that’s a wrap

Today was a nice wrap-up for the weekend. While we had to get up much earlier than any of us liked in order to clear out our stuff from rooms that would soon be needed for Sunday morning activities, it did mean we were breakfasted and packed well before the start of the main service at the church where we were staying. We had a brief gathering where Dan, the pastor (and Mike’s brother) shared the story of the church and what they’re up to. Then we drove over to The Source to get a nice group shot of everyone on the ramp. Church was encouraging (Dan taught on civility based on a passage from Titus 3 – pretty timely given the crazy political situation), and then we hit the road! Lots of sleeping happening on the way back, but the tiredness is “good tired” – we had a great time, worked hard, laughed and overall just really were glad to be a part of the craziness for another year.

yesterday…

So – normally we try to get out picture updates throughout the day and a summary out at the end of the day for work trips. But yesterday took “work trip” to a whole new level. We got as far as taking pictures – but to actually get them out to Facebook or to the blog was just one step too many.

We had three main projects going on:

Dan Klein & his son Kevin worked on replacing a window with a door (to help The Fallout building meet fire code). They were successful – though there was a touchy moment there when the door might have been hung to swing the wrong way. Crisis averted, all is well, and folks can now easily egress via the back of the building thanks to a ton of hard work from Lori and others to clear out the hallway.

The Source has a new once-foreclosed-upon house that will be joining to their transitional housing network – it’s pink and is decorated with dolphins, flamingoes and cranes, so another group worked at “The Crane House”. Ryan and Sara worked on drywalling inside, while Jeremiah, Christy, Mike, Messiah, Alyssa, Myster, and Nate worked on hauling, making and pouring cement for a sidewalk and digging post holes. They made it! By the end of the day the cement was covered to protect it from the coming frost and the posts were mounted and aligned and ready for the next stage of a storage shed project.

A third large-ish group worked on building a wheelchair ramp into the Art Coop building. That may not sound like a big deal, but the ramp needed to loop through a deep alley so needed a significant support structure in order to be set up correctly. Todd was crew boss for that project with a great deal of help from Tom – and they were joined by Lori, Jake, Ramiro, Antonio, Nick, Ryan, Alyssa, Myster, Messiah and Angela. A bunch of folks circled around and helped with additional projects here and there, pitching in where ever it was needed. Mike’s nephew Walker joined in as well – he’s been on other trips with us so it was neat to see and work with him again. After an 11-ish hour work day, (added to all the setup work from Friday), the ramp was installed! It still needs a railing and finishing, but all things considered it was quite an accomplishment.

The exhausted group packed up the trailer and headed to the Y for showers, followed by supper at Pancho Villa – a restaurant near The Source that has become a favorite. At around 10:30 we headed back to The Fallout where Peter shared a bit about the history of The Source, as well as the story of how they came to acquire the Crane House. Then it was back to the church and it wasn’t long before the building was dark and quiet.

It was a nice day

The day was a nice one. Okay, the early start was probably NO ONE's favorite, but sleep deprivation aside, folks got up without being too snarly, got their lunches made and their breakfastses had, and were on the road without too much trouble. After a stop for contemplation at the Basilica of St Mary, the group landed at the Fallout. They keep having such cool projects for us to do there! This time around the big project is to build a wheel chair ramp. But there are smaller ones too - demolitioning and cleanup and all sorts of stuff. We came back a bit chilled and (some of us) quite dirty, but all that was taken care of by hot pizza, showers at the "Y" and a fun evening outing. Yep, we went to ComedySportz for our evening activity. It really was hilarious - it was fun to see each and every kid getting pulled into the fun and activities of the group on stage. So now we're tucked back in at the church. The plan is to try to get a good night's sleep... we have a ton of work ahead tomorrow!

MPLS.

Well, we made it. Here we are in Minneapolis for our Fall Work Trip. The trip over was fairly uneventful - aside from one van getting nearly blown off the freeway by an oblivious UPS truck driver. It's going to be coooold this weekend so we'll have to keep moving... which kind of works for a work trip I guess! On the trip: Nick M (who we picked up in Eau Claire on our way through), Alyssa, Rachel, Sara, Angela, Lori, Christy, Jeremiah, Tom G, Todd, Mike-the-leader, Antonio, Ramiro, Myster, Nate, Messiah, Ryan, Jake... and someone else but I'm drawing a blank at the moment.

Up for today - breakfast, packing our lunches, a trip to the Basilica, and then WORK! Peter has heaps o' projects for us, including building a huge wheelchair-accessible ramp. Let the fun begin!