Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Tuesday, October 23, 4:30 pm


You will see postings, thoughts and comments from other members of our Madison Cares crew, as time permits. In the meantime, I (Maureen Lopes) will try to post the basic of our activities every day.

A bit of a slow start but, in the end, a productive day. We started out traveling about 20 minutes to a work site where 20 homes are being completed on one street. The area is wooded with live oaks and small homes surrounded by vegetation. Pam, our photographer, will have photos to share. I was told that it wouldn't be surprising if we saw an alligator in rain ditches along the roads. Yesterday's rain left half of the street under water and the yards not passable. There is no place for the water to go (because it is everywhere!) until drying occurs.

So back in the van to the site we drove by yesterday on Eleanor Street (closer into Slidell). We hit pay dirt! Two homes, side by side, are approaching completion. Dick worked on electrical projects while the rest of our Madison Cares crew learned to install vinyl siding. Our crew chief, Craig, was a very good teacher, both showing us what to do and explaining why. And allowing for expansion and contraction of the material over time is very important. Jessica kept circulating to find us tools that we needed and answer questions. By the time we started cleaning up the work site at 2:00, there was siding on all four sides, as high as we could reach with 6' ladders. And Rob had almost completed the "J channels" around the windows on both houses. Installing siding is very satisfying - you can really see the results by the end of the day.

The temperature was actually chilly this morning (high 40s) with a strong breeze. And we were worried about working in the heat! By lunch time our work had warmed us and the yellow mud was starting to "set up" a little bit.

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