It’s little league season!

 

 

 

So since we are working for the local parks and recreation department they have us working on some extra projects around town in addition to working on Casa Grande Mountain. So we spent the week working on the little league fields. This consisted of a lot of raking and digging, oh and putting sod in a tractor. All in all it was a very LONG week and we were grateful that we got a ‘rain day’ on Saturday and had the day off. (The perks of living in the desert and working outside). Here are some pictures to show you all the hard work I did.  I also realized as I was watching some episodes of Parks and Recreation that my job working with the P&R department isn’t nearly as entertaining or zany as the show, which is a little disappointing.

Everything is Grand in Casa Grande.

Week one of life in Casa Grande is winding to an end. We have been doing trainings and working with some great people here in Casa Grande on Casa Grande Mountain. The people of Casa Grande have been amazing in making us feel welcomed and taken care of. We feel like local celebrities here and have already been featured on the front page of the newspaper!

This is where I’m working everydayThe mountain that we are working on is also really beautiful, it’s way different from the North Carolina mountains.

The mountain that we are working on is also really beautiful, it’s way different from the North Carolina mountains.

The Jumping Cholla got me.

There are a lot of cacti and pokey plants that want to attack us (The worst of which in this area is the jumping cholla), but we have been persevering.

My favorite part of trail building so far has been destroying the cacti that are in the way of our trail. Whether it is with loppers or by pushing them down with my McCloud it has been my specialty on the trail. I also transplanted some plants which I enjoyed.

Destroying Jumping Cholla with my McCloud

While destroying Cholla is fun, I transplanted this little bugger to make sure he’s safe.

It’s important in trail building to make sure that your muscles have names so that you can congratulate them when they have performed tasks such as removing rocks from the ground or pushing down a huge jumping cholla. My right muscle is The Hulk and my left one is Bruce Banner but I usually just call him Bruce for short.

Gave this plants a little extra moisture ;).

The Cacti are huge… no joke, they once killed a man.

 

This is where all 10 of us will be living.

 

Wrapping up and starting over.

Long time no see blog readers… sorry about that. I really wanted to write a finish-up post about all the lovely things that we got done while we were in San Antonio, and then I wanted to write a post about all the neat things it sounds like we’re doing next round so this will be a combination of the two. This will be picture heavy because as Dalen pointed out ( http://wdalenrice.blogspot.com/2012/12/lets-be-honestwe-like-pictures-right.html), everyone loves pictures.

Houses we first started working on were in ‘punch list’ phase being caulked and painted and put up soffet at.

Concrete slabs in a new development that later became houses thanks to our (and lots and lots and lots of volunteers) help!

San Antonio was a lot of fun and we really loved getting to know our sponsors and the city a little bit. It was my first time working extensively with Habitat for Humanity and I really enjoyed it. Their model and mission just makes a lot of sense to me. The San Antonio affiliate also execute the mission well making simple and affordable houses for people in poverty. Sun 1 was really lucky because we were able to see house both in the beginning of the construction process and the end. We got to caulk, paint, and do finishing touches, and we got to stand walls and put up trusses. It was great to be able to be on both sides of the process.

Viviana and I up on the roof putting up Trusses

Viviana and I with the volunteer coordinator and home owner contact. We worked with both building and with volunteer coordination

Between a wall and a truss. I nailed a truss in and soon realized that getting back out might be tricky

Sun 1 lifting trusses

Sun 1 standing walls

volunteer coordination requires a lot of sending out papers

I put up all this soffet. 🙂

Drilling some soffet with my new favorite tool.

Cutting some soffet

Bruno’s famous breakfast tacos delivered straight to site!

Soooooo goood.

It was great to be able to experience the local culture of San Antonio. I got to eat all sorts of new and fun foods like tamales and breakfast tacos. All of which were amazing.

We got to see some of the city and explore other parts of Texas as well…

Sun 1 at the Riverwalk

The Alamo

Visiting Austin, Tx

Gruene Dance Hall. The oldest dance hall in Texas.

Overall, my experience in Texas was really awesome. From the amazing food to the lovely weather and of course all the Southern Hospitality. I loved it all.

So, moving forward…. This week is a transition week and I will spend it debriefing our project and briefing for the next. Next round Sun 1 will be heading to Casa Grande, AZ to do trail building. I’m looking forward to the warm winter but not sure how i feel about the hard work that trail building will entail. I did a day of trail building with REI once and was almost certain I was dying afterwards, so I can only imagine what 3 months will be like. We’ll be living in an Aquatic Center that is closed for the season, so that should make for interesting living arrangements. It should be fun, and travel starts on Saturday. We get to drive through New Mexico, so I’m looking forward to all the beautiful scenery that hopefully we’ll see. Pictures to come :).