Trip #11: Day 4

          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.