We're Making Progress Now - Mar 30, 2009

We had a great day for building and we sure got a lot done. We finished getting the roof rafters up. Then we had to nail hurrican braces on each rafter front and back. Each bracket took 10 nails. Now folks that is a lot of hammering. Thank goodness we have 22 people working this project. They also got a lot done on the roof so it will be ready for sheeting tomorrow. I'm not sure of all the terminology for what they did on the roof but they worked on it all day today to get it ready for the sheeting. As you can see from the pics we also got all the blue foam sheeting on the sides. We just have a few sheets to put on the end of the house and that job will be finished. Then we wrap all the sides. The utility shed is under roof and looks great. The trailer in the second pic is where we keep all the tools and equipment. Every morning we empty it and every afternoon it all goes back in. This evening we were treated to dinner at Mom's Kitchen Resturant. It is the only resturant in town but oh is it good. It is the best home cooking. That is me standing in front of Mom's. We're looking forward to another great day tomorrow.

Georgia Fish Boil 2009

The local grocery store owners, Jerry and Polly, invited the group out to their home for a Georgia style fish boil. My goodness was it delicious. They have this huge pot filled with shrimp, sausage, potatoes, corn on the cobb and onions and lots of good spices. Their friend, Moe, helped with the cooking above. The second pic is a portion of the food being strained. The food was out of this world and their home was just gorgeous. It sat at the top of the hill overlooking gorgeous rolling hills as you can see from the third pic. It was a beautiful sunny day and we just had a wonderful time.

Preston, GA 2009

Larry and Mem Halstead and Jim and I arrived in Preston, GA on Saturday March 21st. There are 12 RVs from all over the US here on this build. Preston is a little town of about 450 people. There is one grocery story, one restaurant, one quick mart that also sells pizzas. It is also the town of amazing cooks and hospitality. We have been treated like royalties since we have been here. The Preston Baptist Church has been host to us. The town installed electricity at an old school building where we are parked. They also had our tanks pumped on Thursday. The church hosted a pot luck dinner for us on Sunday. I have never seen so much food and boy was it good. We sat at a table with a couple who lived in Plains but moved to Preston to farm. He said he grew up with Jimmy and Billy Carter and told us a few stories of his childhood. It was such a delightful evening. We went over to the build site before dinner and people from the community was there as well as the lady who is getting the house and Habitat officials from Americus, Georgia. It was neat meeting the new homeowner. She was pretty excited and a little overwhelmed with the support from the community. The first pic shows the slab that we started with. We got the outer walls up on Monday our first day. Folks from the community have been providing snacks at around 10:00 every day, lunch is provided at noon and then most evenings someone hosts a dinner for us. I believe the first night our group did our own pot luck. The rest of the evenings have been provided. It is pretty amazing. By Tuesday the inside walls were up and a shed was started in the back of the yard. We have about 22 people actually doing the build. We have a group leader, Fred, who is the head boss man on the job. We also get daily visits from Habitat who oversee the overall building plan and progress. By Thursday, the shed was under roof and the shingling was started. The roof rafters were almost completed Thursday afternoon on the house, but we got rained out. We were all chomping at the bits to go back on Friday but again we got rained out. We decided on Friday night at dinner, that we would work on Saturday to finish up the rafters. They normally don't work on Saturdays or Sundays but we all wanted to do this to stay on schedule with our goal. But wouldn't you know it, it really rained and stormed all day on Saturday. Sunday evening, the local grocery store owner invited us all over to his house for a southern fish boil. We are all looking forward to it. There is no call for rain next week so we will meet our goal of getting the house under roof, and windows and doors in. With a little luck, the shed will be completely finished. Who would of thunk it that a bunch of senior citizens can build an entire house! It has been an amazing week. The last picture is of Charlie doing the heavy supervising.

Perry, GA 2009

We all arrived in Perry, GA on March 14th for the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) rally. There were 3,000 RVs in attendance. Our group got to park along side of each other because we all traveled in a caravan from Cordele. Perry, GA has a population of about 3000 and during this rally week, the population is increased by 6,000 more people. The restaurants and stores really enjoy good sales when FMCA comes to town. Jim and a lot of the other guys with us attended all sorts of technical seminars. I think Jim od'd himself with all this info. Elaine and I took two quilting classes and I learned some new applique techniques that I'm looking forward to trying out. One day, the Klaubers and Jim and I took a trip to Juliette, GA. This is where the movie Fried Green Tomatoes was filmed. The Whistle Stop Cafe is still there and we took a trip to have lunch there and try out some of those fried green tomatoes. They were delicious. After lunch we took a tour of this old grain mill that had been turned into a motorcycle museum. While Jim and Jerry drooled over the old bikes Elaine and I talked with the wife of the owner. She told us her and her husband decided to move back to town and buy the old mill to turn it into a home. They then decided to add a campground and built all these camping cottages along the river. Then they got the idea to show off his motorcycle collection. Since they opened the museum, people from all over have been donating bikes, clothing, helmets, etc. I got a little glimpse at their living quarters and it was very very nice. It had all wood slat panels, big screen TV, oriental rug on hardwood floor, leather furniture. I would have loved to take a tour of their home but I'm sure they aren't doing that or she would have offered. I only got a glimpse because someone left the door open and its right behind the front desk. Well after we leave here--we start our trip over to Preston for Habitat for Humanity.

Cordele, GA 2009

We left home on March 10th headed for a Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) rally in Perry, GA. We also plan to do a Habitat for Humanity build in Preston, GA after the rally. Our 1st stop was in Veteran's Memorial State Park campground in Cordele, GA. Cordele is a small town of about 11,000. There we met up with several friends from our Fredericksburg Good Sam Club, who were also en route to the FMCA rally. Also, our friends from Florida, Jerry and Elaine met us there too. Then we got a surprise call from our friends from Hagerstown, MD who were returning to MD after trying to see the space shuttle mission. The mission got scrapped and they had a deadline to get home to MD before the next mission could get scheduled. They decided to join us for a couple of nights before returning to MD. We all had a campground happy hour our first night with everyone and then the Klaubers, and Ric and Vic and us had a cookout for dinner. The next day the Klaubers, Ric and Vic and Jim and I took a train ride from Cordele to Americus and Plains, GA. The train runs from the campground - and it was staffed with volunteer camp workers who were serving as conductors and entertainers. It was a really fun trip. Our first stop was in Americus. This is the city that the Habitat Headquarters is located. Jimmy Carter kind of put Habitat on the map after he joined and got actively involved. We took a trolley from the train station to downtown. We had lunch in Americus and did a short walking tour of downtown Americus and its famous Windsor Hotel. Next train stop was in Plains,
GA. I'm sure everyone knows this is the home of Jimmy Carter. Plains has a whopping population of about 637. The big thing here is the Jimmy Carter Warehouse store. They offer peanuts and peanut ice cream along with other Carter stuff. Of course we had to try some ice cream. We saw Billy Carters gas station that is now a museum for Billy's gas station. That evening, we all went to State Park Restaurant which was very nice and overlooking the water. Overall, we had a very enjoyable stay in Cordele.