After Kit Morgan's Birthday party for a day last Saturday, wherein all of the perimeter walls of Susie Cousette's new home were built and stood up in place, a group of 20 or so folks from the University of Arizona joined us for the week to pick up where we left off. All were quite industrious and hard working and stayed on tasks that they were given. Also included in the group was a 3 generation family led by Grandpa Bill Beverage and wife Sue, son and daughter in law jake and Stephanie, and two little granddaughters Katie and (oops- Gabbie? sorry) They were four and two years old and both learned to say Roll Tide very well in the short time they were here. Bill is the CFO of the California Angels. His wife Sue traded babysitting the little girls with stephanie. They made a blanket and pillows for Susie (the soon to be new homeowner of 21 Juanita Drive. Bill and Jake claimed ownership of the safe room all week and successfully completed it, including the installation of the 400 pound door and frame. The rest of the crew finished the interior framing and blocking, exterior sheathing and housewrap, set the windows and installed the plywood on the roof, roof, and covered that with black felt to "black in" the house from the elements. Sue started work on the simple, decent diminished columns for the porch.
       We were also joined this week by our new NCCC Americorps team, Rio Cinquo (River 5) . Team leader Marissa was here a while back for the two day team leaders training that we sponsored. They have a small team of only 7 or so. Some were pulled to make up new teams that were sent out to Oklahoma.
     Randy and Pam Garner finished up a two week tour with us. They are full time RV Care-A-Vanners who camped out at theY's Acres camp with Colonel Jim Spencer (he will be here with us for a month). Randy and Pam installed all of the 1/2" allthread rods that help to hold down the walls to the foundation. Pam was also steadily picking up the site. She probably thinks that I didn' notice her doing that, but I did and I appreciate their efforts with us.
     The group from U of Ariz was led by Rev. Dee Dee, who was a joy to work with. We truly appreciate the team leaders of groups such as this for doing all of the heavy lifting in the logistics department in getting groups here to work with us.
     We also had a contingent of law school students from the Univ. of Alabama working with us on Thursday . They are also some of the interns that work with federal judge Scott Coogler. A great local resource and big help with our mission here. The inside joke is that Judge Coogler "sentences" his interns to come work with us, but they all have a great servant's heart and attitude and all all quick studies as well. The Judge invited us over to his farm yesterday evening for a nice Memorial Day cookout. Among other talents, he also fabricated by welding up a used propane tank from a truck and turned it into a massive rolling barbeque trailer, the cooking results of which we imbibed very well.
     Enjoying the few days off- helping Jared (our volunteer coordinator) with his new deck and just chillin' and reading and writing some too-
     Team building next week- Brandon asked for a week of no volunteers for a break, so we staff will have the opportunity to work together on a house with no pesky volunteers asking us questions.   KIDDING!!!!!   You know I love the volunteers.
       June has me entering the NRI (Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative) where we will be re-habbing homes instead of building new. Takes a little more finnesse, but I like it, especially when they told me that they would be moving the homeowner (84 year old veteran, Mr. Bishop) out of the hose for the duration of the construction and moving his belongings into a container.
       That's all for this week. Thank you to all of the veterans who may be reading this and thank you for your service to our nation.
       Bye Ya'll!