So Maybe "Beach" is a Stretch

There is a tiny little beach/park only a minute's walk from our site. The kids saw it on the very first day because we came a little too far and had to turn. Within an hour of our unhooking the trailer, they wanted to walk down and play in the water.

No, They Haven't Seen the Movie

Since I knew it would be one of the last warm days, we did, and we continued to visit the little beach almost every day for the next two weeks. They didn't swim again much, but they've built sand castles, explored, found every shell and broken crab piece, and generally been giddy children who aren't used to sand and water.

On nice days, I hide out at the top of the little pirate ship while the kids play. The sun shines right on the top deck and I can still see them trying relocate sand from the dune to the bay, and then back from the bay to the dune, which seems to be pretty much what they're doing, from my point of view, anyway.

Even though it's fairly close, I won't be letting them go down to the beach alone. There are often a few cars parked nearby, and although I'm sure the occupants are kind and friendly, I'm an overprotective mother, and that's not going to change.

As winter approaches, I'm sure we won't be heading down to our little beach as often, but so far they want to go down about once a day, even when it's cold. On those days we just ride out to "look at the water".

Mortality and the Blue Crab

The Thiessen family has discovered a new hobby. It goes by many names, but since several of the names are considered crude in other cultures, we'll just call it "catching Chesapeake blue crabs". It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, I admit, but it's accurate. We're living in the "crab capital of the world" after all. It was almost inevitable.

We discovered this particularly Crisfieldish pastime by talking with the lady at the Museum here in town. She said we had to try it, because there was no better way to entertain a couple of kids, and no cheaper way to eat blue crab. You take a piece of chicken neck (or other chicken meat with skin on) and tie it to the end of a long piece of twine. (Actually we used fishing string the first time we tried it, and it worked too.) You weigh it down with a rock or sinker of some kind, then drop it off the edge of the dock, tying the other end to a nail.

After a short while, the line will slowly begin to tighten up, and that means a stubborn little (or big) blue crab has found the meat and is trying to sneakily pull it away from the dock. You know they're stubborn, because as you slowly pull your line back in, the crab hangs on for dear life. He does not want to let go of that chicken neck! No hooks are needed, because they won't let go if they can help it. You just stick your net in the water and scoop up crab and line all together. If you can get the crab to let go of the net and the string, you drop him into the bucket, and throw your line back down in the water.

Aaron and the kids caught about fifteen blue crabs last night, but only kept seven or eight of the biggest males. We're planning to steam them this evening, and I hear that breaking them open and figuring out which sections are edible is the biggest challenge. I'll let you know if we succeeded in eating any, and if it was worth all the trouble. For now, just the catching part was fun enough to make it worth the price of the net and the mockery of the locals when I accidentally brought a child's minnow net up to the counter the first time. (The folks at Dave's RV and Marine Supply are helpful and friendly, but they like a good laugh, too.)

When you're done catching all you want to catch, an added bonus is throwing the leftover chicken skins to the sea gulls. They get very excited when people throw them food. My children may have taken advantage of this fact in the past to try to spatter low-flying gulls with carefully crafted sand balls. Maybe. I'm not admitting anything. (Also, hypothetically, their sand balls wouldn't adhere well enough to handle much flight. If they were to make them, of course.)

 Mim has already started developing an attachment to the crabs, so we'd better get them into the cooking pot pretty soon. She was given permission to set one aside to "observe" earlier today. She specifically chose an ugly one so she wouldn't feel to bad later when we cooked him. How one determines the beauty of a crab I don't know, but apparently she does, so that's all that matters.

Soaring like Eagl...I mean, Sea Gulls

So here's a little run-down of our days with MDS. In the morning, we get up early enough that Aaron can come into the bunk house and pack his lunch with the rest of the crews at 6:30. We join him and the others for breakfast at 7:00. After a group devotion and job assignments for the day, everyone heads out to work at the job sites by 8:00. They won't return to the bunk house until 4:30-5:00.

The kids and I stay here. They begin on their school work and I work in the office, trying desperately to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing and keep up with the new information that comes in daily. So far I love it. It's been a long time (10+ years?) since I worked in an office, but it's a fun challenge, and I love knowing that I'm able to contribute just as Aaron is, only in a climate-controlled, padded desk chair kind of environment.

In the evenings, we all gather in the bunk house again for supper at 6:00, followed by a debrief of the activities for the day. The short-term volunteers have a recommended lights out at 10:00, and my kids keep pointing out that the schedule says "10:00" right there in black and white. Nevertheless, their bed-time remains at 8:30, and there it will stay for the foreseeable future, all protests aside. (Unless game-time goes too long, that's a Daddy over-ride.)

However, they do get the chance to play games in the evening first. We've played a lot of checkers, Uno, and chess. Aaron even got all the Dominion cards out last night, which lasted a little longer than we had anticipated. In the picture below, Mim takes great delight in ruling over and then skunking the men here at a game of Pass the Pigs.

We (MDS) are currently working on about 6-8 houses here in Crisfield, but some weeks we may concentrate on three or four specifically, depending on the status of the project and the amount of short-term volunteers. They do foundation work, drywall, painting, roofing, you name it. When a job requires a professional, then locals are hired for those tasks. Aaron is a crew leader, meaning he takes a small number of volunteers to a particular site and works with them through the day.

I'll share more about the town itself in the future. There are many people here with interesting stories, and I look forward to introducing you to them in posts to come if I'm able to do so.

Maryland or Bust

Off to a Stormy Start

The Mississippi River

I’ve finally found a place to connect my computer to the internet after a long week of sketchy connections and very little communication with the outside world. We love it here in Crisfield, and love our work with MDS thus far, but we have no phone service and no internet in our trailer.

See Fungus- Take Picture

We took eight days to get here, starting in western OK and winding our way across the country. Our first five days were supposed to be easy, if not to say leisurely. We planned to arrive at our destinations before dark, having plenty of time to settle in, figure out what we were doing with the RV connections, and perhaps take a walk.

Tunneling Under the Mountain

In actuality we didn’t get to any of the first five

locations before dark. At Cumberland Mountain State Park in Tennessee we had to back into a site that took at least 10 tries before we were successful due to the darkness, the curve of the road, and the ditches on either side. I’m sure glad our friends and family were sending out extra prayers along the way. We certainly felt it.

Daddy and Zaya Roast Potatoes

The scenery made all the long drives worth it. We were especially impressed with Tennessee. The Great Smoky Mountains were a big hit with the kids. (I can’t wait to take them to the Rockies someday.) The trees hadn't turned yet, but they were just beginning. The hillsides had a maidenly flush of color, as if they were embarrassed about their slight kudzu problem.

We had driven one mile short of 2000 when we pulled into the MDS Crisfield Project Headquarters on Tuesday afternoon. Aaron says he felt a lot more confident by the end than he did in the very beginning. We had a much better feel for all the little things like how long it takes to come to a complete stop, and the undeniable fact that GPS devices assume you are going the speed limit and have extraordinarily large bladders when they tell you how long your route will take.

 I’ll tell you more about Crisfield next time, which should come more quickly now that I’ve achieved some connection with the outside world on my own computer. For now, we are happy, we are healthy, and we are meeting great people, and doing work that feels worth it. What more could you want in life?

Can I Have the Envelope Please...

This Monday we will officially head out to our first disaster-relief project. We will be working for the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) in Crisfield, MD. Aaron will be helping to rebuild homes from Hurricane Sandy damage, and I will be working as an office manager and teaching my kids.

We're very excited about the upcoming weeks/months in Maryland, and spending these last few days soaking up family time and trying to get our new home ready for full-time living. We've got brand new curtains in the windows, courtesy of my awesome mother-in-law, and an original Thiessen Metal Buildings bike rack being installed on the back as of this afternoon. Those bikes are not going anywhere! The whole back side of the RV may fall off, but those bikes will still be attached to that bike rack.

I'll get pictures up as soon as possible. It's starting to come together. Now we just have to learn how to drive with it. That's right, that means two things. One - we bought a new pickup. I'll introduce you later. Two - We have never actually moved an RV. We're about to be hauling a fifth wheel to Maryland, and have never driven with one before.

These last few days are being filled with frantic attempts at pipe and valve repair, (Leak Count: 3) valiant if fruitless efforts at smell removal, and what may be the greatest tax on my organizational skills in my life. Frankly, I'll be perfectly happy if we can just find and fix all the water leaks and figure out why the whole kitchen area smells like the foulest feline den of iniquity.

The Enemy

Moving Day - Part the Second

Last Monday we recruited a handful of family and unloaded the shipping container that will be storing most of our earthly possessions while we gallivant around the country.This was no easy feat. When we first bought it, we thought Grandpa O could just take it off with his SkyTrak, but it was too heavy for that, so more creativity had to be used.

We loaded the container in Missouri, then unloaded almost all of it onto the driveway in OK. When only a few tubs were left in the end, Grandpa O and Uncle C employed a little farm-boy know-how and came up with a workable solution.

They used the same SkyTrak to pull the box into position, and we began to reload it. It is now accessible. I have to say, there's nothing really valuable in it. It's just books, photos, etc. But it's nice for the kids to know that Grandpa's watching their extra toys and stuffed animals for them. And it's nice to have a place that we can switch out our reading material when we get bored.

We're living with my parents for a couple weeks while we prepare the RV for travel. Not only does it need a good cleaning, but there are a few leaks we've discovered as well, and some cat hair removal from a previous owner. (Well, from their cat, anyway.) There's evidence of a mouse, too, but we haven't caught the little beggar yet, so we're hoping the farm cat took care of it. If you look closely at the picture, you'll see a little girl scrubbing a window.

Both sets of parents have been absolutely wonderful as we make this transition. They've helped, fed us, given us places to sleep, watched the kids...just too many things to list. I'm so grateful that we have a great relationship with my parents and with my in-laws. I know that can be a rare thing. Even though they probably think "the responsible first-borns" lost their mind and went off the deep end, they're still being the kindest and most supportive they could possibly be. What a blessing!

The Big Move - Part the First

It took a couple of months longer than I thought it would, but we have finally arrived in Oklahoma, our home base, which means the house is finished and sold and our container has been purchased, packed, shipped, unpacked, unloaded, placed, and repacked. Yes, it was about as complicated as it sounds.

There were a few unexpected bumps along the way, like Aaron hurting his back two weeks before M-Day, but our family and friends were absolutely amazing. My in-laws came up from Oklahoma and they helped us finish the re-model, pack, and maintain sanity. A cousin, his wife, and his extraordinarily well-behaved little family brought our container on a truck, helped load it, and then hauled it (and the van) to western OK for us. 

And not least, our Nevada friends came by day after day with hugs, words of encouragement, and open arms that I could fill with things we no longer needed/wanted/had room to pack. I watched our aloe plant walk out the door in the arms of good friend, and it was easier to let it go that way. (Our aloe plant was big enough to deserve its own particular mention. It was huge, and would've taken up most of the RV kitchen, but we loved it dearly, as it and the cactus were my only house plant successes in a long history of trial and death.)

On moving day, lots of people came by to help, and it was all relatively painless - physically, that is. It's always hard to say goodbye, but especially so when a person is right there helping you and being generally wonderful. Mrs. B even came by after everyone but Aaron and I had left, and helped me scrub the house. She washed my bathrooms. Yes, it's embarrassing; yes, it was wonderful.

There are many, many more people, but I will not mention everyone individually. Suffice it to say, they know who they are, they were fantastic, and we will all miss them very much. Thank you to everyone for the support, the meals, the childcare, the prayers, the place to sleep when our bed was gone...just everything. You all made this move possible, and we are eternally grateful for who you are and the blessing you have been in our lives.

We are now in Oklahoma, and will be here for a couple weeks - fulfilling some promises, searching for cell reception, and preparing for our new life out on the road. (More about that in Part 2).