Earth, Wind, and Fire

Today was a work day after a long day of hiking yesterday. Some of the group went across the river to help harvest corn with Florencio. This involved tearing the ears from the stocks, shucking them, and then stomping the stocks to the ground. They made a dent in it, but there was still lots to do when the heat drove the group from the field. The white dots you see in the strip of harvested corn is piles of corn cobs.

I fixed the oblique camera trigger and made a second flight to get the pictures of the corn field and others. Brent did an excellent job of co-piloting, and the second flight was not as hairy as the first, but the wind was even stronger. I needed full throttle for just about the entire flight. Brent said that, for most of the flight, a bird followed us but did not attack. In addition to bird-spotting, Brent guided me in for a good landing, and we decided to quit while we were ahead.

In the afternoon, Jenna made cookies with Alfa house because Corinne, the scheduled cook, was feeling a little under the weather; it had to happen to someone at some point I guess. Corinne is a hard lady to keep down, however, and she painted doors all afternoon! Others in the group did electrical and plumbing in the renovated kitchen. Some of us built a new water valve for the kitchen. Crystal learned some new skills in plumbing, but became especially valuable when we needed someone to climb down into a muddy hole and bail out the water. She was a very good sport about it!

After a long day of work we gathered in the church to see a sample of the photos taken by our group. The kids love to see pictures of themselves! The people of LaHas came over as well, since there were many air photos of their community. After the slide show, we went outside for a great fireworks display sponsored by some of the contributions of Crystal’s officemates. The boys love fireworks, and it was a perfect end for our last night together.. It is too hot to sleep right now, so I am just swinging in the hammock for a bit. Till tomorrow.