almost there...

sorry no pics have been up...i will be home soon so i figure i ll save it til i get back...in denver...gonna be home on the 15th...call me and come see me...i ll try to post some final pics up later...

iowa is more beautiful than i could have imagined...more to come...bogoshipda

pics from my last round in waveland, mississippi

our room in mississippi...the bed with the pirate flag is mine...they call me captain davy long hairs



our common area at Camp Salvage...which we came to call Camp Savage



the first house we worked on...i did the roof for this bad boy and you can see the natural progression of the house in the next picture where it has been weatherproofed and the siding has started to go up



siding the whole house usually takes a couple of days which involves a lot of measuring and levelling...siding is very easy to mess up on



more of the first house...we worked on this house about 2 weeks max before we started on the big boy...



the framing up for our prize build...the 2 story house...the first done by habitat in mississippi and i built it...ground up...



more of the framing...the 3 things you see on the top are ceiling joists...its what supports the floor of the second floor



after all the ceiling joists are up...we have to climb up and balance on them to start making the floors for the second floor...



me and jesse...a volunteer from kansas...she was so awesome



13-15 feet off the ground balancing on half foot wide beams making the floor systems...



scott and i MADE those roof rafters ourselves...we built that roof...we really did



the scranton girls...i must admit that when first hearing that we d be working with 20 high school girls...we werent too excited...but that turned out to be one of the best weeks...they were amazing...



me and stephanie...from scranton, PA...she was awesome and still is...



more of the lovely scranton girls...



the 2 story house lookin a little how it did towards the end...



my team and i with our amazing and awesome crew leaders...mistie, dan, stephen, and chris "casanova"...



thats me at the VERY top of the house nailing in some of the rafters so we can build that roof...



me and scott were the obvious badasses of our team...the habitat crew leaders always had me and scott doin a project on our own...they trusted us to do everything and it was really cool...



helping people out on the roof...



framing the second floor...



leann, me and chris in new orleans...

close to the end...

sorry about never posting for anybody that DOES happen to keep up with this blog...i m back in denver on my week break currently...i m headed to new york city on wednesday morning for a couple of days to see sandy who i havent seen in a really really long time...its been quite a while since we lived together so i m really lookin forward to seein her...

the last project in mississippi was awesome...i couldnt have gotten a better project with habitat...i can now basically say that i helped build a 2 story home from the ground up...its an awesome feeling...i helped build almost every aspect of that house...

after our break here...i ll be headed off to my last project for the last 2 months...i ll be in des moines, iowa!!!! doesnt get much more mid west than that...hahha so i m pretty excited...we ll be living in cabins...workin for the iowa conservation board i think....where i ll be doing some trail building, invasive species removal, and maybe even some controlled burns...which sounds really exciting...

this wont be too long of a post because the coffee shop that i m at is gonna close soon...the internet in our dorms hasnt been working for the past week so it really sucks cuz if you dont know yourself...everyone is quite dependent on the net these days...i cant type too well becuase if you havent heard...i ve been wearing splints on my left middle and ring fingers for the past month because i tore 2 tendons in them...dont worry...it didnt hurt at all and sounds worse than it really is...it just looks funny...ive got to wear the splints for another month so i m almost there...

thanks to anyone and everyone that remembers me in their thoughts...it is much appreciated...i ve been contemplating what to do after this is done and i ve actually decided to try for another term!!!! but this time as a team leader...i just wanted to opportunity to be able to influence just like myself...now that i know a little more of what i wanna do, i just want to help someone who was like me when i first joined the program...i think it ll be a great leadership opportunity for me...keep your fingers crossed...i ll try to keep everyone updated...but i gotta go...they re turning off the lights on me...i know that without pictures this site is pretty plain...so hopefully next time i ll be able to fix that...

join americorps if you dont know what you wanna do...ask me questions about anything...its been an awesome experience to really live for others...take care all

back at mississippi...

well i m gonna keep this short until i get more pics...but i m back in mississippi again...this time i m in the city of waveland and i m building with Habitat for Humanity down here...its a lot different than the new orleans branch because its a lot smaller with nowhere near the volunteer numbers in new orleans but its cool because our whole team works together on one site so the building actually gets done a lot faster because we kinda know what we re doing instead of having to train new volunteers all the time...me and scott basically finished a roof and tar papering in 2 days...it was awesome...an hour into work and my shirt is absolutely drenched with sweat because its so hot down here...its amazing how much water we drink and how we dont have to goto the bathroom once all day because we sweat so much...its been a really cool experience down here so far with the new team...we re only here for another 5 weeks so its kind of a short round...i ll post again soon with some pics...keep me and everyone else down here in your thoughts and prayers...take care

back by demand...

well well well...long overdue i guess...so long in fact that i have absolutely no idea what to write...some profound thought or pearl of wisdom probably should be dropped but yeah...nothing comes to mind with that either...i wish i could just field questions from anyone that reads this...it would make my life much easier...

according to the survey, people apparently dont like reading my posts that have massive amounts of text...so because of this, as with children i will be posting as many pictures as possible while minimizing the amount of text...hope this solves that problem...

well i m still here in the new orleans area until the 20th...it s been a pretty awesome experience building here in Musicians Village... a brief little history on musicians village...it is the brainchild of harry connick jr and branford marsalis...the main lot where the pictures come from has about 25 Habitat houses there presently but the final plan is to have 60 to 70 on the core site...the houses arent just for musicians, about 50 percent of the homeowners on the site so far are musicians...there are eventual plans for a community center to be built on the main site where musicians can go and give free lessons to community members...everything is awesome there

this is my lovely team...taken the first week we started on the sites...

what do i do exactly on a Habitat for Humanity site you might ask?!?...well...lets see...this is what your standard HfH house looks like on the site with minor details different on each house...cosmetics, floor plans and interiors are personalized by the homeowners...

so you see how the house is raised off the ground?...all HfH houses are built that way to protect it is as much as possible from any moderate flooding...so look at these pictures and see if you can tell what that is...

if you dont know...those beams that you see us on top of and going through are what we call the floor joists which is basically the floor framing...so after the foundation is laid and the cinder blocks set, the floor joists can go up...

at which point some basic floor systems can be put in so that the framing of the house can begin, at which point the house will start to look like this...


after the framing goes up...some sheathing can be done where the outside walls are sort of put on the frames...

after that...Tyvek homewrap is applied to the walls to weather proof it and the roof trusses can be placed on the framing of the house...


after that some siding, sub fascia, soffit, porchwork, stairs and roofing can start...i know that you guys probably dont know what half of those are but oh well...here are some pics from when we worked on "decking" the roof...its where we place the flat pieces of OSB lumber onto the roof to actually create the roof...



if you cant tell we actually have to use a ladder to get into the roof trusses where we then have to balance on the 2 by 4 s that we use while we are about 10 feet above the floor of the house...we climb through the trusses like little monkeys and hammer the deckboards into place...






after that happens then tar paper and shingles can be used to make it look like an actual roof...

after all that is done then there are a ton of more things that need to happen all of which i dont know exactly of but i know some...interior drywalling needs to happen, insulation, painting, cabinets, rugs, plumbing, electrical, mudding, doors, windows, and much more...so much goes into a house and its pretty cool to learn alot...they use us Americorps members as assistants to the crew leaders of the house where we help supervise the volunteers that are there...all in all...there are hundreds of volunteers each day that need to be divided among the different houses that are being worked on each day...i do a little bit of everything...including driving a box truck for deliveries...i m a pro at driving big vehicles now...

besides working tho i ve had my opportunities to get to know the new orleans area which is pretty cool to know where i m going in a city where i m not from...

this is where i stay...its called Camp Hope and its an old elementary school thats been converted into a volunteer base camp where there are usually an average of 300 volunteers here...its funny cuz i m so used to sharing a room now with like 15 other people and having community showers and bathrooms...people sometimes say its a little dirty but i dont seem to notice anymore...this is what our room looks like...



and this is my bunk...the top one with the pirate flag...its a little different in actuality now...we have made our room into the pirate room...we have pillaged a lot of things from around the area to make our room super cool...our room tends to be known as the loud music, pirate talking, yelling random things, messy, crazy room...its actually quite fun...my bunk now has a bunch of milk crates nailed all over to serve as makeshift shelves...i ve also got some random artwork that ive collected...its definitely the coolest/cleanest bunk in the room...

the south loves crawfish...they have what they call "crawfish boils" where they take huge amounts of crawfish and boil them in huge pots with a ton of spices and other things including corn, potatoes, mushrooms, etc and just eat them...



i personally dont see why crawfish is that great...i mean...its pretty good but not awesome to me...it is however very fun to just eat...its fun to tear them apart and so forth...

i got a chance to goto the famous New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Music Festival which was pretty amazing...its a huge deal here and they have all sorts of stages with musicians from all different genres such as modern rock, classic rock, jazz, reggae, blues, gospel, brass bands, hip hop, etc... a lot of stuff just unique to new orleans...

before we came here to New orleans we stayed in texas for a week at a YMCA camp which was pretty cool...i just wanted to show you what happens when you put 20 guys who have a lot of huge bags into one cabin meant for little kids...

it was amazing hahaha...it looks worse than it was...

one thing that i really like about being a federally funded program is that we have government vehicles which consists of 12-15 passenger vans and covered pickup trucks for our luggage...we have government plate and its so cool to always get together and see "govvies" as we love to call them...if we see a van with government plates we just know they re americorps and its like a bond...it pretty cool ...we just wave or go crazy in our cars even if we dont know who it is...and i also think it makes us a little more invisible to cops with the government plates...we have a lot of rules tho since they ARE goverment cars...we cant drive over 65 mph...EVER...if we dont wear our seatbelts...its a $100 fine...if we reverse...we always have to have a "ground guide" where someone stands in the back and uses our fancy hand signals to make sure we dont hit anything...we can never drive the car alone...there has to be at least 2 people in the car at all times...we have to record the mileage...EVERYDAY...those are just some of the great perks of driving these things of beauty...haha...here s what a parking lot full of govvies looks like...and mind you this is nowhere near how many we have on our whole campus...


i do manage to have my fair share of fun here though as well...which is definitely something you need not to get burned out...so of course i ve been to bourbon...seen a ton of live music,,,jazz on the streets...etc etc




americorps just feels like a completely different world...everyone always talks about that here...its like we re in our own little bubble and "real" life just kinda pauses...when i stayed at a hotel a little while ago and took a shower in a real bathroom it was wierd...hhaha...it felt like normal but it felt wierd...we add ameri in front of everything....ameri-world...ameri-car...ameri-life...my ameri-home...my ameri-friends...ameri-water...ameri-bed...anything and everything...haha...its crazy...

here s some pics of my ameri-friends who i ve grown to love and i keep meeting more everyday...i can now safely do a roadtrip across the country and have many places where i can stay...all over...i never thought i would know people from ohio,,,or alaska...or maine...but i do...its amazing





well i guess the last thing i ll write before i call it a night is more of soemthing i d like to ask of anyone...if you find you ve got some time...come down here and help...i d love to work along side all of you especially my close friends...you have no idea how great of an experience you would have here...people have the misconception that you need a lot of time and money to do something like come volunteer for a week but its really not...you can always just come on a weekend and stay at a volunteer base camp where you might not have to pay for anything...you work the days doing something great and you still have plenty of free time to sight see or do whatever you want at night...it is soooooo much more rewarding than you could possibly be imagine...you dont have to work here everyday if you want to come...its called volunteering and we would love to have anyone even if its only for a day...and come on...another plus side...you get to see and work with ME...how long has it been since you ve done that...so all i m asking is that if you were thinking on plannin your annual vacation soon...dont overlook a vacation where you can help do something great while doin the normal things you do on vacation...there still is a tonnnn of help needed down here and i would really LOVE to see some of the people i care deeply for get involved in something with so much value...i really think it would change lives...come guys...i miss you...if you have any questions or anything...get in touch with me...myspace...facebook...email...dulldavid@gmail.com...AIM:dulldavid...cell:415-517-2667...whatever...just come...there will ALWAYS be some reason not to go...its up to you whether or not you re gonna let it stop you...DONT...you guys are all better than that...come...sometimes you just cant think about it...

keep in touch all...i would really love to hear from some of you that i dont hear from...i m never too busy...miss you all...

i will side with you forever...cootie