a personal friend or family member, and you want to know what's going on with the family? Are you mostly interested in our ministry work? Or are you more interested in the "homesteading" topics? Could you be visiting because of a specific desire to read about Honduras? Perhaps you like reading about all of these, and prefer a mixture of all or some of the above?

If I was good at the technical side of things, I'd post this as a poll - but I'm not, so I won't. You're stuck using the comment section, instead. I hope you will comment, and help me out with this.

Thanks a bunch!

Las Flores - Our biggest bridge project ever!

2012-01-05T17:31:00.002-06:00

The menfolk recently started in on a new bridge construction project. At 250' across, and a solid concrete bridge (not a hanging cable bridge), this is a huge undertaking. The goal was to complete the construction of this bridge during the dry season (which will end around the first half of May) for obvious reasons, but setbacks and delays have occurred, so that it looks like we may not meet this goal - but it won't be for lack of trying!

As with all of the bridge projects, the first step (after all of the planning and engineering) is to dig down and pour concrete footers and a strong wall on each bank. This bridge will also have two supporting piers out in the middle of the river - something new for our crew.

Today I'm posting pictures of the digging on the first bank.

The bottom of this trench won't be flat. The men dug some sections 5 feet deeper than the rest. The deeper sections, filled with concrete, will be like teeth, helping to hold the wall in place. You can see the beginnings of the teeth in the last two photos.

Every morning, before beginning the days digging, the men had to bail water out, as the trench filled up overnight.

2 years living on our land: A Retrospective

2012-01-01T23:11:00.006-06:00

As a family, we've now lived on the property we own outside of Gracias Lempira for two years. My first night actually sleeping here was Christmas Eve, 2009, although some family members moved into our new buildings earlier, for security reasons. I thought it might be fun - and maybe even a good motivational moment for me - to look back and see what we've accomplished out here on the property in the past two years.

Keep in mind that we're not farmers, or exactly homesteaders. Allen is still a full-time missionary, and I'm mostly just a housewife and homeschooling mom with moderately severe asthma (which slows me down considerably in most every activity that doesn't involve sitting on the couch). Lots of what has been accomplished outdoors has happened with the help of a small crew of local guys who work for us pretty regularly. When Allen has a bridge project, the crew goes with him and works on that, and when he isn't working on a bridge, they do a variety of jobs here on our land.

So, with all that in mind, I compiled this list.

Inside our two buildings:

First on the list is the successful installation of a solar power system. The path to solar power hasn't been without bumps and setbacks, but at this time things are running pretty smoothly. We regularly run our lights, computers, washing machine, refrigerator, chest freezer, and dishwasher . . . but not all at the same time! Allen and the kids also installed a solar water heating system, with a gas hot water heater for backup.

Allen installed a door in our bathroom (though it still doesn't have a doorknob). If this doesn't seem list-worthy to you, it probably means you haven't ever spent time undressed in a room with a curtain doing the job of a door - trust me, bathroom doors are a major achievement of civilized living.

Outdoors:

We've repaired the fence all the way around the property - which was necessary, as the cows kept finding ways to get out! We've also fenced in two garden areas, and several acres of pasture, for when we don't want the cows to have the run of the entire property. With the cows a bit more contained, I'm hoping we can make some progress on adding landscaping plants around the buildings.

At the top of the property some of the grading of the land has been done - though there's lots more of this to do - and an area of grassy lawn has been established in front of both buildings. Since we started with very little dirt - mostly just lots of small rocks - on the ground around our buildings, the lawn work required spreading huge quantities of soil and manure, and then getting the grass to sprout and grow well during the dry season, so we wouldn't lose all the new soil to erosion. This was quite a big job!

Plants:

We continue to slowly and gradually increase our vegetable gardening skills. Boo is our most reliable gardener, and I'm so grateful for her very responsible attitude, especially when I get sidelined by sickness. We've been moderately successful with green peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, beets, green beans, radishes and kohlrabi. Apparently we aren't advanced enough to grow tomatoes.

We're also working on getting some fruits growing around here. We have wild craboo trees, but most of our family isn't fond of craboo. Russell and David get to enjoy all of that! We've now planted several mango and guava trees, and we've started some tangerine plants from seeds. Eventually you should have to drive through a grove of fruit trees to get up to our house. I also have two berry bushes started. I'll keep them in pots for a while, and hopefully establish a berry patch later this year. Friends have offered to bring us some banana trees to plant, but we've been so swamped recently we haven't had time for that yet. Soon, though, we should be growing bananas.

Russell planted a small field of cane grass for us, which is intended to help feed the cows during the dry season, when most of the regular grass dries up and dies. If I understand correctly, after this grass grows tall, you cut it down partway, and it grows back up again, so it doesn't have to be replanted in the future.

Animals:

Our collection of cattle now includes 1 bull, 2 cows, and a just barely 1 yr old heifer. We recently acquired our first little pig.

Our dogs have given birth to thirty puppies (3 litters, from different dogs) this year. Some pups have been kept, but most are sold. Our current batch of puppies - Rottweilers - are especially adorable, and should be leaving for new homes in the next few weeks.

Our attempts to keep poultry have recently been failures, mostly because our own dogs see poultry as prey. In order to keep any poultry in the future, we'll need to construct some amazingly secure coops. So far, we haven't felt that this was the best use of our time and funds.

Sooo, that's my list. I've been thinking about this, and working on it, off and on all day. I meant to ask Allen and the kids for their input, but they're all in bed now, and I want to go ahead and post this. There's a pretty good chance I'll be adding some additional items to this list tomorrow, after they've had a chance to add their thoughts.

---------------------------------

Gus adds:

Installed the satellite internet (how could I have neglected to mention this???)
Built the raised beds in the vegetable garden
Installed a permanent water line down to the lower (farther away) garden
Built a storage loft above the bathroom
Built a new water storage tank for the neighbor with whom we share a water system (although this didn't improve our property, it did improve our water supply)
Installed a sink in the bathroom
Put in the stone walkway in front of the bodega

Breathing is seriously under-appreciated

2011-12-29T15:12:00.001-06:00

I'm climbing back up out of the pit now, but did I ever go dooooowwwwwn with some serious asthma problems the past few days!

It all started, as is so often the case, with my catching a headcold. It wasn't even an especially bad cold, just a runny nose and that woozy feeling of impending sickness. That was Monday night. I'm so glad it was after Christmas!

The following morning my lungs were just full of wet junk. I was coughing and wheezing like crazy. This is my normal reaction to headcolds, which is why I tend to take them very seriously. But I didn't even have time to react to this one - I just went right straight down to not breathing.

I won't give too many more details, as I think that reading about someone else being sick is rather boring, but suffice it to say that there were moments when I wasn't sure this wouldn't be the asthma event that finished me off. There were moments when my response to that possibility was more relief than concern. It was really bad - possibly the worst attack I've ever had.

If your breathing is easy and clear right now, take a moment to be grateful for that. Really.

I'm blessed to have the necessary equipment and medicine to give myself nebulizer treatments in my home. As it was, I needed about seven treatments over the course of about seven hours to get things back under control. I'm still recuperating from the strain on my body (especially the muscles in my chest) that happens during an event like this.

Allen happened to be away from home during most of this. He'd had to make a trip to the city of San Pedro Sula. When I told him about these events (he's required to listen to the details of my sickness, whether it's boring or not), he thought it might make a good blog post. Because, you see, if I'd been born a Honduran in the mountains of Lempira, I'd likely not be alive anymore.

Now, truth be told, if I'd been an average citizen of Lempira, I'd almost certainly have died long before now. I've not been an especially healthy person throughout my life. I had a serious case of pneumonia at the age of 13 (which was pretty much the onset of my lifetime struggle with asthma), my experiences giving birth 5 times involved some potentially life-ending complications, and I've been rescued from asthma attacks (through medical intervention) many many many times. I have a serious asthma attack requiring the use of the nebulizer about once every couple of years. Any one of these events would likely have been the end of my earthly existence, without some fairly extensive medical help.

In Lempira, quite often the most basic medical care is out of reach - sometimes because of the expense, sometimes because of the physical impossibility of getting from a remote village to a location where some level of medical care is available, sometimes because the clinics which are available often don't have the supplies, equipment, and trained personnel to be of much use. People die regularly from readily treatable medical problems.

Allen and I are not trained to help with medical problems, but we do host medical teams as often as we get the chance, help distribute medicines to rural clinics when they become available to us, and our completed bridges often mean that people in remote village have access to the rest of the world during rainy season, when previously they were cut off from all medical care during that part of the year. So, we're doing what we can. Thanks again to those of you who help us remain here and do what we do.

And thanks to those who pray for us personally. Now take a deep breath and appreciate it.

Want to read the entire newsletter?

2011-12-23T09:02:00.002-06:00

My friend Jane (who has visited here in the past, and is making plans to come again this year - YEA!) just asked, in the comments on a recent post, how to go about getting a copy of our entire newsletter. It occurred to me that, after reading the bits I've posted here over the past week, perhaps others might like to receive this and future newsletters. As you can see from the snippets, I do try to include different information in the newsletters than what you would normally read in the blog.

Some of you may have been receiving the newsletter in the past, and no longer do so. This is often caused by a change of email address, or it might be an error on my part.

So, if you don't receive the newsletter, and would like to, or aren't sure if you are on the list to get it, here's what you can do . . . write to me at trish @ sowers4pastors.com (just leave out the spaces around the @) and tell me you'd like to be on the list.

Thanks for your interest in this ministry!

Bridge Building: How we manage the costs

2011-12-22T13:23:00.004-06:00

This is the last of the newsletter fragments I'll be posting. I don't know if you've enjoyed reading them, but it has been nice for me to have some quick and easy postings already written, as I'm pretty swamped with work right now. We've been organizing the items from the shipment and creating gifts for the pastors with whom we work, and this is a huge task. This final bit from the newsletter is about how we handle our bridge construction projects, with an eye toward being as efficient as possible with funding.

We also attempt to use funds as efficiently as possible in our bridge construction projects. We save money by acquiring donated gently-used cables and free design and engineering advice from contacts in the US. We utilize volunteer labor from the communities served by the bridges, and oversee the projects ourselves (thereby avoiding the cost of supervisors and the opportunities for overpriced contracts to be accepted and bribes to be paid). We estimate that our bridges cost about 10 – 20% of the cost of the same bridge built by Honduran government agencies and contractors. The material costs are mostly paid by the local government, which also oversees the scheduling of volunteers, maintains a secure on-site bodega for storing materials and equipment, and provides meals (and sometimes housing) for Allen, Russell, and our small paid crew.

So, now you know a bit more about a few of our ongoing ministries. We did mention in our letter (a part I didn't post on the blog) that we are having to look carefully at all of the different ministry works we do, because funding is down, and we might have to choose some things to discontinue. Of course we are praying that God will allow the funding to come in so that we can continue all of the current ministries, but we're also praying for wisdom and discernment for dealing with more limited funding than we've had in the past. Thanks for praying with us!

Cost vs Benefits: Running a Pastor Training School

2011-12-21T18:03:00.001-06:00

Here's another snippet from our recent newsletter:

Our pastor training school is one of the most expensive programs we run. The students pay nothing to attend. Most of our students find it a challenge just to give up their work income for these few days once a month, and to pay for their transportation to the school. We provide housing, food, and any necessary school materials. A group of pastors from the churches in the city of Gracias (the more wealthy churches, which have paid pastors with seminary training) handle the curriculum planning and the teaching rotation on a voluntary basis. Currently we rent a facility for a few days each month, where we run the school. Our long term plan has been to use our own property for the school campus, but so far we haven’t had the funding to construct the buildings for this. Our daughter Rachel and daughter-in-law Iris do all of the cooking for the school, in Russell and Iris’ tiny kitchen. Russell handles the transportation of people and food back and forth from Gracias to the campus, and he also maintains the registration paperwork. We keep expenses as low as we can, and we feel that this program is simply worth the expense, as the trained pastors spread out into ever more remote locations and multiply our efforts as they teach their existing congregations and reach out into new communities.

More churches, fewer dollars

2011-12-16T13:25:00.004-06:00

Again today, I'm posting a portion of my recent newsletter. This part concerns funding the construction of church buildings. Now let me say right up front, I recognize that a building is not a necessity for a church. Lots of churches all over the world meet in homes, or even outdoors. However, the desire for a church building is very high among the new churches here - and new churches are springing up all over the place.

From the newsletter:

The construction of church buildings is another ministry area where we strive to make dollars go further. While a building is not essential – many of the churches we work with meet in homes – the lack of a building is sometimes a detriment to church growth. Most homes in our area are extremely small and dark, and holding meetings outside isn’t a viable option during most of the rainy season.

If a congregation desires to construct a building, we are available to help. Allen will meet with the pastor and congregation members and discuss construction details with them. While we do receive some funds for church construction, generally this isn’t a large amount of money, and we receive requests for construction help from many churches each year, so part of what Allen does is to advise the church members on how to build their buildings in the most economical way, making use of local materials and skills. Over the years we’ve learned a few tricks which can help make an adobe building much stronger and longer-lasting than the traditional construction methods, so Allen passes this information along to the congregations.

Once the new building has a foundation and walls, using mostly labor donated by the church members and locally acquired free building materials (sand, rocks, gravel, dirt for adobe bricks, hand hewn lumber), we use our limited funds to help buy roofing materials, which generally are not locally made. With walls, a roof, and a dirt floor – but no doors or windows – a congregation can begin to use the building immediately, while the process of completing the structure can take place over time, as funds allow.

Using this method, we’ve helped approximately 15 congregations construct buildings this year alone and more than 70 since we moved to this part of Honduras six years ago. Our cost for one of these projects is typically about $800, for a church which will hold 200 or more people.

Next up: The cost of running a pastor training school

Newsletter Tidbits

2011-12-15T14:35:00.001-06:00

Do people actually read all the way through a missionary's prayer/newsletter? I've often wondered if people enjoy our letters, slog through them from a sense of duty, ignore them altogether, or what. Allen and I are concerned that our current letter is a more difficult read than usual. In this letter, we desire to communicate to our supporters how we try to use donated funds as efficiently as we can. This is super important to us, and we believe it is of great interest to our donors - but that doesn't necessarily translate into an interesting letter.

I've decided to post some parts of the letter on the blog, in a series of posts. If you don't receive our letter, this will fill you in a bit as to how we handle some of our ministry work. If you do receive the letter I apologize for the duplication.

After a preliminary greeting, here's the first part of the letter:

2011 has been a difficult year for many, and we have seen this reflected on the mission field. More and more often, we are seeing missionaries having to leave the field due to lack of funding. Although we continue to trust God to provide, sometimes He chooses to allow times of hardship. Often the times of hardship are also opportunities for great spiritual growth. In Honduras, hardship has been a way of life since long before we came to live here, and the spread of the life-changing Good News and the work of church planting in the poverty-stricken mountains of western Honduras has continued to advance at an amazing pace, even reaching into the most remote villages of the Lenca Indian people. As long as God allows, we hope to continue to live here and help with this work.

During hard financial times, everyone learns the importance of stretching a dollar. Our family has made the frugal and efficient use of funds, in our home and ministry, a high priority. In this letter, we want to highlight some of the ways we try to make the best use of every donated dollar. This is important to us, and we know that it’s important to you, too.

One of the ways we’ve found to use money most efficiently is to recognize what we do best, and to allow – and empower – the Honduran Christians to do what they can do better than we can. For instance, running a feeding center is something that we are able to do, but your average Honduran pastor can do it better. He can more easily teach and mentor the people of his community. He can muster the resources of his local church for volunteers to help in finding a suitable location, setting things up, cooking and cleaning up, getting the word out to the poor of his village, etc. He can present a Bible lesson which is relevant to the lives of the people in that place, using language that is accessible to them. He can maintain a day-to-day relationship with the families involved in the feeding program. What a typical pastor in our area lacks is not the desire to serve others in this way, but the financial resources to purchase the necessary food. That, of course, is where our part comes in. By partnering with donors in the US, and dealing with the hassles and expense of paperwork, international communications, accountability back to the donors, etc., we can import a container of highly nourishing food, and oversee the distribution of this food to a network of pastors who then run over a hundred feeding programs in widely scattered locations throughout a large part of western Honduras.

There. Now you probably know more than you knew before about how we run feeding centers. The picture at the top of this post is a pastor picking up food for his center. Below are photos of a feeding center in action - first a Bible lesson, then a meal.

Next post: how to build more churches with fewer dollars.

What December is Like . . .

2011-12-13T11:54:00.000-06:00

Oh, yes, I'm keeping busy.

The year-end newsletter is mostly written. I originally started the letter with a certain theme, but Allen chimed in with some thoughts which, while they were good ideas to write about, really didn't fit well with the letter I'd started. I tried to merge the two parts and ended up with a messy conglomeration of writing that just wasn't working. I woke up early this morning (sometime around 3am) and started in on it again, finally admitting to myself that what was needed was to scrap what I'd already written and begin afresh.

Once I'd made that decision, the letter practically wrote itself, over the following three hours. I had enough completed for Allen to read through before he left for work at the bridge site at 7am. Hopefully I can achieve "final draft" status by tonight, send the letter out tomorrow morning, and check that task off my list.

Regarding the container, we've started in on the opening of boxes and sorting of stuff which is preliminary to the creation of pastor gifts. This is fun work in small quantities, or when a group of friends all come over to help, but it can be a bit daunting as we start in on a whole new huge pile of boxes and bags. We're wading in with vigor, nonetheless.

We also have to fit the celebration of Christmas and two birthdays in during the next two weeks. It's a busy time for us.

So, what's with the flowers, you're asking? Well, it's hard to find interesting pictures about writing newsletters or unpacking boxes. It happens that the beginning of dry season (now) is when all the wild flowers and miscellaneous bushes and shrubs start to bloom, so I thought I'd just randomly add some of those pictures to this post. The wildflowers are definitely a part of what December here is like. Enjoy!

Any Day Now is . . . TODAY!

2011-12-11T13:16:00.003-06:00

Yes, the container from Maryland is here! Well, not at the house yet. Much of the contents of this container is items for a huge bridge construction project, and so the family is unloading those items at the construction site.

The rest should be arriving here at the house before too long.

Thanks to everyone who participated in making this container of donations possible!!!

Music to my ears . . . er . . . eyes!

2011-12-11T07:31:00.000-06:00

I started off with the title "Music to my ears," but then I realized that the event I was planning to relate was not audible. It seemed wrong, then, to call it "music."

Anyway, not long ago we had some guests at our house who were impressed with our large collection of books. They had just arrived, and the whole family was in the room at the time, as we were greeting them. One guest stated, "You sure do have a lot of books here - who's the bookworm?"

In response, every child in the room raised their hand.

Yes, I'm extremely pleased about my tribe of self-described bookworms! It was a major goal of mine, when I started homeschooling, that my kids would learn to read proficiently, and that they would love to read.

Checking off that box now. LOL.

A Pig and a Puppy - Finally I have those pictures!

2011-12-10T10:58:00.006-06:00

The weather has not been ideal for the collection of solar energy recently. This, among other things, has delayed the promised pictures of our new little piggy. But, finally, here she is:

Tentatively named "Miss Mouse," she's a rather shy creature. At the moment she lives in a blockaded portion of the back porch of the team house. Here she is, shyly hiding (as much as she can) in a corner of her enclosure:

You can't really tell her size in these pics, but she's a bit less than 2' long. She can sure make a lot of noise for her size, though!

Now, for puppy pictures! Pepper gave us 10 Rottweiler pups - six boys and four girls. They all look alike, so Boo just took pictures of one puppy.

See Bunny watching over the situation with worried eyes? Bunny's part hound, so she always looks a bit sad and worried. In addition to a mother dog, these pups have two auntie dogs keeping all harm from them.

Here's Auntie Bubbles, sticking her nose into the picture taking business. Bubbles really wishes these were her pups. I believe if she could, she'd take them away from Pepper and keep them for herself.

Thanks for waiting so patiently for these pictures. It's a bit sunnier today, so hopefully this patch of particularly overcast weather is almost behind us. But, December and January are the worst months of the year for sunshine, so we'll be keeping our expectations low for a bit.

Lots of Life around here!

2011-12-09T14:23:00.002-06:00

Hey all! The skies have been especially overcast yesterday and today, so I wasn't able to use the computer to get the piggy pics (and also pics of our Rottweiler puppies) off the camera yesterday. I did write the following, but didn't post it, figuring I'd put it up when I had the photos to go with it.

The power level is a bit better today, but this morning Allen took the camera to work with him, and the pictures are still in the camera. So, I'm going to go ahead and post what I wrote yesterday, and I'll put up the pictures when that becomes possible!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Our new little piggy arrived last night. She's pretty scared and not very nice to deal with at the moment - hopefully that will change when she gets used to her new home. Allen is talking about getting a few more pigs, so we'll be needing to construct some significant housing. I'm not sure when or how that will happen, as Allen and Russell are crazy busy with the current bridge project - but with one pig already on site, I guess pig housing will have to be a priority.

In other news, our female Rottweiler, Pepper, just produced ten puppies late last week. This time we were able to keep our lab mix away from Pepper during her heat, so all of these pups are Rotties. We already have homes lined up for a few of them. For now, Pepper and pups live on the floor at the foot of my bed, but they'll need an enclosure soon. It's amazing how quickly puppies become mobile!

Bunny, our lab mix, is currently in heat, so she and Kody (the other lab mix) are making plans for the next batch of puppies. The male Rottweiler, Commando, would like to take part in this process, but so far we've been able to avoid that. Commando is a pathetic, whiny mess right now, and we'll all be glad when Bunny's heat is over and things can go back to "normal" around here . . . at least until she (hopefully) has her pups in nine weeks.

I'm glad to report that all three of our females seem to love puppies. The two which don't have puppies just now (Bunny and Bubbles) keep looking covetously at Pepper's babies, and even occasionally babysit when Pepper takes a break, using that opportunity to get in a few surreptitious licks. In spite of all this puppy love, the moms have been great about letting us handle their babies - although with Bubbles, we couldn't let anyone but family members into the house for about a month, for fear she'd attack them to keep them from her pups.

That's all for now. Pictures to follow before too long, I hope!

A Backlog of Photos

2011-12-07T15:29:00.001-06:00

Wildflowers from our hillside, arranged in the kitchen by Rachel

We recently hosted a medical team, and they worked in the hospital you can see in this photo. The shot was taken from a scenic overlook in the town of Gualcince.

Here's the view from the same location, looking off over a mist-filled valley

These are neighbors and good friends of ours, who live in the community of Catulaca.

Just a photo I like of a typical house in our part of the country

Rachel's funny-looking puppy, Pebbles. Pebbles was solid black for several months, and then she started growing in white hairs, ending up with this white/black combo. She doesn't really have bright blue eyes; I think that's the puppy version of a red-eye photo.

Mail Call!

2011-12-07T13:00:00.001-06:00

We don't receive much mail - maybe one or two items a year. If you wanted to send a letter through the postal service directly to us here in Honduras (we don't recommend sending packages this way), you'd just write our name, the name of our nearest city (Gracias Lempira), and the country name on the envelope . Hopefully the letter would arrive in the Gracias post office. After that, the letter would sit in the post office until some friend of ours picked it up and brought it to us. Since we rarely get mail, we don't go checking in at the post office very often (or ever, really).

Recently we received information packets for voting by mail in the next US election. These packets were mailed to Gracias, and then brought to us by the young men who regularly do farm work for us on our property. So you see, the system really does (occasionally) work. Actually, Allen didn't receive a packet, and he's registered to vote as well, so we're not talking about a 100% success rate.

Another way people sometimes get mail to us is by sending it to the Missionary Ventures main office in Orlando Florida. We have a mailbox there, and when anyone from the office visits us they'll bring us our mail, or when we visit Orlando we can pick it up.

Allen recently returned from a trip to the states, and he brought some mail back with him. We were delighted to receive some Christmas cards and letters from friends - in fact, several years worth!

Henry Z, we laughed through three years of your witty Christmas letters at one sitting (2008-2010)!

B family, formerly of Costa Rica, it was so kind of you to send us a housewarming gift along with your Christmas card in 2009! I'm guessing your little guy is quite a bit bigger now.

I can't wait to see what people are sending us this Christmas . . . but I guess I'll just have to.

Sowers Family News Alert:

2011-12-07T12:28:00.003-06:00

Tonight Allen is bringing home our first pig!

Pictures tomorrow (assuming internet, weather, computers, etc cooperate).

You heard it here first.

Our busy time of year

2011-12-05T08:46:00.005-06:00

We're expecting the arrival of our container shipment "any day now." In case you haven't learned this from following the reports of our container shipments in other years, "any day now" means we really don't know when the container will arrive, but we need to be ready for the arrival at very short notice. In anticipation of bringing all the donations into our bodega/house, we did a major cleaning a few weeks ago. Since then, we put up the Christmas tree and a few other decorations, as extraneous activities like putting up decorations come to a halt when the work related to the container shipment begins. Of course, daily life takes it's toll, and piles of current stuff have encroached into the area which needs to be cleared out to receive all the new stuff. This work has to be high priority, since the container is due to arrive "any day now."

It's also time (and past time) for me to write up and send out a newsletter. I've decreased the frequency of our newsletters in recent years, since so much information is available on a more timely basis here on the blog (and with pictures), but I do try to make sure that letters go out a few times a year, and especially to put one out at the end of the year, to sum things up for those who faithfully support our ministry with prayers and donations. It has become harder to write the letters, because I know most people who read the letters also visit the blog, and I want to think of things for the letter which haven't already been covered here - and since I blab so much here, finding un-blabbed info can be difficult.

I also need to update our main website, which has been woefully neglected lately. This however, is a really big task, and I believe it will be even bigger than usual this time. The program I've been using for years now to maintain the website has officially entered obsolescence, and I'm going to have to learn to do this work a new way. Sigh. I suppose I should say that having to stay abreast of new technology keeps me young, but in reality it just makes me feel old and tired. I'm pretty sure the website update will have to wait until after the holidays.

Additionally, this is our best time to grow vegetables in the garden. Our weather is much less extreme from November through March, and we really need not to waste these productive months - but finding the time for planting, weeding and other garden chores is hard right now.

Soooo, I guess I'd better get back to work!

A "Cooking in Honduras" Question for you to guess

2011-12-01T17:52:00.003-06:00

Let's see who knows or can guess:

When cooking spaghetti Honduran style, how do you judge when the spaghetti noodles are done?

We learned this bit of spaghetti cooking trivia from Russell's wife, Iris, who is a guaranteed authentic Honduran cook. Have fun guessing!

A doctor, a lawyer and a missionary all get stuck in an elevator . . .

2011-11-30T15:52:00.004-06:00

Wow - I wish I knew the punchline for that joke! It wasn't a joke this weekend, however, it really happened! Allen, Russell and I, along with several members of a visiting team, were trapped in a hotel elevator for about ten mildly traumatic minutes! It was the first time I'd ever been stuck in an elevator - and while we laughed and joked about the situation, there was definitely an undercurrent of tension. All was eventually well, we were freed from the elevator in time for - well, just a bit late for - the final team meeting of the week.

The team, consisting of 23 people, spent last week in the village of Gualcince, about three hours drive farther into the mountains than Gracias. We had to drive most of the food for the team into the location in advance of their arrival, as things like eggs, bread, ground beef and milk aren't available in that area, or aren't easy to acquire (for instance, milk and eggs are available from local farms, but this kind of shopping requires knowledge and time - things we don't have while hosting a team). As a medical team, including doctors, dentists, nurses and non-medical support personnel, these folks saw over 2000 patients in Gualcince and four surrounding villages, over the course of about five days.

We certainly appreciate all of the preparation, hard work and expense that go into making a week-long mission trip a success. You guys are welcome back anytime!

A "Chance" Encounter

2011-11-23T16:13:00.004-06:00

Well I had some fun this morning! In order to understand this story, and the odds against it happening, you'll need a bit of context. You'll need to know that I'm the ultimate homebody. I really just love staying around my home. I do head into town once a week for groceries, but then I head right back home again - no hanging around in town for me.

Today I had to run some errands - things that absolutely had to happen today - and I didn't have a car. Our friend Kevin, of the Goodwin family of missionaries, was very gracious about driving out to pick me up and take me into town, and then driving me all the way back home a few hours later.

So, I was afoot in town, for really probably the first time since I started driving last year. It was nice. I think I'd forgotten how pleasant it is to walk about in town. I'm not likely to drive in just for that, but I did enjoy it today.

I made a stop at a little restaurant that sells rotissarie chicken, to pick up a rare treat to take home with me, and I ran into a visiting couple, Sonny and Kay, from Texas. We started into the regular conversation we tend to have with visitors (it's almost always interesting to find out how and why someone has wandered into this out-of-the-way corner of the world), when they asked me my name. After I told them my name, they excitedly explained that they'd been trying to contact me. Turns out they're regular readers of this blog! I'm not sure why I haven't received their emails, and they didn't have my phone number, but I just happened by where they were having lunch, and so we met!

We had such fun, exchanging stories! I immediately abandoned Christopher (he was at home, expecting me to come straight back with bread, so he could make sandwiches for the guys who work for us on our property - I told him to make up some boxed mac and cheese instead), and I settled in for some serious chatting! Sonny and Kay are actually living on a sailboat, and right now their boat is docked in La Ceiba while they jaunt about in the mountains for a bit. We used to meet up with sailboaters when we lived on Guanaja, but it's pretty uncommon to bump into them up here in Gracias! They have a blog of their own, which I've just had a chance to check out a bit - it looks like a fun read, with lots of lovely pictures. They keep it updated, so they already have pictures up from Gracias and the surrounding area. This page has the most recent entries. I'll be keeping an eye on it, to see if they write something about me, LOL.

Eventually I did have to finish my errands and head home, but I'm thinking we'll have to make sure to spend some more time with these folks before they return to the ocean - they're great people.

Oh, and did we have cameras there? Yes I'm pretty sure we did. Did we think to take pictures of our fun encounter? Ummmm, well, ummmmm. Maybe we'll do better next time we meet up.

Another Poinsettia Post

2011-11-19T13:21:00.003-06:00

November 1st

November 18th

When Boo read what I wrote the other day about our poinsettia, and saw the picture I posted, she noticed that the plant is much redder now than it was when that picture was taken. I've been sick (a headcold with asthma complications, which always seems to lay me pretty low), so Boo has been caring for the garden lately and I hadn't seen it. Yesterday Boo took the updated picture, above, for you to see (and for me to see, too).

Our weird cow . . . again

2011-11-18T05:21:00.002-06:00

Our cow still thinks she's a pet. We might be somewhat to blame, letting her live in such close proximity to the family. She likes to follow us around. Although she has her own water supply, she frequently accompanies Boo to the garden, where Boo enjoys giving her drinks of water out of the plastic cup used for watering the plants.

Here she is at the drive-thru, awaiting her drink.

Sometimes the service in this place is really lousy.

Poinsettia Redux

2011-11-17T15:38:00.003-06:00

Perhaps some will remember the saga of my Christmas poinsettia from last year. If not, you can find that here.

I'm happy to report that the poinsettia plant is alive and well. When it grew strong, we put it into a pot, and planned to set it on the front porch of the bodega. We never did move it, however, and it still sits in the garden, its pot in a partly shaded and somewhat weedy location next to the water barrel.

Apparently the plant is happy with this level of care/neglect, and I noticed the other day that it is starting to turn red! Christmas must be approaching.

Now I'll have to decide . . . do I bring this happy and healthy plant into the house for Christmas, where the chances are that I will either kill it or at least commit near-planticide?

What do you think? It sure would look pretty in my kitchen . . . at least for a while . . .

Another gardening update - berry bushes!

2011-11-15T02:18:00.002-06:00

Do you remember those dead-looking sticks I received last month, when I wanted to propagate some of the local berry bushes for use on our property? In case you don't remember, here's what they looked like upon arrival at my house:

Though these sticks did not appear promising, we stuck them into buckets of soil, and have been tending them faithfully. Two of the sticks, which had obviously been harvested with a bit of root attached, started to sprout new growth fairly quickly. Here's what they look like now:

The remaining sticks still just look like sticks stuck in soil, but we haven't given up on them. Under the dirt, we hope there are roots forming. One of the rootless sticks has given us a bit of hope:

I'm excited about how this is working out! I've purchased seeds to try to start berry plants, but starting from local cuttings - plants that I know can live and produce in our climate - gives me a much greater chance of ultimate success.

November Garden Update

2011-11-14T02:20:00.000-06:00

This month marks the end of my first year of in-the-ground gardening! I did do a bit of container gardening the year before that. I haven't produced much food, but I've certainly learned a lot, and I'm trying to feel encouraged by the increased knowledge, rather than discouraged by the lack of results.

From what I've learned about the weather here, I'm treating November as my version of "spring." We're currently cleaning out the garden, which had become weedy and overgrown during the rainy season, and we're starting to plant. So far we have onions, radishes, green beans, green peppers, cabbages, kohlrabi, cucumbers and beets (plus one volunteer tomato plant) in the ground. We recently had trouble with the cow pushing over the wire fencing and walking around in the garden (I'll show our solution to that in another post). All that to say that the garden is a busy place right now, and it looks a bit messy at the moment, as you'll see in the pictures.

During the rainy season we improved the garden by putting down gravel on the pathways, to keep down the weeds. Who wants to have to weed pathways?

One of our experiments has involved growing plants inside of a screened, shaded shelter. As you can see in the photo below, the cabbages and kohlrabi inside the shelter are looking good - they haven't be gnawed much by insects or stressed by the intensity of the sun. We're considering expanding our use of this type of gardening.

My biggest gardening challenge (among my many gardening challenges) thus far has been my lack of knowledge about what to expect from the weather. The seasons here aren't easy to describe. The year is roughly evenly divided into rainy and dry, and there's definitely one cold part of the year for about 2 months and one hot part of the year for about two months (and a whole lot of nice warm months the rest of the time), but the changeovers between these "seasons" don't line up with one another. It is rainy and warm-to-hot from May until October. It is quite cold and humid (but not rainy) November through January, but then, as the dry season progresses, the temperature rapidly rises until we have our hottest time of the year, in April. So basically, we have both the hottest and the coldest months of the year during the dry season. In spite of the drastic temperature change and the lack of rain during the dry season, it still appears to me that this time is my best hope for growing veggies.

I'm still working to figure this all out, though, so I'll have to let you know later if my analysis and conclusions turn out to be correct!

Our Christmas Season Begins!

2011-11-13T14:55:00.001-06:00

I know it's too early to put up a Christmas tree, and yet ours has been up for over a week now. We have such a busy season around Christmas that we need to get going early, or our family celebration gets crowded out. It also takes us longer to get to feeling Christmassy here, since the weather doesn't cooperate. Besides, we have to use an artificial tree - which goes against my preferences - and to my mind the one and only benefit of a fake tree is that it doesn't dry out. I figure, if I have to use a fake tree anyway, I might as well take advantage of the one and only benefit and keep the tree up for a loooooong season.

With older kids in the house, more care is put into the final look of the tree. I remember when they were all little - I would let the kids decorate the tree without interference from me, then later, when they were in bed, I'd move the ornaments upward so that the whole tree was decorated, and not just the bottom three feet! LOL.

This year Rachel wanted to decorate the tree with mostly natural and homemade items, and her enthusiasm pulled most of the rest of the family into her plan. We found instructions for making these stars from twigs, on the Chickens in the Road blog, and pretty soon our kitchen table became a star making factory. The other homemade ornaments used on that site wouldn't work for us, however. We can't get away with decorating with actual food in the insect-and-rodent-filled tropics. I shudder to think what would transpire after a few weeks of having strings of popcorn, dried fruits and cookies hanging on our tree! Yikes!

Here's our version of the twig star - Rachel tied the twigs, instead of using glue.

After putting up the lights and a tasteful quantity of burgundy, green, and frosty-white glass balls (tasteful as determined by Rachel) we added the twig stars and lots of small pine cones we'd collected in our woods.

At this point the tree was too dark, as neither the twig stars nor the pine cones showed up well against the dark branches. We had, in our ornament collection, some light-colored stars woven from natural grasses, that I bought a few years ago in Santa Barbara Honduras, where crafters specialize in creating tiny items woven from straw and grasses. The grass stars helped brighten up the tree, and we also added some tiny baskets I bought years ago, just because I like baskets and I think these are cute. On top of everything else we draped icicles: we are an icicle-loving family. The tree just doesn't seem finished without them.

Our country-style rag doll angel, part of our Christmas celebration for many years, looks right at home sitting atop this tree!

And here is the almost final result (we'll be hanging up red and white candy canes once we get some):

Perhaps I can be the first person to wish you a "Merry Christmas" this year!

Allen receives a pat on the back!

2011-11-10T08:35:00.003-06:00

A blog about bridges and bridge building, called Tallbridgeguy.com recently featured our bridge project in Mongual on their site. Here's the link.

It's nice to get some recognition for your work, from someone who knows about the technical side of it. Thanks for your kind words, Tallbridgeguy!

Being a bit on the silly side myself, I'm amused by the name, Tallbridgeguy. I assume the creator of the blog is a tall guy, although the name could refer to tall bridges, I suppose. The Sowers family consists of a rather short and stocky group of people (the stocky part makes us look even shorter than we are), and we joke around about our stature quite a bit. The indigenous people in this part of Honduras don't tend to grow very tall (we believe poor nutrition is a factor in this), so a favorite joke in our family is that we work in this particular place so that we can perceive of ourselves as tall. It works, too . . . see:

Allen is 5'8", by the way. I don't know the height of the pastor in the photo.

I wonder if I can get away with calling Allen "Shortbridgeguy", in the future. Nah, probably not a good plan. LOL.

What I don't write about - because it's boring!

2011-11-09T11:38:00.004-06:00

I haven't posted anything here on the blog for a while, but I've been busy. I do have some interesting things to write about, plus some pictures, but first I'll share a bit about my part in the ministry work, which has been keeping me busy the past few days. Be warned - my part of the ministry is mostly boring and tedious!

Yesterday and today I handled paperwork. I hate paperwork, but it is the only aspect of the ministry work which I can possibly be expected to handle as well as (or potentially better than) Allen and Russell. Those of you who know me in real life know how giggle-inducing is the thought of me building a bridge, laying bricks, or driving myself out into the wild parts of the mountains where the pastors we work with live. So, I help where I can be of use.

This particular batch of paperwork was applications to receive motorcycles. Pastors meet with Russell or Iris at their home, and Russell or Iris fill in the forms - a blessing for me, as those two have good, legible handwriting. A few times a year we submit a group of applications to Missionary Ventures for consideration, and then we hear back as to how many motorcycles we will be able to purchase and distribute. The much-appreciated funds for these purchases come from the efforts of the Christian Motorcyclists Association.

My job is to type the information from the hand-written applications into a computerized form created by our mission office, and email the completed forms back to the MVI office. I know this sounds like a really simple job, but in reality few of our tasks here are as simple as they would be in the states.

First, the computerized form into which I need to type the info was created using Microsoft Office Word. Our main work computer doesn't have this program installed, so I can't open and use the form on that computer. My laptop (the one which has given me so much trouble recently), had Word installed, but when I had to reinstall the operating system Word was uninstalled, and I haven't yet gotten it back - there's some problem with the product key. So, I'd planned to do this project on Russell's laptop, but then his power cord started to fail, leaving me with no computer on which I could access the application form.

Yesterday I found a free trial version of Word online, that I could download for long enough to handle this project. The download took six hours! I'd gone to bed before the download was completed, and I awoke to a message that the download had failed! I didn't have much choice but to try again, and this time the program was successfully downloaded within about one minute. I don't have a clue what was going on with all of that!

Finally I was ready to type the information into the forms. Because I'd originally expected to work in the evening (when our power supply is limited), I'd put the Word program onto my laptop computer, which uses less power than the desktop. Of course, that meant using the keyboard which no longer admits to the existence of the letter "T." I'm able to work around this, thanks to the suggestion of a reader that I make use of the available on-screen keyboard. While I'm grateful to have the laptop working at all, it certainly isn't convenient to have to remember to use the alternative keyboard every time I use the letter "T," especially when filling in a dozen application forms.

I'm happy to announce that the forms are now completed and returned to the office. That means I can turn my attention to all of the regular household tasks which had to be neglected while I handled paperwork.

Sorry if this was the most boring post in the history of blogging. I'm hoping for some sympathy for my life being so inconvenient, or maybe just empathy from those of you who hate paperwork as much as I do.

Crazing craziness

2011-11-01T02:37:00.003-06:00

I have a collection of stoneware dishes - they are what we use everyday. Some of these are pieces Allen and I received when we married, some are more recent acquisitions. Although I have much of the stoneware on display in my kitchen, other items are stored away inside my buffet.

Recently Rachel was moving some things around, and she made an interesting discovery. Inside the buffet, a couple of spice shakers had gotten . . . dusty. These shakers are among the older items in the set; they'd have been purchased in the '80s. In their glazed finish, these shakers have a bit of the light crackling pattern known as "crazing." Notice how the dust settled in right along the lines of the crazing. Isn't that just the craziest thing?

The picture shows one shaker with the dust lines washed off. There doesn't appear to be any damage from the dust, although long-term I can't think this would be good for it!

Plus, you have to ask yourself - how did that much dust get inside my buffet?

-echnology -roubles

2011-10-29T19:07:00.003-06:00

Well, I've recently had a bit of trouble with my newish laptop computer. This particular computer was a bargain, purchased as a refurbished unit. I've had great success with this type of purchase in the past . . . but this time, sadly, it seems I got what I paid for.

The laptop has given me so much trouble, right from the beginning. I felt terrible about having spent money on a piece of equipment which couldn't manage even the basic tasks required without glitching and crashing, so I took the time to attempt some repairs and improvements. At one point, I had to reinstall the operating system, taking the computer back to it's factory settings. It's a good thing I hadn't had the thing long enough to have important documents or pictures saved on it.

Eventually I had that laptop humming. It was fast, and not in the least glitchy. I'm so not a technical kind of person, and I was inordinately proud of myself. But, as you all know, pride comes before a fall. All of a sudden, with no warning, I could no longer type the letter "T". Just like that. No amount of wiggling the key, finessing the key, or pounding on the key would convince the machine to type that one, extremely important letter. I couldn't even type my own name!

In the short time that I'd had the laptop running well, I'd really gotten used to the ease of setting up to type on the couch, or on my bed, or just anywhere. Suddenly working at the old, weatherbeaten desktop computer seemed a burden. I could still browse the internet on the laptop (as long as I could find a way to insert each url without typing a "T"), but I certainly couldn't write emails or blogposts - so I sort of fell out of communications for a bit.

I'm trying to get over it now. I have a new keyboard for the laptop coming down in six weeks or so . . . until then, I'll just have to deal with my disappointment, and steel myself for my next adventure in computer repairs. If anyone out there has changed out their own laptop keyboard, and wants to give me some pointers, I'm listening!

Have you heard about the terrible weather we're having in Central America?

2011-10-23T05:28:00.003-06:00

Well, if you have heard about it, it wasn't from me that you heard. I'm up here on our mountain, having some quiet, overcast days. We're not having much rain at all - less than the previous few weeks. It has been windier than usual, but nothing close to being dangerous. It has been cooler, so we've put on sweaters and pulled out some extra blankets for the beds. But really, nothing worth mentioning, in the way of weather, is happening up here.

A few days ago, I heard on the news that several Central American countries, including Honduras, have been having significant flooding and some mudslides, and there have been the attendant damage and deaths which accompany these events. That was the first I'd heard that anything out-of-the-ordinary was going on.

Yesterday I was in town, doing some shopping and banking, and we saw several troop transport trucks rolling in. Russell mentioned that the president of the congress, Juan Orlando, was in town (or soon to arrive in town), as he was planning to visit some of the flooding-affected areas in our part of the country. It was news to me that there was any flooding in our part of Honduras. I'm just blissfully ignorant up here on our little mountain, I guess.

Last night I read, on a blog I follow, about significant flooding and damage on the north coast of Honduras. Here's Patty's blog post, with lots of pictures of the weather-related damage, and the flooding.

So, now I'm in the know, and I'm sharing the depths of my knowledge with you. Bad weather is happening, apparently all around us, and the only way it has affected the Sowers family is that we aren't getting enough sun each day to power everything we need (and/or want) to run, so we're having to supplement our power supply by using the generator occasionally.

Our prayers are with those who are suffering from this weather event.

Horses for Pastors

2011-10-22T12:59:00.004-06:00

While we're heavily involved in helping rural pastors get motorcycles to use in their ministries, there are some for whom a motorcycle isn't the best tool. Some pastors and evangelists work in areas where the "roads" aren't good enough for even dirt bikes. Some are too poor to afford the fuel and maintenance costs of a motorcycle. So, we sometimes help pastors acquire horses and mules, instead of motorcycles.

Here are some pastors who have recently received horses/mules:

The majority of our pastors have churches in several different villages, so help with their transportation needs is a real blessing to them. As always, your donations are what make it possible for us to help the pastors, as they continue the work of evangelism and church planting in the mountains of western Honduras.

We're making hats!

2011-10-21T07:42:00.001-06:00

It gets cold up here in the mountains! Why last night, it was down below sixty degrees, if you can even believe that! Before the cold part of the year is over with, we may experience temps in the forties! We used to consider such temperatures mildly cold, when we lived in a more northerly clime, but apparently our blood has thinned to tropical norms, and we start to shiver when it gets down below seventy or so.

The Hondurans feel the cold, too. This year, to help ensure that we have enough gifts for the pastors and their families, and also to have a fun project, we've been knitting warm hats. Mostly I'm doing the knitting, but Boo is in charge of putting in any necessary seams and weaving in the loose ends of yarn, while Rachel and David make and attach pompoms.

Here's our intrepid hat model, displaying a recently completed hat:

We've completed about a dozen hats so far. Since we give gifts to hundreds of families, we're not planning a hat for everyone. We're just doing what we can.

Cleaning day at Trish's house

2011-10-20T14:43:00.001-06:00

When you live in a bodega (warehouse), cleaning the house from "top to bottom" takes on a new meaning. It's higher, more athletic, a bit more dangerous, than regular house cleaning. Our home/bodega was significantly overdue for a thorough cleaning, and we knew that we needed to start high, and work our way down, since we'd be dropping so much dirt and dust and so many disembodied bug wings down onto the lower levels.

I hadn't planned to clean the tops of the open trusses, but I did send Gus up there - 15 feet above the cement floor - to clear out some large and distracting cobwebs. When he got up there, however, he said it was soooo dirty that it didn't make sense to clean anything else without dusting/sweeping the trusses, since this dirt would just keep falling on us from above. So, Gus swept the dirt off the trusses, cleared out the cobwebs, and wiped down the cords which hang down for the lights.

(Check out the bottoms of Gus' feet, and his seat, for some idea of the amount of dust up on the trusses!)

While Gus was up in the air, David had the job of assisting him from ground level - a surprisingly entertaining job, involving tying rags and the broom onto pieces of rope draped over the trusses and raising and lowering them to Gus as needed.

Meanwhile, Bethany worked on the loft/storage area above the bathroom.

Continuing our progression from top to bottom, Gus brought in our tallest ladder, to take down the quilt which hangs on the wall above the kitchen sink. The quilt is in the laundry now, and Gus wiped down the wall behind the quilt, where bugs and spiders had sometimes made cozy homes for themselves (this is the photo at the top of this post). He also scrubbed off the pencil line Russell had made on the wall, above the level of the quilt, when Russell first hung it up. How that line has bugged me, but I couldn't get up there to wipe it off! I'm glad it's gone!

Next on the list was cleaning the high side windows. These haven't been washed since we moved into the bodega, since they're impossible to reach without involving a ladder and some careful walking along the tops of high bookcases. Boo, being small and spry, was given this job.

As I type this, the kids are currently working on the next level of dirt, washing off the tops of the bookcases which serve us in place of walls, dividing up the large space of the bodega into smaller rooms.

I'd better get off the computer now, and get back to helping my enthusiastic cleaning crew!

Wow!

2011-10-18T10:13:00.005-06:00

We're already seeing some growth on those dead-looking berry bush cuttings we received last week! Well, only on one plant so far, and it was the best looking one of the bunch, as it had some roots connected to it. At any rate, I'm delighted to see that we've got some activity here.

Take a look:

Wahoooooo! And yes, I am easily excited. LOL.

Honduras hits the International News - and that's never good

2011-10-17T14:51:00.004-06:00

I know how the news works - stories about the good things that happen aren't generally considered news. Bad things, like murders, weather disasters, scandals, etc are always news. So, it pretty much goes without saying that when there are stories in the international news about Honduras, it won't be anything to brag about.

So, here we are, in the news.

The United Nations put out a report, ranking the countries of the world by their homicide rate, related to the size of the population. Guess who "won" top billing? Yep, Honduras. Read about it here. (That link, by the way, isn't to an international news source, but the story is out on those sites, as well.)

La Gringa's Blogicito has an article today on this topic, explaining - among other things - how the number of murders happening in Honduras is certainly significantly under-reported. That's not exactly reassuring. Here's her report.

And, on Friday, a group of men were killed, execution style, in the parking lot of the largest and busiest airport in Honduras - the one we happen to use whenever we travel. Several bystanders were apparently injured, as stray shots entered the main waiting area of the airport. Here's the CNN article about that event, which is significantly lacking in details. The Honduras News website article(in English) has lots more info.

For those of you who worry about us personally, we're still comparatively safe up here in our rural, mountainous home. Crime is increasing here, as well, but isn't to the levels of the big cities. Of course, we do have to travel to the cities fairly frequently, so we are exposed to this higher level of danger at times. Prayers for our safety would always be appreciated.

Comments

2011-10-16T11:58:00.004-06:00

I receive lots of comments on the blog that you never get to read. Most of those include helpful links to online gambling sites, prescriptions-by-mail businesses, and then some really seedy stuff that I won't detail here.

The responses containing links generally include flattery about what a good job I'm doing on writing the blog. These reviews would be more appreciated if the links weren't attached! Here's a sample of a lovely thought I received, but didn't post in the comment section, because of the link:

"I really like the path you are posting! you enjoy an interesting essence of estimate!"

Now tell me, who wouldn't enjoy receiving uplifting encouragement like that? I may go around all day whispering to myself "You enjoy an interesting essence of estimate." I'm not certain just what it means, but it sure sounds purty.

October Garden Update

2011-10-16T10:25:00.003-06:00

I haven't posted much about the garden lately - but it's not because we haven't been working at it. It's more because we've had so many failures lately.

I've learned, though. I now know that too much rain is not good for the garden. Probably lots of you already knew that, but sometimes I just have to try for myself and find out. Yep. Too much water = dead plants. Even though I'm gardening in raised beds with good drainage, my plants weren't able to overcome the sheer quantity (and probably also the driving force) of the rains we get during the rainy season, which is basically from late April/early May through October.

With the end of the rainy season in sight, we've started getting ready to really grow some food, maybe. Some plants need to have their seeds placed right into the ground, but others can be started inside and then transplanted.

Right now, I have green peppers growing in little pots:

There are also some sunflowers just starting to come up:

I learned a few weeks ago that there are wild berry bushes (I think they're raspberry, but they might be blackberry, and I don't really care which they are) growing on a mountain not too far from Gracias. I hired one of the pastors that comes into town for the pastor school, and who comes from a village on that mountain, to bring me some cuttings. I'm not knowledgeable about this kind of thing, and neither was this particular pastor. Here's what he brought me:

I've seen plants that looked deader than these come back to life, so I have hope that these will gradually grow into plants with berries. We'll see. Right now I have some sitting in water, and some planted in very wet dirt . . . I'll let you know what happens with these.

Yep, I've been sick . . . plus, Church Construction in Canadas de Belen

2011-10-14T14:41:00.001-06:00

We've been passing around a flu bug down here, and I had to take my turn. I'm back up and going now, and I need to announce the winners of the give-away . . . but not just yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Russell recently received some pictures of a current church construction project, and I thought I'd show you those today. This church is being built by a congregation in a town called Canadas de Belen. I figured I'd use the posting of these photos as an opportunity to explain how we handle assisting churches with construction projects.

First, let me make it clear that we don't ever want to step in and "give" a church building to a congregation. Does that sound awful? It has been our experience that people appreciate things they've worked for much more than they appreciate things that are given to them for nothing. In the end, we want the congregation to know that this is their church building, not ours. It isn't unusual for congregations which have received a "gift" of a church building to then assume that the giver will also pay for furnishings, maintenance, etc. We want to avoid setting up a situation like that.

Second, as you might imagine, we always have to deal with having less money for church construction than we have requests for help. That's just the way it's going to be, and we've had to figure out a way to spread out the funds to more churches, while still managing to be a legitimate help to each church.

With these goals and limitations in mind, here's what we've come up with, over the years, as a system for helping with church construction projects.

We require the church to purchase/own their land, and that land must be titled in the name of the church, not to any individual. This is important so that the building doesn't become someone's personal property after some future church squabble or something. It's been known to happen, so this requirement helps to prevent that.

Because the early stages of the construction process involve lots of labor but not much expense for purchased materials, we don't get involved in helping with the funding of a building until the walls are up. (Allen is frequently involved in giving construction advice during these stages, however.) The members of the congregation dig the footers, and haul stones, sand and gravel from the rivers to make the footers. Then they make the adobe bricks by hand, using local clay. Once the bricks are dry, they can build the walls. A small amount of cement is generally used in these early stages - some is used in the footers, some to create headers above the doors and windows, and then some to construct a concrete band around the tops of the walls, which helps to create a stronger building.

For those non-construction types amongst my readers . . . in the photo above, a bit of the footer is noted with a red circle, while a header above the door is circled in blue. The poured concrete beam around the tops of the walls is hidden behind those wooden boards, which were used to create the form to hold the concrete until it dried. Being a non-construction person myself, I have great sympathy for those who don't know the lingo. LOL.

That's how much is completed at this time on that particular church. The next step will be to build the roof structure. Usually the church will harvest wood locally, and have one of those highly skilled chainsaw guys come and cut the lumber into boards. (See this post for more on the chainsaw guys - they're pretty amazing.) Once the boards are up on the roof, then the roofing material - usually either clay tiles or metal sheet roofing - is installed. This part of the project involves an outlay of cash, so this is the part where we help churches with funds, when we can do so.

Once the roof is on, congregations often begin meeting in their church building, as the rest of the structure (doors, windows, floors, etc) is gradually completed. You can see how our limited amount of funding goes into the construction of more churches this way.

I'm posting the picture below, just because it's the kind of thing I like to show you here . . . that's the scaffolding the church members built and are using in the process of constructing this church. Kind of scary, don't you think?

The End is Near!

2011-09-17T13:31:00.006-06:00

The end of the Gifts for Gracias Christmas Project, that is!

If you are mailing in gifts or other donated items, you have until October 1st to get things into the mail and on their way to us in time for the shipment. That's just two weeks away!

If you are in Florida, and want to personally deliver items to the Florida address, you can safely do that until about October 10th. If you want to personally deliver items to the Maryland address, you will have an additional couple of weeks.

I will be randomly selecting the winners of the give away on October 1st, so if you haven't yet contacted me to let me know of your participation in the project, make sure you do let me know before then!

Odd Green . . . Caterpillar?

2011-09-12T07:13:00.003-06:00

Boo brought me this slug-like caterpillar she found, so that we could share it here on the blog. She also took the pictures - didn't she do a nice job with that?

Here you're looking straight down on the back of the bug.

The underside of the bug - Boo said this picture was hard to take, because the bug was very quick to get itself back on it's feet. Boo also said the feet were more like suction cups.

Boys and Puppies

2011-09-10T04:08:00.005-06:00

Lots of "awwwwww" factor in this post. Enjoy!

Bridge Construction Update from Paca-someplace

2011-09-08T14:27:00.000-06:00

I recently posted some pictures, about the beginning of the current bridge construction project. With today's post, you'll get an idea of how old those photos really were - just look at how much progress has been made! In the photo above, you can see one of the bridge towers already completed on the far side of the river, while closer up you can see the second tower under construction. The concrete pour of the second tower was completed this week, and the concrete is currently curing. The next time the men head out there, they'll be removing the panels which formed up the tower for the concrete.

Some views from the work:

Off the edge of the photo at the top of this post, to the right, was where the men mixed concrete on the ground, and loaded up buckets.

Buckets are carried from the mixing location, over to where the tower is being poured.

Buckets full of concrete are handed up the scaffolding, from man to man, until they reach the top. Russell oversees the pouring of the concrete. If the concrete isn't poured in correctly, the wall panels could blow out, the rebar (metal bars which add support from inside the concrete) can be pushed out of place, and other bad things can happen.

This week, the men are working on the water project in Mongual, and Allen took the camera along today, so there might be an update on that soon. Meanwhile, today is the 8th of September - so if you're planning to take part in the Gifts for Gracias Christmas Project . . . and I sincerely hope that you are planning to take part . . . you need to get rolling on this! The last day to mail is October 1st, remember! I'd love to get some feedback, from people who have already sent gifts, or those who are planning to. It's hard for me to gauge how the collection is progressing, from down here in Honduras! Thanks!

Feel free to ignore this post

2011-09-06T05:00:00.001-06:00

This is the year of the giant grasshoppers. We've seen these before, and we've been told that they come every other year. However, I blogged about them the last time we saw them, and that was in 2008, so I know it was three years ago, not two. My kids asked me to blog about them again, so that we have a record of their visit we can refer to, the next time they show up.

The grasshoppers are almost gone now, so I took the new camera out and worked on learning to take some close up shots, before they all disappeared. It was windy, so the tree branches kept swaying, making a clear picture difficult to come by. If you're not into grasshoppers, please feel free to ignore this post.

A Bridge Allen DIDN'T Build

2011-09-05T13:16:00.005-06:00

On a recent trip to Copan Ruins, Allen saw this small bridge crossing a river that runs alongside the main road. Sometimes people think the hanging bridges we build look scary - but I assure you, they look great to the people who are used to using bridges like this one!

You can't really tell in the pictures, but the span of that bridge is around 100 feet! It looks to be mostly held together with twisted wire.

Care to walk across?

By the way, don't forget that we are closing in on the deadline for donations to the Gifts for Gracias Christmas Project. Please join in, if you possibly can. It's a tough year for donations, and every little bit helps! Thanks!

The bridge project in Paca-someplace

2011-09-01T14:45:00.007-06:00

In spite of the fact that most of you will never try to check my spelling of Honduran place names, and in spite of the names themselves often being ridiculously difficult to spell (the capital of the country is Tegucigalpa, for goodness sakes!), I have hesitated to write this post about the current bridge project, since I'm pretty sure I'm going to spell the name of the location incorrectly. But, honestly, I'm doing my best here. Pacallales. Or Pacayales. Or something. Pronounced pock-aye-EL-es. Or something like that.

Allen and Russell have spent several weeks working in the place mentioned above. They stay there for four or five days each time, because of the distance and rough terrain between that place and Gracias.

Here are some photos from the beginning of the work, involving moving supplies to the construction site. Some of the supplies were purchased, but the sand and rocks were collected from the riverbed, and carried up the hill to the bridge site.

Going down to the river for rocks and sand

Climbing up from the river, toting rocks

An accumulation of laboriously collected rocks!

El Mongual Community Water Project

2011-08-29T09:49:00.004-06:00

Allen and Russell have several construction projects going right now. That works out well for them, because the communities where these projects are located are responsible for gathering the materials for the projects, and sometime the construction work progresses faster than the communities can get the materials on site. So Allen and Russell, and their crew, work at one site for a week, then work at the other site for a week, which gives each location time to get ready for their return.

One site is the newest bridge project, about which I've blogged once, here.

The other site is a water project for the community of El Mongual. If that name sounds familiar, it's because we recently completed a bridge project there.

Here are some photos from the new water project:

You can see in this photo (and in the photo at the top of the post) that the workers cut into the slope of a hill, to make a level spot for the tank. This is Henri, part of our regular work crew.

Here's Allen, working at the bricklaying.

This photo (click on the picture for a closer look) shows the number of people working. Members of the community help with the project on a rotating schedule. You also get to see the view! The water tank is set up high, of course, so that the water can flow down to the community by gravity.

Here's a better picture of the view (I left this one big, so you can see more details if you click on it). You should be able to see some of the houses which will be served by this water project, and also some cliffs, over by the river.

Here's the poured concrete floor of the tank. The pieces of metal sticking up in the center of the floor will provide structural support for a concrete column which will be constructed there, to eventually help hold up the roof of the tank.

And here's the crew, packing up at the end of a long, hard, hot day's work!

I have some photos of the construction at the bridge project that I haven't yet posted, so watch for those soon.

AND . . . of utmost importance . . . PLEASE help with the Gifts for Gracias project! If you want to help by posting about the project on your blog or on Facebook, do that now, so there's time for people to hear about the project and get involved! Let me know that you're helping, and I'll put you into the running for the give-away! Check here for details!

My first ever give-away!

2011-08-19T19:01:00.001-06:00

This is the first promotional event I've done, so there may be some bumps along the way, but it's all for a good cause - the Gifts for Gracias Christmas project!

Here's the deal. There are two prizes. They are both hand-carved wooden boxes, made in Honduras. The first prize chest is a bit larger than the other, with a lock and key, but they are both beautiful and unique. The winners will be randomly selected from the list of participants.

Here are pictures of the two boxes:

The large box is 5 x 5.5 x 8 inches.

The smaller box is 3.5 x 4.25 x 6.75 inches.

There are five ways to qualify for the give-away, and I'll enter your name into the list for the drawing up to five times, based on this list. Choose and carry out items from the list below, and then post as a comment. In your comment include your name (so I can enter you in the drawing and contact you) and which item(s) you did to help make this year's Gifts for Gracias Christmas Project a success. If you don't want to comment with your name, you can email me instead. My email is trish @ sowers4pastors.com, without the spaces, of course. The drawing will be held on October 1st, which is also the date by which all gifts should be mailed, to guarantee they'll arrive before we load everything up for shipping to Honduras! (My apologies to my international readers, but sadly I can only offer to mail prizes to North American addresses.)

Here are the ways you can contribute to this year's successful project, benefiting so many needy families and orphans:

1. Post the info about the Gifts for Gracias Project on your blog, or on Facebook, with a link to this blog and to the Gifts for Gracias info page.

2. Spread the word about the Gifts for Gracias project at your home church, homeschool co-op, Bible study group, or any other group that you think might be interested in participating.

3. Make one or more gift boxes (children's boxes or family boxes) - we anticipate distributing over 2500! - and send them in to one of the addresses listed on the information page.

4. Spread the word in your area that we need donations of good used clothing and bedding, and help get these donations to our donation sites (the same sites as our mailing locations).

5. Donate good used clothing and bedding for use in the Gifts for Gracias project.

Thanks so much for participating in my give-away, and especially for taking part in the Gifts for Gracias Christmas Project!

The Big Give-Away is Coming!!!!!

2011-08-18T21:06:00.006-06:00

I mentioned previously that I was going to have a blog give-away. About a week ago, Kirstin returned to Florida, and she took the two prizes with her, so that she'll be able to mail them out to the winners (I'll have to limit participants to those who live in the US, for mailing reasons).

Tonight, I thought I'd give you a quick sneak-peak at the prizes! At the top of this post is the smaller of the two hand-carved wooden boxes I'm giving away. Wood carving is one of the most beautiful handcrafts of Honduras. The carved doors and furniture are amazing, but sadly those are two large for me to send out in the mail as a blog give-away. These cute boxes, though, are small enough for mailing, while still giving a nice taste of Honduran wood carving. The larger box is 8" long, while the smaller is 6 3/4" long, and they're each about 5" tall (the larger a bit more, and the smaller a bit less).

The picture below shows the larger of the two boxes, which includes a lock and key.

Watch for the details on how to participate in the give-away . . . coming soon!

A romantic get-away

2011-08-14T14:15:00.004-06:00

Allen and I just celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary, by taking a little vacation, without the kids, in the pretty little tourist town of Copan Ruinas. This is where we generally go for our get-away trips. We don't visit the Mayan ruins, because we've done that tour so many times, with visiting teams. Instead, we just go to the nearby town (named after the ruins), to enjoy the nice hotels, tourist restaurants, and the opportunity to just get away from home and work for a bit.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Rustic outdoor dining. This place has great steaks!

The atrium at our hotel

A view from our hotel

Another view - notice the cobbled streets

Doing Chores in Lempira

2011-08-12T13:20:00.003-06:00

Running errands

Gathering firewood for cooking

Washing laundry at the pila

Preparing food

Baking

Here's a reminder - we're collecting now for the Gifts for Gracias Christmas gift project. I've been asked about the different ways to participate. You could:

1. Create a shoebox gift (or more than one) for a child, following the directions on the info page.

2. Create a family gift (or more than one). These directions are also on the info page.

3. Donate items which we can use, in conjunction with other donated items, to create shoebox gifts or family gifts ourselves. Some have suggested purchasing one item in bulk, on Amazon, works best for them - this is fabulous for us!

4. Collect and donate good used clothing and bedding. We use the best of these items in gifts, and those items which aren't quite as nice go out into use as well, just not in a gift box.

5. Donate money, through our general account, to help defray the cost of shipping and other costs related to the project.

Shipping and collection location information is also on the info page. Thanks so much for your support and participation!

Kirstin's double life

2011-08-10T11:16:00.005-06:00

My oldest daughter, Kirstin, is 23. Currently she works in the paint department at Home Depot, takes - and pays for - and ACES - college classes, and lives with her grandparents in Sarasota. This fall she'll take EMT training, so that she can get a better job (and also because she believes she'll enjoy the work), and then she hopes to move out on her own while continuing to pay for college as she goes through, without taking out any loans. This is Kirstin's normal life. Busy, but not all that interesting or unusual.

For a month, though, she came home to Honduras. She drove the Land Cruiser across rough mountain roads. She hiked and swam on our property, had to skirt hormonal bulls to get from her room to our main house, participated in an after-dark hunt through the woods for a turkey the dogs had chased off, administered medical care to the turkey, helped rig up a more secure turkey enclosure, learned how to work our tricky washing machine (this involves knowing what time of day we can get hot water off the roof, turning the water on and off at the pipe instead of the machine, and using the kitchen timer so as to avoid running water onto the floor), and enjoyed many other aspects of the less-than-normal side of her life that she lives in Honduras.

This morning Kirstin left for her return trip to Florida. She had a couple of stops to make locally, before heading to the airport, including stopping in at Russell's house to say goodbye to the part of the family that is in town working on the Pastor Training School today. She was also dropping off a turkey at a friend's house along the way. The last thing she did here, before leaving, was to examine the turkey for wounds, wrap it in a towel for travel, and carry it to the car.

I think it is just so fitting that we sent Kirstin off holding a live turkey on her lap. It was like we kept her living the odd, fun, never-know-what'll-happen-next Honduran part of her life until the last possible second until she had to go back to that dull life she leads in the US.

Bye Kirstin - we miss you!

Some family news, and then some Promotional Materials

2011-08-09T15:21:00.009-06:00

Things are busy just now, as this is the week of the Pastor Training School. A few months ago Rachel and Iris took over the cooking and serving of the meals at the school. This is a rather large undertaking. We serve 2 breakfasts, 3 lunches, and 2 dinners to a group which can range in size rather significantly from month to month, but is generally around 40 - 50 people. The cooking is done at Russell and Iris' house in town, so Rachel just stays there from Monday until Thursday during the week of the school. This month Bethany is there, too, as an apprentice cook/helper.

Kirstin is returning to the US this week after a very short 1 month visit with us. While here she helped Gus work on his writing skills and gave Rachel driving lessons. She took the kids swimming in the river and at the hot water springs. We enjoyed her visit immensely, and we're not ready to let her go, but she seems to think her schooling and her job are important, so she's adamant about heading back.

Now, as mentioned in the title, I'm going to take a moment to remind everyone that the Gifts for Gracias Christmas gift project is underway. (Info on the Gifts for Gracias Project is found here.) To get you into the gift-giving spirit, I thought I'd share some photos from previous gift distributions.

The town of Quelacasque is an extremely poor area, and for unknown reasons there is an especially high incidence of children born with mental retardation and other birth defects in and around the town. We are involved with a number of families in Quelacasque through our program for special needs families, and so we traveled there to deliver Christmas gifts and family gifts to those in the program. They came out to meet us, dressed up in their very best. These first pictures are from the distribution of gifts in Quelacasque (in 2008, I think).

The following photo shows a group of children living in one of the orphanages in the nearby city of Santa Rosa de Copan. The pictures on the Gifts for Gracias info page were also taken at this orphanage.

Here's a photo of a typical family gift box. The family gifts are full of practical items, such as toiletries, office/school supplies, backpacks, sweaters, socks, bedding, towels, kitchen items, etc. Family gifts are given to pastors and their wives (shoebox gifts are given to their children), and also to the special needs families.

As a final note, I want to draw attention to the mailing deadline for the project - it is October 1st this year. We need family gifts, shoebox gifts, items which can be used to create those gifts here (like a bulk purchase of pencils, pens and crayons, a pile of ball caps, a bag full of new socks, etc), and we also want good used clothing, shoes and bedding. Warm bedding and warm clothing (especially sweaters and jackets) are among our most appreciated gifts. Lists of suggested items to donate or to include in gifts and mailing addresses are available on the Gifts for Gracias info page.

Thanks for taking part! Don't forget, there will be a fun give-away announced soon! I'll be drawing a name from a list of those who participate in the Gifts for Gracias project in some way - like writing about the project on your blog (with a link to the info posted here), getting your home church, Bible study group, homeschool co-op, or whatever other group you might be a part of involved, or simply letting me know that you're making a donation personally. More on this to come in just a few days.

Okay, it's time for me to get my act together

2011-08-08T22:47:00.003-06:00

I've been deficient in my blogging lately. I can't even blame it on being especially busy, or having a time of illness, or having electricity/internet problems. Well, I've had a bit of all of those, but not enough to really keep me from the computer very much. I've just been uninspired. I assume others of you go through times like that, occasionally, in whatever kind of work you do.

However, I now have no choice but to motivate myself and get back to blogging, as it's time (and past time) to start the Gifts for Gracias program rolling for 2011. And, to be honest, I'm a bit worried about this.

First of all, we've had a steady decline in donations over the past few years. We've also received fewer and fewer pre-packaged gift boxes. Several dedicated workers in Maryland, who were especially good at collecting used clothing and small gift items, are not available to help with the project this year.

For several years now we've been blessed by the donation of hundreds of gift boxes from a single ministry in North Carolina. This ministry will not be able to participate this year, as they have committed to helping certain ministries directly related to their church instead. This loss, in addition to everything else, is going to make it really tough for us to fill an entire container.

The state of the US economy is such that I know many people won't be able to participate to the level they have in the past. This means that, to make up the difference, we're going to need more participants than ever before.

What am I doing about this?

I have updated the information about how you can be a part of the Gifts for Gracias project on our website, here.

I am planning my first ever give-away on my blog, and it will be tied to participation in the Gifts for Gracias project. More info on that will be forthcoming within the next week or so.

I'm committing myself to blogging regularly, and nagging (oops, that should be reminding) everyone about this project.

And what, you may ask, does the picture of the scruffy sleeping puppy have to do with any of this? Well, I've been working on learning how to use our new camera, as I need to be able to take pictures for the blog, and that's just a random picture I took while practicing using the zoom. That's Boo's lapdog, Buffalo, in the picture. Isn't she a cutie?

Back To School - SALES!

2011-07-31T01:20:00.003-06:00

This is the first post of 2011 about the Gifts for Gracias Christmas Gift Project. Yes, it's July - the end of July - so it must be time to start talking about Christmas, right?

If you're unfamiliar with our project, here's a brief overview, from our website:

This will be our seventh year to distribute Christmas gifts in and around the city of Gracias, in the department of Lempira. This department is officially recognized by the Honduran government as the poorest area of Honduras. The recipients of the Christmas gifts will again be the pastors of the area churches and their families, and also children in our nutrition centers, special needs program, in the local hospital, and in 14 orphanages.

We hope that this will be an opportunity for you to reach out to your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Soon I'll be posting the updated info for 2011, regarding mailing addresses and deadlines, but even though I don't have that all pulled together for you, I wanted to go ahead and post a quick reminder about the project, because it's almost time for Back-To-School sales to start. School supplies are a major need here, and we like to use them as the backbone of the gifts for school aged children. If you have the opportunity to purchase some extra school supplies to donate to the project, why not do so now, while the good sales are on? Some donors make up complete gifts for us to distribute, some send a box of one or two items in bulk - like spiral bound notebooks, boxes of crayons, etc. Either way, we're delighted to receive these offerings!

As in previous years, we will have locations in Maryland and Florida to which donations can be delivered or mailed. I'll have those specifics for you very soon, so watch for those.

Also, and this is very important - donations were down significantly the past two years. If there is any way you can help spread the word about this project, through your church, school, homeschool group, or any other way I haven't thought of, please do so. We really need all the help we can get with this! Thanks everyone!

Things change

2011-07-27T11:16:00.000-06:00

We've lived in Honduras for over ten years now, in two different locations. I have a lot of memories.

I can remember buying milk from a nearby ranch. A kid on a pony delivered the milk to our house, in cleaned out bleach bottles which had been tied to the saddle. I had to pasturize the milk myself - and I learned how to make cottage cheese.

I can remember having internet access only once each week, and that access was excruciatingly slow. In order for me to connect, we had to have good weather (a boat trip to the city was involved), the electricity and phone lines had to be working, and my in-country ISP had to be up-and-running. Too often one of those factors wouldn't be in place, and I'd just have to try again another day.

I can remember when I couldn't purchase any cheese, except for the local homemade (very salty!) cheese. No mozzarella, cheddar, or other such exotic varieties.

I can remember when fresh vegetables were only delivered to our town once a week. We'd have salad the first day, cooked veggies for a few more days, then we'd be back to canned (or home-frozen) until the next delivery.

I can remember purchasing meat (pork, beef, or fish, fresh butchered or caught that day) out of a wheelbarrow.

I am remembering all of this (and more) in contrast to my recent experience, when I found that I'd purchased (in the states) a digital camera but not a memory card to fit into it. Last week, when we went into Gracias for Lempira Day, I happened to see a digital camera store right across from the central park, so I dropped in and found that they had the exact memory card I needed! The price was quite reasonable, as well!

Helicopters! It's like an invasion around here!

2011-07-19T09:11:00.003-06:00

This morning we've had quite a parade of helicopters flying over our property and landing in Gracias. It's exciting (especially for David), as we generally see very little air traffic here - though most of what we do see is helicopters, since there's no airstrip nearby.

After wondering for a moment about the reason for all the helicopter traffic, it hit me - last week when I was in town, one of the local hotel owners mentioned to me that the entire Honduran congress would be visiting Gracias for the holiday this week - Lempira Day!

Lempira Day is the biggest event of the year here in the city of Gracias (which is the capital of the department named after Lempira), so this holiday already draws large crowds, but having the congress come in for the event is unusual, for sure. It happens that the current head of the congress is the representative from this area, so that might just explain the reason for the field trip.

Some of our family will be heading in to the city for the festivities tomorrow, so we should have pictures to share (I've borrowed back our secondary camera from Russell). With these extra-special guests, we're expecting that the city will put on an especially good show this year!

Oh, and in case you've not seen the previous posts with pictures from past Lempira Day parades, follow this link to see some of the fun! Also, here's a link to my first post about Lempira Day, which explains what the holiday is all about.

Ohhhhhh BUMMER!

2011-07-16T15:35:00.002-06:00

I can't believe I did this! Over the course of the past 8 years or so, I've bought three digital cameras. All of them have been Fujifilm cameras, and they all have come with memory chips, and they've all used interchangeable chips.

The new camera, which Kirstin brought down to me, is also a Fujifilm camera, but it didn't come with a chip, and it doesn't use the same size chip as the other cameras. So, I have no way to use the new camera, until I can get a memory chip to fit it. Allen thinks we might be able to find one locally. I sure do hope he's right about that.

Sigh.

They're HERE!

2011-07-15T17:54:00.003-06:00

My visiting daughter, Kirstin, and the items she brought in her suitcase have arrived. Things like my new camera, new underwear (for several family members), bagels, etc.

I've been a bit disinclined toward blogging since I haven't had a camera. I'm planning to sit up tonight and read about all the nifty things my new camera can do . . . I'm thinking it just might jog me back into the blogging mood!

A Cow Is NOT a House Pet

2011-06-13T14:59:00.003-06:00

Since I can't take any new pictures right now, I figured I'd post some photos I took last week, of one of our cows. This is an especially annoying cow, because she thinks she belongs in the house. Although the perimeter of our property is fenced, we don't have many fences within the perimeter. In other words, the cows can go pretty much anywhere they like, within the boundaries of our land. We have the garden fenced off, and when we're trying to establish grass in a new area of the yard we fence that in until the grass is growing well. Oh, and Rachel recently started a little rose garden, and there's a fence around that:

(The mushrooms growing along the edge of the rose garden are unintentional. It's the rainy season, so mushrooms grow everywhere right now.)

So, anyway, this particular cow thinks she should be allowed into the house. She hangs out on the front porch, and sometimes, when we've left the kitchen door open, she'll stick her head in the door and rummage around in the kitchen trash can, looking for goodies. She's always hanging around the house, looking in, with those pleading eyes of hers.

Here's a close up of the cow. Close up shots will occur, because this cow really likes me to scratch her between the eyes. So, as I was trying to take pictures of her, she kept coming up to me to beg for some attention. My kids have tried to convince me that the cow is actually begging for food, but I think she loves me. Just look at those eyes!

In spite of the special relationship the cow has with me, and in spite of the fact that I'm not a big stickler for house rules, I do think I've got one hard and fast rule: NO COWS IN THE HOUSE. ;-D

What a time to NOT have a camera!

2011-06-11T19:17:00.003-06:00

Oh man, did we ever have an amazing and photogenic storm roll through here this evening! It wasn't anything by midwest-tornado-storm standards, but it was quite unusual for us. I wanted to take photos - I even wanted to take a video at one point - but our camera is currently on the blink, so you'll have to settle for a verbal description, instead.

First we heard thunder. We expect to have a thunderstorm most every day this time of year, so that wasn't very interesting, but the sound does warn us to head outside to pull the laundry in off the line, bring the puppies into the house, and generally batten the hatches.

Because we were outside, we saw the dark clouds headed our way. They were especially dark, and they seemed to be a bit more agitated than usual. Several times we saw what looked to be the beginnings of funnels trying to form, but these never amounted to very much. We weren't experiencing any wind at ground level, although the storm was approaching pretty fast, so this wasn't an especially scary experience. We were all outside looking at it.

Then the clouds were above us. There were different types of clouds at different elevations, moving at different speeds and in different directions. That was pretty spooky. Looking up, we could see multiple swirls - definite circular motion - forming in the large mass of dark gray cloud straight above us. At a lower elevation, wispier clouds were passing along in more of a straight line. This was weird and kind of scary. Some of the clouds had an odd greenish tinge, which I didn't much like the look of.

That whole mess passed by with no preciptation, and still with little wind or temperature change at ground level. Then we could see, in the direction from which the clouds had come, the wall of rain headed our way. It was a particularly thick rain, completely obscuring everything on the other side of the storm. The rain was across the valley from us, and as it approached we did feel the rush of cold air which almost always hits right before the rain.

Instead of rain, however, we got hail! The pieces of ice had about the diameter of a dime, and most weren't round, they were slightly flattened out. I had a moment of concern for our solar panels, but the hail remained small enough that we don't think the panels sustained any damage. Gradually rain joined the hail, and then fewer and fewer hail stones fell until we were simply having our regular tropical deluge, but with significant lightning.

This lasted for about fifteen minutes, and then the storm was past us, with no particular damage. A few of my green bean plants are lying on the ground, but I think they're just waterlogged and only a bit pounded - I'm hopeful that they will pull back upright without a problem.

So, you can see why I wish I'd had a working camera! We do have a backup camera, but Russell has it at his house at the moment. We do kind of need to have two cameras, since we so often have people in several locations at the same time, and because we always want to have a backup on hand (since it sometimes takes us months to get a new camera down here). Now I need to do some camera shopping, so my oldest daughter can bring me the new camera when she visits in July.

A new bridge project

2011-06-04T10:18:00.005-06:00

Allen and Russell spent three days this past week starting the foundation for another bridge project. This bridge will be a cable bridge that will be capable of handling small vehicle traffic (up to pickup trucks, I believe).

Here is a view of the bridge site, and the existing bridge, which is only able to carry foot traffic and motorcycles:

And below is a close-up of the current bridge. If you click on this photo, you can see the bridge in greater detail, and think about what it would be like to have to cross this bridge (or ford a river) to get to schools, stores, medical care, etc. - and much of the year the river can't be forded!

We're so glad to be able to bless the rural people of Lempira with these bridges, and I'd really like to thank those of you who help to make this possible - those who donate funds and who pray for our work, those who help acquire the cable and those who help with the loading of the annual shipping container. Thanks from us, and from the people of Lempira!

Overwhelmed.

2011-05-26T17:14:00.002-06:00

Sorry I took a little hiatus from posting. Life has been busy.

Hurrah for me - I've saved seeds!

2011-05-03T10:04:00.005-06:00

Even though I'm a brand new gardener, I'm trying to learn a skill which many gardeners don't seem to bother with too much - I'm learning to save seeds from current plants for future plantings. This isn't as easy as you might think!

A few months back, someone accidentally left the garden gate open, and a dog got in and dug around in the area where my green bean plants were just getting started. The plants were about 3 inches tall at the time. Some got pulled up, others just got mashed a bit, and some were destroyed. I knew I wasn't going to get enough of a harvest from the few plants I had left, to actually put a serving of green beans on my family's plates any night at dinner, so I decided to let the few plants mature and try saving the seeds for a future planting.

I tried to read up on the details of this process, but as is so often the case, the details weren't really suited for my tropical yet mountainous location. Most of the information I found assumed that I would be trying to save the seeds for months, in order to wait out a winter and put them into the ground in the spring. Since I don't have a winter here (or a spring, for that matter), I thought it might be possible to take a short cut, and not dry the seeds as thoroughly as the directions indicated.

Unfortunately, in my first attempt, I didn't let the seeds mature long enough on the plants, before I tried to use them, and I also didn't dry them enough after I collected them. None of the ones we planted came up. I gave them plenty of time, but this was during our recent water shortage, so eventually I felt I should stop using water on this empty spot in the garden, and I gave up on them.

There were still some beans on the parent plants, so I left those to dry on the plants longer. While it was a bad time of the year for watering, it was a good time for drying. I gradually collected a handful of beans. Most every day I pulled another green bean, with about 5 or 6 seeds in it. If I pulled the bean too early, the seeds inside were white, and those didn't dry into plantable seeds. If I waited long enough, the seeds were a purplish-blue, and they dried - just sitting in a bowl on the kitchen counter - into seeds that looked like the ones I'd purchased and used to start the plants in the first place.

Here are some of the seeds, just out of the garden:

Here is the bowl of dried and drying seeds:

Toward the end of last week Rachel planted these seeds in the garden, as well as a small number of seeds I still had left from my previously purchased seeds. By planting the purchased seeds, I'd have a control for my experiment. If the purchased seeds grew and the ones I harvested didn't then I'd figure I must have done something wrong in harvesting my seeds. If neither group grew, I'd figure my growing conditions were bad.

But . . .

This morning, there are green bean plants sprouting from both groups. I'm excited!

The Water Saga

2011-04-26T12:33:00.004-06:00

Two weeks ago, we had plenty of water in our house, and in our water storage tank. Because we weren't getting any rain, we were watering our garden and lawn multiple times every day, as that was the only way to keep everything alive.

Then the river went dry, and we went to severe water restrictions. We continued to water the garden, but the lawn had to go dry, and inside the house we instituted all sorts of extra steps to ration water usage, as mentioned in a previous post.

Just one week ago we got our first downpour, followed by additional torrents on three succeeding days. The garden and lawn were well watered, but we still didn't have water in our tank. While I worried about erosion and drowned vegetables in the garden, I still had to use my household water two or three times before dumping it out. We no longer had to dump it onto the yard, though, as the yard had become a swamp.

Finally, FINALLY, we got water into our tank, and life is back to normal again, in regard to water usage. I am relieved. Apparently, the double use of wash water was resulting in clothing that didn't smell all the way clean. We're all thrilled to be using the dishwasher and taking showers again. Probably the prettiest sound in the world, to our family right now, is the sound of the toilet flushing!

Water Restriction Update

2011-04-21T09:31:00.003-06:00

Just so you know, the fact that we have received a wonderful gullywasher of a rainstorm here at our property hasn't released us from our water restriction situation. Although the garden and the yard are thrilled with the rain they received last night, inside the house it's the rain over on Celaque mountain that really counts. That rain comes down the river in which resides the open end of our PVC pipe. The pipe carries water to the first water tank (which we share with a community of other water users), and then another pipe brings the water from that tank to the tank on our property.

Allen drove past the river this morning, and said that the water level in the river is higher, but it's not all that high. Later today we'll check on the water level in the first tank, and see how much water has gotten to that point. If that tank is full, then we might be receiving water from there tonight (our water agreement sends us water from that tank certain nights of each week).

So, that's the situation right now. It's waaaaay better than before, but we're not all the way into water-happy territory yet. Gotta go . . . I've got buckets of water to schlep from the laundry room to the bathroom . . .

RAIN!

2011-04-20T20:05:00.003-06:00

Wow! Gullywasher! We had an hour of hard, tropical-style downpour this evening - it just ended!

I do believe the end of the dry season is in sight now! Thanks for praying!

(Every sentence in this post ended with an exclamation point!)

A Rain Update and a Bridge Update

2011-04-20T08:19:00.006-06:00

It's coming! It's coming! The rain, that is. We've not yet had any real rain, only a couple of teensy drizzles - the kind you wouldn't even mention normally, but in our dry situation we're excited about anything that could be taken as a sign that the weather is changing for the rainier! Yesterday we had enough drops that we could see polka dots in the dust - about one raindrop per square centimeter. Not exactly a thorough wetting, but hopefully it's just the beginning.

This morning is cool, hazy, and breezy, with the feel of impending rain in the air.

The family has done an amazing job (if I do say so myself) of restricting our water usage. We still have about 4 feet of water in our big tank, and we've been using water at a rate of about 2 inches per day. With that rate of usage, and the weather looking and feeling so much like rain, we think we'll probably start getting rain from the river again before our tank runs out. Several areas around us, including the city of Gracias, have received nice rains already. Of course, we're still praying, and still conserving, until we actually see water running into our tank!

Meanwhile, Allen and Russell have been working steadily on the bridge in El Mongual. Here are some pictures from about 2 weeks ago, of the crew preparing to pour the deck of the bridge. The deck, for those of you (like me) without a lot of knowledge of construction terms, is the part of the bridge you actually drive on.

In the past two weeks, the concrete deck has been poured, as well as the safety walls on each side of the bridge, to keep people and cars from going over the sides and falling into the river. I'd better make sure and send the camera out for some more recent pictures. This morning Allen told me that they only have about 6 more days of work on the bridge! Of course, once this project is done, there's another bridge project waiting to start!

Dry, dry, dry

2011-04-12T15:42:00.003-06:00

Rachel and I were about a third of a mile from our property when we took this picture, of the smoke from a fairly large fire. Allen estimates that the fire was about a half mile from the spot where we took the picture . . . which means that the fire was slightly less than a mile from our home.

This is the closest fire to us that we've seen. It was put out that same night, so it was probably someone burning off a field, and not a "wild fire." Still, we know how easily a fire can get out of control, and things are soooooooo dry right now.

Speaking of things being dry, we get our water supply from a river which flows down from Celaque mountain. During the dry season (January through mid-May, more or less) the water levels in the local rivers lower significantly . . . and this year, our river has gone completely dry. At the time we found out that we weren't getting any more water, our big water tank was half full (see, I'm an optimist . . . I might have said it was half empty).

The rainy season officially starts in mid-May, and we usually start getting some sporadic rains before that date, so we're hopeful that, with some very stringent water usage restrictions at our house, we can hold out until the water rises in the river again.

We are doing two loads of laundry each day. That's only a bit below normal, and family members have been advised to not deign an item of laundry "too dirty to wear again" until it's really too dirty! When the water from the wash cycle is draining out, we catch the water in a large laundry tub, and we use that water for flushing the toilet and watering the plants. After the rinse cycle, we again catch the water, and we use that rinse water for the wash cycle of the next load.

We aren't using the dishwasher for now. Instead, we're washing dishes in the sink, and again saving the dirty water for flushing and for plants.

We're purchasing drinking water in the city. A five gallon jug of water costs about $1, if we reuse the jug. Normally we filter the river water for our drinking water, so this is another way to stretch our water supply.

When we can, people are taking showers at Russell's house in town. Otherwise we are trying to limit ourselves to sponge baths. That's by far the hardest part of the restrictions - we're all starting to feel a bit grungy.

As I'm typing this, we got a sudden cold wind . . . and we looked out to see dark clouds heading out way. We're praying . . . !!!!!!!!!