Once Again at Cooperstown

We arrived for our third RVICS project of this year and our second visit working at Cooperstown Bible Camp in North Dakota. Karen and I were here in 2025 from June 5 to June 26 as the only project volunteers working in the camp. It was memorable working together on constructing different items needed by the camp director Adam and we had some excitement experiencing a near miss tornado the last week of our stay in 2025. .

With all our ducks in a row.

This year we are praying for no tornadoes and we have some awesome RVICS team partners working with us. We got to the camp on Wednesday, June 3rd and found our RV spot to set up in advance of the rest of the team. Next to arrive on Thursday was Christina Beckwith in her 19 foot Jayco tow-behind trailer. We positioned her between a cargo trailer and our rig on the drivers side. She's single and traveling with her "fur baby" companion Gidget.

On Friday, Bill and Sandy Martin arrived with their Montana fifth-wheel. They arrived just in time for the rain and we positioned them on the passenger side of our Alliance. leaving the site closest to "The Rock" for Ricky and Tresa Martin, who arrived with their Thor Omni "Super C" on Saturday, June 6th.

The RVICS team on our first Sunday on the way to church from left to right: Tresa & Ricky Martin, Karen & John Teague, Sandy & Bill Martin, Christina Beckwith without Gidget.

Prior to the first week of work Karen and I met with Director Adam to discuss our assignments. The project parameters for the men will entail removing all the old cedar siding from the camp director's temporary home and installing vinyl siding to renovate the structure. The women will be helping Adam in the kitchen of Ludvig Lodge with meal prep, taking inventory, organizing supplies and general cleaning. This season he is short of kitchen staff and really appreciates their help.

The is the temporary home of the camp director, his wife and their two children. The old director's residence had to be torn down due to black mold and rodent infestation issues.

This two-bedroom home will eventually be used for staff housing after the director's family moves into a new manufactured home when it arrives onto their prior home site.

Monday, June 8th began in earnest and upon removing the siding we discovered some severe dry rot in the corner by the front door. By the end of the first week, we had pulled out the rotted wood members, rebuilt the area with OSB and 2x4's and wrapped the entire house with vapor barrier material.

With the old cedar siding removed we wrapped the entire structure with a vapor barrier material.

Prior to that process we removed and repaired sections of dry-rot, added spray expanding foam insulation and cleaned up around the foundation.

The weather the first week was all over the map. Every day we had wind. The first two days the temperature was in the high eighties, and the wind was welcomed. We were doing everything possible to stay hydrated, but the heat was really slowing me down. The last two days we had even more wind accompanied with thunderstorms. You can only imagine trying to wrap the side of a house with vapor barrier sheeting in 15 to 20 mile per hour winds, but we got it done! By Thursday afternoon we were all physically spent and the next three days off were a welcomed respite.

The ladies brigade in Ludvig Lodge worked in the morning helping with meal prep. The organizational skills with inventory control spreadsheet creation, removing old dishes no longer needed and general thorough cleaning was welcomed by Adam.

On Saturday, June 13th we drove into Fargo to have dinner at Plaza Azteca with our group before attending a Red Hawks baseball game. The Fargo–Moorhead RedHawks are a professional minor-league baseball team based in Fargo, North Dakota. The RedHawks are members of the American Association of Professional Baseball, an official Partner League of Major League Baseball. The RedHawks have played their home games at Newman Outdoor Field since 1996, when the team started as members of the Northern League. It was a great evening and the home team won!

The entire crew at Plaza Azteca plus Jacob & Kirsten Punt, Camp Program Director along with two additional fellow RVers Scott and Diane King.

The second week began with installing the vinyl siding. Ricky Martin is the only one of us who has done vinyl siding in the past so it made sense to have him act as foreman during the process. The trick is to get the bottom row level and lined up to match the side around the corner. The vinyl siding panels interlock easily and are cut to size using sheetmetal shears. Special corners and J-channels are installed first, prior to snapping the siding up the walls. Cuts are made for various lengths of siding between corners, windows and door openings. We had to remove some of the decking to access the bottom of some walls near the foundation, but the work went smoothly after that was completed.

Everything on the walls had to be removed prior to the siding installation.

Martin and Martin hard at work just prior to the lunch break.

The first actual week of summer camp began on Monday, June 15 with 4th through 6th graders. Adam put the women to work in the morning helping to serve breakfast followed with lunch and dinner food prep.

We finished our second week with the north and east side of the house completed. I'm anticipating that our last week is looking good at this pace, but we'll need some cooperative weather and no surprises so we can finish siding the entire house.

Our team is working hard and enjoying one another. We thank God for all we have accomplished!