Trip stuff - part 2

I could give Mary Conneally a run for her money in the novel business, at the rate I'm going here! (J/k Mary) I did find "Petticoat Ranch" at Borders in Denver! Showed it to the guys I was with...of course the guys' testosterone was blocking the excitement of a "romance" novelist! lol

When I get some pictures, I'll post them. Be sure to look for the "group" picture...our group shirts were the best of the camp, at least that is what we were told by several people!

Our group was one of 14 representing 10 states. There were 322 adults and teens, who completed 9000+ volunteer hours for 55 residents of Dulce. Even though we showed up in groups, we were split into work crews, depending on skills.

Two years ago, at the workcamp in Canada, my crew painted a house. This time, God continued to challenge my abilities. (Ok, He knows my abilities...I just needed to see them.) In Dulce, my crew deskirted and reskirted a mobile home. We had two boys, two girls, a man and then me on our crew. Jon, the other adult leader had construction experience. At the workcamp, the participant has to be 18 to run power tools. Since Jon was taking care of the details of putting the skirting onto the home, I learned how to run the Skillsaw. (Dad and Joe do not need to get any wild ideas that I am willing and able to help with any of their projects!) Unfortunately, I think I have an allergic reaction to the vinyl siding which was used. My arms are covered in a rash, but not where my gloves and sleeves were. Needless to say Benedryl and antihistimines are my heroes!

Our resident's name was Myra. (I had to be real careful not to call her "Myrna", my aunt!) She was a real nice lady. She has 4 kids, 13 grandkids and 2 great-grandkids. One of her sons and grandson lives with her. Another son's home was also renovated by one of the crews. She taught us about her Apache tribe, the Jicarilla (I think that's spelled right). The way it was explained, the tribe owns the land and each family is given rights to tracts of land. Part of the reservation is an oil field. Each family receives a dividend from the oil field profits. She encouraged our group to visit the local museum, which also had an arts and crafts area. At the museum, we could watch Natives work on beading and weaving crafts. The curator showed us a leather piece, which would become a vest, she was beading. She had about 1/3 of the beading done and had taken 2 months to complete, so far. That explained why the beautifully beaded items ran $150-500!

In addition to Jon, who was from CA, my crew was from NJ, GA and TX. Even though there were two from TX, they were from different areas. One was from Dallas, and the other was from Austin. Interestingly enough, no one had a real strong accent, like one would expect from these areas. I did make Katie (from NJ) say "coffee", so I could hear her say "cawfee" :)

More stories to come! Keep checking back!