New Jobs Keep Life Interesting

Jim's work this week included several roof repair jobs. It was good to work with Tim one day because he is a retired commercial roofing contractor from Denver. He also taught this weeks CHRPA school on roof repairs using TPO (Thermoplastic Polyolefin).

This roof was leaking! No wonder someone had fastened something from underneath with screws long enough to come through the roof sheeting. After grinding off the screws we applied flash and seal to remedy this problem.

One other task this week was to check out a water leak in an old mobile home. This home owner was a hoarder, so this made the job of finding the source of the leak a challenge. It turned out to be numerous leaks in the 3/8" copper lines that were failing from age and corrosion. This will require major plumbing with PEX pipe next week.

After completing 4 weeks of CHRPA (Community Home Repair Projects of Arizona) and them having an abundance of volunteers Annette decided to try a few other things.
Mondays I have been going to Adaptation Station which I did again where I sanded and varnished adapted furniture for the handicapped. Then Monday afternoon and Tuesday, and Wednesday I helped four other ladies who were putting together three quilts for tying.

On Thursday morning I joined two other volunteers at Literacy Connects where we clean up children's books. The books are wiped, any marking whited out or covered with stickers to give them a new look if possible. These books are then handed out by the tutors to the children they work with.

Our Friday started by heading across the city to Sabino Canyon. It had been recommended that we see this place. We took the shuttle to the far end and then walked the four mile route back. The canyon stream was running over several bridges making for some wet shoes. The scenery was great, but the bright sunshine washed out the color in many of our photos.

Next was a ride up Mt. Lemmon to view the scenery from high lookouts and to see if they really have snow at 8 to 9000 ft. elevation. They do.

Some need more excitement than just viewing the surroundings from the road side. No this is not us.

Friday evening the CHRPA staff, volunteers and community people enjoyed a Mexican supper and general annual meeting. It was a meeting like none other that we have attended. We were entertained by a music ensemble made up of staff and MVS volunteers and heard numerous stories from the fields of Pima County (that is the county we are in). They had a silent auction to raise money for a very needy homeowner living in a greenhouse, with no electricity or shower facilities. The plan is to build her a shower building.

We were told that in the last year 54 volunteers spent 11,800 hours working with 7 staff to complete 1,872 jobs. That sounds amazing!

Saturday we took a road trip on a scenic route stopping in the historic town of Tombstone. We also checked out the possibility of staying at a state park during our upcoming vacation time.