The title of today's blog comes from the movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford that came out back in the late '60's. It was a western depicting two bank-robbing friends that got the railroad upset with them because they kept robbing the same train. Mr. Harriman, owner of the railroad, hired the best trackers in the nation to track them down and stop the robbing of his train. The trackers began their pursuit of the two, with Butch and Sundance doing everything they knew to lose them, riding their horses through water, on rock, through mountain passes, but everytime they would look back, thinking they had lost them, there they were, still coming. Paul Newman had a recurring question to Robert Redford, "Who are those guys?"  They were really good at what they did. Which brings me to Habitat of Tuscaloosa. We have a really great team in place here, and are really getting in gear. This past week, we dug foundations for houses number 16 and 17 since we started less than a year ago. Eight have been completed with families moved in, another six are at the dangerously close stage and the other three we have just begun. On Monday of this past week, we hosted a group of volunteers from Newark, New Jersey. Their common base was that they all worked with the Habitat affiliate there. Their construction director, Jason, came with them. They were about 22 in the group. A bunch of them were in "the old farts club" up there. (I can say that now having reached the minimum age to qualify as one of sixty years old). I say this affectionately, of course. A number of the Habitat affiliates around the country have groups of regular, seasoned, retired volunteers who enjoy the commraderie and work who usually come out one or two days during the week. A number of these folks were from Jewish, like Mr. Barry who was 78 years young. He was a character. The group started off on Monday at the old quad, which is nearing completion. I had them start on three of the storage sheds, framing, siding, metal roofing and painting and the front of the Words home still had some siding and exterior trim and columns to do, so Jason worked on leading that and the side stoops and steps and rails. Jason thought that he would be getting a break by coming here (and not having to direct volunteers and just working with the tools). No such luck. All of his regulars that came with still look to him for direction, so, not wanting to upset the order, I just gave Jason the big picture, got what materials he needed and went to Starbucks. Not. But he did make my job easier this week. Until the middle of the week, anyway. What happens with volunteers that come here to help for a week is that they become heartistically connected with the project they start on at the start of the week. Usually in the Monday morning kickoff speech, one of the items that we ask is for their flexibility. We forgot this week, so that on Tuesday, we could only coax two of them to come with me to help start digging foundations for two new homes (#16 & 17) at the East Quad. We had rented a little mini-excavator to do the bulk of the actual digging of the footers, but it takes more people to clean up the corners, check the depth and set the re-bar steel. Brandon and I had set the batter boards and set the strings for where the perimeter of the house would be and spray painted the ground that needed digging for the 12" deep, 16" wide trenches would be. Previous foundations had been done by the blocklayer subcontractor, but this one I got to do with the mini-excavator. It took me all of Tuesday to dig the first house, practicing on the operation of the machine ideally that it would become an extension of my body. I got pretty good but then our plumber, Aaron dropped by and showed me a little lever that flipped the controls from excavator to backhoe. Got to re-learn the controls again but with the new setting, the controls were much more intuitive (When you pull the right lever towards you, the bucket comes toward you- push away, it goes away- much more better. The second house, I stayed late Wednesday until 7:00 and dug the whole house's footing.   So, on Wednesday morning, we gather everyone at the old quad and give 'em the pep talk. Sorry, we forgot to mention flexibility. I really need your help. It's not glamorous work, digging in the dirt, but we are blitz building this home with Major League Baseball sponsoring it and local Firefighters coming to build the home in a week starting in two weeks. Gotta get the foundation in. . . .   blah, blah, blah.   Gave them the big picture. So Jason says, Let's all go over there. Beautiful. We attacked the digging, including the old chunks of concrete in the way, an old stubborn tree root. Got it done, called the inspector, passed, sprayed for termites and on Thursday poured 16 cubic yards of concrete. On Friday, like the old Pony Express, a new group from 1st Pres. Church in Anderson, SC shows up to work with us Friday and Saturday only. They got the second foundation cleaned up, set all the steel and grade stakes and we poured that one on Saturday. The five courses of cinder block foundation as of yesterday had been completed and they will come Tuesday to set the second home's block. Woody Smith, a local volunteer who owns a bobcat came after the first concret was poured and levelled out the dirt inside the foundation before the block started, which makes for a better and easier job for everyone concerned. This morning (Sunday) he did the same for the second house. Who are those guys?   Stay tuned.