I see the crew finished digging the trench for the wiring out to the pump house. Not the straightest trench I've ever seen, but fortunately the PVC conduit we'll be using is very flexible. Hey Mike, no more beer on the worksite!

Well we got the conduit laid in the trench easily enough; here Mike (right), Glenn (center) and another young man (didn't catch his name) are rightfully concerned about how we're going to fish wires all the way through. This was MY end of the conduit; all three of them were down at the pump end pushing while I was providing the musclepower to pull the wire through. Lesson to learn: squeeze out half the bottle of lubricant into the conduit BEFORE starting to feed the wire through! You can't go back in time and put more lubricant in! Also, use cotton gloves when pulling; leather gloves don't provide much grip on the fish tape when wet with lubricant.

The boyz spend a lot of time looking at the work ahead, don't they? It's almost a replay of the last picture. Guys, take my advice, put LOTS OF LUBRICANT in BEFORE feeding the wires through! Too bad they never listen to me retroactively. Also too bad I didn't know to advise them beforehand.

I got tired of watching the boyz look at future work so I went inside to see if I could get some actual work done. I found Terri sanding down the drywall compound we applied last week, raising enough dust to instantly cloud my lens.

I put the camera down to do some work, and of course Terri picked it up and took a picture of me. It's weird, it's my webpage, and you'd think a camera dodger like me would just not put pictures of myself in, but somehow I feel compelled to put these in. I blame Terri for taking them.

Hmm, is this what old people mean by 'listening to their tapes'?? Funny, I don't hear anything.

Well, two out of the three of them are working anyhow. They're attaching the wires to the feed tape (already fed through the conduit from the other end), which we'll pull back though the conduit to wire up the pump....correction, which I'LL pull back through the conduit to wire up the pump.

It may not look like much but this was a major victory. There's wire on both ends of the conduit! Sorry about the lack of a 'during' picture, but I was busy pulling wire, when I wasn't gasping for breath and/or trying to massage some life back into my hands. All I can say is, if you're ever pulling wire through a long conduit, use PLENTY of lubricant!

Terri inspects our work well after any danger of being conscripted to do any actual work has passed. Just like a woman, huh?

Scott gets dusty with the rest of us. A bright light helps a lot when sanding; when held to the wall at a shallow angle, high and low spots show up very well.

Mike shows us his flashlight. At one point he showed up in the living room looking for it, while holding it in his hand. Needless to say we didn't let him live that one down very fast. Sand, sand, sand, dust, dust, dust.....

Yay, I get to dig again. I wonder if Mike thinks it's funny, always sending me out to dig at the end of the day when we're all exhausted. Actually, though, this was a lot easier...filling in a hole takes a lot less effort than making it in the first place.

Wow, Terri's got a shovel in her hand, and appears to actually be digging! Not sure why though, I was putting dirt back IN at this point. A little unclear on the concept, Terri?

Every day Rosemarie shows us how appreciative she is of the work we're doing, and every day I'm moved almost to tears. This poor lady lost her house! It's really amazing to me that we don't all have a nice place to live. Every one of us deserves it.

"From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life." -- Arthur Ashe

September 22, 2004: A frame rises from the rubble

September 28, 2004: Finishing the roof framing

October 5, 2004: Roof sheathing goes on

October 6, 2004: More finish framing

October 12, 2004: Framing the back porch

October 26, 2004: A slow, wet day

November 2, 2004: Bricks on the roof?

November 30, 2004: The walls get sticky

December 7, 2004: Plumbing and wiring the pump house

December 14, 2004: Paint goes on