Praises – Great weather again for outdoor music; safe travels; re-connecting with family and friends; still blessed and content as life happens!
Prayers – Continued healing for John’s knee, medical provider(s) for knee diagnosis; contractors for house renovation and timely completion
“. . turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.” Deuteronomy 30:10b-11 NIV
Hello to our family, friends, and followers:
John’s knee problem kept us guessing throughout the month. August 1 was the beginning; we borrowed some very tall crutches from the camp and our much shorter son gave us a pair he had soon after, definitely needed and used for several weeks. A week later John took his first truck ride, figuring out how to get in and out was a challenge. By August 10-13 he was moving along well with the crutches, getting up a small hill to the dining room for supper and a longer day out attending church. He resumed limited hour volunteer service in the shop on the 15th and overdid just a bit. By the 24th he could move about the trailer with a knee brace and without crutches and checked the tire pressure and his usual travel prep duties. Improvement is there but it is very slow and compensating for the knee affects his back as well.
Connie has been a bit stressed; uncertainty does that along with change in routines. Our first Sunday outing she developed swirly tunnel-like vision during breakfast, laid down in the dark for about 10 minutes, then drove to church with only a slight headache. No more vision problems, but a slight headache again in the evening attributed to the heat and going in and out several times. She did have quite a struggle with our “Salt Shaker” July newsletter, getting the ambition and words together (and not meeting ‘her’ timetable).
It has been five years since we have been to this project and the camp is in their second transition in ownership/management. The new camp owners have a large number of employees in various business locations along with full-time chaplains that come weekly to the camp. The second week Connie invited them for a “house-call” to our RV to pray for John and his healing. It was a wonderful experience! The last camp week was the annual “Burn Camp” with a carnival including local fire trucks on parade, helicopter(s), and the huge American Flag over the road. Although not our usual schedule, we were blessed to have 96 hours of service to this wonderful camp.
Connie was assigned to the dining room but the kitchen lost some workers so she was very happy to be helping with some staff that she has worked with before. With John taking the truck she walked: the trail was 0.33 miles going with a hill at the end that was a bit tough, and another 0.33 miles coming back with a big hill at the end leaving her out of breath. She used the alternate route, a bit longer and sunnier, for the days she didn’t want to tackle the hills and gravel trail. The final week was cleaning, starting in the bakery, moving to the basement dry storage, the inside of the left-over cooler, and ending with the tags for the food service lines.
John’s first day of serving was right after the storm that left lots of tree limbs and debris to be cleaned up. He had a helper the first day, and was on his own prepared with a chain saw the second day. Lots of up and down hills, cutting up larger limbs and loading into a truck to haul away. He did a bit of wall sanding and prep for painting the last hour and came home severely limping and in a lot of pain from his right knee. After a week off he was able to help in the shop sorting nuts, bolts, screws, and arranging a new shop area to consolidate all these little necessities. The last week Connie helped a little (some sorting, mostly carrying and arranging) to get it all done before leaving.
John did play some guitar and mandolin outside in the fresh air towards the end of the month. Once able to drive comfortably he helped as we traveled and attended the men’s group at Hardee’s in Carlinville, IL – a favorite activity when we’re in the area.
We were glad to find our parking site in Wisconsin still had lots of wildlife. The first to appear were hummingbirds followed by three large male turkeys strangely enough gathered behind the RV near the hummingbird feeder. The sand hill cranes showed up in pairs within our first week, followed by turkey, and finally the deer-two mamas with babies usually. John saw the first deer (mama and baby) on his first volunteer day. There were some days with up to seven deer including a 6–8-point buck and six cranes; and one lunch time a flock of turkeys of all ages crossed the road in front of our RV.
Connie went to Beloit to spend an afternoon with our son who was able to quickly transfer information from our old computer to our newer one. He pulled the hard drive from the old laptop and made it into an external hard drive for back up then got it recycle ready – goodbye old laptop. Along with that trip was a stop in pouring rain to get our favorite bagels and two grocery stops (it had quit raining by then). With John recovering she picked up the weekly chore of dumping our tanks. There is new appreciation for spouses that we so often take for granted. She also pulled out her sewing machine to mend a few items, and took two older t-shirts and fringed the sleeves so she had more cool options in the heat (not fashion cool, just to allow a bit more breeze and she loves fringe).
We missed attending church our first Sunday in Wisconsin, watching two sermons from TV instead; it’s just not the same! We were able to be with family in Beloit, WI the following Sunday, enjoying an excellent worship band with lights and smoke (a bit different), seeing our granddaughter on stage with VBS kids, and enjoying the sermon as well. Our final Sunday in the area was with our friend at his church with a last whirlwind of visits before leaving Wisconsin.
We were out and about more by the end of the month, enjoying some fellowship and food of course. There was a Friday ‘date night’ with Connie’s high school friend along with a wonderful porch visit to enjoy the great weather. The camp treated us to ice cream in town at an old drive-in and pizza with our neighbor SOWERs. Our week stay in Illinois included a Chinese buffet on our own, a visit to Beaver Dam State Park restaurant with church friends, lunch out with the Pastor planning for Sunday service, lunch at the block party, and a farewell potluck-type supper at the church. Connie certainly didn’t have to cook that week!
Connie convinced John that we could move, at the request of our son, her mother’s collectible plates to Mississippi. Still not sure if that was a good or bad idea, but we managed to get them all into our truck on one of the hottest afternoons. John was using one crutch at the time, so Connie did a lot of lifting and arranging of the ~260-piece cargo. We had supper that evening with Connie’s sister and enjoyed some time outside playing with their dogs. Of course, what goes in has to come out before traveling – more arranging with most of them fitting into our loft. The last few rode in the truck finishing their trip tucked inside for our last travel days.
Hot would be the word for August weather. Hot when we set up in Wisconsin. Hot for our tear down, travel, and set up in Illinois. Heat index was over 100 a few times in Wisconsin. We held our weather travel streak – severe thunder storm, midnight shelter visit, and power outage when we arrived in Wisconsin. We had a hickory tree loaded with nuts at the back of our RV, twice with storms we heard loud thuds as they came down. A mid-month storm tipped over our bikes with a kick stand going through spokes; no damage but really tough to untangle. When we arrived for our week visit near Carlinville, IL another a long night of thunder storms, wind, and power outage. We did have a few cooler nights which we enjoyed and saw the ‘Blue Moon’ not to appear again until 2037.
Salty Strings had one music engagement this month, in Carlinville, IL at another ‘home’ church. We prepared some special music for the morning service and were able to share quite a few folk songs in the afternoon for their “Neighborhood Block Party.” We tuned up all the instruments after church, had a wonderful hot dog and chips lunch, moved everything outside, and enjoyed playing from 1:30-3:15. We moved our shade canopy further away from the bounce house noise from kids (and adults) bouncing about and the air fan, but were still a bit hoarse after singing so much. We are definitely out of shape, but it was a great day for outdoor music with a slight breeze and mostly overcast 76 degrees. Connie even had her face painted!
We had two moves this month, all about 4-5 hours each day, and John was able to help drive. The first was near friends in Carlinville, IL for a week-long stay. It was 83 outside when we left, 99 in the RV on arrival mid-afternoon and still 80 inside at 6 pm. Driving into the sun with some wind we didn’t get very good diesel mileage, but it was a shorter trip with a pull through site making parking easy.
As we left for our two-day trip back to Mississippi, for the first time we had no glitches with the slides going in or securing the lock lever when we hitched up! There were a lot of speed traps along the way to our overnight stay at Lambert’s RV park, Sikeston, MO where we opted to put the jacks down just enough to stabilize the RV so we could put our slides out and have use of the kitchen and TV for a relaxed evening. After a good night sleep John wanted to walk to a restaurant a couple of blocks away with good information online, however on arrival we found no cars, dark building, and a carry-out only sign on the door. We hiked back, iced down the knee, ate breakfast in the trailer, packed our sandwiches for travel, and headed out. We stopped at a beautiful rest area as we entered Tennessee, and arrived at our property around 2 pm. We stopped in the driveway to survey our renovated RV site, parked and set-up then checked the house (very musty with no a/c for over two months). Our driveway still needs some finesse and the back yard is a jungle but we are ‘home’ for a few months with lots to do for the house to be ready to rent before winter.
Devotion Thought: Contentment isn’t having what you want; it is wanting what you have.
“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:3-4 NIV
Until next month – thanks for traveling with us!
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
** September 1-November 24 – Our property, Jacinto, MS – house repairs/rental
** November 24-February 2024 possibly – SOWER Project, Bonifay, FL