Another Good Week

With the Super Bowl in town, there were lots of activities loosely associated with it. One multi-part project involved Rebuilding Together with support from Lowe's, Bose, NFL, and others. I was fortunate to serve as a 'Captain' at a home that received a list of improvements including external painting.

The home owner has been in the home for 46 years and is now 101 years old. She's a sweet lady who needed some help to keep her home in good repair. The Thursday team from Lowe's started on the trim per the plan, but then we continued with the field color since the forecast called for rain on Friday.

By the end of the day on Thursday, we had everything painted except for the area under the carport which we could do on Friday, even with rain.

On Friday we had more volunteers from Lowe's. On our team we also had a couple guys from Bose. What makes this fun for me is that invariably, every volunteer has a smile and a 'can-do' spirit. This group was no exception, and actually set a higher bar for the amount of 'can-do' spirit. The Lowe's folks were all from different stores, but clearly enjoyed working together.

The Lowe's truck showed up with a new refrigerator and stove. You could have set your watch by their arrival, right on schedule. Thankfully, the paint was dry on the front door by then!

Larry did all sorts of stuff on this project - installed a new front door lock set, resolved issues with the front porch light, helped paint, and then noticed that the strike plate on the back door needed to be reset to better align with the door. It was really nice to work with folks that see what needs to be done and just gets it done - right.

We knew there were two new toilets and bathroom vanities to install, but none of the valves, traps, and hardware had been purchased. The other captain on this project found a Lowe's plumbing specialist (aka plumbing goddess) among the volunteers.

Tammie was a life saver. She took one look and started making a list of everything that was needed. With one of the Rebuilding Together staff, she was off to the nearest Lowe's with list in hand. She came back with everything needed, and then, along with a Bose employee, stuck around for a couple hours past quitting time to get the installations finished up. I was impressed!

While we were concentrating on this one house, there were two other home repair projects of similar complexity. In addition, still more volunteers helped install a new playground at the Crisis Nursery in Phoenix. I didn't get any pictures of that completed project since they finished up before we were done at the house.

That wasn't all of the good stuff during the week. Along with the short visit from our Alaska contingent, we had a chance to spend an evening with Suzanne, author of the Take To The Highway blog. A very fun evening, and we're making plans for more fun stuff together in early March.

Making a Difference

Last Saturday was national Make A Difference Day although I didn't know that when I volunteered to join a small group from the church to paint a couple manufactured homes. They were hoping for 20 volunteers but ended up with about half that many. Since I'd just started my own roofing project the day before I almost bailed on them, but I'm glad I didn't.

The first home went from white to tan for the main color, with blue trim. The group started by masking the windows, but I could cut in the edges as fast as a person could mask, so I ended up with my trim brush in hand all day - fine by me, and easier for everyone!

This place looked much nicer when we got all finished up. This one had fairly complex trim and an additional room built on the back corner. We started painting about 7 a.m. and were finished with it about 11 a.m. or so.

A rep from Rebuilding Together came out just about the time we got the first home finished up and took some pictures. I got a kick out of the gals - I think they got as much paint on themselves as they did on the house. I was pleased to learn about Rebuilding Together. I'm going to look into volunteering more often with our local affiliate.

The second home had less complex trim. It had an off-white main color with the same blue trim. I must admit that I got a bit of a surprise as I was leaving the second job when we finished up about 2 p.m. Apparently you have to drive a white truck to be part of this group.  ;-)

It was a great day!

7.11.2012–Canoe Lake McDonald

It wasn’t an early start but early enough that there was still mist on the lake and the water was glassy smooth. Spencer and I launched from the Fish Creek picnic area and paddled up the northern shore of the lake for a couple miles. I have a short paddle for him, but forgot to bring it, but he did quite well with my favorite.

We had a chance to watch a bald eagle in a snag near the shore for quite a while, hoping that it would spot a fish, but he never moved while we were there. Tried to get a picture but didn’t get anything decent enough to share.

I was really pleased to watch Spencer figure out hand positions on the paddle and paddle well on both sides. All in all we had a great time for a couple hours on the lake. 

BJ was at the beach when we came back and got a picture of the intrepid paddler with his gear.

We spent a couple hours this afternoon at the Discovery Cabin at Apgar. He spent time there yesterday as well. The cabin is full of hands on exhibits especially for young people. While we were there this afternoon, a ranger was giving a talk about animals pelts that was quite interesting.

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On a totally different subject, Nina & Paul of “Wheeling It” are volunteering as guides at the lighthouse in Bandon, Oregon.  She’s writing a three part series on RV-based volunteering, and the first two posts have been really good.  You can check them out at Wheeling It.