Winter 2014-Habitat for Humanity and Goin' Home

Wed. Mar. 5—Sun. Mar. 9: It was still chilly when we got up in the morning, packed up the lunch Marv had made the night before and headed to the work site. It was a rehab house that was nearly finished and there was one other volunteer waiting in front of it when we arrived at 8:00, as instructed. Tommy volunteers once a week and lives in a town near to Biloxi. The Habitat for Humanity crew didn’t show up for nearly an hour. We worked both days with Ken and Joel as supervisors, usually one at a time, and a group of AmeriCorps workers named Jessica, Colby, and Shane. Once opened up, the house had a furnace that kept us comfortable for working though it didn’t get above the fifties that day. We spent the morning figuring out the “giant jigsaw puzzle” of the trim from the living room and four bedrooms that the carpet installers had dropped pretty indiscriminately in the bedrooms. Before lunch we managed to work things out for all but one bedroom and got it all painted. Since the others were going out, we went to Wendy’s with them for lunch and got to know everyone a little better.  The afternoon was spent applying the trim and caulking and spackling it, and then cleaning up. We were back to our campsite in time to hike the short nature trail on the ridge along the creek that runs through the campground before we ate our lunch for dinner.

Biloxi House #1

The next day we were sent to a house near the downtown, just a few blocks from the Gulf shore. It was also a rehab; apparently a rare repossession of a Habitat for Humanity build. It wasn’t as far along and was in pretty bad shape. The furnace was newly installed and, though they fired it up for a bit, it wasn’t used while we worked. Luckily, it was a little bit warmer than the previous day. We spent the entire day painting the kitchen, hallway, and two bedrooms. They are trying to do a “rush job” on the house because there is a buyer for it and, despite its poor shape as we worked on it, the Habitat folks figured it would be move-in ready by the next week or so. Hard to believe! We went to “Quality Chicken and Seafood” for lunch and ate with Ken, but it was probably too expensive for the AmeriCorps workers, who eat out every day on a limited budget. Had we realized the dilemma, we would have enjoyed taking them out to eat, and were sorry that wasn’t readily apparent. Marv had half a smoked chicken with sides and I had shrimp gumbo with half a fish po’ boy. It was good, and it was interesting to look over the array of fresh seafood for sale in the main part of the market. Marv and I took time to drive over and see a bit of the beach, since we were so near before we returned to work. Back at the house we finished up around 3:00 because the others had a 3:30 meeting. It was just as well because we had to empty and clean the refrigerator, winterize the camper, and get it all ready to head north in the morning.

Biloxi House #2

The Biloxi Pier

The Beach in downtown Biloxi, Mississippi

Having stayed on Eastern Time we were up and on the road by 8:17. We ate lunch out of the cooler as we drove and spent several hours of our trip on the Natchez Trace. It speed limit is only 50mpg but there is little traffic, few crossroads, and goes at a diagonal to the north east so it made for a very pleasant afternoon and we made it to Frankfort, KY to spend the night at a Comfort Inn. 

The original Natchez Trace

The Natchez Trace today

A pleasant by-way for a break

We arrived at the Penquites’ Saturday about halfway through Jordan’s sixth birthday party and were there to see him blow out the candles on his Captain America cake. Ken, Jen and Josh were there and, after he opened his family presents, we took everyone out for Jordan’s birthday dinner at Stacked Pickles before the Dunns went home to Fort Wayne and Marv & I went to see Craig’s new firm’s office in an historic building in downtown Carmel. Sunday morning we sang in a quartet at both services and with the choir in the second service at St. Peter’s UCC. Craig and Eli went to a baseball try-out for Eli, and the rest of us went to McDonald’s so Jordan could get the Happy Meal he wanted for his birthday. 

Figuring out the new Microscope from Aunt Jen & Uncle Ken

(from left) Elijah, Jordan, Ken

Marv helping Analyn hold her cousin, Joshua

(left) Craig, Sarah, Marv, Analyn, Ken
(right) Elijah, Jordan, Peggy, Jen, Josh

Always the Happy Girl!

Jordan is six!!

Marv and I left from there and drove the two hours up to Fort Wayne. We picked up pizza that Ken had ordered and got to their house in time to watch most of the sad, final MSU regular season basketball game, which they lost. It’s been a disappointing season, that’s for sure. We celebrated Ken’s 31^st birthday at halftime and left before the end of the game. 

Josh and Peggy Ken open is new bench grinder

Joshua and Grandma Cookie

Joshua at 3 1/2 months

Josh loves the Johnnie Jump-Up handed down from the Penquites

Joshua and Boppa get some quality time together

There were no problems on the last leg of our long journey and we arrived home to a warm house, thanks to the Puentes coming over and turning up the heat for us. The driveway was cleared enough to back the trailer in and get it over to the side so that we’d be able to get the car out past it in the morning. But the banks of snow on each side were about four feet tall and encroach from each side leaving only a vehicle’s width for an entrance. We had driven 4280 miles and gotten 16.3mpg. The trip hadn’t included the stunning beauty of being Out West last year. But we had done some good work volunteering and seen some of our favorite people along the way. And even if it wasn’t as warm the whole time as we would have liked, we could always comfort ourselves with the knowledge that it was much colder back at home in Michigan! And we have our next trip, a Tulip Time river/canal cruise in Netherlands and Belgium with Kris & Heidi, to which we can look forward the first full week of April. Maybe the snow will be gone when we return from it!

A postscript: Monday was sunny and 52° at home. We managed to open, unpack, clean, close, and put the camper back in the garage in relative comfort. Tuesday was a bit cooler and cloudy. That night and into Wednesday morning East Lansing got 6.5” of new snow. Wednesday night there was a record low of -5°. Thursday was cloudy with temperatures in the 20s. Friday was sunny for the morning, then cloudy for the afternoon with a high of 50°. The Winter of Discontent shows no sign of leaving completely anytime soon.