Let The Sun Shine In.

I have parted from the land of rain and donuts and am now officially in the groove of things in sunny Sacramento.  I must say that it feels good to actually have some Vitamin D forming in my body after all the darkness that was round 1. 

More good news?  Only two days until I'm back home!  I can't wait!

If Anything, I Will Remember the Rain.

Tomorrow evening I will be sitting in my room in Sacramento and I bet my time in Portland will already start feeling like a distant memory.  Already I'm forgetting how to properly trim a door frame or operate a skill saw.  Though I really believe that will miss living in such a cool city and working for Habitat Portland, I feel ready to move on with my adventures here in NCCC.  I know that living in Oakhurst, CA will be a completely different experience that will provide me with even more opportunities to explore and learn.

Josh's favorite things about Round 1:

- The Rocking Frog cafe was by far my favorite hang out in all of the city.  If I discovered any place in which I felt captured the essence of Portland, it was here.

- Our team as a whole has bonded and it shows more and more everyday.

- Really Good Stuff is my kind of store.  I am leaving with a lot of old photos, postcards, and memories from that place.  It's worth seeking out if you ever head out this way.

- Multnomah Falls was one of the most beautful places I have ever been in my life. 

- The staff at Habitat Portland/Metro East were fantastic people to work for.  The work was good and so was the spirit put behind it.

- The surrounding mountain ranges floored me every time I saw them.

- It's not a trip to Portland if you don't get Voodoo donuts.

- There are so many awesome non-profits in the area.  We all enjoyed our work at places like Zenger Farm, The Children's Book Bank, the Adidas Center Holiday Marathon, and Our United Villages.

Tomorrow I will be back in Sacramento to see my fellow corps members who will also be coming in from all over the West Coast.  I'm looking forward to all the stories, photos, and laughs we will be sharing with one another.  Not a day has gone by where I haven't looked forward to hanging out with my friends from Pod 7.

Even more exciting than returning to good ol' Sactown is leaving for Charlotte on Saturday morning.  I am beyond excited about being home again before embarking on the biggest chunk of my NCCC time.  I simply can't wait.

Until next time.

One Part Caulk with Blackberry Topping.

Though it has only been a few days since my last one, I feel as though my posting has been a bit sparse as of late.  I could blame it on the fact that I have been really busy lately (which would be true) but I believe that it is because of the type of work I've been doing.   So much of my workday is spent doing small projects that are hard to blog about.  No one wants to read about me piping down two hundred feet of caulk or installing fire foam.  Okay....maybe the fire foam installation wasn't so boring.  I got to wear a dapper little bunny suit for it!  I'll be sure to post photos of that whenever my team members get them to me.

Lack of blogworthy work aside, both Jubilee Commons and Lents Landing are looking fantastic.  Its hard to step back sometimes and see all of the work you put in as so much of it is in the details but it is undeniable that these structures are looking more and more like homes each day.  Though we will be back on base by the time these complexes are finished, we can leave knowing that we played a vital role in helping Habitat close out these homes in time for families to start the new year living inside of them.

Though our work week often feels like a long one our team has still found time to work at other non-profits in the area.  This weekend I hosted two volunteer projects that I am pretty proud of.  Yesterday we helped clean, sort, and package books for the Children's Book Bank.  I found a couple of books I was particularly fond of.

Today we went to a non-profit based urban farm to help with invasive species removal (i.e. blackberries).  The folks at Zenger Farm welcomed our help with open arms and even gave us a really cool tour of the farm itself contains an area of natural wetlands.  I hope to have more photos of us working later in the week.


After a busy work week followed by a busy weekend it is just now starting to sink into my brain that we will soon be leaving Portland.  Saturday will be our last day of work with Habitat Portland and I will leave the site with such mixed feelings.  I will be sad to leave the place and people I have gotten to know so well these last few weeks yet and I am happy in knowing that we are leaving with the knowledge that we did a lot of good in what can be considered a short amount of time.  I already know that I will have a little withdrawal issue with the city of Portland itself.  Though it wasn't out of character for me to complain about the cold, rainy weather and the lack of sunshine, Portland has been great to me and I wouldn't mind visiting it again in the future.  No fear though, I have a musical tune to help me deal with the separation anxiety.

 Until I get some more photos and blog material in you can enjoy these!

Can you see the lack of self control in my face?  I have a love/hate relationship with Voodoo's delights.

This pretty much sums up Portland as a city.

So what if we dress alike?  Is that weird?

We all went ice skating the other night.  It was a blast!

 





I worked with Andrea to get the exterior fence painted.

We spend most of our time together cracking up at each other's stories.

Kaitlin hard at work.

Tibbs and Tucker not working so hard at Zenger Farms.



Round Two.

Though I wasn't expecting to hear about our round two project until sometime in late January I got a few vague details today from our team leader.

We will be living in cabins just on the edge of Yosemite National Park at a place called Sugar Pine Campground.  All I know is that our work will involve a lot of chainsaws.

I'm excited!