monday mornings

Hurricane Alex is still around & we've had more rain in the last 1.5 weeks than any of us are used to.  The Rio Grande is higher that I've ever seen it.  Big cities around us are flooded- and will continue to be for weeks.  Internet has been sporadic at best (from what I hear, it's like this in most of Northern Mexico).  The building schedule has been altered here and there, but luckily, all 5 houses were finished on time last week.  This week brings 3 new groups who were ready to go this morning.  The heavy rain held off, but they had nice, light showers all morning.  These groups were hear this same week last year when we saw record temperatures in the upper 120's, so they are loving the cloudy, cooler days.

Here's what I found when I visited a group from outside of Atlanta, GA.  When I arrived, they were all busy doing their assigned tasks.  Each site has a CPC Construction Staff Person, a Construction Coordinator (CC), and Wall Captains for each of interior and exterior walls.  This team was working on the corner of the A wall (I think).  T Mac, in green, is the wall captain and making sure the corner is even before the pour the concrete.

Once that's done, the cells are sprayed

then poured (with concrete)

Then the rebar (the large pieces of steel running perpendicular to the ground) is moved around a little to make sure all the air pockets are out. 

{The boy is orange is one of the new homeowners.  The family has 3 kids who were all helping today.  The oldest daughter told me she was out of school this week to help work on the house.  School is almost out for summer here, but she wanted to be around to help build her house!} 

Once the corners are poured, more blocks are added on the actual wall. 

Before a new course (row) is added, the blocks have to be completely straight in all directions. Sometimes that requires a mallet.

Once that course is finished, another is added.  They'll get up to 11 courses today and will add stucco this afternoon...assuming the rain holds off long enough to finish.

Dinner is back here tonight under the tent.  On the menu is King Ranch Chicken over rice, ranch-style beans, salad, bollilos (fresh Mexican rolls) & Fiesta Limon for dessert.  Ruby, one of our dinner cooks, just arrived with her two boys, Isreal and Sied.  That means it's time for me to make drinks, cut the rolls & play kick around the soccer ball with the boys.