Accepted For Service: Ben & Caroline Fisher

Thank you for your prayers regarding our evaluation of Ben & Caroline Fisher this week (See May 26 posting). The Lord was clear in revealing His will for the Fishers and for MMS.

Consequently, I'm very pleased to introduce the two newest members of MMS Aviation: Ben & Caroline Fisher. The Fishers were accepted for service after successfully completing the final stage of evaluation...a week under the microscope here at MMS. We initiated the orientation process immediately after their acceptance this afternoon.

We'll meet again tomorrow for an eight or nine hour session in order to complete the material before they return to Missouri on Sunday. Once back home they'll begin raising the support necessary to begin service. Ben is a pilot and Caroline is a teacher.

Here I am assembling a display board for them to use as they travel to different places and share about MMS in different settings. This board is a tool for them to help educate people about the ministry of MMS as well as their role as missionaries with us.

It's exciting to have a role in preparing God's servants for the harvest field. Thank you so much for your direct role in helping us do so. Through your gifts and your prayers, you're as much a part of preparing Ben & Caroline for service as we are.

And may we all give God the glory for it!

The Flying Pfeifers

Here's the latest missionary aircraft project to fly-in to our facility.
It's a Piper Aztec operated by the Pfeifer Evangelical Association and is used to transport "The Pfiefers" (John Pfeifer, Candy Pfeifer, and Mary Jane Carter) across the United States and Canada to perform Gospel Music. The Pfeifer family has an evangelistic heritage reaching back to their grandfathers 78 years ago. Here's the cover of their latest CD.

We originally worked on their Aztec earlier this year and it's back now for some follow-up maintenance. Thanks to your gifts and prayers, the Pfeifers will soon safely return to the sky to spread the Gospel through music.

They're based out of Ohio but maybe they'll be flying into an airport near you soon! If you'd like to learn more about the Pfeifers, their music, and/or their schedule click here.

First Roses of 2008

Karen's safely in PA and I'm safely home from the shop. All is well on the Coshocton front. The weather has turned very spring-ish (sunny and warm as opposed to cold and wet) which is a nice change considering June starts next week.

I thought I'd share our first roses of 2008. The yellow rose is on our little bush (which survived being frozen into an ice block two winters ago) and the red one is our "4th of July" climbing rose. They call it "4th of July" because the flowers look like fireworks going off in the sky. Our other climber has buds all over it but hasn't yet opened. I'll get a full shot of the trellis once a few more flowers bloom.

Vertigo's Gone and Karen's Going

Vertigo
Thanks for praying about my vertigo. I'm at the shop today without any symptoms beyond the lingering head cold. Karen's foot continues to heal but at a rate much slower than she'd prefer.

Pennsylvania
Karen's actually off to Pennsylvania tomorrow, first to Pittsburgh for an overnight visit with her aunt in the hospital and then on to Lancaster for a nephew's wedding on Saturday. She'll be back Monday or Tuesday of next week. Along the way she'll pick up an airplane engine case from Africa to put in the trunk of her Honda. No, she's not going to Africa, the engine case is already in PA with missionaries who were in Africa. Having Karen pick it up will save the mission the money it would have cost to ship the engine case to MMS.

Evaluation Meal
We had a nice dinner with Ben & Caroline and Tim & Michele last night. Ben's been down in the hangar assisting with the MAG 206 project today. Caroline is being toured around the Coshocton area by one of the MMS wives. Lord willing, by Friday we'll know whether or not we can approve them as candidates.

We appreciate your prayers as this process unfolds.

Vertigo Returns & Karen's in the Kitchen

Vertigo Returns
I was surprised by the return of vertigo yesterday. It hit without warning around 3 in the afternoon and immobilized me until about 8 this morning. It's still hanging on but the intensity level has dropped to the point where I can get off the bed, keep food down, and look at a computer screen for a few minutes. It's kinda crazy.

Candidate Evaluation Dinner
Karen's cooking up a storm for our guests this evening. Tim & Michele (neighbors and fellow MMSers) are are coming over to share dinner with us and Ben & Caroline Fisher. Ben & Caroline are arriving from Missouri to undergo the final stage of evaluation to serve with MMS. They'll spend the next week living with another MMS family, Mike & Isobel. Ben will work in the hangar while Caroline interacts with the other wives and becomes familiar with the Coshocton area. They'll be watched, questioned, interviewed, tested, and otherwise put under the microscope. Ben's a pilot and Caroline is a school teacher. They've only been married two years, are in their early twenties, and desire to serve in mission aviation.

It's part of my job to oversee and facilitate their evaluation. If things go well, I'll spend next Friday, Saturday, and maybe Sunday afternoon, orienting Ben & Caroline for service.

Prayer Requests
Pray that my vertigo will go away.
Pray that Karen's sprained left foot will continue to heal.
Pray for God's guidance as we evaluation Ben & Caroline.

Thanks for loving and caring for us. Please know we love and care for you.

Saturday Evening Update

Karen's foot is improving and my cold has moved from throat, to head, to chest so we're in the home stretch on that one. Friday I felt so bad I stayed home from the shop and basically slept on the couch all day. This morning I felt a lot better and so went ahead and took care of the yard work this afternoon. Handled part of the business side of our ministry this morning...tracked support, updated information, wrote some note cards, and worked to clear the top of my desk.

We're having perfect weather today with more of the same tomorrow. Memorial Day is supposed to be rainy. Next week I'll oversee the in-hangar evaluation of Ben & Caroline Fisher. We're hosting them for dinner Monday evening.

Subway Sandwiches for dinner tonight.

The dogs have made it known they are ready to watch a movie.

Gotta go.

Health Report, Salsa Garden, Happy Dogs

HEALTH REPORT

We've enjoyed pretty good health so far this year (outside of my hospitalization for vertigo back in January). Karen's feeling the best she's felt in years and on Monday the doctor just told me I was healthy but needed to eat less, start exercising again, and to stop eating large quantities of ice cream before going to bed (something about my triglicerides doubling over the past year). So Tuesday I came down with a raging head cold (still raging) and today Karen sprained her ankle while continuing her work over at the Stalter House (the house I used to live in, see May 17th's blog). I'm here at the desk wheezing, coughing, and sneezing and she's over on the couch with an ice pack on her left foot. But we're blessed our health challenges are small. Many of our dear friends ( in Ohio, California, and Pennsylvania) and several of our fellow MMS missionaries around the world are facing real tests of their faith and of their health.

SALSA GARDEN

Here's the photo of our freshly planted salsa garden (also mentioned in the May 17th blog). Banana peppers, jalapeño peppers, and Roma tomatos trying to get rooted and ready. These are the gardens Karen just dug to allow the plants to receive more sun they did against the house where they used to be planted. She's planted perennials in the old beds.

HAPPY DOGSTucker and Tanner are already dreaming of the Salsa Harvest as they over look the garden from their observation point on our deck. You'll notice that Tucker is already licking her jowls in anticipation of snatching vine-ripened tomatos off the plant.

The Answer to the Question of May 16th's Blog

Before I provide the answer to the question you've been pondering, as posed in our May 16 post where we invited everyone to guess how much the pictured part (control yoke bearing) cost, I'd like to thank Brenda, of Ralph and Brenda Hultin, for her involvement in this interactive exercise. Out of all the guesses received, Brenda guessed the best and came closest to the actual retail price of the part if ordered from Cessna Aircraft Corporation.

I hope I haven't shortchanged any other prospective guessers by revealing the answer so soon, but it does appear that the bulk of the guesses have already been received. If I have short-changed you, and you haven't quite finished your web research of various on-line aviation parts catalogs, I apologize.

So, without further delay...drum roll please...the retail price for a single "control yoke bearing" as installed on your typical missionary Cessna 206 is $130.00. That's right, one hundred and thirty dollars for that tiny little thing. Brenda guessed $12.00. Good job, Brenda. Way to be there for the home team! I knew I could depend on a Hultin.

For the next interactive opportunity I may set a deadline and award prizes. We'll see.

You Have Worldwide Impact

To illustrate how your gifts and prayers to our ministry have a direct impact in spreading the Gospel around the world, I thought I'd just include a quick list of missions and locations in which MMS grads currently serve:

AIM AIR, North Africa; Asas de Socorro, Brazil; Christian Missions in Many Lands, Zambia; Harvest Aviation, Florida (3); JAARS, Indonesia; JAARS, USA (2); Mercy Air, South Africa (2); Mission Aviation Fellowship-US, Haiti; Mission Aviation Fellowship-US, Indonesia; Mission Aviation Fellowship-International: Kenya (2), Mongolia, Tanzania, & Uganda; Missionary Flights International (2), USA; MMS Aviation, USA (6); Northern Canada Evangelical Mission, Canada (2); South America Mission, Peru; and United Indian Mission, Mexico.

Thank you for helping us put the pilots, the mechanics, and the airplanes in the places where God can best use them.

Projects In The Hangar: Moody 182

Previous blogs have featured work being done on the MAF Cessna 206 for Chad, Africa and the MAG Cessna 206 for Honduras. Now it's time to introduce you to the third major restoration underway, Moody Aviation's Cessna 182. The Cessna 182 is like a "smaller brother" of the Cessna 206. Moody Aviation is the mission aviation program of Moody Bible Institute. They use this airplane to train men and women to become mission pilots. We have a long relationship with Moody and collaborate on preparing people and planes for worldwide mission service as situations allow and as the Lord leads.

In the photo above you can see the fuselage situated in Hangar B.

The aircraft had suffered structural damage at Moody's flight facility in Spokane, Washington. After assessing the project, they disassembled the airplane, put it on a 5th wheel trailer, and towed the airplane out to Coshocton so we could take care of the extensive repairs for them. Our guys have already disassembled, inspected, and reassembled the engine. The photo on the right is of the cockpit area. You'll notice the hangar floor showing through the belly of the airplane. It's going to need repair from that existing floor rib forward.

It's unusual for MMS to have three heavy restoration projects underway at the same time. Being so short-handed right now creates some additional challenges.

Yard Work & Mulching Madness

We took full advantage of the break in the storms today. First we went over to my old house (four doors down on Vine Street) and worked in the yard. It's used by MMS at times but no one is living there now and the yard looked like it. I'd mowed there yesterday so I went over today to trim and cut down the jungle growing up between the patio bricks in back of the house. Karen focused on finding, turning, and replanting the flower beds. We're going to take care of the outside of the house for the time being. There'll be plenty over there to keep us busy.

Once we accomplished those tasks, dodging the rain drops, we pulled our wagon full of yard equipment back to our place and attacked the rose bed and front flower bed. The first photo is of Karen planting geraniums by the rose bed and trellis. The roses are loaded with buds. We removed the old mulch, cleaned the beds and, spread new mulch. We set three stepping stones on the side of the house and Karen PLANTED THE SALSA GARDEN!!!! (Photos of that in a future blog) The second photo is of our front flower bed after we finished with it.

By the time all that was done, we were done. I think we're going to grill some hot dogs and sit back to watch a couple movies. We're taking the rest of the evening off. How about you?

Guess How Much This Part Costs

Here's a snapshot of a "control yoke bearing" for the Chad 206. I put it in the palm of my hand to illustrate its size. Three bearings are positioned around each control yoke to facilitate smooth directional control of the aircraft. Supported by the bearings, the control yoke rotates right and left, like a car steering wheel. It can also move fore and aft (while turning left or right) to cause climbing turns or descending turns. There are six of these bearings in every Cessna 206, three on each of the two control yokes.

Dale and Gertjan inspected the six bearings today and found that four of the six need to be replaced. How much do you think this part costs? Please click on the comment link and leave your guess. I'll get back with you with the actual retail price.

Robin Report #3

In our May 3 post we mentioned that a Robin had made a nest but we weren't sure there were any chicks in it. In our May 10 post we reported that there were actually 4 chicks under the Robin.

Today we're reporting all the chicks have flown the coop! Or at least left the nest. The birds were all in the nest when Karen took the dogs out for their walk this morning but the nest was empty when she returned.

Shortly after that, Karen noticed one of the young birds taking a break from his flight lessons. He'd been resting on the rail of our back deck and Karen took this picture when he hopped up on one of the posts.

We're not sure where they're hiding out, but mom Robin is still spending her entire day yanking worms out of our yard to feed them.

The Chad 206 Has Wings

It was an exciting day in the hangar yesterday as Dale's team hung the wings on the Chad 206. The process of hanging wings isn't too complicated but it does take some muscle, some time, and some patience on the part of those holding the wings in place until the fittings are connected, the wing bolts are in place and the struts are secured.




This is a major milestone in the restoration of the airplane and clears the way for rigging the flight controls, completion of the instrument panel, engine installation, and the attachment of wingtip fuel tanks.

The engine is in the crate.

Buffet & Bowling

Karen and I had a bit of fun last night as we organized a group of the young adults and young marrieds from Fresno Bible Church (Fresno, OH) for an evening of Buffet and Bowling. We started out at the China Buffet by the Super Wal-Mart for several plates of Chinese chow and then rolled over to Coshocton Lanes to bowl a couple of games.

I always wonder how long it takes for the bowling alley to get back to normal after we've been there. Oh boy...our thrills, spills, gutter balls, strikes, spares, enthusiasm, excitement and laughter is enough to bring the alley staff over to watch the show. Either we're that entertaining or they must feel they need to come over to protect their investment. We hope they came to watch because we're that entertaining.We may not knock down many pins, but we sure enjoy trying.

Home Improvement

Praise the Lord, we survived another home improvement project!

When we bought the house nearly six years ago, the previous owners said we could keep the air conditioner in the dining room window. We thought that was great. It was an old unit, but free is good.

Well, sometimes free can be expensive. The unit turned out to be a large, ancient, noisy, energy-sucking machine that worked real hard for long periods of time to drop the temps just a few degrees. We only used it a few weeks of the year, but sweating felt better and better with every electric bill we received when we did use it. Thanks to a special donation, we purchased a smaller, much more efficient model which will cost pennies on the dollars we used to spend. But purchasing the unit is always the easy part.

We figured it'd take an hour, maybe an hour and a half to remove the old unit and install the new one. How hard can it be? Once we were four hours into the project we realized the reason the previous owners left the window unit in the house was because it was there first and they designed the house around it. What a nightmare...

Anyway, the new unit is in, our marriage is still strong, and we escaped major injury through the grace of God when the massive old unit fell out of the window while I was working under it trying to get it loose...far too much excitement for everyone involved. But we did learn a few things about air conditioner installation and removal.

And the icing on the cake? The previous unit was so old, it used an odd outlet that won't take the standard plug the new unit came with. I just called a friend who knows a lot more about electricity than I do about air conditioners. We'll know later this week whether we just need to change the outlet or do some re-wiring...

Robin Report #2

In last Saturday's post (May 3) we mentioned that a Robin had made its nest on one of our front porch corner posts and that we hadn't heard any chicks chirping yet. Well, we may not have heard any chirping...but that doesn't mean they're not there!

After we walked the dogs this morning Karen pulled the step-ladder out and once again served as our resident nature photographer. There are four chicks in this nest. It keeps momma Robin pretty busy snatching worms to keep this brood quiet.

The sun is out for the first time in four days (with more rain on the way tomorrow) so Karen and I are going to focus on house and yard projects today. It won't be long before Karen plants our Salsa garden! Wahoo!!! I'm down to my last sixteen jars of the 2007 batch...

Thanks for checking in on us. We're so thankful for your interest and friendship and prayers and gifts which make it possible for us to serve here in Coshocton, Ohio. May the Lord richly bless you today.

Encouragement

I came home this afternoon, checked the mail, and found an envelope from our home church in Grass Valley, California. There was a wonderful note inside. It was scribed in pencil on three ring binder paper, in a wonderful mix of printed and cursive hand writting, by a young lady who must have been at the presentation I made at AWANA during our visit in California. I've included the content of the note so you can share in our blessing:

"Dear Keith,

Thank you for coming and teaching us about planes and MMS Aviation. I think it's neat how you make planes. My name is Ashley and I'm in third grade and I love butterflies. I really loved your speech. And I'm eight. I'll be nine in May 26th.

Love,

Ashley"

Is that cool or what? That's like a total encouragement to me and Karen. We praise the Lord for our little sister, Ashley, and how the Lord chose to use her to minister to us. Will you praise the Lord for her too?

Two Tours

Another aspect of my job is to lead tours of our facility and to explain the MMS ministry to interested individuals and groups. Sometimes people just drive up unannounced and other times tours are scheduled. Today I was part of both types of tours.

The Scheduled Tour

Within minutes of finishing our staff meeting, the bus from the Fairfield Christian Academy pulled into our parking lot. The seventeen teenagers and six adults on board had just completed four days of volunteer service at a local camp/residential facility for the disabled. Over the years it has become a tradition for the FCA work teams to stop in at MMS on their way back to Fairfield.

Dwight Jarboe, our President and CEO, took one half of the group and started their tour in the hangar. I took the other half and started their tour upstairs in the administrative area. We finished upstairs and rotated through the hangars as Dwight finished the hangars and rotated into the administrative area. A tour like this normally takes about an hour. They were a good group of kids and asked good questions.

The photo is of me leading my group through the main hangar and answering questions about the Cessna 206 from Chad. I'm the guy nearest the airplane.

The Unscheduled Tour

Within minutes of the bus pulling out, Karen pulled in with a long-time friend and former co-worker of hers, Mim Lehman, from Lancaster, PA. Mim was out visiting with her daughter and brought her daughter, Carol, and Carol brought her daughter, Laura (age 3) to see MMS. Carol and Laura live on a farm in Newark, OH, which is about 40 minutes east of Coshocton.

It was fun to see Mim again and to meet Carol and Laura for the first time. It's always exciting to lead people through our hangars, to share the stories about the airplanes, to share the stories about the people working on them, and to help them catch the vision of mission aviation and the role MMS plays within it.

Here's Karen, Mim, and Carol. Unfortunately Laura had been bitten by the Shy Bug and was unavailable for the photo shoot.

Someday we hope to see you here for a tour, too. Scheduled or unannounced, it doesn't matter. We'll just be blessed to see you.

Pushing Paper and Pounding Rivets

Pushing Paper

I've spent a good portion of my day preparing for tomorrow's staff meeting: reviewing last month's minutes, preparing this month's meeting agenda, and assembling the twelve related information and report packets for distribution. A picture of my activities today would look a lot like the picture of me in yesterday's post. The only difference is I don't have a Dr. Pepper to wash down my peanut M&Ms, I have a cup of Morning Thunder tea (which can also be used to drum up a bit of "afternoon" thunder as well). That being said, I was able to get away from my desk long enough to take a couple snapshots down in the hangar.

Pounding Rivets

Here's a shot of Shawn and Mike pounding more rivets into the fuselage of the 206 being restored and repaired for Missionary Air Group down in Honduras. It's hard to tell the full scope of the project until you step away from the project, so I've included a second picture which may help illustrate the complexity and the depth of the project at hand.
While the airplane is coming back together, you can see it still has a ways to go before it's ready for service.

Prepping For An In-Hangar Candidate Evaluation

After reviewing the last few posts, I figure it's about time to reassure you that I do have things to do at MMS. My main focus right now is to prepare for our next in-hangar candidate evaluation scheduled May 26-30. In today's photo I'm reviewing and updating orientation material in anticipation of a successful evaluation of a young couple from Missouri.


With the application process successfully completed, Ben & Carolyn are coming out to spend a week living with one of our families and working at MMS. It's part of my job to coordinate, oversee and facilitate their in-hangar evaluation. It's an intense week for the candidate couple as well as for the entire MMS organization as we strive to determine their suitability for service, level of mechanical aptitude, relational skills, and to identify technical and non-technical areas of strength and weakness toward discerning the Lord's will for both the candidate and MMS.

The process involves seven days of direct observation, interviews, performance parameters, and tests both formal and informal. Everyone interacting with Ben & Caroline will fill out review forms and provide me reports of their time with the candidates. There will be a final interview that Friday afternoon and then I'll make a recommendation to accept or reject the candidacy for the CEO's consideration.

Should everything go well, I'll then have the pleasure of orienting Ben & Caroline (Friday evening and all day Saturday) so they can return home to begin raising the support they'll need to serve.

As a point of interest, there are two items in the photo which are key to moving missions forward during long afternoons of administrative activity. Which two items do you think they might be?

Missed Photo Opportunities

Well, we missed two fantastic photo opportunities this weekend:

Jake & Ruth Anne Esh

First, we were visited by our good friends, prayer partners, and small group members Jake and Ruth Anne Esh, from Grace Church at Willow Valley, in Lancaster, PA. Jake and Ruth Anne were traveling back from their granddaughter's college graduation ceremony in Indiana and dropped in for a meal and an overnight Saturday evening. It was fun to finally welcome them to Coshocton, into our home, and to give them a tour of MMS. Of course we talked about taking pictures for the blog, and then got hungry, got busy, and then got tired. Goodnight, off to bed, no pictures. Then our Sunday morning schedule was such that we needed to leave for worship team rehearsal before Jake and Ruth Anne needed to be up and on the road back to PA.

Jake and Ruth Anne, thanks again for the visit and dinner at Bob Evans! We'll get pictures next time...

For the second missed photo opportunity of the weekend, we even took the camera along. We just left it in the car.

Tucker & Tanner Meet the Biggest Dog in the World

Sunday afternoon, Karen, Tucker, Tanner, and I went out to visit our friend John McKnight. John attends church with us here in Fresno, Ohio. He lives out on ten acres, just bought a puppy, "Turner"; has a cat, "Morris"; and also a horse, "Rusty". This was Tucker and Tanner's first visit to John's property and it was quite the learning experience for them.

I had Tucker and Tanner leashed and was walking the post and electric fence line when Rusty came galloping over the hill and charged right up to the fence to meet me us. Rusty is a happy horse who is very interested in making friends and loves company.

Tucker and Tanner saw, heard and felt the ground shake as Rusty drew up. They weren't as happy to see Rusty as he was to see them, had no immediate interest in becoming friends with "the largest dog in the world," and were rather positive they didn't want any of his company, thank you very much.

I wish we had photos from later that afternoon as this big horse, on one side of the fence, slowly lowered his nose near the ground to sniff Tanner as Tanner stretched as far as he could from the other side of the fence to be as close to Rusty's nose without having to get very close to Rusty's nose. Rusty had a great time. I think Tanner's story, if he could tell one, would make him sound a bit braver than he really was. Tanner was rather astonished by Rusty. Rusty was as gentle as could be.

Rusty did make us promise to bring the dogs back for another visit. We'll actually use the camera the next time we visit with John, Rusty, Turner, and Morris. Ah, Morris. Unfortunately, Tucker and Tanner chased Morris twenty feet up a tree shortly after meeting.

Sometimes Cocker Spaniels just don't have any manners.

Praises and Karen's Spring Projects

We praise the Lord for Karen's greatly improved health in 2008. It's been quite a process but after three years of being on Guaifenesin for her fibromyalgia, she's enjoying dramatically less muscle pain and substantially more energy and drive. Consequently, since we've been back from California, I never know what home management/home maintenance surprises to expect when I come home.

With the house windows fixed (see 4/9 posting), the side stepping-stones dug out, and new gardens dug along the walkway, she moved around front to expand the flower bed. She'd had a vision for this ever since we moved in. Karen has quite a heart for working with her hands to make this home one where everyone feels welcome and one with which we know God will be pleased. I mean it's His house. We're just temporary caretakers. And I'm privileged to be married to a caretaker extraordinare!

The Lord has also blessed us with an extra tenant this spring, a Robin which has built her nest on one of our porch corner posts. We haven't heard any chicks chirping yet, but maybe it's bit too soon. She's gotten used to us moving around the house and will remain on her nest while Karen sits on the porch swing.

My rose trellis is filling out nicely. This will be our third year of bloom.

Bell Cranks and Abrasive Wheels

As this week in the hangar comes to a close, Gertjan and Dale continue work on the Chad 206. They recently shifted their efforts to preparing the wings to be attached to the fuselage. In the photo, Gertjan and Dale compare a bell crank from the starboard (right) wing of their 206 with the corresponding bell crank from the MAG 206 as part of the trouble shooting process in rigging the wing's control surfaces (flaps and ailerons).

Back at the MAG 206 project, Shawn uses an abrasive wheel on a pneumatic drill to remove corrosion from the pilot's door post. Because this airplane operated for years along the sea coast of Honduras, corrosion control, and the related repairs necessary because of unchecked corrosion, have proven to be time consuming elements of this restoration.

Basement Drains and Sewer Pains

For those of you that don't live in Ohio, or don't have basements, or both, basements have an open sewer drain as part of the normal plumbing of the house. It's like a safety vent should pressures in the pipes or in main sewer line grow beyond safe limits. The drain basin is normally dry, it typically doesn't stink and it usually isn't much of a consideration. But occasionally it can generate some excitement.

Several years ago we had our line to the sewer back-up which was our first experience with the basement drain sending everything we thought was going out to the sewer into our basement. It was kind of ugly but we fought our way back into the basement with buckets, bleach, mops, and a wet vac then had the plumbers come out, snake the line, and explain the system to us. Since then we'd been good to go.

Until yesterday that is, when Karen went into the basement and found our sewer drain acting more like a sewer volcano. Jolly. Out came the bucket, the mops, the bleach, and the wet-vac and Karen waded in (Bless her heart, I was at MMS). Long story short, the plumbers responded in an hour or so and snaked until they couldn't snake any more and then called the City because our line was clean. If you ever need plumbing service in Coshocton, call James Plumbing (622-6862). They're great!

The City came out and discovered there was a blockage in the four-foot main line three manholes down from our house. They back-pressured the line to blow the blockage which may sound rather mundane, except that, as they explained to Karen, everyone on that line would come home to the "surprise" of basement sewer sludge because the pressure had to go somewhere (right out all the sewer drains). "Oh, and your basement is probably a mess again, too."

"Have a nice day," the City workers called out as Karen went back down in the house to gird herself once again with the mop, the bucket, the bleach and the wet-vac.