Bryce Rally- Panguitch , Utah

Bryce Rally – Panguitch, Utah

After spending 2 ½ weeks of building a duplex for Habitat for Humanities in Bayfield, Colorado, I’m ready to hit the off-road trails while participating in the Bryce Rally in Panguitch, Utah. 

In early June, a forest fire erupted around and near Brian Head and Panguitch Lake.  This event altered the trails that were scheduled for the Bryce Rally held in late August.  Since some trails had to be closed folks had to select other trails, which increased the number of rigs for each trail.  Having 25 to 30 rigs on the same route does not leave much time for sightseeing, most of the time we were spread out over a 4 mile stretch.

On one of the days Norm (friend I met in Fillmore) volunteered to be our guide for the Circleville trail. We only had 4 rigs, which made the ride more enjoyable. 

Meeting up with friends from prior years made the Rally enjoyable. Hanging out at the end of the day during “Happy Hour” (sharing stories and drinking adult beverage) made the trip to Panguitch worthwhile.

  
 
 
 

Time for lunch break

 
 


 

2017 Habitat for Humanity Build

2017 Habitat for Humanity Build, Bayfield Colorado

After my rest period at Priest Gulch, I went to Bayfield Colorado to participate in the Habitat for Humanity duplex build.  We had a total of 6 Care-A-Vanners assigned to the project for a 2-week Period

Habitat for Humanity Care-A-Vanner is a volunteer program for anyone who travels in a recreation vehicle, wants to make new friends, wants to build a habitat houses and have fun doing it. Most builds are for a 2-week period with the option to stay longer if desired. There are in excess of 700 builds all over the US and Canada to choose from. At any given time there are about 6,000 Habitat Care-A-Vanners on the road. 

This makes the 3^rd duplex I have been involved in at Bayfield, Colorado.  It was a real pleasure to work with the group this year.  It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to be able to help a family obtain affordable housing. Another great pleasure, we get to meet the families and work side by side with them during their Saturday sweat equity (recipients must work 250 hours per adult).

Every year I end up making new friends. I met Joe and Paula Henrick in 2015 on a build. To this day we remain good friends.My tasks this year were, wrapping the building with moisture proof cloth, siding, framing windows, installing upper trim, soffits and belly board.  I didn't spend much time on the ground, I worked 85% from the scaffolding.

By far the toughest task was putting on the soffit and upper level siding (4X8 sheets) , working up high, upside down and using a 5 pound nail gun (felt like 20 pounds by the end of the day) was a challenge for my arms, by the end of the day I was a little sore. 

Before & After Pictures

Front 

 

Back

 

North Side

 

South Side

 

Saturday paint and caulking crew

 

           Red shirt (me) White shirt (Bill) Installing Soffits and trim

 

Lowering the  and moving scaffolding
 

Alan our project manager has these words of wisdom that he throws out now and then, example: Safety has no seasons, Hold the phone, Alto Alto, Shaking the bush boss and my favorite, Do I need to get the shovel.  If you happen to be standing around, he will get you a shovel to lean on, he relates it to road construction crews who stand around while one guy does the work.  The group decided to get back at him by giving him a gold shovel  with a safety belt. Of course the whole thing is just a joke, however we have alot of fun teasing each other. 

         

(Front row, right to left)        Alan, Joe, Susan, Paula, Steve, Me
(Back row, right to left)        Eric, Bill, Natalie

Kathy, Steve's wife is missing


The young couple in the front row on the left are the new home owners. The other members are friends that are helping them. 


After our last day we gathered at my motor home to have lunch and to say our goodbyes 


On our first Saturday on the job site, I invited Alan( Program Manager) and his wife Carol, Joe & Paula and Susan Cooper to a salmon feast.  In return Alan invited us to his house on our last Saturday for dinner. 
 

I will be back next year.

Toy Competition,

Last year during my Habitat for Humanity build, my good friend Joe and I were sitting outside having a glass of wine (I drank the wine) and smoking a cigar (Joe smoked the cigar) talking about wood working projects we had done through the years, Joe comes up with the idea that we should have a toy building competition.  I like a good challenge so we set some rules. There was only 4 rules (1) had to be a toy, (2) had to have a mechanical moving part that worked, (3) project needed to be good enough for display and (4) We had one year to complete our projects.

Neither one of use knew what the other was building; it was to be a surprise.  We agreed to have the Habitat for Humanity folks vote on the best toy.

We took our projects to the Habitat site and had over 20 people review our projects.  Everybody agreed that the two projects were not in the same category. 

Joe’s project did not meet all of the agreed to rules (no mechanical moving part that worked, was not a toy) . He did however build a magnificent replica of the USS Arizona (1/16 scale). He figures he spent over 6 months working on it.

My project was an 18-inch road scraper toy, which met rules 1 through 4.  The road scraper was made out of Walnut and Maple. I spent a total of 52 hours to complete my project.

Joe is going to loan his ship to the VA hospital in Tucson, Arizona for others to enjoy.  I donated my scraper to the Habitat for Humanity for next years “Hammers and High Heels” fundraiser auction, the Habitat Director figures it will bring in $300.00 plus. (update, Sold at action for $410.00)

Throughout the year we both enjoyed providing little clues and teasing each other as to what we were building.