Day Five, Adult Appalachia Service Project, Feb 2011

On our last day we woke up hoping for a good day so that we could finish the work on the deck. While eating breakfast a fast moving rain storm came through with strong winds. We saw that it was moving through rapidly and would clear in time for us to go out to our work site and complete the desk. On our drive out to our work site, we stopped to take pictures of the creek which was very high after all of the rain. At the site we removed the tarps and got to work. With the bottom part of the deck completed, our task today was to build the top part of the deck complete with posts, railings, spindles and a gate. We worked hard all day and were able to complete our tasks by the end of the work day. During the day, we presented our host, Loraine, with a rocking chair we all chipped in to purchase and also a quilt made by the Arbor Glen quilters. Pictures for the day will provide you with images to go with the description above.

Work Hard all Day, Play at Night

On day three, after accomplishing a lot at our work project and after dinner, we journeyed a short distance to Pennington Gap where we sat around to listen to some of the local musicians playing Blue Grass. You can see and hear some of what we enjoyed for over an hour and a half by going to http://gallery.me.com/tedsettle/101038

If you are PC user, I recommend using Firefox, not Internet Explorer and select small movie, not medium.

Day Four Adult Appalachian Service Project Feb 2011

As you will see from a short video and other images, we woke up to rain on day four. With panchos on, we did finish attaching the deck boards. Later some of our group returned to place a tarp over the deck to try to create a dry workspace for tomorrow. It is predicted to rain in the morning but be sunny in the afternoon. We are hoping to finish a railing on the porch deck before we have to leave. We also decided that our host would need a comfortable rocker to use on her new deck, so we talked with some of the staff. Keith located a store in Pennington Gap, where we had visited the night before for Bluegrass Music played by local musicians. Jane and Ted drove over to the store. We liked the rocking chair so much that we decided to purchase one for ourselves to bring home with us. While in the store we observed a woman siting behind the counter crocheting (she turned out to be the store owner's mother) and asked her about what she was making. Her response, "A prayer shawl." Imagine that!! Jane asked her where she gets her yarn and she said she orders it and gave Jane one of the catalogs from which she orders.

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Day Three Photos, Adult Appalachian Trip, Feb 2011

On the way to our site, we passed a couple of old homes worth pictures. In the initial images, you can see the structure we erected for the porch at our site and also you can see Loraine's house in relation to Trading Creek. During the day Paul and Jane finished putting the spindles on the gate and were able to get the gate hung and working smoothly (Loraine tested it). As we worked, we noticed two inspectors sitting up high in nearby trees, making sure our work was acceptable. For the porch, we hung the joists and began the process of laying down the deck. Because of the length of the porch, 3 inches longer than our 14 foot 5/4" X 6" deck boards, we placed two extra joists and will put one of the deck boards on each end of the porch and lay the other deck boards between them. During our work, the power went off in the hollow (we thought we had blown a fuse), so we reverted to old technology, sawing by hand. We will finish up the decking tomorrow, if we can beat the rain. We also began digging post holes for the stairs coming off the porch.

The day was beautiful and sunny, even though, as you can see from the way Betsy was dressed in an early picture, it was cold to begin with.