The Hills Are Alive

Truly, riding around in these Oklahoma hills it does seem like they are alive. The foliage is changing color, the air has a real nip to it and the camp ground is filled with the sound of children and adults having fun on the various forms of entertaining equipment provided. Even though this part of Oklahoma is normally about 20 degrees warmer to most of us this seems like real October weather. (there was frost on the grass this morning here) This Conference Center, New Life, has various size groups come all through the year and this weekend the groups included students from several area church and a women's retreat group. We get to see them because we have been invited to eat in the dining hall with them. We try not to eat more than one meal a day in the dining hall but when we are encouraged to stay we do and find it a great place to make friends. And it is open to all without cost. We will leave a donation when we leave.
The tree pictured is unique to us. It is a Pine tree, evergreen, but about 1/3 of the needles turn brown in the fall and drop off like a deciduous tree. We had never heard of a pine tree that sheds like this one. Actually it makes for a pretty tree if you get past the idea that the tree is dying. One of the couples here had such a tree and frantically tried to restore the tree in the fall because it must be dying because the needles were brown. Nope, just a normal habit of this tree.

The whole Ranch is built on hills and valleys That is why when we came a week ago after a big rain the creek had overflowed its bank, all the land around it was soggy mud and the trees were still green. We have seen a big change since that day. Now the creek is flowing gently and the water is clear instead of a muddy brown. It takes a lot of energy-burning activities to keep junior high and high school kids busy and they do it.
You know I can never pass up a stream with a view, therefore this picture. The creek is on the Ranch so is used for water activities like I mentioned before.

Oh, that is right we came here to work. The women had it easy this past week with Vicki and myself putting data into the computer of the students who had been at the Ranch the past few months. We also did a ton of filing. The interesting part of that was getting use to names that we were unfamiliar with. Often the names that sounded alike could be spelled in about 5 different ways. Made filing a bit more of a challenge.
Then the mailing we did had to be sorted into zip codes. We must have come up with at least 75 different zip codes. The area around here isn't that densely populated plus campers come from quite a distance, therefore, more zip codes. We have more computer work to do, hope it continues, if not we will be giving the dorm rooms a thorough housecleaning but with a group that usually is fun too.

The men are remodeling two units that will become a place for visiting pastors or speakers to stay. They are also making a huge deck around the cabin. In the project the windows had to be moved, the air conditioner had to be moved, the light fixtures had to be moved and wainscoting put on the ceiling. They don't have to do dry wall even though they have become very good at that.

Our tour took us to a couple of RVICS people who live 70 miles away in Muskogee, Oklahoma. They served us a delicious supper and it was fun to get acquainted with them as we all have lots in common when we share the experiences of RVICS. We are such new comers while some on this project have worked 60 projects. We are on our 6th project.

Hope this finds you all well. We enjoy good health and hope to hear from you soon

Love, Dad and Mom/Marilyn and Wilmer