Sunday, Sept 7
By Land and by Lake…
So many options for today! Rick
and I had been invited out, along with two others couples, to spend the day
sailing with Steve and his wife Gina on Flathead Lake. But Rick also wanted to get out and hike a
little more so he opted out of the water and headed for the hills (No big
surprise there!) I, on the other hand,
who love boats and hadn’t been on a sailing ‘ship’ since Uncle Jack’s yacht on
Long Island Sound in 1970, said Yes!
So…two parts to today’s blog! (That’s a lot of too’s!)
By Land….
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| Up near Swiftcurrent Pass |
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| Fall colors! |
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| Final stretch - Bishops Cap |
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| Upper Grinnell Lake and Glacier |
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| Happy Hiker on top of the Continental Divide |
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| Steve and Clint |
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| Clint and Kathy |
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| All eyes on the spinnaker! |
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| Oh my gosh! Look who's sailing the boat! |
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| Abandoned building near the North Flathead Yacht Club |
We pulled into North Flathead Yacht
Club just south of Kalispell around 4:15.
By the time we shuttled back down for the cars it was 6p as we drove
down to Lakeside and the Tamarack Brewery for dinner. Steve and Gina weren’t able to go with
us. L A good
meal – nice place but busy. Home shortly
after 8p. A LONG day in the sun! But lots of fun.
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| Pretty important job keeping that beam in place! |
MONDAY, September 8
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| Idyllic trail in the woods! |
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| Waterfall along the trail |
Kathy REALLY wanted to get out for a little exercise in the afternoon, so I said , “Sure, I’ll go on a short hike with you!” (Rick opted to call his mom and let his weary legs rest!) I drove the truck up to the Columbia Falls trailhead. It was a good decision for a trail. Now I finally know exactly where that trailhead is! We only hiked about 2.5 miles roundtrip, but it was a good uphill through forest and groundcover. Some of the vegetation changing colors, a few small waterfalls. We had good conversation and I found some more letters for my Alpine Alphabet! I am just missing a G, Q, and Z now, the G being the most important!
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| Kathy and Ging along the trail |
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| Picture I put together from today's hike! |
Happy Hour with about half the group
and then Rick and I took off to finally do some grocery shopping. Our little fridge was looking bare (I had
donated a full container of salad to the sailing lunch so I had to
restock!) Sixty dollars later we drove
over to the build site for Rick to check a couple things out. While there, I sat in the truck facing a
beautiful sunset to the west and called Luke!
He was wondering if he would ever hear from us again!
Home to make up a big salad and put
stuff away and into bed. The weather is
to change tonight – major low pressure moving in (the wind is already picking
up) and perhaps rain and snow. High
temps for Tues are in the 50’s. Love
mountain weather!!!
TUESDAY, September 9
CAV Build Day 6: Siding Paint and Soffits
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| We did get a sunrise as we drove into Columbia Falls! |
Wow.
Wind. Lots of wind. All night long! And yet, I hardly heard my bells ring at
all! I went back out this morning and
rehung them in a different way because I think the carabineer wasn’t allowing
it to swing fully. Forecast is for wind
and cool temps today!
And it is a cool job site! Everyone is huddled up and the wind is
rolling through the gap from up on the mountains. Steve announced that Logan Pass got a couple
inches of snow last night! (Hard to
believe it is suppose to be 80 again within days!) We meet the Global Village group – 10 people
from Habitat International from DC,
South Carolina, Boise, Portland, Boston, etc.
They will be here all week.
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| View down the scaffolding ladder to Ove and Rick bringing up soffit board |
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| Ove and Rick get the soffit in! |
The building sites were a hub-bub of
activity today with about 17 CAVs, 10 Global Villagers, and 3 local volunteers
on site. Not to mention the insulation
sub-contractors working in Lexie’s house.
I ended up down at the other end on the siding paint crew, working on
applying the first coat of paint to all the siding boards for the last
house. (If they are painted before
installation, they only have to be painted once ‘on the house’! Much easier!)
We had 4 from Global, 3 CAVs, and 1 local working with us. I think by days’ end over 100 boards were
painted! Wow!
After lunch I took about a half hour
to help Rick and Ove up on the scaffolding.
A nice view from up on top. My
job was simply to hold the short end of the soffet until it could be nailed
into place. Not too tough!
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| Diane and Global Villager Mike get ready to paint siding. |
I stopped by the office coming home
to notify Leon that we will be staying another two weeks after this one. That makes three couple for at least one
week. And then we heard that Arletta and
Carl are going to stay another 5 days!
Hurray! Hopefully we can get some
sheetrock up!
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| A Bin of Blocks: Digital Art from the Job Site! |
Quick trip back into town to hit the
post office and then Weight Watchers. A
little time around the fire for Happy Hour and eventually back to warm up a
bowl of soup! Tasted good tonight!
I took a number of abstract pictures today of various patterns on the construction site. I'll include a few of the digital alterations....this is really fun!
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| Another rendition of A Bin of Blocks! |
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| Stacks of Siding 1 |
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| ParticleBoard |
WEDNESDAY, September
10
CAV Build Day 7:
Weather Aborted!
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| Morning clouds mist the Glacier Gap |
The weather forecast is not
favorable for the next 24 hours! We
arise to temps in the 30’s and a 60% chance of rain ALL DAY! We are able to get a couple hours of good
work in before the heavens opened totally! Rick started us out with devotions today!
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| Rick leads devotions |
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| Sample of the mess we were cleaning up. |
Rick and his crew only have three
boards left on the west side of the house to finish the high parts. They were caulking as they went. REALLY wanted to finish up, but it was too
dangerous to ladder up to the scaffolding in the wet conditions. I spent the morning with Diane and Kathy
cleaning up the mess from the insulators on the east side. The sheetrock was delivered last night and
stacked in various places all over the house.
We cleaned around it, wearing a mask for protection from all the dust,
sweeping and then vacuuming. Didn’t
quite finish upstairs as the ceiling ‘rockers’ were already at work and didn’t
want us to ‘make dust’!! We also cut
open the windows that had been sealed over by the insulators and opened up the
electric boxes.
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| In 'gear' to clean! |
During morning break the skies
opened and it poured. People debated
around about whether to stay and keep working in the rain, but finally Steve
made the decision: Go home!! He sent both crews away, keeping just one
group of local volunteers who were tackling the ceiling sheetrock. There was only one lift available, so not an
issue of another group easily starting in as well.
Naturally, as soon as we got back to
the campground, the sun came out and it stopped raining for awhile! Don’t look back! Decision made!
We took the opportunity to head down to Kalispell and the Box Store
Plaza….our name for the area two miles north of town on the road to Whitefish
that has EVERYTHING: Costco, Target, Walmart, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and all the
restaurants you want as well! We first
went to Joanns for tie dye stuff, then to Target to get the PB2 I wanted to
try. Met Kathy and Diane and Gayle at
Costco (my entry into the store!) and we spent more money than necessary, but
are well loaded for ‘snacks’ and goodies for the rest of the trip! Then to Sizzlers for lunch and a final stop
at Walmart. My exciting purchase there
is a pair of gel-filled kneepads!! Not
more concrete pain from working on my knees in closets!
Quiet evening playing ‘catch-up’ –
renewing Weight Watchers, a little Happy Hour in Hinkels trailer, etc. Tonight should be cold, but hopefully the
rain has abated. Looking forward to the
warmer weather forecast!
The day gradually warmed and when
the sun came out and you were out of the wind, you started thinking about
shedding some layers. But it didn’t
really get to the mid 60’s until well after the time we left. Scattered clouds had come in by then. Diane heard we were in the perfect position
to view Northern Lights tonight, so we are hoping we don’t have too many clouds
up in the sky.
THURSDAY, September 11
CAV Build Day 8: Siding and SHOVELS!
OMG.
Oh, My God! I’m not swearing, it really IS a prayer! Oh, My God, will I be able
to move tomorrow??? Today was easily the
most physical day I’ve had on a Habitat build – my back and upper body is going
to be hurting! Where is the Vitamin I? (Ibuprofen!)
A chilly morning, but not too
bad. The skies totally cleared overnight
and everything is blue, which accents the white mountains we can see in the
gap! Even Columbia Mt. has white on the
top. Our CAV group is leaner today….Charlene
is out with her hand injury, Barb is still sick, and Diane stayed home
today. Glen and Pat must be fixing their
RV because we didn’t see them. (They are
the add ons that came because they have RV repairs needed.) The Global Village group is ready to
roll!
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| Rick is still up on top! |
Rick and Carl continued their work
installing siding and soffits. They now
are on the front of the house again. In
the rain yesterday, Rick accidentally slipped getting on to the ladder (he didn’t fall or anything) and wrenched his
back a little. He said, “I have my good
traction shoes!” I pointed out that the
bottoms were totally smooth and perhaps not so good anymore! He agreed that maybe it was time to look for new ones!
Anyway… today was a shovel day for
me. Kathy and I were sent to help the
foundation crew prepare for an 11am inspection and a 1pm scheduled visit from
the concrete people for an initial pour of the footings. Gayle, Kathy and I leveled the footing area
to 10” deep, built up the outsides of the forms all around. Basically all done with shovels and moving
rocky ground from middle to sides. Then
while I screwed down some boards all around, Kathy and Gayle tied rebar to hang
from the boards.
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| Digging the hole.... |
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| ...and STILL digging! |
At this point Gayle and I were
reassigned to dig a couple of holes.
Steve had made a mistake in an electric line housing which needed to be
fixed. That involved digging about a 30”
diameter hole down about 24” or more to expose two 4” conduits which have to be
cut and remounted. Shortly after lunch
we had that job just about finished when Steve called again: “Ginger,
Gayle! Bring your shovels and come over
here!”
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| Working the concrete... |
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| Steve said we could sign the footings! |
The huge concrete boom truck was
here and the footings were beings poured.
My does that go quickly. Gayle
and I followed the nozzle all the way around the foundation with our shovels
going up and down, over and over, into the wet cement to break out air holes
and settle the cement around the rebar.
My arms will protest tomorrow!
Then….back to shoveling the overflow
cement and rocks AWAY from the foundation boards. I was getting weary of moving rocks! All the CAVs stayed an extra half hour at
least to finish up the concrete job.
Rick said he and Carl were ALMOST done with their siding on the east
side of the house. AND the paint crew
finished ALL of the siding painting!!
Wow!
Home for Happy Hour, a football game
on TV, and to collapse! Tonight a hard
freeze is forecast, so we are thinking we may need to disconnect the water line
to protect our hose. It will be cool in
the morning, but should hit 70 by tomorrow afternoon!!! G’night.
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| Snow on the Glacier Mts.....news said over 5" and road closed indefinitely. |
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| The dusting of snow on Columbia Mt. right behind town. |
FRIDAY, September 12
CAV Build Day 9
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| The concrete footings from yesterday. |
Brrrr!! My phone registered 24 degrees when we got up
this morning. Cold! We didn’t have any problems with our water as
Rick did disconnect.
Once again, Rick played all day up
on the upper level of the scaffolding with siding, windows, and soffits. He and Carl have made a good team. I wandered for awhile this morning, knowing
full well that Steve was not going to get back to Gayle and I in regard to our ‘holes’. I helped Tom and Val with the survey strings
for the set-backs on the new foundation.
I hauled rocks to the back fence and iron stakes back to the trailer. Shortly before break I went and asked the
paint team if they needed help and there I stayed for the rest of the day:
painting the green on the front of the east side, and then all afternoon on the
west wall – the very TALL west wall!
That job also involved some scaffolding removal in which Rick and Mike
helped out.
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| Rick is up on high still. |
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| I'm on the paint crew today! |
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| Kathy and Diane dye their shirt while Monica watches! |
We had a tie dye session when we got
home this afternoon. Diane, Kathy, and
Gayle wanted to try things out. I had
picked up a kit from Joanne’s on Wed.
Sure would be easier with all my dyes at home, but we made it work. Hopefully they will be pleased with their
results when we wash them out tomorrow!
Happy Hour and then a quiet
evening. We are tired!
I was assigned to work in the PIT
today – our affectionate term for those preparing the foundation for the next
round of concrete. I have a MUCH better
appreciation for the labor that goes into a concrete slab now. Wow. What
a process. I gathered boards for form
construction with Tom and Val, then helped establish a level line around the
four foot forms we were building with Steve.
After that I began screwing 6” boards along our chalk line. It was a long process and by day’s end I was
only halfway around the 135’ linear feet of foundation. Three different boards had to be screwed in
place to form the 2” lip on the foundation wall. We will finish up on Tuesday in prep for the
concrete on Wednesday. I will need to
recharge our impact driver this weekend as I think I wore the battery down a
little today!
We did a thorough clean-up today as
over the week more and more has gotten left out of place at the site.
Kathy got a cake for Diane and had
invited Leon and Marsha, the RV park owners, to join us. Steve and Gina also came, so it was a fun
evening. Rick and Carl presented the Caulk
Team with their Royal Order of the Golden Caulkers Award. Pretty fun time. Clint and Kathy had nice cards and a cartoon
for everyone. Two couples are heading
out in the morning, and more are leaving on Monday. I am excited that Carl and Arletta have also
signed on for another week!
Here is the devotional tie dye poem and scribble:
SATURDAY, September
13
Final Day of CAV
Build
Today was perfect!! A brisk morning and then sunshine and clear
skies in the afternoon. The Global
Village group felt like they finally discovered the weather they had hoped for
all week! The site was a bee-hive of
activity today as we had our group of CAVs (minus 3 women), 12 Global Village
volunteers, and a group of 8 young men from Summit Academy who showed up to
work (Unbeknownst to Steve who had to scramble to find jobs, but it all worked
out well!) We counted up nearly 40
people counting in the local volunteers.
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| A bee hive of activity at the site today! |
I had volunteered to provide a final
devotion this morning since no one else had signed up. I remembered right before I went to bed and
figured I would just pull one out of my book. But… in the middle of the night I had an idea
of blending a poem about tie-dying with Habitat. I got up at 6:15 and wrote out my poem. I want to draw an accompanying scribble to go
with it! It was very well received by
the group this morning.
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| Upper siding finished and window boarded over. |
Rick finished his siding
today!!! We didn’t think it would be
possible because you couldn’t finish the siding (or caulking and painting)
because the window was installed, which couldn’t be installed because the
sheetrock hadn’t been delivered through the upstairs window yet, because the
insulators hadn’t arrived yet, because their truck broke down!! BUT….Rick and Carl installed all the siding
and then promptly took off the part around the window, removed the window, and
boarded it up!! The paint crew got most
of the final shed painted; landscapers worked to prepare Nycci’s side of the
house, sheetrockers have finished all the ceilings and several walls on Lexie’s
side.
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| I installed all the horizontal boards. |
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| Party girl Diane enjoying her birthday! |
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| Showing off our new shirts! |
Two stops enroute home – one to pick
up some gold paint for a few quick awards and another at Super One for Potato
Salad and Jello Parfait for the potluck tonight. Then to quickly wash out our tie-dye shirts
and get them into the washing machine!
Shower and ready for the Party to begin at 5pm!! Whew!
Today is Diane Hinkel’s birthday (her 67th!) and she collects
rocks! So everyone wrapped up and signed
a special ‘rock’ for Diane. Plus a few
other neat gifts – I gave her my other God-Text poster.
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| Golden Order of Royal Caulkers: Ove, Mike, Monica and Arletta (Ove for Barb!) |
But now….two days of rest and
relaxation! I think we might even go to
church in the morning at Whitefish!!
Wow! So ends another week in
Flathead Paradise!
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| A panorama of the party circle |
Here is the devotional tie dye poem and scribble:
Tie-Dying
Habitat
By Ginger Rembold
We Come.
From north and south,
east and west;
Democrats and
Republicans.
Those in-between.
Catholics,
Episcopalians,
Lutherans, and
Presbyterians.
And those in-between.
Young and
young-at-heart.
White Collar, Blue Collar,
Red Neck,
Yellow, Green, and
Purple hues.
We come in a rainbow
of many colors!
We Gather.
Around a blank shirt,
An empty lot.
A concrete slab.
We tie ourselves
together
with a common
purpose;
With a collective
goal for decent, affordable housing;
Pleated and bound
in a universal desire
for justice.
We Construct.
With a kaleidoscope
of skills
We color and build;
The hue of one ability
overlapping another’s
tint of talent.
Blending, mixing,
swirling,
We layer our gifts
over time.
And wait to see
the end result of our
efforts.
Eventually we witness
what We Create:
The fashion of a
beautiful garment;
The laughter of
children skipping HOME from school;
Flowerbeds blossoming
with pride;
The excitement of new
homeowners
Filled with a future
of hope.
More than beautiful
shirts or houses,
We are artists creating
a new tomorrow,
A new community.
And our colors have
all
Been Tie-Dyed together
in it.
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