Friday, May 30, 2008

Roofing is Hard

Roofing is hard. Its fun though. This week weve been roofing. We roofed the president of KHO's house, Todd. Convenient huh? He had a pretty big roof, it was a tough job to do in 3 days. we split the roof up into three sections, the back we did the first two days, one half each day, and then the front all in one day. The front didnt have any valleys or anything too difficult, and the front had two sections coming out from it, leaving us with four valleys and two extra ridges.
The first thing we had to do once we got up on the roof was take the old shingles and tar paper off. we tood roofing shovels and scraped all the shingles, tar paper, and old nails out of the roof. Once everything is off the roof, we laid tar paper down over the sections where we had pulled shingles from, laid chalk lines to serve as a guide when we laid shingles. the next step is laying shingles, we put a starter strip down first, and then laid 3D or architectural shingles. The valleys require a little attention, but nothing too bad when you have someone showing you what to do. Roofs dont seem too terribly complicated when youre working with someone who knows what their doing, when its just me, well see how that goes. the only bad thing about roofing is the temperature. its freaking hot! when the sun comes out and theres black tar paper and black shingles on the roof, the temperature rises very quickly. in the afternoon, you can barely sit on the roof while working. i was working with whitney yesterday putting ridge caps on (the pieces that cover the peaks of the roof) and we couldnt sit down for more than a few minutes without having to get up. shingles are also very heavy, and well generally have to take them up the ladders to the roofs manually which gets old with an 80 lb bag of shingles.

This week has been pretty hectic with these roofs. weve still been getting up at 515ish, and getting to the site and starting to work at 6, and most days we work until atleast 6. 12 hr work days in the hot sun are long and hard, but im loving every minute of it. i feel fairly confident i can teach a group of campers how to put a roof on and it look halfway decent. im a little shaky on the ramps, but im guessing i wont be doing too many ramps this summer, and even if i am weve got 5 decks next week and thats the exact same minus adding an angle for the slant. Im guessing im going to be doing roofs for most of the summer since ive done KHO before and and have done construction projects before, and have more construction experience than most of the new people. im really looking forward to it.

only 9 more days till campers come

Saturday, May 24, 2008

End of Week 1

Well we have successfully gotten through week one of training, out of three. the only real thing we did this week put up a handicapped ramp on tuesday and then finished up a few last things on wednesday morning. all of our other time was spent working on tool trailers, making sure all trailers were stocked and that everyone knew how to operate all the tools and what not. another focus of this week was bonding and getting to know everyone on the staff.

Total, there are twelve staffers for this year, six guys and six girls. The guys are : me, Drew (one of the two supervisors), Warren (the worship leader), Brian (the camp pastor), Jason, Zach. The girls are: Hatfield (the female supervisor), America (really Erica, but when says I'm Erica like America), Lisa, Whitney, Amanda, Brittney. Drew, Hatfield, Whitney and Amanda have all been interns before, and other than myself, those are the only people who have ever really done anything with KHO before. Like i said, weve been spending alot of time bonding this week. For instance, Drew bought the entire Indiana Jones Collection and we spent Tues, Wed, and Thurs night watching one movie each, then friday afternoon, the entire staff went to watch the new Jones movie, which is an utter disappointment, dont go see it, its about aliens... weird.

All of the other staff bonding time has been random things like croquet, frisbee, apples to apples and other random things. i really like everyone on the staff and am looking forward to working with them all summer. it should be alot of fun. Within the first 30 minutes i had walked in the door, on the way to goodwill in search of a shirt for "wheres Jason?", a skit were doing similar to wheres waldo, Brian and I were immersed into theological discussions ranging on all topics, including everything from speaking tounges and healing to drinking alcohol and cussing. thats not to mention all the other political discussions. its been alot of fun and i look forward to see what God has in store for all of us.

Thursday was mainly spent working on tool trailers and what not, Friday we woke up a little later than normal (6 am), cooked breakfast, went shopping, and helped to break down the sound system so we could move it. Most everyone left after the movie on friday, leaving only four guys and one girl in Campbellsville. today, we filmed a few short videos for the campers to watch during the services. This was a good idea vs bad idea video. for example, one of the good ideas was putting sunscreen on, the bad idea was putting Krafts Tangy Tomato Bacon dressing on you. So i was given the pleasure of rubbing sunscreen on my arms, followed by salad dressing, also another was a good idea of hitting nails into wood, bad idea was hammering a soda can, which i shook up a can of dr pepper, and then smashed it as hard as i could with a hammer, sending Dr Pepper everywhere, it was pretty nasty. we had all kinds of all other videos and what not, it was alot of fun, even though i got really gross. After the filming we ate lunch and hung around the duplex. after that we went to see the new Narnia movie, Prince Caspian. this was a great movie, especially compared to Indiana Jones. I highly recommend it. we then went to Zach's house for dinner, his parents let us eat some burgers at their house, followed by four square. To top everything off, we went to a place called Summer Snow, which is an awesome snow cone place in Campbellsville, i think its going to have to become a weekly adventure for me... i mean the have 60 flavors... whats not to love!!

In addition to all of this stuff, most nights, before bed, im outside talking with the one and only Emily Burger, which is always a treat! :-* im kinda fond of her

Even though this pretty slack week has been fun and has given me a chance to get to know everyone ill be working with fairly well, im really looking forward to getting some hardcore work done and learning how to put roofs on houses and build decks. next week will be really busy as well be putting a roof on the president of KHO's house (pretty convenient huh?) the next week will be even busier as well have to build 5 decks in 5 days, in addition to all of the set up well have to be doing in order to get ready for campers to arrive that sunday. im getting really excited about everything starting to get going at a quick pace.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Well Here Goes

Well, this is my first blog, never actually thought id be doing this, but here i am, thanks to Grandie & Teresa.

So far KHO has been great. It was a long drive from Boone, but it was a good, fun one. Minus the fact that mapquest lied to me and i didnt know how to get to the duplex im living in, but oh well, it happens. i got here sunday afternoon, moved all my stuff inside, met the rest of the staff and ate dinner with them.

Monday to today, weve been training. Learning about rules & regulations, expectations, what can get us terminated (which hopefully will not be happening :)), and what not. Tuesday we toured the KHO facilities, learned how to set stuff up and what not. today, we did our first construction, a handicapped ramp. This was all kinds of fun. It looks quite well and should work very nicely for the lady who will be using it.

Tommorrow well finish the ramp, work around the shop and just do little random things.

well, thats what ive been doing.

one thing that isnt quite great about this summer is the time we get to wake up. monday and tuesday we were up by 7ish in order to be working at 8, but today, i got the pleasure of waking up at 515 this morning in order to be at work at 6. i find this a bit ridiculous, considering that God isnt even up this early, but thats just how it is, and it will get us prepared for summer camps where were waking campers up at 6.

the staff im working with is alot of fun, were all very different, but we get along great, some people knew each other before, some very well, but i think were all getting to know everyone very well and bonding well. im looking forward to the summer with everyone.

thus far, everything has been great here in ky, and im looking forward to what the summer holds for me.