Makes you want to sign right up doesn’t it?  I wore shorts the day that we arrived and my legs were covered with mosquitoes in minutes.  I have been in long pants ever since, and long sleeves most of the time.  If we stay in the breeze and out of vegetation they aren’t really too bad, but wow, if you wander off into the grass or tall cane they are thick.  Ode to DEET is my fragrance (Kent’s too) for the next month or so.

It is pretty laidback here at Sea Rim and the staff is easy to get along with.  We are helping them build a cabin along the bayou and spending some time out on the beach cleaning up trash that washes up.

Nothing like a couple gator loads of plastic bags and water bottles to remind you just how awful that stuff is for the environment.  Reduce.  Reuse.  Recycle.  I’m a believer.

Sea Rim State Park was damaged by Hurricane Rita in 2005.   By 2010 they reopened the beach area but with no camping or facilities.  Work continues.  We have sighed up for 45 days to be part of the rebuilding.

At least for now.  The local habitat crew has large groups signed up for the next few weeks so there’s no room for folks like us on their work crews.  So, sadly Friday was our last work day with them.  I did some painting…not my favorite task but made more enjoyable by the company of a half dozen young seamen who came to volunteer as well.  Kent worked on siding again.  It has been a fun experience.  We will likely find a way to do something like it again as we continue our travels.

We installed windows and hung our first few sheets of siding.  We even got compliments on our fine looking work.  It was another good day with the Habitat folks.

Rather, we did that.  About 6 of us on the Habitat crew we have been working to built a storage shed from the ground up.  It was cool to think, we built that!  Retirement has a lot going for it; but ah, the immediate gratification brought by tangible results of manual labor.  It feels like work with this group is a good fit for us.

Day two as house builders.  More hammer wielding for both of us.  Plus, Kent got to run a masonry drill to put a bunch of holes in the concrete floor.  It seems that in addition to about a zillion hurricane straps to fasten the roof on, they also lag the house to the foundation to keep the whole thing from lifting off.  I’m not so sure that people should even build down here!

Eight people on ladders simultaneously driving nails through metal hurricane straps (10 nails per strap) in a little 1200 ft² house.  It made my head rattle.

We worked a Habit for Humanity house today.  Kent spent a lot of time with feet on a ladder and a hammer in his hand and a bit of time running various saws.   He pretty much jumped into the fray from the beginning. We both enjoyed our first foray into this type of volunteering.

We were all signed in, had tools, and were on the house porch waiting for our task assignments.  Our project coordinator turned to me and said “Do you mind being the safety watch?”   In my head I sighed, “Can you imagine a duller job?   From my mouth came, “Sure.  I’ll do that”.   It turned out much better than I thought.  I ended up working the outside of the wall while one of the guys used a sawsall to cut out window and door openings.  It was rewarding to see our progress and we were done by noon so I even got some hammer time in the afternoon.   I didn’t have much opportunity to show off my rad mechanical aptitude but by the end of the day I felt like I had contributed to something good.

We are heading back to play carpenter or whatever they need tomorrow.