Today we had two roofing jobs to complete. Mr. Carroll took
six kids to his job site witch was a small porch roof job. I, Ryan Dickson, was
with Mr. Carroll’s crew. When we arrived at the job, we started taking shingles
off right away; this was challenging because there were two layers of shingles
that needed to be removed. When we got all the shingles off the roof we learned
that back in the day when building houses, they didn’t have plywood so they
just used boards to go across the rafters. We put plywood on the entire porch
roof and then we put ice guard down and drip edge on. Finally, we began to
shingle the roof. This was a learning experience because we used three tap
shingles which doesn’t get used often in construction. After finishing the roof,
we cleaned up and then met up with the other group at the other roofing job.
Today I, Chris Santiago, was with Mr.
Brightbill on the second roofing job. We got up today around 6:15 AM. We had pancakes,
bacon and eggs. Mr. Brightbill wanted us out of the church by 7:30 and we
managed it by 7:29. When we got there we established who was going on the roof
and who was going to be on the ground. I was on the ground and I was running
shingle rippers which are just shovels with several points on them. I also
helped set up the air compressor, the generator, and air hoses. I basically supported
the people on the roof. Once we got the shingles ripped off, Mr. Brightbill
found out that they had ½ plywood with luwan plywood as well. After finding
that we realized that the plywood wasn’t nailed down at all the only thing
holding it down was the roofing nails, so we nailed it down and put ice guard
on the roof and started laying shingles. We got about 1/3 of the roof done then
the second group came to help.
Once Mr. Carroll’s group finished
and came to the other site, Mr. Brightbill took the dump truck to the landfill
and then took a small team back to other roofing job to pick up the shingles
from that job. We then went back to the other roofing job that Mr. Brightbill
started and helped finish the roof. When we finished the roof the home owner
came out and we got some time to talk to her which was amazing. I found out
that she had been a teacher in Crisfield for 28 years. She taught 14 years at a
high school and then 14 years at an elementary school. At the end before we
were getting to leave we gave her a bag of homemade pillow’s that she could
keep or give away and she was honestly speechless. She started crying and,
seeing her cry, made many of us tear up. This is the kind of stuff that makes
this whole trip worth it. Finally, we went back to the church to shower. After showers
we went to Mr. Crockett's shanty and hung out and watched the sun set. We played
corn hole which was a lot of fun. Today was so much fun and my favorite part
was seeing and getting to know that lady (Mrs.Horsey).
We are leaving tomorrow, one day early, because our work is finished. We have managed to complete 5 different projects in 3 1/2 days of work. This has been a rewarding week.