June 24.
On Saturday we got to participate in our first build day with a local Fuller Center group. There are around 20 of us and we were split up and sent to different work sites. We also had a few extra people who came to see their relatives on the ride and to help with building projects. I saw an application for the work at the local church where we are staying. Materials were provided and we mainly provided labor—both skilled and unskilled.
I got to work on a log home outside of town belonging to Miss Scottie, an 85 year old woman who said that she had broken every bone below her waist at some point. She worked along with us and wore herself out, and she was a delightful person. She had a lunch prepared for us—salad, bread and poor man’s beef stroganoff (which was really made with elk meat.) We coated her house with linseed oil. She said that she asked the forest service about how to maintain those log buildings and they said linseed oil mixed with paint thinner to help it dry. She didn’t care if it dried, so she skipped the paint thinner. The drips of linseed oil had run down over time and made little icicles on the house. She was delighted and told us so over and over. She also said her children would be delighted that she didn’t have to climb any ladders.
We oiled her house, moved about a cord of wood from a wood pile to the shed where Scottie stacked it herself (no one else could do it properly), did some mowing and weed-eating, and dug a post hole. Then she remembered two plants that needed transplanting which were too heavy for her to lift, or hard to get to, so we helped with that also.
Our group got lucky, I think, to work with someone who was so delighted to have our help, and so willing to work along with us even though she was clearly disabled. She was totally worn out by the time we left, as we also were, but she still insisted on getting back up to give us all hugs and wave goodbye from her front porch.