St. Francis :)

On Wednesday we ended up going to Grandfather Mountain, it was actually my first time visiting even though I've lived in North Carolina my entire life. We went on a short hike and walked across the mile high swinging bridge, but spent most of our time enjoying the scenery. On our way back to the center we stopped in Boone and had an excellent dinner out- just a side note: I think I'm falling in love with Boone. I might feel differently in the winter when it's freezing cold and there's snow everywhere, but for now it is one of my favorite towns.
Thursday morning I finished up my responsibilities for the week and Torey and I left around noon, Kentucky-bound. After about a 4 hour drive we arrived in Leslie Co., KY where I was reunited with my home church, St. Francis. It was really a renewing experience for me to get to see my church family, especially Jaime :) And although the visit brought up some sad memories, it was a lot of fun getting to be a floater with Ken for the day on Friday and see everyone hard at work. It was interesting getting to see the volunteer side of things again after learning what goes into the staff position, and seeing how another staff functions. St. Francis left early this morning, and now I'm hanging out in Leslie County for a little while until the Harlan County staff picks me up and we head down to the Breaks. I'm slightly apprehensive about our crazy day on Sunday, so please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. We probably won't be able to get into our center until 6 (at the earliest- apparently they "pray for rain" so that everyone leaves the Trade Days Festival), which is still several hours after our volunteers arrive. We are meeting them at a park in town where we will hold our group leader meeting, evening gathering, and dinner; and once we are finally allowed back in our center we will have to re set-up everything, including hanging black plastic for dividing sleeping quarters and re posting all of my signs all over the center. But I'm just going to enjoy this weekend and worry about Sunday afternoon when it comes.

Week off!... sort-of

Last week ended up going really well, after a rough start on Monday. All of our volunteers were amazing and almost every group exceeded our expectations for the projects they were assigned. Which I'm coming to find out is both a good and bad thing. When a group works quickly, it makes it much more difficult for us to maintain our homes budget- $550 per home per week. I have updated our county's website, so if anyone is interested in reading about our projects you can find them here http://asphome.org/group/johnson-county-tn. We had EG's on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night as well as culture night on Tuesday and our picnic on Thursday. Our culture night was Family Ties, 2 cousins- Jennifer and Roger that sing country, bluegrass, and gospel. They played for about an hour and a half, and I think the volunteers enjoyed the performance as much as I did. Our picnic also went really well; we held it at our center and the families stayed long after the food had been served, which is unusual and indicates the strong bonds the volunteers had created with their families. Our work week went fairly smoothly until Friday, when we learned that was originally supposed to be delivered on Wednesday afternoon wouldn't be arriving at our center until Saturday morning. We had 3 projects that had been waiting on the tin for roofs and underpinning, so we had to scramble to find alternate projects for these groups. Apparently on Thursday the driver had run out of hours, so was legally required to stop driving, and then on Friday morning his truck broke down on Hwy 91 (aka the middle of nowhere). But soon after learning of this misfortune, our DTD (dump truck driver) Megan arrived and we left for runs. I got to spend the first half of the day riding in the dump truck, but after dropping off one load at the transfer station, Jacob and I switched. Torey and I then met at a log cabin in order to complete an initial home visit. We ended our week with the share circle during Friday's EG, and then an ice cream eating contest- which Torey won by a long shot. I learned how to do whip flips, a skill involving whipped cream that I would be happy to show off when I get home in the fall. Our volunteers left early Saturday morning, and we spent the rest of the day catching up on sleep and hanging out with Carter County. With no volunteers, I had thought this week would be super relaxing, but we have still had plenty of work to do. We have been picking up dump from all of our houses, and we had to pull off one of our houses so we completed the work we had signed ourselves yesterday morning. We have also been working on LRPs- Long Range Plans, which involves taking measurements at all of our houses and taking through all potential projects at each home. Then we "pert" which involves prioritizing each project and determining in which order they should be done. Today our PM (program manager aka boss) Kirstin is coming to visit, so we will continue working on our LRPs this morning and then go do something fun this afternoon like exploring a waterfall near Boone or maybe hiking at Grandfather Mountain. But she she be arriving anytime now, so I need to get back to work! :)

Day 1 of Week 1 of Volunteers

Today has been the craziest day of my entire life. And it's not even over, so who even knows what will happen next. My morning started with waking up at 6:30, moving scaffolding from one truck to another van, and then driving about 25 minutes to the lumber store. Luckily, they had everything on my list (Jen also went on a hardware run, but to a different store), but when he was loading the lathing boards (1x4s) he asked if rough cut lumber would be okay, and I wasn't really sure so I just said yes... I got back to the center and was immediately approached by the cantaloupe man. Before I had even stepped out of Jonah (our hoss cargo van) he was giving me his spiel about why we should buy his cantaloupes. So after listening for quite a while, I escaped to get Jacob (our operations coordinator- who deals with the food). I probably should have just told the cantaloupe man no from the beginning, but it was so hilarious and random that I just couldn't resist. It probably was a good business strategy trying to sell his lovely fruit to all of these people, but we just don't have room in the budget. Once I got back into our staff office I was informed of our kitchen fiasco- apparently all of the electrical outlets except one stopped working, and the water cut off at the same time. We had the water cut off several times last week, and even though Doug (our facility manager) had shown us how to fix it- flicking the pump in the basement, we decided that it needed to be replaced. Miraculously, everything seems to be working now, but we are under a severe thunderstorm watch. So I quickly discovered that we needed the finished lathing strips, not rough cut, so Julie (our liason who is here for a few days) went back to Potter's Lumber to return it. We loaded up all of the vans and sent them through border patrol, run by Jacob. Last night at the staff meeting, we had planned on Torey bringing the scaffolding out to one of our houses- "Such Great Heights" (we use a code name for all of the houses we work on in order to be sensitive to the community). But he wasn't feeling well so I volunteered to drive it out. This house has the steepest/bumpiest driveway I have ever seen. really. Anyone in my family, imagine the Miller's driveway and multiply it by 100. Last week we had been able to make it up the driveway, but with all the rain it had washed out and was impossible to drive up. So I got to the bottom of the driveway and parked, a little curious as to where the volunteers were since they had left the center a good 15 minutes before I had. So I hiked up the hill, and went to hang out with the family, unfortunately in the process I fell and ripped my jeans and twisted my ankle :( But I'll be okay, don't worry :) The volunteers finally arrived about 30 or 45 minutes later, and after unloading the scaffolding, I headed back to the center. Unfortunately there were more problems with the water, like sinks not turning off, etc. But around 11:30 we were finally able to start runs. We have two visitors staying for a few days, Julie, like I mentioned before, and Brad, our chaplain. Red, our construction consultant, also rides along on runs every Monday, so the 7 of us had to figure out who was going where. I ended up getting separated from my runs group, so I went and did our grocery shopping and now I'm just hanging out at the center, debating if I should shower or take a nap.

Calm Before the Storm,

Today is the last day of set-up week and our volunteers come tomorrow! We have been working very hard finding 10 homes to sign for work next week and cleaning/setting up our center. The picture with this post is from our commissioning service a week ago, my staff from left to right is Jen, Torey, Jacob and me. We have been getting along really well, both working together on homes and getting things done for our individual positions. I am the volunteer coordinator, which is pretty self-explanatory but mostly means I am the one who contacts the volunteers before they come and is responsible for all of their paperwork. Also, I am responsible for planning EG's (evening gatherings- approximately one hour gatherings where we sing, have mixers, and discussions), finding a culture night, and updating both the Family Summary Database and our website. Updating the website is one of the things on my to-do list for today, but once I do I'll post a link here so you can read about our specific projects. Tonight we are taking a break from work and hanging out with our neighboring county, Carter County, TN which should be a lot of fun. I'll just have to find time to practice guitar so I'm ready to play next week at EG's!

PS mail is always welcome :) :)

Set Up Week

On Monday, our first official work day in the county, we split up into pairs with separate assignments. Torey (the returner on staff- this means he has already been on staff for a summer) and Jen (our center director, aka boss) started IHVs, known to non-ASP language speakers as Initial Home Visits. This is where we go visit houses that have turned in applications, meet the family, and look at the repairs that the family would like done to their home. Jacob and I (the first years, yay!) were supposed to explore the county and in the process complete a very long to-do list. The day started off badly, the hardware store that had been used in the past (and is very close to the center) was affected by the economy and is in the process of phasing out of carrying lumber. So we began our adventure of finding another hardware store that carried what we will need. Unfortunately, 2 days later, we are still in the process of figuring that out. After the hardware store, we went to the bank and everyone signed on to the checking account. Our teller at the bank was very friendly and helped us get started figuring out our hardware dilemma and helping me with suggestions for our culture night. We drove to all each border of the county in our process of exploring, our favorite place was Morefield's, this tiny country store that has bluegrass music on the weekends, our favorite part was the directions which were in true Appalachian style. The other two pictures are of the scenery we saw on our drive out to Morefield's. From what we've seen our county not only has mountains but also lots of beautiful rolling hills. Next we stopped for lunch at Mike's- a roadside BBQ stand and in the words of the sign, we "pigged out at Mike's" The rest of the afternoon was spent running errands, we drove to Boone to get things from Walmart and Lowes and then bought groceries at Save-A-Lot, where, coincidentally we saved a lot. We ended the day by cooking mac n cheese and hot dogs- yum yum and then reviewing the homes Torey and Jen had visited. Today we switched up the pairs, I was with Jen and Torey and Jacob were together, but we all did IHV's. Sadly I don't have time to write about today's adventures because I am going to bed :) sweet dreams everyone!

Woo Hoo Johnson County

Training ended yesterday after load-up day and a talent show on Friday, and then a comissioning service yesterday. We drove to Johnson County with a detour in Johnson City to pick up more ladders- yay! The last section of our drive is represented very accurately by the picture, it was definitely a fun drive :) We met our neighboring county, Carter County in Elizabethton for dinner last night, and we passed the covered wagon festival on our way. We then set up our phone and internet in our new center!! I don't have cell service at the center, but should have it around the county. If you want to call our staff office the number is (423) 727-0230. We spent the day today exploring Boone, we went to the Mast General Store and ate at COOKOUT :) Glad I don't have to go without cookout milkshakes all summer. Back at our center I also got a tour of the grist mill on the property, which is beautiful! We have spent the rest of the day setting up the center, taking inventory of everything in the kitchen, and getting in touch with volunteers. I am already missing my friends from the porch, but excited for the next nine weeks in Johnson County!

Last Days of Training

First things first I want to give my contact information for the summer:
I will be living in Johnson County, TN starting this Saturday

My mailing address is:
ASP Johnson County Center
General Delivery
Trade, TN 37691

And the phone (which is not set up yet) is:
(423) 727-0230

I don't know if I'll have cell phone service or not, but will let you know!

Training has continued to be fun, but very tiring. We did "hands on day" yesterday, where we learned how to write work orders, do Sunday night home visits and we did a practice Initial Home Visit. We also got to do some hands on construction where we learned how to make stringers for stairs, kickers to support a roof, and cut bird's eyes in rafters. We are in sessions all day today and then tomorrow we will drive to Johnson City for load up day!! I am excited to go to my county, but a little sad to be leaving everyone that I've become such good friends with on the porch.

Hope everyone is having a great summer and I'll post more soon :) please write!

Training, training, training

Training is long, but lots of fun. There are over 100 of us here and we have been learning soooooooo much. In between construction sessions about anything from how to build a foundation to how to install windows and doors to how to fix a toilet, we have sessions about other skills we will need this summer like how to recognize and handle relationship violence and spiritual leadership. As our PM's (program managers) have been telling us, what we are learning here is "like trying to take a sip of water from a fire hose." But inbetween learning, we have had fun mixed in, like going to our picnic, listening to a bluegrass band, and my favorite so far, learning how to square dance. I found out my location and staff on Sunday, I will be in Johnson County, Tennessee. This is right on the North Carolina border, right next to Boone, so if any of you come close please let me know! I am running out of time now but will blog more later!!