Hammerin' in the Delta

  Now it's time to say goodbye... Saturday mornings are always a little emotional.  We say goodbye to each other and our friends from Tutwiler.  We hope to see them next year.   Some of our team are not from the Evanston area, so we may not see them for a little while.  Some are veterans who have moved out of state and make it down just for this trip.  Of course, others are people we are going to see the next day in church. Natalie shot this picture because she says I shoot them all and never appear in any.  I maintain that it is more proof for why I stay on my side of the camera.                        This is the sign that Dino posted along with his pictures that have played such an important  part in this week.  It explains their importance more eloquently than anybody else can. Our group has varied in number from year to year.  A couple of times we have brought the maxi...

One of the high points in the week for me has always been signing the sign we post on the wall before we leave.  The dorm walls and ceiling are covered with plaques, framed t-shirts, wooden constructions of all sorts, and other momentos of trips different groups have made down here.  They are written on wood, cloth, drywall, siding, and sometimes even paper.  One of he more noticeable ones is the toaster one group hung upside-down from the ceiling.   Since we are down here year after year, and since frankly we have one of the more talented teams, our signs tend to stand out and take over lots of space.  The first year I was here, all of the Sheil signs from previous years were on one wall next to the men's bathroom in no particular order.  A couple people spent Sunday before we got started working rearranging them in chronological order.  There are several that were skillfully wood-burned, a few others that were painted.  In more recent years...

The weather this week has alternated between pleaant and dreadful.  The temperature has been pleasant, in the 70's mostly, so we have not had to deal with temperatures that make you feel like you are melting.  On the other hand, it has rained just about every day, not all day, but for long stretches, like all night last night.  There are puddles everywhere, and much of the grass is flooded. Fortunately we have been mostly working inside. It would be a mess if we were putting up siding or staining woodwork instead. We hung more drywall today and got at least one room and a closet done.  JD tried to talk us into sticking around for a couple more days to finish the job.  Alas, as is the case most years, we will leave the job for someone else to finish.  Unfortunately, this year there are not a lot of other groups scheduled, so we have tried to finish as much as possible.   We have gotten it down to a pretty efficient system.  Somebody measures t...

 The weather this week has alternated between pleaant and dreadful.  The temperature has been pleasant, in the 70's mostly, so we have not had to deal with temperatures that make you feel like you are melting.  On the other hand, it has rained just about every day, not all day, but for long stretches, like all night last night.  There are puddles everywhere, and much of the grass is flooded. Fortunately we have been mostly working inside. It would be a mess if we were putting up siding or staining woodwork instead. We hung more drywall today and got at least one room and a closet done.  JD tried to talk us into sticking around for a couple more days to finish the job.  Alas, as is the case most years, we will leave the job for someone else to finish.  Unfortunately, this year there are not a lot of other groups scheduled, so we have tried to finish as much as possible.   We have gotten it down to a pretty efficient system.  Somebody meas...