The Canteen Bar Wall has been modified to allow servers to enter and exit from both sides now. This project was 100% funded by volunteers, both time and materials. Thanks to all of you who assisted! To complete this job we needed plumbing, demo, carpentry and electrical work. We are not quite complete (some more lighting and finishing touches, but we are functional and ready to use the new entry for setting up the Patio bar for this Saturday's Adult Daycare and M*A*S*H night.

Yesterday Stu arrived on site to begin the cut out.



After a few measurements came the first cut



Then the second



Bryan Kitching joined Stu for some more measuring



The big reveal



And the first delivery by Carrie Roy



No need to alter our existing cabinetry, all our bartenders easily fit beneath the new opening.

And then some more electrical work. Bryan Thornton added a quad outlet on the inside of the bar wall and a dual on the customer facing side.



The last piece will be to add dimmable LEDs so the bartenders can have better lighting where they need it. Coming soon.

Tags: Canteen

For any of you who couldn't make it to the Post last week, it was nothing short of amazing. We had the Ukrainian Cultural Forces performing live at our Canteen on Halloween, Steak Night on Friday with the first test of our new kitchen receipt printer (orders at bar = order to kitchen, no second line), followed by the 7th Annual Dr. MRE Competition... and capped on Sunday with the Auxiliary's Superb Sunday Brunch!

The music and storytelling by the Ukrainian performers was phenomenal and we hope you all enjoyed the evening. Thanks to our karaoke crowd for starting a little late last Halloween night.



Here's a picture of Stu and Susan pointing out how to use the kitchen receipts:



The MRE competition is fierce. Teams select a random MRE and then head off to the "Black Market" to doctor their meals up. Mock military script is available for a donation and that's what contestants use to "buy" their black market foods and spices.

Here is Omega "Black-Market" getting the store ready-



The rain kept many of you away, but not Cruisin Al



All but two teams bowed out. But the Marine Brothers were there and so was the Auxiliary Team (Logan Roy, President)

Here are the two rivals getting prepared; Logan Roy the minimalist



and Shawn Handlin (our Post Quartermaster) with his shock and awe tent



Then came the judging (with a big thanks to Kelley, Kathi and Karen!)



The judges decided to move inside to deliberate leaving our competitors to wait



and wait...for over 25 minutes

A bottle of champagne sat on the bar shelf in anticipation of victory by the Reigning Champions.



But it was not to be. This year the Post Auxiliary team took First Place in a stunning upset against the Post! Of course Shawn's entry did win Best Presentation. Congrats and thanks to all who came out to support our Post.

Tags: MRE, Ukraine, Kitchen

Over the next few days we have a lot going on at our Post and I hope many of you can come down and join us.




On Thursday (Halloween) we will be hosting the Ukrainian Armed Forces musical group from 6-8pm. These are combat veterans of the war in Ukraine and they are touring the United States to say Thank You to America. There is no admission charge, so please join us if you can. More information and the poster is available here.

Ronnie Ray and karaoke will start right afterwards this Thursday Night.

Friday is steak night!



Stu will be cooking 60 ribeye steaks, with baked potatoes, corn on the cob and salad. We have reduced our prices to $20.00 in case you haven't joined us lately. Those long lines are down and we have a new kitchen printer that sends your order straight to the cooks. Your name will be called in the hall as soon as your order is ready!


Dr. MRE 2024!

This coming Saturday will be the seventh year of our Dr. MRE contest. Our 'Marine Brothers' have won every year. Is this the year someone will displace the reigning champions? It's only $25.00 to compete (max 2 cooks per team) and $5.00 to taste (you get brats to eat--we wont serve MREs to our members and guests!)

The flyer is under Events and also available here . Ever wonder what's in an MRE? Find out here
Curious how the judges rank meals? Example judging sheet is here.

Last but not least by a stretch, I want to thank CL and Logan Roy for getting us a little closer to opening the canteen bar wall to the outside. The sink closest to the entrance door has been leaking for years and it was also too long to allow us to do our cut out.

Step 1: Remove old sink




Step 2: Replace old sink with second sink in Social Hall.
Now there is room to do our cut out:



That was a pretty big job--time for a cold one

Tags: Ukraine, Halloween

The work to update the Social Hall bar wall is complete. Yesterday Stu and Bryan put in new insulation to the wall leading from the social hall to the kitchen, then put in new sheet rock and trim to join old to new (if you remember the new ice machine lines were moved to run along this wall to eliminate tripping hazards).



They also trimmed in the new bar opening to get it ready for re-upholstering-




Lastly wrapping it up--



Today Rhea and I finished it up by painting the hallway and the wall where we removed the old bar connection.




This project was 100% donated labor and materials. Thanks to everyone who pitched in!

Our members have been on a roll this last couple of weeks!

When you walk into the building, the sad muddy patch has been replaced with a beautiful stone garden--take a look:



Our intrepid crew showed up early on a weekend morning and transformed the Post entrance. Many thanks to Kathi Dorfmeister, Shelley Roberts, Mike McCann, Bryan Blankenship,Terry Jarvis and Kelley Russell!

To complete the social hall bar wall renovation, two of our friends from the Fraternal Order of Eagles helped move the water and drain lines for our new ice machine and get the electric in a permanent location (no more tripping hazards!). Brian Kitching, the President of the FOE did the plumbing and Brian Thornton of the FOE did the electric. We didn't manage to capture good photos of these fellows, they moved quickly. Hats off to our volunteers from the Eagles. You can bet Stu Harvey was involved in this as well.



And done:






Meanwhile, our crack team of kitchen volunteers have been cleaning, sorting and organizing the Post kitchen in preparation for an August dinner blitz!



These are exciting times at our Post. Thank you to our members and friends who are volunteering and helping make the Post better than ever!

As part of our member approved updates to the social hall and canteen areas, our own CL Roy and his son Logan Roy (our Auxiliary President) came down this morning to get a new pathway set up for our soda lines. The new lines will run above the cabinetry so we can create an opening in the entrance side of the canteen bar without having to trench the concrete. Now that this work is complete we can get our soda service to run new lines in anticipation of the construction. Our Post Jr. Vice Commander Eddie Lara and Judge Advocate Clayton Hosterman moved the freezer yesterday to the opposite side of the ice machine so we now have a clear pathway for the new opening.

Step 1: Assess the work to be done:





Step 2: Create the new opening for the conduit



Step 3: Slide conduit in place



Step 4: Mission accomplished



Eddy and Clay moved the freezer before I could catch them in action yesterday. But here it is anyway:

Stu and Brian were able to get electric in the new spot for the ice machine last night in a just in time project. Hats off, gents!

First part is the bin. Halfway there...



Run a new waterline (needs to be dressed out, but it's in)




Dale from Texas Ice Machine Co. and helper getting it done




Drain pipe needs some more work but it's a start




About 10;40 a.m. it's dropping ice



Even Doug approves

Stu Harvey, Harold Smith and I arrived at the Post yesterday morning at 7:30 a.m. to begin the demo and bar wall mods for the social hall. When we arrived, our trusty Trustee Doug Sanders was already there with kolaches.



Step 1 was to cut the carpet back to expose the underlying structure.



Measure the cutout for moving in/out of the ice machines.



We thought there was no electric at this end of the wall, but just in case Stu looked a little more. Good thing because the original cut depth might have been shocking.




Here is the old non-working ice machine. It was pretty heavy so being able to slide it out sure beat trying to lift it out!





Next up we needed to do some clean out on the new location for the ice machine. Sawzall is our friend.



Give credit to those WWII guys--this stuff was built strong! It took a while but we got there and all that was left for demo day was the base clean up. Don't know what we would do without Harold.




Jimmy asked us what was up, so we showed him and got the Jimmy seal of approval.




In case you were wondering what my part was, it was the non-skilled labor job of holding things down, lifting things out, and hauling out the garbage, lol.

We have more work to do and a short amount of time before the ice machine is scheduled for delivery. We have to get a new jbox to plug in the ice machine. We also need to get a new floor drain installed, but won't be able to do that before tomorrow morning (machine is due to be delivered-installed). The existing drain is a little more than six feet from the new ice machine location; if we are lucky they will give us a pass until we have time to cut out some concrete for that drain.

With less than 24 hours we are a little anxious about the electric. Cross your fingers!