We hosted a beautiful group of volunteers from First Presbyterian Church in Cinncinatti, Ohio this past week. They took a big chunk out of the Jemison's new home. Drew's Crew finished the installation of the metal roofing, working around spats of rain on and off throughout the week, but stayed with it and finished it up. The group also ran a bunch of the hardi siding outside.   Inside the home, we had a ceramic tile seminar led by Laura and her sister Amy, who were both quick studies and took the tile and ran with it and finsihed the installation of the 12 x 12 tile ( in subway pattern) in both the kitchen and both bathrooms. Great job. Saved the grout lessons for the next group. Mrs. Jemison, the future homeowner, has been coming out almost everyday to work down her sweat equity hours, and says that she is determined to become the homeowner who worked the most hours ever. I believe her! This past week, too, we installated the simple, decent dentil molding across the front beam. Can't quite decide on what color it will be, although with Ms. Jemison around, it shouldn't be too hard to choose. They picked a great stain color for the cedar columns and trim that match the front door (that came stained already when the house was shipped in parts from St. Louis.)  The group worked through Friday and travelled back home to Ohio on the weekend.
     On Saturday we hosted two groups that came into town to help just for the one day . The first group worked with Brandon and Steve on the Welch home, which is just next door to the Jemison's and is the fourth house that is being sponsored by Major League Baseball. The group was called CAA and were out of Nashville and are agents for musicians and celebrities. They all worked very hard to finish framing and install the plywood to "black the house in". They got as far as putting the tar paper on the roof. Lot's of young, inexperienced help, but still, with Steven and Brandon's guidance got a lot done.   Brandon tasked Nancy with working inside the house, to take a group of too many people and lead them in something she hadn't done before (installing deadwood). Ooops.
Nancy McDaniel has been a long term volunteer with us for about four months now and just recently accepted a paid position with us through Americorp Direct or National. Nancy has been working graveyard shift at Jack Warner's resort and been coming after work and working until noon, but oftentimes later than that. She has been and will continue to be a great asset to our team .
      Also on Saturday and again just for the day, I led a team of 25 volunteers all from the same company called Saginaw Pipe. They are based in Alabama, about an hour south of us here. They are a family owned steel company with about 150 employees. We worked on Mya Brownlees home back at the old quad. Remember those houses? It was a while back that we started and then stopped to build the MLB homes. New baby syndrome and all. Anyway, the numbers where a little overwhelming for me at the start, but fortunately, we had three or four areas of bamboo flooring already started in the house from last session, so we had an all-together here's how its done in the living room with all watching and then split up into groups and basically, completed 90% of the flooring throughout the house. Howard, the owner of the company and Richard, who runs the day to day were both there working hard all day. Couple of highlights for the day- first, they arranged to have lunch for all brought in from Newk's (my favorite lunch spot) . Samiches, fruit, and swite tie (that's the way they pronounce sweet tea down here). The other highpoint came at the end of the day when Doug, the one who arrived with a truck full of tools, decided at the end of the day to leave with us one of his mobile ac units and a big fan! Very generous and I don't think I suggested it too much.
       Two other things about the day. One very unfortunate. Mary from their office was walking in the front yard of the house and trip on an old cable wire and landed hard on her shoulder and ended up having to have surgery on it. I feel so bad when things like this happen on my watch. I'm not sure that there is much we could have done to prevent it, but still. . .
      The other thing that happened was very precious to me and I wanted to share that also. One of the men who came with Saginaw Pipe for the day is a pastor. Sorry to say I've forgotten his name. At one point in the day, I invited him to go with me on a tool raid to one of our other sites nearby in my car. On the way back, we were talking about our families and he shared that his middle son six months ago had gotten some bacteria in his system and ended up dying from it, leaving behind a pregnant wife, whose child would be born on Father's day. When I heard this, some deep sense of sadness welled up in me and I began to cry and said to him that it's not right that children should leave this earth before their parents. I know that this man's faith is strong and that he knows suredly that he will meet his son again, but still. . . .
       That's all for this week-