Habitat for Humanity, Dade City, FL

Some of you may know that we are currently in Dade City, FL where we are part of the East Pasco Habitat for Humanity Build Team. We are working on House #43! We arrived here on Sunday with our friends, Dottie & Lew Anderson who actually "talked us into" this! We were also supposed to be joined by Marie & Dave Ostrander (other Monaco friends of ours) but Dave was diagnosed with cancer about a month ago and is currently undergoing treatment in Dallas. We were met by our Team Leader, Barri Amor and quickly got settled in. We have electric, water and even sewer! There are 9 members from FMCA Habitat for Humanity and 7 Habitat for Humanity RV Caravaners (FMCA is an organization strictly for motorhomes, hence the RV Caravaners).

On Sunday evening we had a "get acquainted" meeting with our team so that we could meet everyone and hear where they were from, how many builds they had done, etc. Don and I are the only "first timers". We found out that our "house" has been beset with problems, failing the soil compaction test, weather, etc. In fact, the foundation hadn't even been poured yet! We also were told how the build normally takes place and basically what we could expect. We "work" from 8:00 - 2:30 or 3:00 with a break at 10:00 am and lunch at 12:00. Different people and groups feed us lunch each day. We "work" Mon - Sat. with Sunday off (usually). At 8:00 am we meet, get a brief synopsis of the day, are told about any changes, etc. and have a daily devotion. Gather our tools and materials and off we go! We also go over work safety and then our meeting was over! Heavy hors devours are the norm and this night was no exception!

Monday morning dawns bright and clear. The biggest problem was there was no work since the foundation hadn't been poured yet. The concrete that is supposed to be delivered later this afternoon has been postponed because of the possibility of rain. It will be delivered on Tuesday. Odd jobs were handed out around the build site, a previous house, loading supplies, steps at the HfH office (a historical train depot) and a few others. It was also "suggested" that some of us may like to go to Webster to see the Flea Market there, which is only open on Monday! We were asked to be back by noon, though, since a local church was bringing us lunch. Eight of us headed off to Webster, Lew started off helping to load lumber on the trailer, and Don joined up with another guy to build the steps at the train depot (that's a whole other story)! Webster is about 1/2 hour away but it has to be the biggest flea market I've ever seen! It stretches forever and has booths here there and everywhere! Didn't purchase too much. Dottie and I started off going down rows of produce. We decided to hit that area on our way back, but ended up running out of time and only had the chance to quickly purchase a thing or two when we were leaving! I'm sure there were lots of great bargains, but in a motorhome you only have so much room and when that gets filled, well...you get the picture! :-) Got back in time for lunch and I can't remember what we ended up doing after that! After time to get cleaned up, we met around 5:00 for a brief meeting and heavy hors devours! Hey, I could get used to this...after heavy hors devours, you don't need to cook dinner! :-)