2.24.06 De Ridder Part 5

Main Roof Support being placed

This is early morning start time. We usually got on the site to begin work at sunrise which was about 6:30 to 7:00 AM. In this picture we are starting the day with erecting the roof rafters and putting up the main roof support beam.

Rafters are up

This is early afternoon and the roof rafters are up. Now comes the plywood to cover the rafters on the roof and then the roofing shingles. It was quite an experience to be a part of actually building a house.

Windows are going in

This was the last day. As the roof shinges were going on the roof the doors and windows were being installed. Thoughts about siding and interior wall coverings were beginning to emerge. As the sun went down on the last day we felt we had accomplished quite a bit for the five days of construction.

Team Photo

This is a photograph of the our team with the Pastor of the church and Ms. Jenelle with her youngest son. From left to right in the photo are, of course, me, Cindy, Larry, Ms. Jenelle's son, Ms. Jenelle, and Pastor Ken.

When I first met Pastor Ken, I noticed that he was a fun loving trickster. On the second day, I couldn't help myself, but to break the ice. Pastor was using a sawsall to cut out the openings of the windows and doors. I sneaked up on the other side of one of the doorways he was cutting and nailed a 2x4 in the path of the saw. As he cut down the side of the doorway, he hit the 2x4 and the saw started bogging down. He went around to lean out of window that he had cut to see what was the matter and saw the 2x4 nailed in the saws path. With a puzzled look on his face, he sighted down the side of the house to see me peeking around the corner waving at him with a smile. I knew he would catch on right away. With a glint in his eye, he informed me that the games had begun.

The next day about mid day, he started talking about the wild donkeys in the woods around the building site. I didn't really think anything about it. He kept talking about how when he was a kid they had played pin the tail on the donkey and ever so often the conversation would come around to donkeys. I didn't catch on. Later that day when I removed my tool belt I found a big piece of rope unraveled and made to look like a donkey tail with a hook tied on the end clipped to the back of my belt. I had walked around all afternoon with a donkey tail hanging from the back of my tool belt.

The next day when the pastor started talking about the poison vines in the woods, I wasn't quite so gullible. He said that it would turn your skin orange. Well when my hands came up orange, I knew something must have been up. He had poured orange chalk dust in my gloves to try to convience me I had come in contact with the poision vines. I on the other hand would mention the wild donkeys and he would quickly start twisting around to see if I had given him back the tail. I had him checking all day and didn't have to anything.

During the week I noticed they had this thing with the young boys of the church called wrestling you down. All during the week the Pastor kept saying he was going to wait toward the end of the week after I was tired out and wrestle me down. Now wrestling down was accomplished by sneaking up behind the person and quickly grabbing them in a bear hug from behind, lifting them up off the ground and both falling to the ground. So on the last day after everything was loaded up we were standing around recapping the week. The Pastor was deep into one of his stories when I sneaked up behind him applied the bear hug and wrestled him to the ground. I think when he recognized who it was, he had mercy and let me take him to the ground, but the people from the church thought it was the greatest and we all had a good laugh over it. It was a fitting way to end the time there.

I hope to go back again to see the finished house we started.