Progress Tools

Sawmill for Rama Cay family

Jim — Sat, 11 May 2013 00:11:24 +0000

The sawmill project is progressing. Hud-Son Forest Equipment (http://www.hud-son.com) has offered us a 25% discount on their equipment to help us with the project. There don’t appear to be any legal problems for the Rama people to cut trees on their own land (Rama Territory). We need to plan now how to make this a successful business. One of our goals is for a sustainable business. This means the equipment pays for itself, uses less gasoline, wastes less wood, and good forestry procedures are followed for a long term crop of small trees.

This is where they will bring the logs to shore and cut them up.

portable saw mill for $2,600

Jim — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 02:40:28 +0000

Cutting wood for homes in Rama Territory

I would love to get a portable saw mill to my Rama friends in Nicaragua. They use chain saws to cut boards now… very inefficient. Using chainsaws in that manner consumes a lot of fuel, wastes wood, and makes for rough boards. They use whole logs for boats. My goal is for them to make wood strip boats which would last much longer, use a lot less tropical trees, and make a nice, light boat they can resell.

General Store Expansion Project – Matagalpa, Nicaragua

Jim — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 05:22:51 +0000

We are preparing to help our friend Alejandro Peralta and his wife to expand his store to serve his community. We are sending $200 to buy bulk quantities of things like rice, cooking oil, toilet paper, coffee, and sugar. The will resell these items at a profit from the small store that operates out of their home. There little store is very popular but there inventory is very small at this time.

Thank you for the guitars!

Jim — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 18:25:58 +0000

In 2008 we carried two guitars to Rama Cay. The guitars where donated to Progress Tools by generous friends to bless the people of Rama Cay. In 2012 we checked to see how the guitars were doing. We found these two Rama dudes that had learned to play. The guitars are greatly appreciated. They bring joy to the Rama people.

Donation from Apple

Jim — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 21:35:53 +0000

Many thanks to Apple for their matching contribution for one of our generous donors! This will help greatly for our work with the poor in Honduras.

New vehicle for Tim and Jaclyn in Honduras

Jim — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 05:34:11 +0000

We are happy for the contributions to the work of Tim and Jaclyn in Honduras. They were able to purchase a truck to get them around. It is no longer safe for them to travel by public transportation.

Honduras needs

Jim — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 06:30:15 +0000

Muchas gracias to all those generous people who have and who will continue to help with Tim and Jaclyn and the Honduras project. We are all very grateful. They are doing very good work among the poor of Honduras.

Educational DVDs and solar power system delivered to Bankukut

Jim — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 23:51:30 +0000

We successfully delivered a complete solar power system, dvd player, and a set of educational dvds to the Rama village of Bankukut in Nicaragua. We found a trustworthy family that would take good care of the equipment and share it with others.

ProgressTools 2012

Jim — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 03:00:16 +0000

We just returned from a very productive trip to Nicaragua. The bakery business is a success, the chocolate farm is maturing, and we deepened our relationships with up and coming leaders across the country.

Next time you are in Managua stop by for some great pizza and hospitality at Papa Freddy’s!

Jim — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 05:45:00 +0000