Two weeks in Hobbs, NM

This has been home for the past couple weeks. Our little camper along with five other larger rigs parked in a big empty lot near a dead pecan orchard. We are Care-a-Vanners - a subset of Habitat for Humanity. This was our fourth build experience with CAVs. We met some new folks and got reacquainted with others whom we have worked with at other builds.

 We had some crazy weather. Over two inches of rain in one day and less than a week later many hours below freezing and even a few snow flakes. 

The work was the usual variety. We had all kinds of projects - painting, mudding drywall, tiling floors, framing, finish carpentry, etc. I spent most of my time building closet "innards". Here are a couple of my accomplishments. 

 Today I helped hang some doors and install baseboards. 

 Dan spent most of his time next door and saw lots of progress - 

Last Saturday above - one week later below: 

 I helped on the framing just a bit. In the picture above I am using a Ramset, it is a kind of gun that I hit with a hammer to drive a nail into the concrete slab below the framing. Every strike and bang of gunfire set the neighborhood dogs to barking. You may notice I am quite bundled the temps that day while we worked ranged from 21 at the beginning of the day to a high of 30 when we quit in the afternoon. 

 Here is the ice on the water faucet at the campsite. We had it running to prevent broken pipes. These were the coldest nights we have ever spent in the camper. 

There are times when my muscles ache and I am tired and cold I wonder why I am doing what I am doing... Today I was privileged to share a moment with this woman and to remind myself  of the answer. 

 This is Victoria and two of her children. She is standing in here future front doorway. As I showed above there was a lot of progress made on her house this week. When she saw her new home for the first time this morning she "welled up" with joyous tears. I lack the words to describe it, but that was what I call a "kingdom moment". And that is why we do what we do. 

CAV Crew with future homeowner, Anita. It was Anita's closets and pantry I was building shelves in. Anita is in front in blue; if the CAVs keep on schedule she will be in her home by Christmas. 

For most of our travels it is just the two of us so it was lots of fun to spend time with these new friends. When weather permitted we had afternoon "happy hours". Several evenings we went out to eat.

Here are Dan & Scotty holding the table for the rest of us at Dickey's Barbecue for our final evening together. 

Our work days begin with a devotion and prayer circle which concludes with all of us together saying - "Habitat is not a hand out, but a hand up!"

Good times with good friends make good memories. 

Happy trails to all. 

Two weeks in Hobbs, NM

This has been home for the past couple weeks. Our little camper along with five other larger rigs parked in a big empty lot near a dead pecan orchard. We are Care-a-Vanners - a subset of Habitat for Humanity. This was our fourth build experience with CAVs. We met some new folks and got reacquainted with others whom we have worked with at other builds.

 We had some crazy weather. Over two inches of rain in one day and less than a week later many hours below freezing and even a few snow flakes. 

The work was the usual variety. We had all kinds of projects - painting, mudding drywall, tiling floors, framing, finish carpentry, etc. I spent most of my time building closet "innards". Here are a couple of my accomplishments. 

 Today I helped hang some doors and install baseboards. 

 Dan spent most of his time next door and saw lots of progress - 

Last Saturday above - one week later below: 

 I helped on the framing just a bit. In the picture above I am using a Ramset, it is a kind of gun that I hit with a hammer to drive a nail into the concrete slab below the framing. Every strike and bang of gunfire set the neighborhood dogs to barking. You may notice I am quite bundled the temps that day while we worked ranged from 21 at the beginning of the day to a high of 30 when we quit in the afternoon. 

 Here is the ice on the water faucet at the campsite. We had it running to prevent broken pipes. These were the coldest nights we have ever spent in the camper. 

There are times when my muscles ache and I am tired and cold I wonder why I am doing what I am doing... Today I was privileged to share a moment with this woman and to remind myself  of the answer. 

 This is Victoria and two of her children. She is standing in here future front doorway. As I showed above there was a lot of progress made on her house this week. When she saw her new home for the first time this morning she "welled up" with joyous tears. I lack the words to describe it, but that was what I call a "kingdom moment". And that is why we do what we do. 

CAV Crew with future homeowner, Anita. It was Anita's closets and pantry I was building shelves in. Anita is in front in blue; if the CAVs keep on schedule she will be in her home by Christmas. 

For most of our travels it is just the two of us so it was lots of fun to spend time with these new friends. When weather permitted we had afternoon "happy hours". Several evenings we went out to eat.

Here are Dan & Scotty holding the table for the rest of us at Dickey's Barbecue for our final evening together. 

Our work days begin with a devotion and prayer circle which concludes with all of us together saying - "Habitat is not a hand out, but a hand up!"

Good times with good friends make good memories. 

Happy trails to all. 

Working Hard for Habitat in Idaho Falls

We arrived in Idaho Falls on Monday the 7th and settled in at the Shady Rest Campground. We have the camper off of the truck so camp stays put while we use the truck around town. We are here under an umbrella organization called Care-a-Vanners. We are a sort of subset of Habitat for Humanity. There are two other couples one from Arizona and one from California also here to volunteer for a couple weeks. 

We are often asked what we usually do when we work for Habitat. But, there just does not seem to be a "usual". Our first day we shoveled gravel and did some minor repairs at a couple finished and lived in homes. I painted sandy tread paint on a ramp for 8 yr old twins who are wheel chair bound. Dan painted stain on the handrails of their neighbor's house. 

Here is where we are probably working the rest of our time here. We are helping rehab a 1940's home. Most of the gutting was done but there was one room which had been left in touched that needed quite a bit of work. It is an old carport that was turned into a garage that was turned into a bedroom. The next few pictures are from our work in there. 

This morning before the heat set in Dan and I got harnessed up and helped tear off the roof on a little back room on the house. 

This evening we are going out to dinner with our fellow workers. We will try a Mexican restaurant called Lupita's, it was recommended by the locals. In the mean time I am going to get my sewing machine out and get a bit of quilting done. 

I am feeling the good kind of tired. I hope whatever you have done with your week brings satisfaction to you. jb