Praises – Contractor work for house joist/floor leveling; protection from storms; inherited items selling; lightening RV weight for travel and invertor working
Prayers – Safe travel to Wisconsin, seeing family and friends; energy and health for SOWER volunteer work; good weather July 30 for outdoor music
Lord, you have knowledge of me, searching out all my secrets . . you see my thoughts from far away . . you keep watch over my steps and my sleep . . . Where may I go from your Spirit?. . I will give you praise, for I am strangely and delicately formed; your works are great wonders . . in your book all my days were recorded . . Psalm 139:1-3, 7, 14, 16 paraphrased-Basic English Bible
Hello to our family, friends, and followers:
June did not start well for our house renovations. We had an unexpected main water line break on June 1 followed by the heat pump (a/c) not working on June 2. Connie had to make a trip to the laundromat to get some work clothes clean, and we used the ceiling fans to keep the inside temperature workable (at least in the mornings for Connie). John worked with a contractor to get the floors stable and reasonably level, as well as putting in new PEX cold water lines. By mid-month Connie turned on the main line while John and the contractor checked for leaks above and below the floor – no leaks, cold water to toilet and washer, and clean clothes for travel!
There were about 58 hours we logged as working on our rental house. John decided (after a very high quote) to put in new PEX water lines on his own and completed the cold water before we left. Connie slowly tackled the walls in the living room and bedroom (with a little bit of help) getting these rooms ready to paint when we return. There were many nail/screw holes to patch, a wallpaper border that seemed to be super glued, and light sanding for the old paneling/paint.
Our hostas started blooming along with some gladiolas (yellow and a red one later, Connie’s grandma’s favorite), another yellow rose bush, and the apple tree has apples! The plum tree must be decorative with no signs of fruit and nothing on the pear trees. Of concern was finding Japanese beetles shredding the leaves of the pussy willow plant two days before leaving. The leaves were sprayed and hopefully the beetles will leave before too much is destroyed.
Knowing we would be making a two-day trip north Connie researched and ordered an invertor for the RV (it keeps the refrigerator running from the battery). We had made shorter trips and went without for over a year and it was time with summer heat upon us. John moved things out of the ‘basement’ storage and the old one actually worked at one point (of course) but wouldn’t run the next day so the new one was installed and works great! There was one evening that the bathroom vent was left open and we found a wet floor during the night from a passing thunderstorm. There were still some drips two days later so the trim was taken down to investigate. No apparent problems with the vent or seal, everything was dried out thoroughly and put back together. Note to selves: check the vent before going to bed!
Salty Strings had music for the SALT senior group the first June meeting, and a devotion for the second meeting (the instruments were all tucked away for travel). We provided the instrumentation (guitar and auto harp) for Father’s Day worship music, working with their song leader – that went very well and was a blessing to them and us. We arrived in Illinois 2 days before our annual program for Jolly Seniors, made our song list, learned 2 new songs, and had a wonderful program there. Every year it seems to rain for this program, we thought this year would be an exception but it rained 3 times after we had things unloaded and quit as we loaded the truck back up. We didn’t get wet this year and the crops really needed the rain.
One of the silly things we do to keep each other on our toes is to ‘hide’ our soft plastic, almost slimy, somewhat iridescent salamander throughout the RV. Once in a while we even manage to get more than a smile when he’s found. He was found one morning and rescued before Puff (the instant pot release valve) ate him for breakfast. Connie keeps using her instant pot for a lot of our meals, and a few times a month she makes her own yogurt which keeps for a few weeks in covered jars in the refrigerator.
Connie’s big June adventure was going to camp. She volunteered to help the camp cook (Pastor’s wife) the first two days of high school week, preparing all three meals for about 80 campers and staff each day. That was great fun for her, however the camp was near Tupelo, MS about an hour away so she opted to stay overnight in the girl’s dorm. Quite different from sleeping in the RV; plastic mattress cover, bottom bunk, and 2 minute “lights out” warning that lasted forever, followed by the upper bunk search with a flashlight that kept shining in her face. She had a really good night’s sleep after getting back home!
By mid-June the kitchen and bathroom floors in the house were removed/patched and as level as possible, the bathroom fixtures were out, and John had secured our two RV site water spigots to their posts. He stayed plenty busy the rest of the time cleaning up the property with two trailers for the dump, filling the truck with scrap metal (old water heater, bed springs, aluminum ducts from mobile home), and moving wood/brush out of sight. Our trip to town netted $35 for the scrap metal, yeah! Another praise was getting our inherited eyesore trampoline sold (even though they didn’t come until 9pm) and the dish washer sold as well – all the larger items are gone finally and the property is looking so much better. We both went through our “RV spaces” and thinned out what we wanted to carry in with us since we now have a place to store things. We plan to spend more time off-road so many tools, stained glass materials and tools, paperwork, and music was put in the wheel barrow for transport and now lines the walls in our section of the house. Once we arrived in Illinois, one of the first things was unpacking the bicycles; after the tires were pumped up John took off for a ride.
Mississippi June weather was hot and muggy with lots of thunderstorms and tornado warnings – nothing that affected our property thankfully. We have three dusk-to-dawn yard lights and one morning the lights didn’t turn off until after 7 am. Typically, Connie is anxious with storms and winds but there was one day that she found the thunderstorms quite enjoyable – there were no heavy downpours or winds, just lots of lightening and long rolling thunder, off and on all day. Illinois weather had been very dry with short corn and cracks in the dirt; not as hot or humid as Mississippi and cooling into the upper 60’s at night for great sleeping weather. Our first two days were hazy with 1.3-mile visibility from the Canada wild fire smoke.
Along with new flowers appearing we had a few new critters as well. The day Connie turned the water back on was very hot and she moved a cement block into the shade to sit on while controlling the main valve. There was a faded out, slimy pinkish thing, she thought might have been a snake (which we haven’t seen on the property, yet). After watching and research, and seeing another one while cleaning up the scrap metal and wood pile, they were three-striped salamanders. We also had a hawk land on a tree branch outside our RV window and after a huge downpour there was a (box?) turtle making his way across our driveway headed to the woods. The hummingbird feeder was put up after arriving in Illinois and found less than 5 hours later. We’ll see if they remember John from last year and allow him to hang around in their feeder space again.
There have been a few health-related issues causing minor discomfort and discouragement this month. Connie found out, the hard way, that some wonderful vine-type ground cover last month was in fact poison ivy, oak, or sumac and had to deal with the side effects most of the month. She also woke one morning with a sore throat and couldn’t talk for about 3 days, which perhaps was a good thing?! John’s ankle was bothering the beginning of the month, his knee was swollen mid-month, and a picnic table seat board whacked his hand/wrist at the end of the month. Add in a few ticks and lots of crawling around under the house and up and down ladders – it is a good time for a change of scenery!
The last part of the month was saying our ‘goodbyes’ to our Mississippi friends before heading north. We had our last date night with Iuka church friends at the Aqua Harbor Yacht Grille. June 25-26 we were on the road traveling to Little Galilee Christian Camp in Clinton, IL and our home church in Lane, IL. The trip was slightly longer than we wanted for one day so we attended Sunday School and church service, took some sandwiches with us, and got hooked up. We had concerns about the slides working and getting the wheels out of the dirt sink holes, but all went smoothly for our 4 hours to Sikeston, Missouri.
We planned overnight lodging at Lambert’s Café (home of the throwed rolls) and we were thankful for electric hookup overnight. It was 98 degrees, very windy and muggy so we parked, turned on the air conditioners, found a TV station, and relaxed a bit before supper. It wasn’t long before there was water coming from the a/c and soaking the end of the bed! Towels were applied, the vents were removed, water was sopped up from the unit, and it was turned off. We went to supper, returned to our now 80-degree home where John climbed onto the roof. Everything looked good and we turned it back on (low this time) with no further issues through the night. Once it cooled off, we slept fine not leaving until 10am for another 4-5 hours to our destination.
Once we arrived in Illinois John found his volunteer niche this year would be scraping and sanding pavilions, benches, and picnic tables. He started on a Thursday in the morning, and continued Friday with 7 hours total. There was a time-out on day one, waiting for a tornado warning and thunderstorms to pass through and the power to be restored. A slow start but camp is in session, campers are here, and we are ready for God to use us mightily.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4 NIV
Until next month – thanks for traveling with us and being part of our family ~
John and Connie Nicholas
Salty Strings Music Ministry
Contact Information:
Mail: John & Connie Nicholas
Salty Strings Music Ministry
3916 N. Potsdam Ave. #3962
Sioux Falls, SD 57104
Phone – John 909-336-8910 or Connie 909-336-8912
Email – SaltyStrings@hotmail.com
Facebook – Salty Strings Music Ministry
Web site – SaltyStrings.com
ONLINE DONATIONS via PayPal through our web site
TRAVEL PLANS AND UPCOMING LOCATIONS
- June 26-July 27 – Little Galilee, Clinton, IL
- July 27-August 24 – SOWER Project, East Troy, WI
- July 31 – Portage, WI Music for Enduring Skills Historic Festival, 1-2 pm
- August 24-31 – Carlinville, IL RV park – visit friends
- September 1-November 24 – Our property, Jacinto, MS – house repairs/rental
- November 24-February 2024 possibly – SOWER Project, Bonifay, FL