Weekly Report for Marble Falls

It’s the beginning of the month and we anticipate the arrival of the new volunteers. What will they be like? Will they fit into our current group, which is exceptionally compatible? When we return from our Saturday’s excursion, we see the trailer parked in its site. We go over to introduce ourselves and are greeted with a warm welcome. We should have known. They are RVers and RVers are known for their hospitality and friendliness. The next day proved that they fit into our group as if they had always been part of it. Welcome, Gerry and Georgia!

Monday morning saw us anxious to go to work. The cement forms needed to be removed, so the ladies were helpful in this task. The men worked diligently all day and by the end of the day had all the floor joists in place.

The plan for the next day was to secure the floor sheeting . Placing the sheeting, Pete and Ron were hard pressed to keep up with Andre and the ladies in full force, as they screwed it down. At the end of the day, sore knees and aching hand muscles attested to the hard work! John, Sherman, Gerry and Jim had the one side wall finished and with the whole crew pushing, the wall was raised at 3:00PM sharp! We were elated that we met our goal, set that morning! Unfortunately Denise and Alex from the Long-Term Recovery Committee arrived 15 minutes after the wall was up. Denise really wanted to witness this! Her comment was that this crew really was too efficient!

Wednesday the other three walls were built and raised by the men. The ladies had worked themselves out of a job, so the camp again benefited. The stoves in the camp kitchen are now much more appealing to cook on, after a thorough cleaning.

Thursday all the interior walls were placed and fastened by the men and hats off to the ladies for working under the floor, securing the insulation. The piers under the house are between 18” and 32” high, and it required the ladies to lie on their backs, under the floor, to staple the insulation to the floor joists. We are just so blessed to have such hard working and enthusiastic volunteers in our crew!

This week we had a casualty at the job site. Warren, our Project Director, was enthusiastically helping to place the floor joists. Unfortunately his finger became the target of an 8X10 that was being pushed into place faster than his finger could move off the end and it was wedged between the 2X10s.

Warren has now decided that his job is to organize and get material to the site in time, something he’s very good at, rather than get in the way of these human machines!

Submitted by Mary Ann Sawatzky