Habitat for Humanity - Austin, Texas
Tim Smith, Austin, South Dakota
This has been an odd summer, and Laurel and I made no vacation plans. With a new puppy dog we decided to forego travel. Last week I worked with Habitat for Humanity. I volunteered with other IT Home Depot employees (see our orange T-Shirts).
Contrary to popular belief, houses built by Habitat for Humanity are not given away for free. Each house has its own price. In addition, each family must provide ‘sweat equity’. That is, they must work onsite building their own house and all homes are built from scratch. Although Habitat for Humanity bills itself as an ecumenical Christian organization, volunteers from all faiths are welcomed. In my team we had 3 Hindus. I guess they were trying to get good Karma. We had a lot of fun and plan on doing it again soon.
The pictures you see were taken in early September. Fortunately temperatures abated and we did not face scorching 100+ degrees which we experienced most of this summer. The morning was cloudy with some rain. The sun did not come out until about 2:00 PM. By that time we finished putting up tar paper and siding. I cut the siding and helped hang it. Terry will recognize I am wearing the cap that I bought in the Everglades!
Mid afternoon I climbed up the roof and helped attach flashing around the edges of the roof. Like other Smiths I suffer from a fear of heights, so I was uncomfortable working on the roof. Finally we put up starter shingles. Our last job was clean up activities, and we policed the area.
I moved two frogs to a nearby pond and got them out of harm’s way. Somehow one got stuck inside the cab of a small Caterpillar.
For your information, I did not meet or see Jimmy Carter.
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The volunteers. Tim center left. Click to Enlarge.