Praises – John’s knee improving, able to be under house by mid-month; wonderful contractor found; safe travels; babysitting granddaughter; beautiful location and weather
Prayers – Health care providers still needed; strength and perseverance to finish house remodel; safety in our work and travels; RV heat pump, a/c, and awning issues developing
The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. Songs of joy and victory are sung in the camp of the godly. The strong right arm of the Lord has done glorious things! . . I thank you for answering my prayer and giving me victory! . . You are my God, and I will praise you! You are my God, and I will exalt you! Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Psalm 118:14-15, 21, 28-29 New Living Translation
Hello to our friends, family, and followers:
Our month of September in northeast Mississippi has been great with temperatures of 70-95 early in the month and 55-85 by the end of the month, getting into Connie’s comfort zone. We’ve had only a handful of rainy days and the rental house remodel keeps us quite busy. Our theme this month is from Gomer Pyle – “Sur-prize, sur-prize, sur-prize” as we change doorways, find electrical wires in the attic, and try to rebuild to the original house and likely three add-ons; we never know what we will find, including two pennies used as shims.
In the last three weeks we have had a much-needed helper in our labor. He has removed walls, added headers, built new walls, taken out and reframed the steps to the lower addition (adding a 2nd bedroom), made some very constructive suggestions, endured our changes and decisions along the way, crawled around the attic fixing electrical junction boxes, and rewired for old and new switches and lights.
John took about a week before tackling crawling under the house to finish up the hot water PEX lines, and by mid-month the plumbing was complete and the bathtub drain line was fixed. He fixed the trailer deck railing (requested by insurance company), pulled up the vinyl plank flooring in a redesigned room (to be used elsewhere), changed all the light bulbs to LED, pulled nails from old wall lumber, tacked up the drywall ceiling in the utility room, fixed the weakening back deck stairs, loaded a borrowed trailer with construction scrap, reworked the bathtub diverter, rebuilt the tub end wall, and secured the bathtub in place. The moment of truth came in connecting the hot water heater, turning on the water, finding a leak in the crawl space, fixing the leak, and connecting the washer to hot water!
Between aching body parts (John) and not much strength (Connie) we were able to unload many lumber purchases, the very heavy exterior door, took down a heavy sliding barn door in the living room, and removed a bathroom cabinet with mirror. John was able to get into the attic, trace wires buried under insulation, and we had success in moving a kitchen light switch but tried moving a dining room switch with no success. We found the attic gets very hot in the afternoon as well as being dusty and grimy.
Connie was able to patch several bare spots in the old popcorn ceilings, tore out multiple track doors, removed door trim/frames to use elsewhere (including removing nails), removed more wallpaper borders, replaced a broken ceiling fan with a new light, added vinyl to the water heater platform, scraped off the popcorn ceiling in one room, and kept things cleaned up after the guys. She also did a lot of research for cold air returns trying to calculate air flow, and found our exterior door for the ‘multi-purpose’ area of the house.
We were blessed to provide the music for Journey Church one Sunday and John sat in with the worship band once at Cross Point in Iuka. The end of the month we have been planning for more worship, the senior group, and music for a pastor’s appreciation banquet in October. Sometimes it seems like ‘one more thing to do’ with all the busy work we have, but it always turns into a blessing as we listen to God and choose songs.
September turned into a month of travel. Our first adventure was an overnight trip to Nashville with our youngest son and family. We took the Nachez Trace scenic route to the Gibson Guitar Shop, hiked downhill about three blocks to the trolley stop and toured the city sights. After pizza and a Reuben sandwich, John drove the crazy interstate across town to our hotel where we were able to babysit our three-year-old granddaughter for the evening while Mom and Dad went to the Opry. It was fun taking this very independent gal for a walk through the gardens while ‘grandpa’ rested his knee, then he took over with story books until she fell asleep. We had a wonderful breakfast buffet in the gardens, packed up for checkout, and toured more instrument shops before heading home. There was a good thunder-storm around sunset with several rainbows and glorious skies.
Our second trip was a very relaxed overnight stay in Paducah, KY. Connie has always wanted an oval beveled glass front door but we found that to be above our budget. She was able to find a rectangular shape within our budget that we both liked better, however, it was only at Menards and the closest store was Paducah, four hours away. The trip was about half the cost of shipping the door, we had lunch at Mel’s Diner, stopped at three music stores in the historic district (John played a $3900 Breedlove 12-string guitar that stayed at the store), saw an Ohio River boat, had complimentary milk and hot cookies before bed at the hotel with a wonderful breakfast in the morning, and Connie enjoyed her BOGO ice cream birthday treat at Cold Stone Creamery before we headed home. After two hotel stops this month, we decided we needed something besides huge black garbage bags for our pillows (we always take our own) and we found the perfect ‘luggage’ at Goodwill for $11.
Aside from our many shopping trips and travels this month we went once with friends for Friday date night, followed, of course, by four shopping stops. John was able to wash the truck a couple of times and played mandolin and guitar outside as well. Connie enjoyed a couple of work breaks in the swing (still in the shade at lunch time), we had several evening fires with house decisions made as we sat in the swing, and we took one walk together through the woods complete with spider webs across the paths.
One of the first things Connie checked on was her pussy willow tree – it survived the summer heat and the fuzzy fall buds are starting to grow. She purchased a “Crimson Doll” lilac bush and is waiting to find a magnolia tree to plant to complete her wish list for landscaping trees. The humming birds are back to the feeder, there are some occasional sightings of squirrels, blue birds passed through for a few days, lots of butterflies, and a bright green katydid bug held onto the truck on one of our many shopping trips, making it back home safely. There are apples on our tree, a bit tart for our taste, but cooked with some brown sugar they are wonderful. There was a squirrel perched in the tree behind our RV that really liked an apple; we don’t know how he got it to the tree branch.
Newsletters by nature highlight the positives in life, but we have many oops moments as well; like the day John finished dusting and vacuuming then spilled his milk and cereal on the floor. He enjoys his time on the mower, although the blades need to be sharpened more to get through the weeds, and he helped organize in a church friends barn and hung two doors with him. We acquired an aluminum awning that will eventually be used over a pallet deck area, hopefully with a small hot tub someday. Connie made coleslaw for a church garage sale BBQ plate and, at John’s request, got out her harp for some practice and is figuring out a new song. She was able to get all the plates moved into our multi-purpose area, sorted out the unboxed plates, and moved four complete collections back to the RV to get listed someday for sale. Our check list is getting shorter, but there is still much to be done before the house can be rented.
Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Share the news of his saving work every single day! Declare God’s glory among the nations; declare his wondrous works among all people. . . Then the trees of the forest will shout out joyfully before the Lord, because he is coming to establish justice on earth! Give thanks to the Lord because he is good, because his faithful love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:23-24, 33-34 Common English Bible
Thanks for traveling with us and supporting us with your thoughts and prayers!
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