The Americorps Volunteers

In January, a group of Americorps volunteers arrived in Brazoria County to assist in the ongoing recovery efforts from hurricane Ike. They focused their efforts on locating people who needed help as well as participating in cleanup and repair. They were an energetic group of young people. While here, they stayed in a house supplied by the Presbyterian Church of Freeport, TX.

Having been participating in some of the Ike recovery work, I was privileged to work with these volunteers on several occasions. They were most enthusiastic, wanting to do what needed to be done. I was impressed by their involvement and desire. They are idealistic, I'm sure, but that is definitely not a bad thing. In the past few years, it has become evident that we have, in this country, a lot of young people who feel the need to give something of themselves to others. These Americorps volunteers are an example of that ethic. If any of you are aware of them in your area, please support them. They are good young people doing good things.

Last Wednesday, they had a goodbye party for those people in the community with whom they had worked. It was well attended and enjoyed by all. I felt honored to be invited.

As a sidenote, there are about 10,000 college students who are scheduled to work in Galveston over their Spring breaks. We will have many here locally as well. I think that is incredible. God works in wondrous ways, even though we may not see or feel it.

Flix For Young Viewers

When I got to the mulch site in LJ today to unload some yard waste, the site was buzzing with activity. They were busy grinding up the large chunks in a giant mulcher. I shot these clips with my cell phone, so they aren't the best. However, certain two year olds will find them interesting.

The Predators

A friend of ours lives on the edge of town where there are lots of woods and lakes. He has been trapping feral hogs and butchering some. He had been leaving some of the bones, etc. out overnight and they were disappearing. A neighbor of his had all the camera equipment to set up surveillance of the front yard.

What you see in this picture taken after sunset are two Red Wolves. I didn't know anything like that existed here, but they used to be numerous. They apparently died out a number of years ago and have not been sighted often. The man who got these pictures, a retired forestry service supervisor, said some may have inbred with coyotes, but he felt these looked like the real deal.

The one is kind of neat. Notice the opossum; it doesn't look like it's planning on giving any ground. Don't know what happened to it. They estimated these wolves are around 60-70 lbs., so about the size of a normal Labrador Retreiver.

The Airplane

One of Hutch's Christmas gifts was a wooden airplane. I couldn't resist the urge to make this high quality video to send beforehand. I know this is a bit out of date, but what the heck.

Sunrise, January 13, 2009

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

Since Grandmommy (Janell's mother), has lived with us, we have stored her kidney dialysis supplies in the our living room. Although this room is not used frequently, the boxes took up a lot of room and were in the way if we wanted to do anything in this part of the house. So, just before Thanksgiving, I began construction of a climate controlled closet inside our garage. I completed this a week ago, and we now have a little room in which to store all the paraphernalia. If you are interested in more, you can take the attached video tour. Also, if you are interested in dialysis basics, read on.

Real Basic Dialysis
The method Grandmommy uses is called peritoneal dialysis (PD) which can be done at home. The most common type, hemodialysis, requires actual filtration of the blood three times a week at a dialysis center. PD is more convenient because it can be done automatically at night while the patient is sleeping. Basically, a dextrose (a sugar) solution is pumped into the abdominal cavity through an implanted port. The material remains for an hour or so and then is pumped out. This cycle is repeated several times during the night. The last input remains in the abdomen until the next night. The cleansing of the blood uses a process called osmosis, where the impurities in the bloodstream transfer across the peritoneal membrane due to a concentration difference between the blood and the fluid in the abdominal cavity.

While PD is more convenient to do, it does require keeping a supply of solutions on hand. The process requires about 10 liters (about 2.5 gallons) of solution every night. We keep a little more than one months supply on had, so this translates to more than 30 boxes of solution at 10 liters per box. The process also requires other supplies, such as tubing, which we must also keep. What you see in the video clip shows what we have on hand midway between deliveries.

AN UPDATE - BELIEVE IT!

Time has passed by in a hurry. It occurred to me that we haven't posted anything in a while. It's hard to believe that we could be so busy since we're retired.

After things settled down in October, we finished the Habitat for Humanity house the local affiliate had started in September. Subsequently, another one was started in early November to be completed it in January. Normally, we build three houses in the spring and two in the fall.

FEMA has featured our Habitat house that was under construction when Ike struck. It seems they were impressed by the building techniques to build a house that will withstand hurricane winds.

There have been numerous opportunities to help with rebuilding after hurricane Ike. I've been doing a bit of that in Surfside and Freeport. There's a lot of folks who don't have many resources, so relying on volunteers is the only way they will get their homes repaired. The effort has been rewarding.

This update is pretty short. I'll try to do better in the future. Of course, this is coming from folks who don't view a Netflix DVD for weeks at a time.