Praises – For finishing the rental house; the much-needed rest to come.
Prayers – Full recovery of our strength for the Florida Sower projects; protection from any further injuries; good renters for the house.
But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. Galatians 4:4-5 New English Translation
Hello to our followers, friends, and family:
Guess what? We’re still in Mississippi! We started the month with a hopeful departure date of 12/22 – it got moved to 12/30. The hitch went back in the truck on 12/31, Connie wanted to leave 1/4, and we really did leave on 1/5 (more next month). There were several times in the last weeks that we were totally discouraged and a few times we looked at each other at the end of the day with smiles knowing we were getting closer to being done.
We are now “healthy” again but not back to where we were a year ago. Our November sickness took a toll on strength, stamina, and sanity. December 1 we still had heavy chests, a bit out of breath, croupy coughs, and gunk in our lungs. By the 4th we had a fairly good work day and survived a 4-stop shopping/restock grocery trip to town. John did punch a small hole in his palm and the ‘miracle tool’ grazed a finger, and Connie had some stiffness from painting and carpet burns to her hands/knuckle.
You’ve likely heard enough about our remodeling ups and downs by now, so we’ll try to keep this brief. There were many days we had to fight to maintain forward progress, but lots of really productive days as well. At the end of December there were very few things on the list and it was rewarding to be “done” with many steps. John handled all the baseboard (mostly reclaimed door trim), caulking, custom stained door sills, built two custom closets from old closet pieces after we agreed on the design, and the final fitting of doors with locks and vent grates.
Connie was busy cleaning old window blinds, installing five new cordless mini-blinds, laying carpet after John stapled down the old underlayment, and gluing vinyl in the small master bathroom. She hung the curtains (cleaned/modified by a church friend) for closets and doorways with tie-backs. As she reviewed the switches and outlets for cover plates there were many needing to be replaced, tightened to the wall, needing brown outlet screws (improvised, none to be found in the stores), and found a solution to the ordered outlet spacers that never arrived.
There were hours spent in researching “how to do” things with lots of helpful tips and tricks. We learned about heating with a heat pump and emergency heat, a hook blade works great for vinyl and carpet installation, and found our “reversible” refrigerator doors don’t reverse without special order parts. Slightly frazzled by the end of the month we purchased the wrong size LED tube to replace the bathroom light that was left on and burned out. Finally getting the right bulb the light did work and the switch was clearly marked “off/on” to avoid future mishaps.
Salty Strings music was limited this month due to our recovery – the SALT group was cancelled from cold weather and illness going around. We were able to play with the worship team and shared two special music Christmas songs at Cross Point Church in Iuka, and John joined the Journey Church Men’s Group skit and led two songs for their Sunday School Christmas Party and breakfast with lots of food.
We were invited to Christmas Dinner with the Pastor’s family where we enjoyed deep fried potatoes and chicken wings in multiple flavors, ham, freezer coleslaw, ramen and macaroni salad, and lots of goodies. It was really good being with multiple generations of family, kids opening presents, and lots of conversation. New Year’s Eve included communion at church in the morning and going to a sister church in the evening for a great message followed by fellowship and a pot luck dinner. We were home and in bed by 10 but Connie stayed up, heard our neighbors fire crackers at 11:45 and saw the new year start – first time in many years either of us has been awake at midnight!
Other fellowship and reprieve from work included a Sunday lunch with friends, and date night (moved to Saturday early afternoon) at Cracker Barrel. We were whisked off for a new late lunch adventure to the Outpost (Pickwick/Savannah TN) with great views of the outdoors, shops to explore, and good food followed by a stop at the drug store in Burnsville on the way back for ice cream (pharmacies and ice cream go together around here). We treated our friends to a Mexican lunch in Burnsville for their help with the curtains and unloading the stove, giving us a long break that day.
Shopping seemed to be problematic this month. We made a trip to a scratch-and-dent appliance store only to find they didn’t have a no-frills electric stove, ordered it from Lowes (last day of sale), picked it up and they forgot the cord. We ordered a replacement for our dying CO2/propane sensor in our RV along with some electric outlet spacers; tracking said it arrived 12/19 but didn’t and the replacement order was to arrive 12/29 and didn’t. Eventually we had to disconnect the beeping sensor in the trailer and Connie devised PEX spacers for some of the outlets. We planned a 7-stop shopping trip to Corinth, including the court house for titles and taxes, only to find 2 places closed and we (Connie) forgot the paperwork for the court house. John’s order for Pleasoning actually went right! Lots of lost time in ordering, traveling, and phone calls.
Our December weather averaged mid-40’s most of the month, with quite a few cold and damp days. Freezing overnight temperatures ranged from 2 hours long earlier in the month to 12 hours, meaning our water was off. We did run out of propane overnight, but not until ~6am so the rise and shine RV temperature wasn’t too bad. There was one thunder storm with some big boomers, and some spitting rain with a few snowflakes one morning. We also had a mid-morning visit from a pileated woodpecker, right outside our RV window. We had to do some research to identify this crow-size red headed woodpecker!
With all the shopping trips there were several meals out including Chinese take-out, sampling the slug burgers in Iuka (Connie still prefers White Trolley in Corinth), and home-made beef stew with macaroni. We’ll wait a year and see if we have a new Christmas snacking tradition – Connie made tuna salad and Wassel which is typical this time of year, and added cornmeal sausage balls which turned out good but a bit dry (she’s already tweaked the recipe for our second batch). John was cutting some old hardboard (for the shower access panel) and commented it smelled like maple syrup, which led to a wonderful pancake supper!
After cleaning and sanding painted surfaces there are now two coats of paint everywhere, there is sticky vinyl base trim by the bath tub and shower, and all the cabinet drawers and doors are in place (using toothpicks several times to tighten them up) along with their hardware. The front looks better with a clean light, miscellaneous nails and screws removed, and there are appropriate cover plates on the outside junction box and outlet. We had a teenager come over and put Old English on all the wood surfaces (a lot) and a few other things to help her go on a mission trip to Brazil this summer. Our multi-purpose room was finally vacuumed and organized to make room for the supplies and saws as we cleared out the house, and the refrigerator and stove were moved in place after a door frame modification. (P.S. finish photos to come next month or at Corinth Realty.)
Towards the end of the month John had two days in the crawl space adding pipe insulation to the water lines and making final connections to the toilet. With the colder temperatures he also shut off the water to our second RV site, wrapped up our long hose, and added a new fitting to our RV water line to restore pressure.
John continued to find peace and stress relief on his walks through the woods. He found all the boundaries and is planning his (hopeful) spring build of a bridge over our deep gully creek. He put the old abandoned double chair that needs repair and paint in a little clearing, obviously he’s sat there and pondered with his coffee. We took a pleasant evening walk around our driveway and a bit of the highway Christmas Day noticing the beautiful full moon rising through the tree tops and cloud streaks as we returned. Sometimes the work of the day made him/us too tired, or the setting sun brought darkness too soon to enjoy our blessings from God.
Devotion Thought this month: As a believer, we have been called by God for specific work for a specific time in His kingdom on Earth. Be faithful to the opportunities God gives us.
God is the one who gives seed to those who plant, and he gives bread for food. And God will give you spiritual seed and make that seed grow. He will produce a great harvest from your goodness. God will make you rich in every way so that you can always give freely. And your giving . . . will make people give thanks to God. 2 Corinthians 9:10-11 Easy-to-Read Version
Thanks for traveling with us and being part of our family too!
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
- January 5-March 27, 2024 – SOWER Project, Bonifay, FL
- March 28-September ? – Travel to property, Jacinto, Mississippi; travels IL, WI, SD
- August 1-26 – SOWER Project, East Troy, WI and family
- August 27-?? – Clinton, IL – Little Galilee
Salty Strings Music Ministry 