We had been home from Harrisburg for
only 10 days when Buddy was able to assess a neighbor-in-need project for
us in Remlap, Alabama, northeast of Birmingham up Highway 75 in Blount
County. Buddy determined that we could and should help the homeowner,
Sara Baker (who was at work the day we arrived to clean the debris so
sadly we have no picture of her) given her circumstances and our
capabilities. As the large white oak tree (that had been decaying
and had been located perilously close to her home) had been felled by
others and left on the ground in fireplace lengths, Buddy felt that it
would be a job mostly for our "12th man" Abel - Asbury UMC's
skid steer. The debris - the bucked (cut up) logs and several piles
of somewhat smaller twigs and branches - simply needed to be moved up the
hill behind Sarah's house into the woods away from her home. But
even though most of the work would be Abel's to perform, 9 cutters and
pickers volunteered to travel to the site on Tuesday, February 28 and be
available to help out however needed and in any capacity.
Our volunteer team
pictured below consisted of Abel plus (left to right) Ken Clements, John
Fillebaum, Bob Suellentrop, Tim Smith, Bob Thompson, Bob Nabors, Buddy
Williams, Jim Pressler, house guest Cheryl Johnson and Boyd Martin.
Some before and after images:
We always love to have Abel with
us. We remember the days of pushing individual logs in wheelbarrows
up and down hills to debris collection piles before Abel joined us.
What a blessing it is to have him work with us, doing the work of 10
volunteers all by himself!
While our volunteers scurried about to
help stack and align the bucked logs into positions where Abel could grab
them in his grapple jaws, Abel then took everything up into the woods and
left them there to decompose over time in that natural setting. In
the meantime the debris pile will probably serve as a habitat/shelter for
various forest creatures.
All in all, it was a 5-hour job from
portal-to-portal. Not a bad half-days work. And Sarah sent us
this note the next day expressing her thanks:
"I just wanted to express my deepest gratitude to all of you who
cleaned up my yard, February 28th, 2017. Please tell everyone how
much of a Blessing that was for me and how much I appreciate everyone’s
hard work. May God continue to work through you in all of your
endeavors in the name of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. My yard
looks AWESOME and again, I thank you so much."
Another successful achievement and accomplishment in Jesus' name and for
the glory of the kingdom!
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