So...  since the Botanical Gardens, BR has kept busy with some smaller projects a bit closer to home.    Last Saturday a group of 6 (Jim, Jen, Emily, Bill H, Patti, and myself) finished up some work at the Olean Family Literacy Center that was started back during our last local service weekend.   The rooms had been drywalled during that event and required some sanding, minor touch ups and paint.   We completed two small rooms and the hallway.  Of not from this work day was the fact that once again, the police showed up, as we set off the alarm when entering the building.   They were nice enough though, and gave us the number for the maintenance man that was supposed to have disarmed the system prior to our arrival.  Also of note, Bill H. and his wife Patti are from Texas, where they met the BR group during their visit/work in Bridge City and Pass Christian, TX (I know, I already said Texas, but it seemed odd to leave the city without the state).

Today (July 3rd) Jim, Jen and myself traveled to Salamanca (Jim rode his bike (see below)) to finish up a paint job for "Rose" that was started some time last year.   Rose and her friend were very welcoming and extremely appreciative.  We fixed what needed fixed, painted what hadn't been painted yet, and mowed the yard.   Rose provided me with supervision as I painted and told me stories from her past.  Very cool, very nice lady...  I hope we get to work there again.   Of note today, the neighbor lady told us she almost called the police while we were waiting for Rose to answer the door (starting to see a trend?)... 

I think this weekend will also include mowing trails and removing some fallen trees over at Bob's Woods, and maybe some additional clean up at storage if time permits.  

Also, here is an excerpt from http://blakewtd.wordpress.com  Blake is the director of a documentary by 4 students call Walk The Dream (www.walkthedream.com).  We ran into them while we were in Millbury, OH cleaning up after the tornado.

"In the past month we’ve gone through two massive cities (Cleveland and and Chicago) and seen three major storms. The beginning of severe weather started in Huron, OH in the middle of the night. We hadn’t been able to find a place to stay, however a local McDonalds allowed us to park our bus in their parking lot to sleep in. It’s an interesting experience to say I’ve had, sleeping in a McDonald’s parking lot. But when trying to shower and get clean in their bathroom it’s hard to not feel homeless. During the evening a storm passed through which was enjoyable as I sleep very well when it rains. The pitter patter of rain on the roof is soothing to me. However the huge siren going off in the middle of the night wasn’t so pleasant. Holly tried to worry us all by saying it was a tornado warning. But I (being from Rochester, NY were we don’t have such a thing) insisted it couldn’t be. Hah, was I wrong. I didn’t know it until the next morning but a horrible level 4 tornado had touched down about 50 miles away from us. It’s probably better I didn’t know that evening or I wouldn’t have gotten back to sleep so easily.

After finding out the tornado had touched down so close to us we decided it would be well worth the time and extra miles to go to Millbury, Ohio and help out cleaning up from the destruction. I have never experienced a natural disaster (aside from an ice storm that knocked out everyones power in Rochester for a week once). The site of what a tornado can do is life changing. While walking into town we started to notice street signs bent in half, some tree branches down, then a completely naked tree. The school was one of the first things we came across. Half of it was untouched and looked as it was suppose to for the graduation ceremonies that were suppose to be held the day after the tornado had touched down. The other half was spread across a field. Insulation clung to a chain link fence, school buses lay in a row missing windows, doors, and hoods. There were remnants of the school for blocks. Bull dozers pushed heaps of school items together to crush them and put them in the dump. The school was condemned. It is now to be knocked down and rebuilt, at an estimated cost of 50 million dollars.

That was only the beginning of our experiences there. However there is a video you can reference on our facebook page about our visit so you can see a little of what we saw. Much like our trip in general the number of volunteers that came out and helped clean up really reminds you of how kind American’s are. It felt great to be the one to lend a hand after how many people have helped us out. "

-Nate

Sunburn season is upon us, and boy did I get a whopper of one over the weekend.   Friday after work, Brian and I mowed Penny's lower 40 for the second time.  It was beautiful weather, so we thought it best to take advantage of it.  After mowing we enjoyed some adult beverages, and worked on organizing her garage; removing a plethora of cardboard boxes, breaking them down and boxing them up.  All told, I'm fairly confident to estimate that we prepped 50 or more pounds of cardboard for recycling.  Penny also donated around 50 pair of shoes to BR's collection for Haiti.  Way to go Penny!!!

On Saturday, Brian, Penny and I drove to Cuba/Rushford to go antiquing and pick up some perennials from the plant lady (another post).  Needless to say the weather was fantastic, so we had the sunroof open.   I've apparently forgotten that I'm Irish, have no hair, and tan like a fork in the microwave.  Top of the head burnt, when we returned to town, I donned a cap and spend 2 hours working on the bank in front of the house.  Raking, digging, planting, more raking, etc. etc. etc.  In the end, the bank showed improvement and I was left with two mountainous piles of soil and degrading mulch on the sidewalk.

Today, I awoke with a brilliant idea.  Necessity is the mother of invention, and it was necessary that I find some other way to get the dirt from the bank out back without having to use my rickety wheelbarrow.  I called Brian, who obliged my request to convert his Hummer into an urban dump truck using a blue tarp and a snow shovel.  We hauled the first load up the hill and the send we took to his house to use as base material for a raised bed.  We then headed to Wal-mart to pick up some potting soil for porch boxes and some topsoil to mix in with the soil at his house.  Dirt delivered, we planted sunflowers and put the cardboard from Penny's to the curb. We returned to my house and dug up some plantings for around Brian's house.  By time we were done his urban dump truck had been refilled with flora for his homestead.  Another side note, Brian donated two monitors and a keyboard to BR's computer drive for Haiti..  Way to go Brian!!!  Unfortunately, I put these both in the back of my car, and summarily forgot about them, so when i opened the back of the Suzuki on of the 25 pounders fell out and landed on my foot.   While my toes remained intact, I have a massive bruise and the monitor was kaput..,

After Bubba left I picked up weeds that we had pulled while plant picking and moved around 100 daffodil bulbs from the front of the house to the built in planter off of the back patio.  When I bought the 5 gallon pail of bulbs last summer I thought they would make a beautiful addition to the gardens, but let me tell you, a 5 gallon bucket of bulbs equals a LOT of plants that take up a LOT of room.  After planting, I weedeated around the house, planted geraniums in the porch boxes and moved some hosts to the back of the house, where I think they'll do better given the shade.

At 2:30 I went to meet Jim and Jen in Allegany to help out with work in Bob's Woods.  For those of unfamiliar with Bob's woods, its a system of trails that BR has made over the past several years.  Its an absolutely beautiful system that I would highly recommend it to any outdoor enthusiasts, including hikers, bikers, runners and walkers.  You can access the trail from several points on the SBU campus, as well as from Gargoyle Park.  There may likely be other areas that I am not aware of, but make the effort to go.  You won't be disappointed. We began at the storage area to pick up chainsaws, mowers, etc, and headed to the West end of the trail, where Jim and I mowed double wide trail paths (think of two snowplows following each other clear a highway).  We then parted ways to mow other parts of the west trail, with Jen trimming back brush and the like as we went.  After mowing we removed a tree that was blocking the path and proceeded to the East side of the system.  Again, Jim and I mowed in a follow the leader formation, and then split off with he heading toward gargoyle park, and myself doubling back to mow the south trail of the East end.  Imagine if you will that go for a 10 mile hike across an uneven, occasionally difficult in a wooded area , and for fun, decide to push the law mower the whole way.  Been there, done that.

We wrapped up the day on the gargoyle Park side of the trail system, and then doubled back to storage to unload.   On that note, I've taken muscles relaxer and smeared myself with lotion, so its off to bed for me.  Great weekend!!!  Congratulations SBU grads!!!!

-Nate

Sunday was the second day of local service weekend, and WOW, did we get a lot done.  You can read Jim's recap over at BonaResponds.org, but here is a rundown on my contribution...

Began the day at 10am again with a recap of avaialble jobs from Jim.  After that we broke into groups, with myself as part of the Rive Road Cleaan up crew pictured below:

It was our intent to cleanup along the roadway alone, but after surveying the area, it quickly became obvious that the area over the bank, directly next to the rive required significant attention.  I was stunned by the absolute volume of plastic bottles, styrofoam, shoes, typewriters, toys, siding, tires, and various other nonsense that people apparently just toss into the river or along the river bank.  Below is a picture of what we brought up over the hill to be hauled away...

Total count for trash at this location included 28 contractor bags (45 gallon) of trash, 14 tires, and two "mountains" of trash that wouldn't fit in bags.  What's not pictured is another pile of barbed wire and miscellaneous steel that had been tossed.  A few highlights of the day included the state police stopping by after they received reports that we were dumping trash (duh), and Jim's conversation with the township to arrange for the pickup of our collection.  At first they wanted to send only a pickup truck, but after further explanation, agreed that it might be a job more appropriate for the county to handle.  Below is the site after the county came and picked up the trash.  They ended up using a dump truck, a payloader AND a pickup.  The their credit, they also pushed a slab of dumbed blacktop off to the side so the area was more usable.  Jim later wrote his congressman to ask that the site be turned into a picnic area.

After the morning long cleanup, several of us headed off to dissassemble a wheelchair ramp that BR and CYS had put up the year before.  Unfortunately, Bill, the gentleman for whom the ramp was built, passed away a couple of weeks ago.  His wife asked that the ramp be removed so that it can be used later at another location.  We arrived between 1 and 2 pm and began by removing the deck addition that had been added on to the back of the porch to accomodate the length of the ramp.

While the guys worked on this portion of the teardown, I was fortunate to have an opportunity to visit with Mary, Bill's widow, who turned out to be a very kind, sweet, and good-spirited woman.  We talked about Bill, we talked about my uncle, and in some strange way, we bonded.  I could appreciate her feelings, and she could appreciate mine, it was rewarding to say the least...  

We continued by removing the railings and taking the ramp itself apart in two sections.  

We carried both sections, along with the cleaned up lumber to the front of the house for Pete from CYS to pick up on Tuesday night.  We also replanted several of Mary's shrubs and raked out the gravel at the ramp entrance to level the yard.   Mary needs some help with a painting project that she and Bill started, so perhaps we can get some more yard work done when we go over to paint.  Possibly this coming Saturday.

After the work was done at Mary's it was time to wind down the day.  Several crews met at storage to unload tools.  While there, we did some straightening and Jim, Mike, and myself threw together a second toolrack to hold the many rakes, brooms, shovels, etc.  that BR has accumulated.  The day was capped off with a cookout at Univ. Ministries where we shared our accomplishments with each other, and had the pleasure of Mary's company and kind words.

-Nate

Busy, busy, busy...  I took Thursday night off from the ramp build, primarily because I don't think I could have handled looking at it for one more consecutive night.  LOL   Ended up going out Friday night to get most of the railing up, so it will be mostly safe for Dick when he returns home.  Will most likely go out Monday night to cut the tops off of the 4x4s and add the last few railing sections.  When the weather warms up a bit more, I'll add the anti-slip tape to the decking.

Today was Day #2 of Local Service Weekend.  Several jobs were in progress simultaneously, including drywall work at the Literacy Center, tiling at the Cornerstone Medical Loan Closet's new location, Painting and cleanup at a local cemetery, helping out with a Red Cross race on campus, and probably a few others that I can't think of right now.  Brian and I arrived on campus around 10am, after loading the truck up with the chop saw and left over lumber from the ramp build.  Began the day with a run down from Jim and then headed out to the first job site.  Brian, Rob, Carrie, Carrie's mother, Bud and myself went to M. Twitty's house to finish up some railing on, you guessed it, a wheelchair ramp, that the group had built last year.  It was a fairly simple job that Bud and I took care of while the other 3 members of our team scraped and painted the foundation of the home which was flaking, and Carrie's mom kept Mrs. Twitty company in the house.  Carrie then went on to rake the grass in the back yard while we had lunch and waited for our next assignment.  Mrs Twitty was extremely thankful for the help and it was an absolute pleasure to have made her acquaintance.

Next the team split up, with Brian and I heading to the BR storage area to gather up the anchor posts and some other items that we didn't use for Dick's ramp.   We returned these, along with the aforementioned lumber to Home Depot and picked up two sheets of drywall and some paper tape for the job at the literacy center.  At this point, Brian had to head out to attend to a prior obligation.  Having delivered the material to the literacy center, I then went to Bob's Woods on the SBU campus where Bud, Rob, and I worked on leveling some of the rough spots on the trails.  This turned out to be a rather fun time, as Rob and I rode on the back of Bud's 4-wheeler as we brought several loads of bank run out to the trail.

To end the day, we returned a mountain of tools, etc. to the storage area and proceeded to the cookout that was planned at the Univ. Ministry building, where each grouped shared their accomplishments for the day.   A solid day of work overall, with more planned for tomorrow.  

-Nate

As discussed in previous posts, this Saturday from 10-4 is the car wash/flea market at Living Waters Church in Olean, NY to raise money for Haiti...  It's also the run up to a local service weekend April 23-25...   As part of that weekend, and perhaps this weekend depending on the weather, we'll be building a wheelchair ramp here in Bradford at my aunt and uncle's house.  While BR has kindly volunteered to take on the construction project, the cost of materials is still quite staggering (around $1200).  Given that Trudy and Dick have been "plagued" with medical issues over the past few years, this is in their eyes a small fortune.  As much as I would love to be able to just write a check, I too carry a burden, one of student loan payments, a mortgage, car payment, etc.   HOWEVER... 

While listening to NPR today I gleaned the ONLY positive thing one could learn from pledge week...  how to beg.  To those of you reading this (and I know who you are), please consider sending in a donation to support local service weekend.  NPR will survive without your spring membership pledge.  Afterall, they'll ask again this fall.  You can send checks to BonaResponds directly with either "wheelchair ramp" or "nateolay" in the memo line, or if you prefer, you can contact me directly through Facebook and we'll make other arrangements.  I'll be pitching in, BonaResponds is pitching in, and YOU should pitch in too.  I'm not asking for $100 bills, $10's and $20's work just fine.   And if you can't send $$, then get in touch with either myself or Jim and volunteer your time to one of the many "jobs" that are scheduled.

See you Saturday!!!

-Nate