Back in action

Hello readers in reader land...it has been quite some time since I last posted.  Mainly because I was on summer break for 10 days.  10 awesome days at home.  It was full of time with family, friends, sleep, relaxing, golf, plenty of beer, and much more.  The essentials mainly.  I caught up with my friends I have missed, caught up with family, golf my best 9 holes ever, and slept past 6am on Monday through Friday which hasn't really happened in 5 months.  Needless to say I had a great time.  It went by fast, but it was the break I needed to come back to campus and feel refreshed for round 3.

So we got back to campus on Monday the 6th.  Tuesday we were thrown right into transition stuff.  SO fun.  We had classes, briefing meetings, random things to fill the day, per usual.  Our team had our briefing on our project in Tallulah, Louisiana.  Before the briefing we were kind of apprehensive about the whole project, but after the meeting, we felt better.  There were plenty of opportunities for creativity in the project working with children, mucking and gutting a school, and interacting with the community.  We had our River 10 creative juices flowing.  Vicksburg wasn't looking so bad as a place to live after all.  Wednesday was supposed to be used as a clearance meeting day, packing, cleaning, etc.  HOWEVER, around 10 or so our Unit Leader and Team Leader called a meeting with our team to share some news with us.  Our Tallulah project has been cancelled because of asbestos taking over the entire school we were supposed to be working in.  Zero good.  SO River 10 will be heading to Lake City, Florida on Disaster Relief for Tropical Storm Debby!  The main idea of AmeriCorps is to be responders to natural disasters such as a tropical storm or hurricane.  I was really hoping that we would have to be apart of a disaster relief team (I know that sounds terrible, but hey whatever) because I know that it is work that is essential to helping a community in dire need.  One of the main reasons why I joined AmeriCorps was to go on a disaster relief.  Here I am in that position, and I am really excited.

So let me give y'all a little overview of the next 4, what could potentially be 6, weeks in Lake City, Lake Lake City B*tch (song reference for you rap fans)...
Our project takes place in Lake City which is a little inland located about an hour from Tallahassee Florida.  Lake City is located in Columbia County which is one of two counties hit hardest by Tropical Storm Debby.  These two counties are among two of the poorest counties in Florida, two that were affected the most by Tropical Storm Debby, and these counties are two that have the highest rates of unemployment. Needless to say, this area needs a team to come help.  Lake City pumped 395 MILLION gallons of water so far and has 485 homes or buildings damaged.  As of July 24, a month after Debby hit, debris pick-up started.  Some homes flooded with up to 5 feet of water, some were flooded all the way to ceilings, while others flooded with a little less, but still a significant enough to be damaged. 

What we will be doing to help...
Our team will be canvasing for the first few days.  We will be going door to door to areas most impacted to do needs assessments.  We will be cross-referencing the existing needs that are on a list to see what has already been completed by other organizations.  Once that is done, we will go into homes to muck and gut the homes.  What this means in a nut shell is we will be going into homes and pretty much remove debris that can no longer be used in the house.  We will basically be leaving the frames of the house, if they are not completely damaged.  This will be a majority of our project with hopes of completing 28-30 homes by the end of what they want 4 weeks, potentially all 6 of this spike.  We will also be delivering disaster recovery information door to door to the home owners.  Since Lake City is still a disaster zone, we will also be in town cleaning debris from the roads to make the city roads 100% functional since right now 95% are functional roads. 

Our housing...
We are a liiiiiiiiittle spoiled by our housing situation.  Most disaster housing is not ideal for a team to stay in.  However, we are being housed in the Cabot Lodge.  Yes, a hotel for 4 weeks.  Pretty nice digs we at least hope.  There is a pool, wi-fi, free breakfast and access to a kitchen at the Emergency Operations Center down the street.  All of the girls on our team will be sharing a nice cozy hotel room and so will the boys.  We are pretty excited for the hotel.

Our sponsor...
Our main sponsor is Catholic Charities.  This organization's mission is to provide services to anyone in need regardless of race or religion.  There are a number of organizations working in Lake City to help repair and rebuild, but they are our main sponsor.  We will also be working with Columbia County which is the county Lake City is in.  We have 2 main site supervisors that we will meet when we arrive.

We are leaving tomorrow (Saturday) at 8am and we couldn't be more excited.  There are plenty of opportunities for ISP's while there and even the potential to sneak out for a little team trip to Disney World.  The staff has been telling us how excited they are for us and how great it is we are going.  I am really excited to be put in a situation where I know the place I am going needs immediate help.  Today we are all packing and preparing for the next 6 hectic weeks ahead of us.  The drive is about 8-9 hours and we go right into orientation when we get there Saturday night and Sunday.  Work begins Monday in full force.  The 9 member of River 10 are ready to take on this disaster relief project!

That is all I have for now.  Very exciting news for us.  I hope all is well wherever you are.  Big Happy Birthday to Momma C! 

I will fill y'all in on new stuff next week when I have some time! Keep it classy.

The end of the Big Blue House



Day one.



Today marks the end of our time in Hattiesburg.  Our very last day in the Big Blue House. We successfully completed the entire hallway with drywall, 2 entire bathrooms, and one wall in each of the other rooms.  The staff and especially Miss Sheila are really impressed with our progress we made to the second floor! I decided for this blog I am going to share my thoughts on this part of spike instead of explaining in detail the work we did.  We had a large lunch today with the staff of R3SM, Miss Sheila, and Darryl.  When I say it was huge, it was enormous.  There was chicken wings, pulled pork, burgers, dogs, salad, salmon, and apple pie made by Sam.  Perfect feast for poor volunteers.

Last day, hall complete!



Once the meal was over, Miss Shelia had some closing remarks for us.  She has got to be the second best speaker I have ever heard, first being Dad-Z of course.  She has taught me so much in the last 4 weeks regarding leadership and just being a better person.  She told us how much our team contributed to the second floor and how we each brought something to the table on the team.  The words she has shared with me in the last 4 weeks will last with me for the rest of this program.  Miss Shelia is someone that everyone in their life needs to meet.  She is a real tough lady with a huge heart and passion for people.  She quickly became someone our team looked up to, and I will certainly miss her guidance on our remaining spikes.  Darryl added his sarcastic two sense and made us all laugh.  He is one of the best supervisors we have had.  He has taught us so much and we will certainly miss him, too.

Their organization recognizes each volunteer who comes to the house with a certificate of appreciation for helping out at the house.  This gesture was so unexpected and nice of the whole organization.  She presented us with those along with a sweet plaque.  The plaque was for the coke machine that I did the leg work on to get donated to the house!  It is awesome.  They named the back room the "AmeriCorps NCCC Snack Room" after us.  Such a nice gift.  Once Miss Sheila finished that, we got to present our gift to the house.  Previously I said that Delta 4 worked on Big Blue before us.  They put together the "NCCC Dining Room" where we all eat and each team comes up with a picture or some way of representing themselves to show they helped on the house.  Chris and I decided to do this project for our team.  When we had team reveal we had to all act like we were willow trees.  That was how we found the 10 teammates we were going to have.  The two of us decided to make a replica of a willow tree with everybody's picture on it.  Instead of just regular pictures, we used pictures and wood to represent each member hanging on a branch of the tree.  This whole project was fun and we laughed and took goofy pictures of teammates.  The staff loved it!

The tree Chris and I made



My pose on the tree.



The wall in the kitchen with NCCC teams decorations

Miss Sheila's husband also was at lunch.  Man, did he leave us with good advice or what.  He started it off with a great chant that we can use and share with others.  He is the director of continuing education at Southern Miss University and you can tell he loves his job.  He talked to about 5 of us once lunch was over and captivated all of our attention.  He left some lasting advice to all of us that we can all use.  His most important part though was that he wanted us to remember we are all here for a reason.  We are not here for the reason that we signed up for AmeriCorps.  Some reason other than NCCC brought us all to R3SM to help out.  He wanted us to think of that reason and share it with the world.  He told us to use our voice and follow whatever road we want to take because it is up to us.  His advice is something I needed since I am struggling with some parts of this program and really needed some boost.  I am going to replay his words in my head for the remaining 5 months and remind myself I am here for a purpose.   

Tomorrow we head out to Vicksburg to campus for a week.  We have transition fun times to get through.  I can't wait to see people and hang out with my friends I have missed!  That's the best part of this program, I have met some of the best friends ever who will be my friends forever.  After the week of real serious transition work with a side of fun, I get to go HOME for 10 days!!! I can't wait to be at 10 Thomas for a whole ten days.  I plan on relaxing and doing NOTHING for this time with my family and friends.  See some of you then!



The plaque we got!



The coke machine with the plaque on the wall.
I am proud of my accomplishment, just a bit!





River 10 is used to carry heavy objects, always.

So, when I last posted, it was the 4th of July.  Stars and stripes forever.  What seemed like would be an awesome beach day turned into kind of shambles starting off with waking up.  We all wanted to leave at 8 all ready for the beach.  All 10 of us woke up around 8something and decided to leave an hour after desired time.  We all walked outside and saw our van with yet again, another flat tire.  This time we don't think the infamous tire slasher visited again, but simply just a flat.  So we got into the van, called all of the government places to get it fixed and finally reached probably the only worker in the U.S of A who was working on this national holiday.  The tow truck came to change our tire and we were finally on the road by like 11:30ish.  We got to the beach around 1, just in time for every cloud in the world to roll in.  We laid there for a while until we couldn't take the sand whipping at us any longer.  We found something to occupy our time which consisted of food.  We were back by about 8 and I was in bed by 9.  Not my ideal 4th, but what can ya do, next year will be better.

On Thursday we were going through our usual day doing odds and ends jobs, until the afternoon.  A glorious flat bed truck pulled up to Big Blue with 50 sheets of 12 foot dry wall.  What did we have to do with it all?  Oh that's right, carry it upstairs through the winding staircase that is creeky and 100 years old.  This took quite sometime.  We really loved doing this, complaint free. (not)  We all decided that our objective for 10 months is to see what the heaviest object will be that we carry as a team.  Telephone poles?  Drywall?  Only time will tell.  On the upside of carrying this drywall, we now got to start to drywall the entire upstairs.  This made us happy because we now can see the second floor coming together.  Darryl taught Sam, Jamie and I how to jump right into it.  He gave us a huge wall to finish by the end of the day, we did all but a little piece, pretty impressive is what he said.  That closed out Thursday.



River 10 at the museum.



Friday we actually did not have work.  Darryl is a busy man.  We thankfully have a lot to work on before we go back to campus with our portfolios for both parts of this spike and our debriefing meeting information.  Friday morning was used to go over all of this paperwork.  Friday afternoon we scheduled a tour at the African American Military History Museum.  It is located right near our house in Hattiesburg.  Miss Sheila is actually the president of the committee for the museum.  She and her husband are retired colonel's from the army and are featured in the museum.  Miss Sheila actually has a uniform on display in a case.  It was nice to learn some history of African American's through the military, especially what Miss Sheila did since she is our sponsor on this project.

We had the weekend off and we used it as such.  We decided to use Saturday and Sunday as recovery days.  Sleep, TV, movies, fast food (ew, yes I ate it) and lots of sitting around.  We actually ventured to Target one day and I bought 2 movies to add to our movie rotation.  One being Mrs. Doubtfire.  Best purchase yet.

Monday through Wednesday were used to put up drywall.  The all-star team, as Darryl refers to Sam, Jamie, and I, successfully put up almost 2 complete bathrooms and a good portion of the hallway.  This doesn't seem like a whole heck of a lot of drywall, but trust us, it took quite some time to measure out the lopsided house's walls, pipes, and floor boards.  Since Big Blue is 100 years old there aren't many straight edges.  That makes the drywall so much fun to put up!  I am just glad we feel like we are really making an effort to expedite the process upstairs.

Our first wall.

This morning we got to go into the community of Hattiesburg to see some of the homes that R3SM has helped rebuild or repair because of Hurricane Katrina.  We got to meet 2 gentlemen who live in these particular homes.  It was a pretty eye opening morning.  One home took 4 years to be put on the list.  This man had to change his house to be completely handicap accessible because during the hurricane he had a stroke caused by the stress of the hurricane on his life.  His whole house has since been remodeled by R3SM volunteers like NCCC, Habitat for Humanity, and Christian Church Volunteers.  Another home we got to visit was done with phase 1 of remodeling.  R3SM is waiting for the funding for phase 2 to complete the roofing and siding of the house.  We learned that this man also waited 4 years to get his house on the repair list, but during these 4 years he still lived in his home.  He had no electricity, running water, or a bathroom.  It is amazing to see the whole street that he lived on had to be completely repaired by volunteers because of the hurricane.  The morning was pretty moving for me to see the individuals who own the house and who were effected by the hurricane.  I needed this morning for my sanity at this point.  Even when you think something is wrong with your life, it could definitely be worse.

For the rest of today and tomorrow we have ISP's.  Tomorrow is at the Humane Society in town, playing with dogs, puppies and other animals.  Today is at a farmer's market, my new love in life.  Hopefully when I go back to campus next week I will have almost completed by 80 required hours for that particular part of my required hours of service.  Pretty laid back week.  Yesterday I got to go with Miss Sheila to price out vending machines because I got a Coke machine donated to the house for volunteers to use.  She now wants me to get a vending machine, fine by me, as long as we get a plaque to represent our beautiful Coke machine we got donated since clearly I love this soda too much.

That's all for me.  All I can say is I am ready for break.  I am more than excited to go home in 15 days.  I really can't wait to be in Burlington for 10 days for a much needed break.  At the end of this week I will have hit over 1,000 hours of community service since February 27.  I feel as though that calls for a break full of nothing.  Perfect.  See y'all in almost 2 weeks!!

Good things are goin' on, down in Mississippi y'all

Hello, y'all.  River 10 is still in Hattiesburg, Mississippi y'all.  We are working hard with R3SM to get their second floor close to ready for some volunteers to have a place to stay.  We are doing jobs while the plumbers and electricians get their acts together and come on down to help out in Big Blue.  Until then, we've had a full almost 2 weeks since I last posted worth of work.



window framing



 Last week Sam, Jamie, and I installed window frames.  The ouside of the window frames and the windows were installed by a Canadian volunteer group, and let me tell you, the only good thing from Canada is for sure the hockey, they had quite some trouble installing these windows.  That's where the 3 amigos came in.  We went to each window on the second floor and installed the inside frame.  This took quite some measuring and advanced knowledge of construction, which clearly we all have.  After our site supervisor, Darryl the great, taught us how to successfully measure each window, use different saws, and use the all powerful nail gun, we were off to the races.  This was our project from Monday to Thursday.  The three of us had some minor issues along the way, and I would like to share one with y'all.  As we were on probably window twenty-somethingish, we were standing in the room that needed 2 windows done.  We had the air compressor, ladder, nail gun, boards cut, and the wide open nice 100 degree heat blowing through the open window.  Sam was on the ladder nice and high.  Most people know if you've seen a ladder that there is a part that can swing out to hold items such as a paint can, or something of that nature.  We used it to hold the nail gun.  As we noticed that a board we measured was too long, we had Sam get down to check it out for herself.  As the three of us were staring at an open window, we heard a cord winding.  We looked down and the nail gun was headed out the window of the second floor.  We all grabbed for it like a scene out of a movie.  We all poked our heads out of the window to see it dangling in front of an office window on floor 1.  We know the office it was in front of, but that will remain a secret.  It was kind of the laugh the three of us needed and a moment we needed to regenerate some new energy in us to finish the project.  We, in total, completed 30 windows.  Day one was slow, only completing 7 windows.  By Thursday, we had 9 done by lunch, bringing our day total for the last day to 15.  We dominated this project. 

Friday was a slower work day, and since we worked so hard for the week, we got to get off work a little early.  This was perfect for 3 of us since we piled into a little red car and headed to New Orleans for the weekend to visit some of our Amerifriends.  Let me tell you, I love New Orleans a lot.  I had a great time and it was a nice escape to see some of my best friends in the program that aren't on my team.  I look forward to plenty more of those weekends in spikes to come.

This week is kind of a short week for us.  Monday, I helped a few teammates construct the studs and outline of a bathroom.  We had to fit the shower into a small area and measure, cut and nail in boards to frame the bathroom.  Since a few of us were on this project on Monday, we continued it today.  We put in another bathroom on the same floor. Yesterday was a little more complicated because we were teaching people how to do certain tasks because a group of us had done it on Monday.  I successfully taught how to measure the bathroom out and successfully hammered my knuckle on my index finger.  Large swollen bruise, but worth it. 

It has been extremely hot, but I am really enjoying learning more about construction.  Last week, we also learned our round 3 spike project! Round 3 already, kind of gross how fast time is flying.  Our team is going to Tallulah, Louisiana to help transform a school into a place where an after school program will take place.  Our team will help get the facility ready with playgrounds, landscaping, and minor construction.  We also get to plan and implement a football and soccer camp.  I am pretty pumped.  We will be staying on campus in good ol Vicksburg, so I will get comfortable with my dorm.  More details to follow on this project!

getting the bathroom alllll ready



Johnny and Darryl doing some work



such skill



Finished product!

Anyway, that is all for now.  We get today off, and River 10 is headed to Gulfport, Mississippi to enjoy the beach!  Happy 4th of July to you all, especially everyone in OGT, my favorite place in the world.  I miss everyone, but I will be home July 27 for 10 days.  Can not wait to see some of you!

Up On the Roof...not anymore



Big Blue, our home and work.



Hello readers.  I am in Hattiesburg, Mississippi y'all now.  It is hot as hell and to be quite honest, I haven't complained too much, yet.  We are here working with R3SM and are getting adjusted quite well.  Since I last posted we have met our sponsors and have gotten our feet wet in Big Blue's construction project.  Let me give you a little run down on our sponsors.  Miss Sheila is our main sponsor.  She is an ex-colonel and runs her company as such.  She told us that she would meet with us once a week and discuss our progress in the project and just to catch up with our team.  She is tough, but I feel some people on our team need someone that is as tough as Miss Sheila.  Darryl is our site supervisor and works with us everyday.  He seems to really enjoy the job we are doing with him and loves the house completely.  He is teaching us all different things everyday and is really helping us learn about construction.  He is hilarious and jokes around with us all day.  We were told that by coming here we could build the second floor, or most, of the second floor of Big Blue.  When we arrived, we found out that the plumbing and the electric work is not done yet.  Due to this little problem, we are at a kind of stand still for the process of the house.  We have been doing little odd jobs such as painting, sanding, random touch ups, some floor work and cleaning.  These jobs have kept us busy, but we are really looking forward to what we will be completing by the end of this round.

Tuesday was our first day of work here.  We got an orientation to R3SM in the morning from Miss Sheila and then got into work right after.  Our team put together saw horses where we can do some work on.  It was a pretty easy way, but a good way to adjust to the new project.  

Wednesday morning we woke up at 5am for PT because our new work hours are 7-3 due to the HOT HOT heat of the day.  Everyone got up for PT without a fuss and we all were working out pretty hard.  It was about 5:25 and then we heard a loud hissing noise.  I thought we were going to have to move because of sprinklers coming on, but boy was I wrong.  We looked over at the parking lot where our van and the other van was parked that we picked up from Maryland.  There was a man going from our hissing van to the other van, when he then made that van hiss louder.  This individual was slashing our tires, right in front of us.  We all immediately ran into the house and called 9-1-1-.  The police came quickly, but nothing could be done because the man was gone.  It was a nice wake up call for us to be safe around our house.  The tires eventually got fixed on both vans, but it took some time.  Jamie and I painted an island in our beautiful kitchen.  Delta 4, another team from campus,  was here before us last round and they completed the first floor.  We got to paint the island because of all of the work that Delta 4 did, the island wasn't completed.  Tuesday I worked on this with Jamie and we got it done and it looks good, if I do say so myself. 
We were all just amazed all day that we witnessed a man actually do something like that to our vans.



The blue island in our kitchen.

Thursday found me doing more painting on the house.  We found out on Sunday, Father's Day, that David on our team became a father.  He took a personal day because it was National Go Skate day and he is an avid skate boarder, so we took it upon ourselves to surprise David with a baby celebration.  We went straight to Walmart after work and bought blue balloons and baby outfits and cute baby stuff for David and his son, Leyek.  He is adorable, the pictures look exactly like David and we are all so happy for him.  We have a nice roof area of the house that past teams have used as a place to escape and it has a great view of the sunset.  We went up there after the baby celebration and sat and watched the sunset as a team.  I was singing Up On the Roof by the Drifters the whole time.  Apparently a neighbor saw us because we found our Friday that we aren't supposed to be up there and we are banned, for the rest of spike! Awesome.

Friday was our last day of work for the week.  Friday marked 12 days straight of work for River 10.  We were exhausted.  It kind of dragged and seemed to go slowly.  I was on painting duty of a staircase for the day.  We ended work and literally did nothing for the night. 



Another major room we are working on, both bathrooms.



One major room we are focusing on.



Saturday we woke up at 9:30 for PT.  BIG mistake.  In Hattiesburg Mississippi, y'all at 9:30 am it is already 92 degrees and hot.  The run, workout, and sweat killed me.  I literally will never wake up again and do PT at this time.  We all lounged all day in the AC in our bedroom until the girls all went shopping.  I didn't spend a dime and I am proud of myself.  I instead tried on gorgeous lime green heels for the girls while they were dress shopping.  We got back and a few of us went down the street to the Boom Boom Room, a local bar.  Apparently the man, Benny, who owns it loves AmeriCorps and gives us a large all you can drink discount.  It will come in handy when I am not saving money for a weekend trip like I am for next weekend.  Today was used as a literally relaxing day.  This whole weekend and week I have really done myself some serious service by watching Laguna Beach, Newlyweds, and SVU all the time.  No big deal. 

Tomorrow starts a new work week, with hopefully some new work for me!  I love Hattiesburg and it is a lot of fun.  This weekend a couple of teammates and I are going to New Orleans to visit some friends from other teams.  I am so excited.  Can't wait actually.  Until then I will work hard and enjoy Big Blue and the hot hot heat of Hattiesburg.  Have a good week!

Thank God for hometowns

So, last week I told a little white lie, I was not really in Lorton when I posted, I was on the train on the way home for the weekend! I surprised my favorite 10 year old for her birthday.  I was on hour 1 of a 10 hour Amtrak train ride from DC to South Station.  Let me tell you, I probably will not ever take a train 10 hours again unless I am heavily medicated.  It was not fun, but getting into Boston at 8am on Saturday morning was so worth it.  Mom and Dad picked me up since they were the ONLY people who knew I was coming home.  I won't lie, I may or may not have shed a few tears walking off the train to go see them, I was that excited.  We drove home and I thought Bridget would be asleep still, but obviously she was up watching animal planet snuggling on the couch, just like I left her in February.  Mom walked in with Dad before me and told Bridget they brought her an early birthday present, that's where I came in.  The look of pure shock on her cute face was worth the 10 hours, the personal day, and worth the wait for the past 4 months.  That was the hug I needed the most and it lasted a good 5 minutes.  I stayed home for the weekend until Monday afternoon.  I took my first personal day Monday so I could enjoy Bridget's birthday Sunday, recital the same day, catching up with friends I have missed a lot, visiting MaryKathryn and Bridget in school, seeing my 8th graders who I have missed a lot, and catching up with my family who I have missed more than words can say.  Surprising them all was just as fun, Paul's reaction was great with some profanity, MK screamed on the phone, and Bobby couldn't have been more perfect.  Surprising people may be my new favorite thing...watch out.  Thank God for hometowns! (another Carrie reference FYI, great new song)



Me and my Bridgie.



Tuesday was back to work as usual.  Going home was just the little push I needed to feel like I am ready to push through work until summer break.  We were still working on boardwalks.  There are 5 in total for the entire trail (1.3 or so miles).  We worked Tuesday to Friday on these boardwalks, and let me tell you, we worked HARD.  I actually put in the lowest amount of hours this past week because of my personal day, only by 3 or 4 hours or so.  And by lowest, I put in 60 hours this week.  Wednesday-Friday were all 12+ hours.  Sickening huh?  I wouldn't change it for the world. 

A boardwalk before...



The same boardwalk after!

 By Friday, our last day in Lorton, we finished all 5 boardwalks!  We were so proud of ourselves because we started them last week and finished them all this week.  In order to do 2 of the 5, we had to carry FULL sized telephone poles.  Yes, full.  We didn't cut them at all, we carried the entire 20' and 23' poles.  We carried them as a team one step at a time.  How many times in your life can you say YOU'VE lifted a full telephone pole?  My count is up to 2, no biggie though.  Friday was our last day with Marc the sarcastic Ranger. We worked until 6pm to get everything done.  Our trail is just about finished, but another volunteer group is coming soon to help Marc finish the trail.  We did a lot of hard work and it was a lot of fun learning a new skill.  Saturday was used to clean the van, the house, and to get ready for our departure Sunday for part 2 of our spike. 


River 10 moving full telephone poles...beasts

Part 2 takes place in Hattiesburg Mississippi, y'all.  We started our travel Sunday and drove for 8 hours.  We stopped in Asheville, North Carolina for the night.  Today we continued our trip for another 9 and 1/2 hours to get to Hattiesburg.  In Hattiesburg we are working with R3SM, which means Recover, Rebuild, Restore Southeast Mississippi.  We are building floor 2 of 2 in a volunteer housing facility.  Our housing we are building will help house up to 60 volunteers that come to Mississippi to help rebuild it from Katrina hitting.  We will be living in floor 1 that a team from our campus helped build last round and we will be building floor 2.  It is going to be absolutely awesome.  We are ready to move on and start to build and do construction.  We just arrived in Hattiesburg today at our new home, Big Blue if you will (the houses name) and we are ready to take on a new part of spike 2. 

That is all for now.  I will fill you all in on my adventures this week sometime!

Tics on tics on tics

Me and the Ditch Witch...from last post.

Hello readers! Here I am in Lorton, VA at Mason Neck State Park still blazing our lovely trail.  This past week has been the longest week that we have had here, by far.  Go figure, it was our first full week of work in Virginia, poor River 10.  Anyway, let me start with last week.We had the greatest ISP.  Our team got to volunteer at a festival being firework Marshall's.  Let me tell you, it was hard work....not.We got to wear cool colored vests and make sure that nobody skipped the do not enter sign onto a lovely golf course.  Who did we actually stop you ask?  Well, Sam and I were guarding and watched one cat come on to the fairway of this particular golf hole we were at and scurry away.  Man, it was hard work.  We really are feeling the fact that this program is never just a 5 day a week program.  Given this fact and knowing how tired we were, we got Sunday off, thank God.  This Sunday was the only day we had to ourselves.  I took advantage and literally did nothing.  It was perfect. 

Monday through today we were at it again, blazing our trail at Mason Neck with Ranger Marc.  Marc really is a Virginian gem.  He is so sarcastic and witty that he makes us laugh everyday.  He has taken note who the hardest workers are on our team and uses us enough to make us tired and sore at the end of the day.  This week had a few highlights.  First, we finished the trail!  We were told it was a mile long, but in all reality, it is around 1.5-1.6 miles.  We knew at the end it was totally done because there is a beautiful field where, eventually, there is going to be a field where animals can roam, especially deer and there are bird nests for eagles.  Real live bald eagles.  So cool watching them fly around.  We finished the trail and felt an immediate sense of accomplishment. 



Some trail pics with my cool app on my smarty pants phone



The trail may be finished, but trail work never ends.  There are places along our trail that will hold water if Virginia so happens to "storm" aka rain.  Crazy southerners/everyone else in the nation calling rain just storming.  Anyway, these places that are deeper in the ground and have places where water could build up, we have to build boardwalks.  We would call them bridges, but Marc informed is that bridges need architectural approval and we don't have that.  So, we are building raised boardwalks...bridges.  These aren't your ordinary boardwalks. They encompass many aspects of life, such as 6x6x8 pieces of wood, 4x4 flat wooden structures, and 5ft pieces of telephone poles.  Since all of these wooden structures do not have their own arms and legs, us AmeriCorps Members need to get things done and move them ourselves.  Yes, this includes the 5ft pieces of TELEPHONE POLE.  Imagine that, telephone poles.  So, the first day we were using the poles, Marc decided to take me with him and teach me how to cut the pieces and carry the poles, just me and him.  Since, as I previously mentioned, I am jacked, this seemed like a task that was easy to complete.  Little did I know, these pieces of telephone pole are treated wood and are heavy as all Hell.  I struggled, so did Marc.  For one boardwalk, we cut 6 5ft pieces.  We then carried each of the 6 pieces to the truck and loaded them up.  To cut these large heavy blocks of solid wood, we used what I described to my team as Outback Steak House steak knives (that the Conceison household has several of).  Literally the blade of the "sawzall" was tiny.  It too a while, and I was sweating.  Needless to say, today, the day after my power lifting telephone poles day, I was dead. 



Boardwalk number 1...note the telephone poles



We have 2 boardwalks ready to be boarded up so they can be waked on by people really soon.  My other accomplishment of the week had nothing to do with the trail, but more so the environment.  Being in the woods is really awesome, legs covered in mosquito bites, drenching myself in bug spray every morning, wearing a hard hat so tics don't nest in my hair, and being completely head to toe full of dirt.  Sarcasm.  My big accomplishment this week was successful killing about 5 tics.  3 on me and 2 on my teammates.  Needless to say, I fear no insect anymore.  They're all great, spiders, tics, beatles, bring em on. 

Today marks the end of week 3 here in Lorton.  We love the project and are happy with our work, however, I think River 10 needs a change of scenery.  I look forward to working with Marc for another 5 days, but then I am ready to move into our 15p again to head to Hattiesburg for the remainder of our spike #2.  One week from Sunday and we will be on the move. 

I am just so happy to have 2 days off, in a row, this weekend.  Who knows what this weekend will bring for me...we will see.  Have a great week everyone!



I cut a tree down with a pole saw.  I was a liiiiiittle
happy it finally came down.