Sheffield - Part 2

On Monday, August 31 and Tuesday, September 1 a team of 7 CFC members returned to Sheffield to undertake the removal of even more debris resulting from the EF-1 tornado that hit that community on July 15.  We had been sent in advance Right of Entry permission forms for 3 properties that were located on River Bluff Road overlooking the Tennessee River.  The tornado there certainly was a strange one.  It traveled north to south across the river and at this location it traveled up the bluff and the deep sloping backyards of the properties close to the river.

The 7 members of the Sheffield-Part 2 team were (left to right) John Calhoun, Ken Clements, Boyd Martin, Buddy Williams, Chris Williams, Bob Thompson and (seated) Jim Pressler.

Our first assignment was to remove debris from a property that actually was across the street from the other two properties that backed up to the river.  Jim dispatched that work with his pole saw and the team was able to handily dispose of the debris with the homeowner's consent at the very rear of the property. In assessing the other properties we had been asked to clear, we determined that we would need to obtain Right of Entry permission from two additional homeowners on the bluff as the debris would need to be moved from east to west across all the properties and up the slope at the very west end of the string of 4 properties.  We felt that would be the safest route for the skid steer to traverse from the backyards to the street where the debris would need to be placed.  The other two homeowners - one being the Mayor of the city of Sheffield - were all very willing to execute permission forms and everyone expressed their appreciation to us for returning to help them a second time.

The picture above really doesn't do justice to the complexity of the job site, but it shows the topography as viewed from the pilot's seat of Abel, Asbury UMC's skid steer, which so importantly assisted our cutters in the removal of the debris we encountered.  You can see three of the 4 houses at the top of the ridge (the 4th house is just to the right out of the picture).  And bringing debris across the undulating, sloping backyards was the only way we could hope to bring the debris up to the street in front of the houses!

Here's a view looking back up the sloping backyards from the top of the bluff below (there's actually a road at the base of the bluff), which then overlooks the river beyond.

Some of the debris we originally encountered looked like this:

The crew divided into several sub-groups and each tackled separate portions of debris across all 4 backyards.

By the time we finished up all that we could accomplish in two days, the majority of the debris had been cut and removed to the street.  One of the homeowners asked us to specifically leave one of the large tree trunks on the ground; he and a friend have arranged to cut it into firewood over the weeks ahead.  But the other large tree trunks particularly the ones bordering the Mayor's property (but actually owned by his immediate neighbor to the west) we're afraid will need to remain as a souvenir of the storm as we could not determine a safe way to cut and remove them from where they fell.

We'd like to say a special thank you to many folks who made our two-day stay in Sheffield a treat for us.  First, thank you Rev. Randy Burbank, for arranging overnight accommodations for us at the Cold Water Inn (we actually had real hotel rooms with beds and showers instead of our normal church fellowship hall or gym or classroom converted with air mattresses and communal bathrooms down the hall).  Thank you Charlie and Sally Grimmitt, members of Sheffield UMC, who provided us with abundant water and ice to keep us hydrated as we worked, plus peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips and a cookie for lunch on both days and a chicken spaghetti dinner, complete with dessert, that Sally prepared and served to us at the church on Monday night between our two work days.  We enjoyed the Grimmitt's company at dinner and were enthralled by the stories Charlie told about the early history of Sheffield, the "competition" between Sheffield and Muscle Shoals when it comes to which community really owns the rights to claiming it originated the local music recording industry, and especially his rendering of how a local hospital orderly by the name of Persey Sledge, became an overnight singing sensation in 1966 when he recorded "When A Man Loves A Woman" locally.  Thanks also go out to one of the neighbors we served, Phyllis Brocato, who came running out of her house with fresh-out-of the-oven brownies for us; and to CFC team member Nancy Miller who made and sent along her traditional home-made brownies for us, too!

Restoration Mission Revisited

On Thursday, August 27, a 3-man team consisting of Bob Thompson, Jim Pressler and Ray Miller assisted Rev. Al Lewis by removaing a large limb that had fallen on a storage shed behind Rev. Al's residence just two doors away from his Restoration Mission church in West Birmingham.  The work went quickly and these before-and-after pictures show the scope of the work the team performed.

...and now Nauvoo - Part 3

So as we've finished in one "away" location (Sheffield), we'll be off to our next destination (Nauvoo) without delay.  We'll be helping property owner Jan Hoadley there by cutting and removing the debris that has resulted from the downing of a huge tree that divided and destroyed her mobile home when it fell.  Our first work day there will be this coming Saturday, September 19.  We're hoping that the youth from Riverchase UMC who normally assist on Habitat for Humanity assignments on Saturdays under the coordinating direction of Greg Warden, will be joining us in Nauvoo this Saturday to see firsthand what we do and help us by pulling debris to the curb and stacking it there.  A team of 6 CFC members are currently signed up to serve from 7 am to 12 noon on Saturday.  We anticipate that 4 or 5 more days of service will actually also be needed there.  So we'll be heading back to Nauvoo every Tuesday, beginning Tuesday, September 22 - working from 8:30 am until 3 pm each day - until our job is finished there. If there are others reading this article who would like to participate in this work assignment but who have not yet committed to help on this deployment, please contact me by email as soon as possible so that we can accommodate your interest and coordinate your participation with one or more of the teams over the weeks ahead.

Thank you all for your continuing prayers for our safety and for all the persons who are so adversely affected by severe storms.  Remember to stay in touch with us by reading our blog at cuttersforchrist.bolgspot.com!

In His Service, Bob

On Monday morning around 5:45 we all met at our meeting places and headed to Sheffield for a 3 day deployment to assist the people on the 800 block of River Bluff Drive in Sheffield Alabama.
While driving up I thought of our first deployment of 2015 to Monterrey Tenn. That week we were snowed out for a day and that night it dipped down to 8 degrees. We started cutting cutting the next morning at 18 degrees. Now we are going to cut for 3 days in temperatures of 96 - 97 degrees. I guess this showed we are willing to go and do what we can to share Christ's love for those needing our help.

We met with our host pastor and friend Randy Burbank of First United Methodist Church of Sheffield at 8:00 to convoy to River Bluff Drive. So we headed off with Rev. Randy, Rev Ed Brasher, Bob Suellentrop, David Moser, Tim Smith, and myself and 2 skid steers.

We arrived at the work sites around 9:00 and surveyed the 4 ROE's that we have signed and began work at 810 River Bluff Drive. This property has a spacious lot with many trees down. So we chose it first because we could use the 2 skids and keep our 3 cutters together. We worked most of the day here before moving across the street to 807.

807 had 2 huge Oak trees down so we started sectioning the first tree until the afternoon showers came. We were all worn out and dehydrated so we called it around 3:30 and declared Monday done.

This trip out we were blessed with the luxury of staying in the Coldwater Inn in Tuscumbia. After a dunk into the pool and a shower we ate at a local spot next to Clear creek park. After some time of fellowship we returned back to the hotel to catch up on email and the news of the day.

Tuesday started with breakfast at 6:00 at the hotel and meeting with Rev Randy at 7:00 in the parking lot of his church. We resumed work at 807 removing 20' of chain link fence to gain access into the back yard to remove an Oak of about 30" in diameter. With one skid and 3 saws we had completed the task shortly after lunch and returned back across the street to 810 to finish felling two huge pines that were twisted off 20' above the ground and to remove the rest of the debrief. The heat had taken a toll by 2:30 so we called it a day and back to the pool and showers.

Tuesday night we were blessed to eat at Randy's church prepared by his members and the mayors wife. The mayor sat at our table and engaged in conversation expressing his gratitude for helping the residents of Sheffield. He had assigned us a team of trucks to haul the debrief away almost as fast as we could get it to the street. On Monday and Tuesday they hauled about 12 loads for us.

Wednesday was the same 6:00 AM call and report to the church at 7:00. I should say on Monday we had 2 skids and Tuesday we had 1 skid and Wednesday we just had 3 cutters and Rev Randy which worked with us all 3 days. We saved 822 River Bluff Drive because it was all in the back yard down the side of a bluff overlooking the Tenn, River. Beautiful sight but terrible place for a chainsaw. We pulled down a 30' widow maker and let it slide down the slop and dropped two 32" Oaks that had been twisted off  one 25' and the other 15' up. We also section one large limb lying on the patio and loaded it in the truck and carried it to the street.

After 2 hard day and 3 hours of hard cutting on Wednesday we called it a successful trip and packed up and headed home. It was a rough 3 days but it was also a very rewarding time. We hope to see more of our members on the next outing and to Bob and Ray "GET WELL SOON".

To God be all the glory
Buddy Williams

More Work In Nauvoo

I wasn't originally even going to share a report on this effort.  It started back in early June when Ray Miller called me to say that Rev. Watkins at Nauvoo UMC had contacted him to ask if we might return to Nauvoo at some point to further reduce the lengths of many of the logs our CFC team had left by the roadside following our removal of the large pecan tree at the Christian's Place Ministry building on April 7.  Apparently because of the large log sizes they were not being picked up by the local townspeople for their cooking or heating fuel needs.  Ray felt we shouldn't have to bother contacting other members of either the RUMC or CFC teams about this work and that he and I alone could probably handle it between ourselves in a one-day trip.  So off we headed to Nauvoo on June 8.  No camera went with us.  It was just going to be Ray and me and a one-day quick job. Well, pecan wood is dense and hard.  And it took us all day (10 hours of work each) just to put a dent into what we found waiting for us!  After dulling our original and several replacement chainsaw blades, we conceded that we would have to return at least one more day to complete the job. Ray received another call from Rev. Watkins almost immediately after we returned to Birmingham that evening.  Apparently, after we left Nauvoo a straight-line wind had toppled an 80' tall water oak tree, just missing the unoccupied dwelling owned by the church and located just to the north of the Christian's Place Ministry building. Ray called me immediately and we commiserated briefly, agreeing that we'd now certainly need to at least alert the other members of our RUMC team and request their help on this growing assignment. But we still felt it probably was not going to be a reportable event.  That was, at least, until we received these images from Rev. Watkins and we got back up there and saw with our own eyes the extent of the new job!

We know how dramatic severe wind destruction can be - after all, it's our mission to help out after severe storms. But it's always amazing to also see how selective wind can be when it pushes over just one tree - and especially one of that size!  But praise God that it missed the house - just barely.  By the time we arrived on June 10 the city had already come through and cut the canopy off the street and back to the lot line but that day Jim Pressler, Ray and I devoted another 25 hours to cutting up all of the canopy branches that still remained. We removed them to a brush pile behind the house where eventually the rubbish removal company that picks up the church's trash dumpster was able to take the branches away as well; and we finished the remainder of the pecan tree work we had left unfinished two days before.

Ray went back by himself the very next day to try and section more of the remaining tree trunk and its branches and after 11.5 hours of work he had once again completed as much as he could before his saw chains dulled.  (Turns out water oak is as dense and heavy as pecan wood!)  So Ray's work marked off day 3 of our "simple" return work in Nauvoo, but the job was far from complete. On June 16 we called in the big guns - RUMC team member Jason Cannon with his log splitter!  We arrived to find that in the intervening days since June 11 someone other than we had come by and finished the last cut in the base of the tree that Ray's saw was just too dull to compete the week before, and the root ball had fallen back into the ground.  We would have liked to make that last cut ourselves and to have captured the root ball falling back into the ground on video, but someone else was eager to do it before we returned.  It was apparently all they wanted to tackle, however, as everything else was just as Ray had left it!

Jim, Ray and I continued cutting while Jason split the logs we could reduce in size enough to fit into his splitter.  As this tree was 17" in diameter about 15' from its base and a full 36" in diameter at its base, while we made progress we still left many "cheese wheels" yet to be sectioned.  It again took all of our saws and all of our blades to cut as much as we could and after another 26 hours of work we finally succumbed to the reality that our full coalition faith-based CFC disaster response ministry team would be needed to finish the job once and for all!

So the call went out and on July 21 a CFC team consisting of (left to right) Bob Suellentrop, Boyd Martin, Buddy Williams, Tim Smith, Dean Charles, Ken Clements, Henry Averyt and Bob Thompson trekked back for one more stab at completing the job.

I towed Jason's splitter/trailer back for a second trip and Bob towed his ATV and utility trailer and everyone brought their saws, muscles, mauls and metal log splitting wedges.  While the team worked with their saws for a while it became quickly evident that splitting the "cheese wheels" into manageable sections using mauls and wedges would work better.  The lumberjacks and loggers among us went to work.  The cheese wheels were cut into manageable sections and once the resulting logs were split they were loaded into Bob's trailer and with his ATV they were transported to the curb where they were neatly stacked and made ready for free pickup by anyone needing or wanting them.  Our job was finally finished and we left the job site raked and clean.

Including the final 80 hours the CFC team contributed to this work assignment, our simple little job took a total of 5 days and 162.5 hours - or the equivalent of one person working more than 4 40-hour work weeks!  Given the scope of the eventual work and the participation of so many team members over so many days, it is indeed right that we report the successful completion of this job to you, after all!

But We're Not Done Yet In Nauvoo

So we thought we were finished in Nauvoo.  So we thought...until we were asked to evaluate a job just 1/2 block south of the Christian's Place Mission building on Third Avenue.  It is property owned by Jan Hoadley and was being lived in by her godson, Connor Franklin, who helped RUMC's Bill Sparks with a good deal of the electrical work in the CPM building during its frame up.  Blessedly, neither Jan nor Connor nor any of their several animals were hurt in the destruction and devastation that has befallen this property.  Praise God! It was another freakish straight line wind just two weeks ago that hit Jan's property. The trees that were blown over severed the mobile home sitting on the property in two, totally destroying it; and limbs were dropped across several vehicles and the animal pens in the yard.  (There really is a destroyed mobile home under the huge tree in the image below.  I had to stitch this panoramic view of the devastation together from several individual images and that's why the person appearing in the center, that's Connor, looks so skinny and half-headed!)

This will be a really big job for us, but one we believe we can accomplish - with God's help and oversight, with your prayers and with a good turnout by many of our disaster ministry partners - including many of you who are reading this newsletter - when the time comes.  Please prayerfully consider your participation in this effort in the near future.  We anticipate needing need cutters, pickers, skid steers and their operators, safety officers and even compassionate counselors willing to listen to the property owner and maybe other townspeople while the debris is being removed.  We're in the initial planning stages of organizing this work.  It will take some advance coordination with the City of Nauvoo and with Walker County, as well as with other individuals in Nauvoo and the surrounding area who might be able to lend assistance to us.  We will certainly keep you informed of our planning and any work dates we establish as soon as we know them.  For now, won't you please be in prayer for Jan, for Connor and for our ability to successfully organize and eventually accomplish this job.  Thanks so much!

Team Prayer Concerns

Henry Averyt -- Henry has experienced two episodes of shortness of breath over the past eighteen months, both of which were very minor.  Nevertheless, he consulted his cardiologist following both episodes.  The cardiologist corrected the first problem with medication, but ordered an arteriogram following the second one.  The arteriogram was performed last Thursday and no blockages were found!  Henry already has a pacemaker which his cardiologist now thinks may need to be upgraded. The cardiologist plans to consult with the surgeon who implanted Henry’s present pacemaker and given the surgeon's agreement, an upgrade procedure will probably be scheduled in early Fall.  Henry sends his deep appreciation to all who lifted him up in prayer this past week.  He asks that prayers be continued for the successful resolution of his problem. Ray Miller -- We shared prayers last week in Nauvoo also for Ray following his surgery earlier this month.  His post-operative recovery has been slow, although Ray reports he is feeling fine.  Ray is at home recuperating and awaiting his next post-op doctor's visit next week.  Please be in continued prayer for Ray, that he might recover completely from his surgery and that his body will be completely restored. Bob Nabors -- Some time ago Bob was walking down a pathway at his lake home and slipped and fell on his left elbow, jamming his left shoulder in the process.  Well, that left shoulder injury turned into major shoulder reconstructive surgery.  Bob his now working through the process of physical therapy on that newly reconstructed shoulder and he has already regained some good range of motion.  However, he will not be able to participate with our teams for at least the next 6-8 months as his shoulder fully rehabilitates.  Let's remember to keep Bob in our prayers throughout his recovery period, too.

This has been a long report - especially for one we never expected to write up at all!  But we hope you've taken the time to read through it all and that you feel well informed and updated.  Please don't forget to stay in touch with us by reading our blog at cuttersforchrist.bolgspot.com when you can.

In His Service, Bob