I spent part of last week working in Little Rock, Arkansas with the Habitat Affiliate there. This affiliate has built around 200 homes. They work on their new homes on Tues, Thurs and Saturdays. I started Tuesday morning and met with Steve, the construction director, at the site of a new home that had the exterior walls completed but no interior walls yet. He has a group of regulars whom they call the "Over the Hill Gang". Bunch of retired fellows that have been coming out to help for a number of years. Bankers, engineers, teachers and all different backgrounds. The first morning, after we had drug all the cords and tools out from the trailer, the skies opened up and we got rained out. I went to visit the Clinton Library and other tourist attractions in Little Rock. Wednesday took a day trip to visit Hot Springs, a quaint little town about an hour away from Little Rock. It is famous for the natural hot springs that flow out from the mountain and used to run in an open creek down the center of the town. It has since been re-routed and paved over with the main street, but still feeds a number of the public bath houses that have been restored and are still in operation. The park ranger told me that the big draw used to be illegal gambling, but that was stopped by Gov. Rockefeller who cleaned up the town but chased away all the business to the town.
     So, in the past twelve weeks I have spent a week each in Mississipi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas . Four weeks ago, while in Louisiana, my friend Bart asked me if I would consider coming back to work with him. I have decided to take him up on his offer and put my 50/50 trip on hold. A year with no income may have been a bit optimistic. Bart's group has 3 new houses coming out of the ground and two total rehabs to complete before the end of June. FEMA, has given a deadline by the end of April for the 86 families who are still in the FEMA trailers to be out or face an $800/month fine. There is a group of 55 volunteers coming Sunday for a week. I will be back in my role as "herder of the cats" at least until June. I would encourage anyone reading this to consider putting together a group and come on down! If you are interested, give me a call on my cell   703-568-7783 or email peter@salemme.net    Thank you all for following me on my blog-   Peter