Septic Pipes and Accomplishment

When Marco learned that we would probably be working at Rick’s property for at least three days, he didn’t tell our group because he feared we’d be disappointed. However we were all glad and excited to return this morning for a third—and perhaps final—day of work on the septic trenches. After a rather stubborn member of our team triumphed over the final remaining root, we were clear to continue laying pipe. We finished laying pipe in the straightaway, which ended up measuring between eighty and eighty-five feet. Unfortunately because of an error, we did not have sufficient piping to complete the circle to the backside of the house; we needed an additional forty feet of piping.
Before lunch we loaded into the van to go to a site where according to Marco we would “unload some trestles.” We arrived and met a group of volunteers from a church in Arkansas. In total there were 21 trestles, measuring roughly 20 feet across, 15 feet tall and each weighing about 250 pounds. The process of bringing the trestles down off of the open 18-wheeler and piling them up on the ground beside the truck was quite arduous. A group of five stood on the truck, handed them down to another group of five on the ground, before the trestle was handed to yet another group of five inside the ever-growing pile of trestles. Once the trestles were stacked about 6 feet high, the final five had to climb out from inside the trestles.
After lunch we returned to Rick’s to complete odd jobs. Some gardened and others prepped the house to be power washed by bleaching the sides of the house by hand with bleach. We also cleaned out the inside of the CC house so that a team could come in within the next few weeks to lay floor or perhaps even paint. We promised Rick we would return tomorrow to say goodbye on our final day of work.

-Steven 6/14/2007