3rd day of work at the site.
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| Katrina 2009 04 30-3rd day of Work |
Your video for the day:
Steve’s notes on Chris and Keith’s Group
The day started cloudy,cool and abit breezy, a perfect day in my book to do manual labor. After our site manager, Brad opened our time with a quote from Martin Luther King, which was quite good for a young white guy doing an impression of a deceased black guy. He shared that you don’t have to be an Einstein and understand Relativity. or the second law of thermodynamics in order to to be great. And you don’t have to be rich or famous in order to be great. To be great, all you need is to be able to serve…
Most of the guys from Chris and Keith’s group (also affectionately called Go With the Mo) went to our site which basically consists of a foundation and floor joists. We were intending to finish nailing on the OSB sub-floor, but we soon found out that the foundation on one side of the house was not straight. Kev and Donna, a part timer from the nearby air force base were nailing the blocking between the joists and were the ones that discovered the misaligned foundation. So…Ward, Roy, and Donna used these baby crowbars called cat’s paws to remove the nails that attached the joists to the sills. Meanwhile, I was touching up the three painted doors from our completed home.
Afterwards, Mo, Roy and I did piecework nailing a special vertical support consisting of a king stud and a jack stud. Very boring work but it was nice to make fun of Mo because he is so precise even when it really doesn’t matter.
Vic, one of the Americorp assistant supervisors that works with Brad had the unenviable task of crawling under our finished home (which we found out wasn’t really done) to staple fiberglass insulation under the crawl space. He asked for volunteers and three servants that took to heart MLK’s speech…Gary (who pretty much had to because he spilled a can of paint on the porch that took an hour to clean up), Keith and Rich. Chris said that these three were not “smart enough to say no.” They spent a couple of hours under the house nailing R17 on their back and when they came out they were filthy from crawling in the dirt and itchy from the fiberglass particles. I say that no good deed goes unpunished.
Let’s see, Ward was today’s jack of all trades which included cutting a bunch of lumber to length. So after we solved the alignment problem, we all pitched in and finished sheeting the sub-floor. Chris, Roy, and Duane assembled the cut lumber into one wall frame. We didn’t get to raise it…maybe tomorrow.
We ended early today to get back, shower and get to the Shed before it got crowded. Obviously, priorities are priorities.
Randy’s notes on Craig and Tommy’s Group
We were blessed with overcast skies and mostly comfortable weather on Thursday. Work moved forward on several fronts, culminating in completing installation of the roof sheeting, placing underlayment on half of the roof, sheeting the gables, finishing the rear deck, and installing nine windows. Because of an HFH meeting, work was halted slightly early, although some continued to press onward.
Later that evening, we ventured out from SUMA for dinner. The Shed is an award-winning BBQ joint – a loose assembly of corrugated tin roofed structures. We sat on picnic benches and wiped our ‘cue-covered hands with paper towels. No vegetables were served (unless you count the potato salad) – just tasty slabs of ribs, piles of pulled pork and hot links. Since The Shed is further inland, the temperatures increased as did the cholesterol counts.We invited Jim, Greg and HFH friends from past trips to dinner and were plesaed they were able to join us. We were able to pray with Jim and Greg before they left to fly home through New Orleans. Since we slept, ate, and worked alongside them all week, we were grateful that everyone enjoyed each other’s company. We wished Jim and Greg a fond farewell along with good wishes for Greg’s upcoming SAT’s.
No day in Mississippi could be called complete without a visit to the local Walmart store, where we once again stocked up on supplies.