Week 31

Ashlyn & I both fear birds, so we're getting our revenge.

Well, the ISP at the women’s shelter went really well and ended up being a lot more than just building a wheelchair ramp, although that was one of the things we did. We also cleaned out an old shed that had a bunch of stored items that had been in there for far too long. Three rat bodies were identified amid the piles of turds, urinated on furniture and boxes, and gnawed through clothing and sheets. It was quite disgusting, which means, it was a job that really needed to be done, so despite the ick factor, it really was a productive and rewarding ISP. Oddly, I found an almost dead mouse on our kitchen floor when I went to make breakfast before leaving for the project, which I had to take outside and release to its fate. We knew there were rats and things living in our walls, but hadn’t seen one yet. As in literature, sometimes in life we receive foreshadowings, and that mouse was the beginning of a day filled with carrying dead rodents to and fro.

Safety first.

This week consisted of more sheetrocking, but I also got to spend one day helping a community lady (in her 80’s or so) move from her now condemned house to an apartment. The city gave her a matter of days to move all of her things before bringing in the bulldozer. In the end it’ll be good, because the organization I’m working with is going to build her a new house, paid for by the city. It was a fun day, getting to know the lady and helping her pack up, but I know she was sad to leave the house where she’d lived with her husband (recently deceased) for the past 20 years.

Since this was our last week of work in Hattiesburg, R3SM threw us a BBQ (including a vegetarian selection), and had a little ceremony of appreciation for us, which was really nice. We also went to a crawfish boil this week, thrown by the groundskeeper of the place we’ve been living; such a neat Southern experience.

On Saturday, we worked at a festival called Hubfest for an ISP. I came home with a slight sunburn and over 9 ISP hours. It was a long day of working in a carnival type atmosphere designated the children’s area, but I had fun. I oversaw the bean bag toss for half of the time, and a bounce house the other half. Now I’m back on campus in Vicksburg and will be leaving for Memphis a week from today.

This whole experience has been such a whorlwind, and I’ve been thinking a lot about all the people I’ve met along the way and will most likely never see again. In John Steinbeck’s Travel’s with Charlie, I just came across a passage that reflected exactly I feel. He says that there are people you meet when you’re traveling who are meant to be temporal in your life. The thing that makes that type of relationship worthwhile is that it is a short human connection, in which you tell your story, hear theirs, and then you move on to what’s next. Those people aren’t meant to be kept in touch with, but they leave a part of themselves with you, and so you’re more attuned to all of humankind. Each individual is so unique, you should make the most of the time you have with them, but when it’s time to say goodbye forever, you can both walk away with a smile, because you’ll always have the memory of your interactions with them.

Even when Mac's in the trash, we still
love repping the 'A'

Tomorrow I’m going to a job fair in Memphis for the day (4 hour drive each way), not because I want to get a permanent job in Memphis, but because I like job fairs and it’ll be a fun trip. We were given the option of going to that or staying back in Vicksburg and working at a local cemetery that we worked at before. Then Thursday I’m driving home for couple of days to attend one of my best friend’s weddings, so I’m really looking forward to that. It’ll be a short visit, because I need to back on campus for work on Monday, but I’ll get to see some friends and hang out with my rapidly growing nieces. Ellie will be 1 next month! I can hardly believe it.

Love you guys,

  k

Us girls at our last day cookout in Hattiesburg.

Week 30

Putting up some sheetrock.

Not much to report. I did a great deal of sheetrocking and mudding this week, which was fun and also good experience. Ask anyone in the business and they’ll tell you that mudding is an art form that takes lots of practice to do correctly, so I’m anxious to get as much experience as I can in this program. So far, so good.

Yesterday we left work early to go to a house dedication on one of the places that our sponsor organization built for a family of 3. It was the first time I’d seen what kind of houses R3SM builds, because thus far, our work hasn’t strayed from the big volunteer house. It was a very nice little house, and the family was really excited to move in. The family, a mother with 15-year-old twins, has been living in a broken down place for some time, and I’m not sure it wasn’t meant as a garage rather than a dwelling. The new house was built right next door, so they don’t even have to move their garden growing out back.

Earlier in the week I set up an ISP (Independent Service Project) with Hattiesburg Parks and Recreation for today, so I spent the morning painting concrete bleachers next to a ball field used for the rec league. It’s a beautiful day, so it wasn’t much of a chore. I set up another ISP for tomorrow at a women’s shelter, where we’ll be helping to build a wheel chair ramp. No days off this week, but I don’t mind. It gives me something to do.

I’ve gotten back into the habit of running most evenings, which I had kind of fallen out of when we were in New Orleans and I wasn’t able to go out by myself. The place where I’m staying now has a little gravel path that snakes around the property filled with ponds that reflect the moonlight quite nicely, so I’m careful to wait until the sun has almost set to begin my exercise. It feels good to have that time to myself again, not to mention that the weather has been absolutely gorgeous and in the 80’s here, so I try to spend as much time outdoors as possible. To cool down, I lay beside one of ponds and stare at the Mississippi stars. I know it sounds too good to be true, but this really is my life. I often lay there and ask myself, “How did I get here.”

Berger Cookies

Berger Cookies

Makes 16 to 24 large cookies

For the cookies
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
4 1/2 cups flour
1 cup whole or 2-percent milk

For the frosting
3 1/2 cups (21 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

For the cookies: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes, until fluffy. Stop and scrape the bowl down once, or as needed.

Add the salt, vanilla extract and baking powder; beat on medium speed to incorporate, then add the sugar and beat to incorporate. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Reduce the speed to low (or do the following step by hand); add the flour to the bowl alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour.

Use an ice cream scoop to drop 6 mounds of dough on each baking sheet, spacing the mounds at least 2 inches apart. If you use a standard ice cream scoop, the yield will be 16 cookies. For a yield of 24 cookies, use a slightly smaller scoop, usually sold for the purpose of scooping muffins and dough.

Bake one sheet at a time for 11 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and there is just barely a golden edge showing from the bottom, but not colored on top. (These cookies are meant to be soft and caky, so don't overbake them.) Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat to use all the dough.

To make the frosting: Combine the chocolate chips, unsweetened chocolate, corn syrup, butter and cream into a large microwave-safe bowl. Heat the mixture on HIGH for 1 1/2 minutes, then stir to combine. Return the bowl to the microwave; microwave on HIGH for 1 1/2 minutes, or until the mixture can be whisked together so it is smooth. Do not overheat the mixture or it may scorch. Let cool to room temperature; this may take a few hours.

When the chocolate mixture has cooled, transfer it to the bowl of a stand mixer or use a hand-held electric mixer to beat it on low speed for 1 minute, or until the color lightens and thickens a little to form a frosting. (If you prefer a thinner coat, skip this step of whipping air into the frosting.)

Spread the top of each cookie with a generous 3 tablespoons of the frosting (about 1 1/2 ounces), leaving a margin around the edges. If you are making these in cool weather, the frosting will be firm enough to set almost immediately. In warmer weather, you may need to allow the cookies to set for about 20 minutes before storing. 
Store in a single layer in an airtight tin for 2 days, or wrap them in plastic wrap for up to 1 week.

Per cookie (based on 24, using whole milk): 438 calories, 5 g protein, 50 g carbohydrates, 26 g fat, 17 g saturated fat, 74 mg cholesterol, 204 mg sodium, 2 g dietary fiber, 28 g sugar

Southwestern Black Bean Burgers

Southwestern Black Bean Burgers

(4 Servings) These are incredibly delicious!

Burgers:

1 can black beans, rinsed & drained

2 T Light Mayonnaise

¼ C packed fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

½ C bread crumbs, plain & dried

½ t ground cumin

½ t hot pepper sauce

Fixin’s:

Whole wheat pitas

Lettuce

Salsa

Anything else you might enjoy

Mash black beans with mayo until almost smooth with some lumps. Stir in cilantro, bread crumbs, cumin, and pepper sauce until combined. With lightly floured hands, shape bean mixture into 3” patties. Spray both sides of patty with non-stick cooking spray and fry in a hot skillet for about 3 minutes on each side, or until lightly browned.

Place on pita and top with your favorite fixin’s for a delicious meal. You can make more than you can eat and then freeze the leftover bean mixture to cook at a later date. Just form the patties, and when you’re ready to eat, defrost for 10 minutes and cook through for about 12 minutes, turning once.

Jacquie with our finished product.

Week 29

Jacquie & I cracking up over the Bean Burger process.

Sometimes, I think I can almost hear my biceps growing. Drywall is HEAVY, and I spent a lot of time this past week carrying 4 ½’ x 12’ sheets (2 together) from one location to another. The weight of dual drywall sheets at these measurements is somewhere in the neighborhood of 175 lbs, not to mention the awkwardness of carrying floppy cement that is easily damageable. As a rule, the “big strong men” carry these boards in pairs, struggling every step of the way, and taking a plethora of breathers and breaks. We girls on the other hand have a system. We work steadily with 3 of us carrying the same load, and though heavy, it’s not TOO heavy, and we end up carrying more than the macho guys this way. Our supervisor was quite impressed.

Besides carrying drywall from the front yard into various rooms throughout the house (all first floor, thankfully!), we started the process of putting it up, which isn’t easy in a place with so many little rooms. It’s fun work though, and no ceilings this time since all of the overhead stuff is a combination of former ceiling wood, now cleaned up and put through a planner (some of which I helped with), and drop ceilings that will be installed after the drywall is up.

With so much drywall hanging on the interior frame from our efforts over the past couple of days, the inside of the house looks incredibly different now than it did at the beginning of the week. It really is a wonder to me that a place can go from being a mess of 2x4s strung together to a real room in one simple step. Add a floor and some paint and you’ve got yourself a homey place to live.

As Project Outreach Liaisons’, Ashlyn and I have been putting together our event for this round, which is a food drive for The Salvation Army Food Pantry and Shelter. Their store of canned goods becomes depleted after the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, so we’re trying to get them back on track early in the year. We’ve been making a lot of phone calls to try and get local churches and organizations involved, which isn’t easy when you’re working on a construction site. Besides having a hard time finding a spot around the place that is quiet enough to make calls, it’s inevitable that the call back you’ve been waiting for will come when you’re standing on a ladder holding a piece of sheetrock. I’m not really sure whose idea it was to create this type of specialty role, but it’s really not conducive to the type of work we do for our day job.

Crazed with the anticipation over Berger cookies.

I did an ISP with The Salvation Army yesterday, and I’ve now completed 74 of my necessary 80 hours. Hurray, almost done!

On the home front, I caught a good sized catfish, which was a nice change from the bluegills I usually come out with. Almost unbelievably, I caught I the SAME little bluegill 3 times. I know he was the same, because each time I pulled him out, I noted the former holes in his lip exactly where I had just pulled hooks from minutes before. Dumbest. Fish. Ever.

One night this week, everyone on the team went to Target except for Mac and I. Feeling we must take advantage of our mastery of the house, we built an amazing pillow, sheet, cot mattress, table, and chair fort. We put couch cushions on the floor inside and made the whole thing big enough for two adults to lie in, which is no small task. We then drank hot cocoa and watched Harry Potter on Mac’s computer inside, and that’s where the rest of the crew found us when they came home. Immature? I prefer the term, child at heart.

Jacquie and I declared this weekend “Martin Beurger Weekend” for very specific reasons. You see, we both love Steve Martin, and Jacquie recently bought some movies starring our star that we’ve never seen before, which we’ve been meaning to watch. That’s the “Martin” part. “Beurger” derives from our desire to try out the Southwestern Black Bean Burger recipe in my new vegetarian cookbook, as well as the Berger cookie recipe that Jacquie’s Aunt Lauren emailed to us. These cookies are a Maryland tradition, and I tried them for the first time when I went with Jacquie to visit her family. They are the most decadent cookies I have every encountered, and I’m not ashamed to admit that sometimes when I’m looking off into the distance with vacant eyes, my mind is on “the cookie that ate Baltimore.”

I am happy to announce that day one of “Martin Beurger Weekend” was a success. We watched The Three Amigos on my computer while we cooked, and then after we’d stuffed ourselves full of our food concoctions, we watch The Man With Two Brains. I can’t remember what’s on the movie watching schedule for today, but I know we’re going to try and squeeze two Steve Martin movies in while eating our leftover Burgers and Bergers. You say weird, I say AmeriFun.

Finally, I am happy to announce that we’ve received the assignment for our last project, and we’re going to be working in Memphis, TN! More details to come, but it sounds like it’s going to be mostly construction and gardening. What could be better?!?!

 much love,

   k

Red Bean Casserole w/Coconut & Cashews

I made a triple batch of this meat free recipe for dinner this week, and it was absolutely amazing! Good as leftovers too.

For 4 servings:

3T peanut oil

2 onions, chopped

2 carrots, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 red pepper, chopped

2 bay leaves

1T paprika

3T tomato paste

14 oz canned coconut milk

7 oz canned chopped tomatoes

1/2C vegetable stock

13 oz canned red kidney beans, rinsed & drained

1/2C unsalted cashews (optional)

Small handful of cilantro, roughly chopped

Salt & pepper

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onions and carrots for 3 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper, and bay leaves and fry until vegetables are soft and brown.

Stir in paprika, tomato paste, coconut milk, tomatoes, stock, and beans and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 12 minutes, or until everything is tender.

Stir in cashews, cilantro, and salt & pepper and heat through for 2 minutes.

Serve with rice.

Week 28

Looking out the side door on a beautiful morning
with fog over the water.

Insulation blues

Itchiness reigns all over

Even under skin

Sometimes a haiku can say it all, but this one does not even begin to describe how hellishly itchy and generally miserable it is to install hundreds of feet of insulation over the course of a couple days. And it’s not just walls either, it’s the ceilings as well; tall, frustrating ceilings. Someone’s got to do it though, and hopefully we can finish it up this coming week and then forget how awful it was.

Before beginning insulation, I spent three days de-nailing studs, putting up new siding, pulling out old windows, reframing said windows, and installing brand new ones. The house we’re working on is apparently an old whorehouse, situated directly across from the still functioning train station. It’s a gigantic two story house that everyone in town simply refers to as “the big blue house.” Anytime we’re out and about in uniform, people constantly come up to us to ask us what we’re working on, and to give us their enthusiastic thanks for our dedication. Of all the places we’ve been so far, I’d say Hattiesburg is the friendliest.

There’s a woman I worked with this week who is a contract archeologist who has been doing a lot of work in Alaska. Wanting to relax and get out of the cold for the winter, she’s been in Hattiesburg since November (her family lives here). She started to get a little stir crazy not having a regular job, and one day when she was out and about, she noticed that “the big blue house” was being restored. Walking up to inspect the work that was being done, she found Darryl, the man in charge who works on the place alone when there are no volunteer or AmeriCorp groups. Anyway, she told him she’d never worked construction, but she’s got time to spare and is not afraid to get her hands dirty. She been showing up to help on the house a few days a week ever since. This town has such a neat sense of community.

Yes, I always smile this big when using a
nail gun.

Oh, and the organization we’re working with right now is called R3SM. Check them out if you get a chance. They’re pretty cool and do great things here in Hattiesburg.

My favorite part of every work day is lunch time, not just because I’m hungry and am ready to devour the contents of my self-packed meal, which is true too, but also because my entire team spends the hour sitting on the second story roof, eating, napping, tanning, and waving at the passersby below. With our boots unstrung and our sleeves rolled up to our shoulders, people are constantly honking good naturedly at us and giving us broad smiles, making us feel so wanted and welcome, we don’t mind when it’s time to get back to work for the afternoon.

With all the strenuous activity we’ve been engaged in throughout the workday, everyone is utterly drained at the end of the day, and I don’t think anyway has been staying up past 10 o’clock as a general rule. When I get too much sleep, I don’t function very well, so I’ve been setting my alarm for 6am and then trying to keep myself awake until 10pm. Let me tell you, staying up that late is a struggle. I read for hours in the evenings and by the time 9:30 rolls around, my eyes have to fight to reopen after an ordinary blink. I usually end up giving in at about 9:45, and then I inevitably wake up at 5 or 5:30 and lay in bed thinking things out before the day officially begins.

Our kitchen did not come complete with a traditional coffee pot, but we did receive a camp percolator in our “spike kit”, which is what campus gives a team when they live in a place with no dishes or cookware, consisting mostly of things you’d use when cooking on a Colman stove or over an open fire. Anyway, I’ve never used a percolator before, but I remember Dad using one when we’d go camping in the Rockies. Through trial and error, I’ve concocted a formula for a pretty delicious beverage, though I’m still not sure if I’m doing it correctly. Also, it brings back some bad memories, as Scotty got severely burned as a toddler when he pulled a pot like this onto himself during a camping trip. The pot was filled with freshly boiled water, and there was a span of time when we weren’t sure if Scotty would ever have the use of one of his arms. Sometimes I get a nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach when I’m using this pot, but I suppose you can’t let bad memories dictate how you live, so I try not to think about it.

I’ve also started eating white rice with brown sugar for breakfast, because it keeps me full until lunch time; a difficult feat when working hard and sweating a lot. I never cared much for oatmeal due to the texture, but rice is nice (though it’s just a grain ;). I recommend this if you’re one of those people who eats breakfast and then is starving an hour or two before lunchtime.

A trend for this week has been fishing. The ponds in front of our little cottage are stocked with blue gill, crappie, and catfish (there may be others, but this is what we’ve caught so far), and John and Cain both bought cheap poles at Walmart to fish with. We’ve had a lot of fun seeing what we can catch, and the boys have gotten up really early a couple of mornings to go out and fish before work.

John had never been fresh water fishing before, and wanting to have “the full experience”, he decided to keep 2 of the fish he caught (both tiny blue gills) so that he could cook them up and eat them. First of all, he couldn’t find a bucket to put them in upon reeling them out of the pond, so he used our one big cooking pot (I washed this several times before cooking with it). He caught them in the morning, so to preserve them for when he had time to gut them, he froze them. How can I relay the events of that morning in mere words? I feel I’m not equipped to explain the ridiculousness of the event, but I’ll try.

As I nonchalantly walked into the kitchen to refill my coffee cup, the word on the street was something involving fish, freezers, and injustice. Wanting to understand the buzz, I opened the freezer, and there, lying beside the ice cube box were two fish, sealed individually in zip lock sandwich bags. To get a closer look, I pulled the bags from the freezer, one in each hand, and stared into the eyes of the scaly beings. Assuming them dead as any person would assume an animal in the freezer, you can imagine my surprise when the creatures began to flop inside the bags I still held in my hands as if I had just pulled them from the pond myself. I screamed and jumped into the air, never breaking my eye contact with what I now realized were eyes staring back at me.

Apparently, John had put them in the freezer alive, thinking that freezing them was as a good a way as any to kill them. I suppose that’s where the buzz on injustice originated. Did I mention I’m a new vegetarian because of my convictions concerning the inhumanness of animal treatment within the factory farming industry? I handed the flip-flopping baggies to John and told him he had to kill the fish before freezing them, so he took them outside and rocked over their heads with the rocking chair on our porch. When do boys stop being boys?

I caught the first fish, so a picture was
in order, even if the fish was minuscule.

This week I did my laundry at a laundry mat for the first time in my life. It was pretty uneventful, but it will definitely keep me from taking the luxury of doing laundry in my house for granted. There’s a big difference between throwing a load in and walking away to proceed with your regular activities, and sitting around in a smelly room for an hour and half when you’re bone tired.

You Hotwork folks (George Kopser especially) might be interested to know that the insulation I was putting up this week was manufactured by Owens Corning. Once a name on a file folder in an air conditioned office, now a name on insulation roles in a structure consisting of studs and broken siding. There was a time not so long ago when glass, to me, meant a beautiful picture on the Hotwork lobby wall of bright colored lava, pouring from a factory building. Now, it means tiny dust particles in my lungs, hair, eyeballs, and I swear, even underneath my skin. How the tables of my life have turned!

Love,

 k