Work, Work, Work

I have never worked so hard (that I can remember at least). This is the third day in a row (and at least two left until we cut a break) of hauling 55 pound sacks around and other heavy boxes. We were using the four wheeler a lot today (more on that later in “Boring car stuff…”). Here is a look at the four-wheeler (Ain't she a beauty?) and trailer (no Carter didn't drive at all...)


We would bring 110 pound sacks of sugar, 55 pound sacks of beans, 55 pound sacks of rice, boxes of canned fish in sauce (I don’t know the weight), and boxes of cooking oil to the building where we were putting the “family sacks” together and then those 40 pound family sacks were brought to a depot (that’s what they call the storage areas here). We got most of the boxes and sacks to that building and assembled 200 40 pound sacks. Most of this work was done in the afternoon.


In the sacks were: noodles, rice, beans, corn meal, cooking oil, salt, sugar, canned fish, four aluminum plates, spoons and cups, water purification liquid, and a Bible tract. With all the food we are also providing sheets/blankets, a five gallon bucket with cover (these are like gold here), candles and matches.


Here is the assembled and bagged family sack:


Boring car stuff…

I started this morning by replacing the belts on the tan Pathfinder, painting my gas can mount for the Landcruiser, and replacing the alternator-like mechanism and the water pump of the four-wheeler. I flushed out the icky brown stuff in the cooling system and replaced it with coolant and pond water (it was all I had access to for water at the time – it was filtered).

The last couple times we tried to use the four-wheeler, it would overheat, the tire would deflate, and we had other troubles with it. As the Lord would have it, all the fixes that I made this morning must have been good. The machine performed beautifully without overheating. The slow leak in the tire held after I pounded the rim straighter. It was awesome to be able to use that because we couldn’t get another vehicle in very close which would mean a lot more manual labor. It died once because the idle got real high for some reason (Troy S. – any ideas?). To slow the idle down, I increased the choke, but did it too much and it died. I found out that the battery is still not getting charged. (Troy S. – any ideas?) There is a regulator-like thingy that I am thinking about replacing (if I can find it from the trashed four-wheeler). The four-wheeler will be getting a lot more use tomorrow. With all the food we have, we’ll be working on this through at least the next week. We could use more helpers, so hopefully we’ll get them soon from the local church and school.