It Takes Dedication

May 30, 2011

From Grandma's 1914 Diary:

May 28, 1914 Thursday, set out sixty sweet potato plants and one hundred and thirty five red beet plants, the painters came at two o'clock was here for supper and stayed all night.

May 29, 1914 Friday, baked six loaves of bread and a pan of biscuits, planted tomatoes, cucumbers and lettice and hoed in garden, had the painters for three meals, Uncle Eph, Leo, Tillie and Etha Keiser called in the evening, painters were here overnight.

May, 30, 1914 Saturday, baked nine pies, done saturdays work, planted corn, beans, and twenty five sweet potatoe plants, Mr. and Mrs. Numbers father and mother called in afternoon, had the painters for three meals and all night, Lew, Addie, Leland and Virginia called in afternoon, Leland stayed for supper and all night.

Habitat Dedication Day - May 22, 2011

Today turned out to be a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine and a few white fluffy clouds.  A perfect day weather wise for the dedication of two homes.

Myself and Joan were asked to participate in the dedication by presenting the keys to one of the families - Paulo, Seta and their four children.  This was a real honor for us to participate in the ceremony especially in this manner.  There's no greater pleasure than being able to present a family with the keys to their new home.

I think that I mumbled something in my short speech about thinking that we were coming to New Zealand to pound a few nails, maybe put up a wall, dig some dirt or whatever was asked of us as on any other Habitat build site.  But then we were given this wonderful honor of presenting the keys to a family and we really considered it an honor.

The street on which the current homes are being built by the Greater Auckland affiliate was named after one of the founders of the affiliate.  Clarrie Wills had given many years of service to the affiliate and it will be a lasting memento to him.  He passed away last year.

Looking down Carrie Wills Way.  A beautiful community of Habitat homes plus a few others by another housing organization for low income families.  The ones on the left I think are all Habitat homes.

Here Richard, Marilyn, Kathy, and Dwight are checking out some of the dedication details in the program.

Sami and her family are being presented the keys to their home.

Sami has four children.

Here Sami and her family are being presented the Keys to the Kingdom (Bibles).

Titia is presenting a collage of pictures of the construction that she created.  Titia is one of the construction supervisors and a good leader.  This is the third time we have worked under her guidance and we consider her a very good friend. 

Joan and I getting ready to present the keys to Paulo's family.

A very short speech prior to presenting the keys.

Congratulations!

A number of Paulo and Seta's family were there for the occasion of the dedication.  They (Paulo and Sita and family) had immigrated to New Zealand about 2 or 3 years ago from Samoa.  The minister presenting the prayer for the family said it in Samoan.  He said that if he presented it in English it would sound a lot like the one that was done for Sami so he did it in Samoan.  He was joking about that and it was nice to hear the prayer in Samoan and it had a nice flowing sound to it.

Paulo's family, missing one, in front of the entrance to their new home.

Sami and her family inside the entrance to their new home.

Some of the team, some of each family in front of their new homes.  It was hard to get everyone together after the party started.

Part of the audience.

Well it was a great day, a great occasion, great food, and I think a great time by all.

Life is good !

And The Building Goes On

May 26, 2011

A couple of days from grandma Ritzman's diary:
May 26, 1914 Tuesday, mended, was over home in afternoon.
May 27, 1914 Wednesday, helped mother a couple of hours in the morning to clean her kitchen, cousin W.S. Goodheart was here for dinner, mended, worked in the garden.

On the Build:
I think that I mentioned in an earlier post - when we arrived on the jobsite one two family duplex was almost finished with just a lot of detail stuff to be completed. The next foundation slab was finished and awaiting the walls to be set up to begin construction. At these stages we were able to work on a little of everything and got to see a finished home plus work on the start of another.  At the beginning our team split into a couple of crews some helping with the finish work on the almost complete duplex and the other working on various things associated with the duplex just starting. 

 The picture below shows the first floor walls in place and part of the ceiling panels installed.  The exterior walls are fastened to the slab with a continuous angle along the outside of the wall.  As you can see the outside wall and interior walls are a little less than 2 inches thick.  The dimensions are critical to have everything fit together.  All of the panels are precut from the factory before delivery.  The "T-posts" hold the ceiling panels up until the second floor joists are installed and then angle clips are installed on the top of the ceiling holding it against the joists.  A side plate (about 2x12) is installed on the wall perimeter and then the floor joists are installed.  All of this supported by the walls below.

Most of the first couple days of construction myself and two others worked on installing the scaffolding around the duplex.  This was quite a project to level it all and maintain a certain distance from the building for future work.  Since then another crew has put on a second level.  It's a big project to install it right but it makes it safe for working on a two story home.

Below is the nearly complete 5 bedroom units.  There are three bedrooms on the second floor behind the brick facade and two more bedrooms above the garage.

Here is Sami a single mother of four who is receiving the left side home.  She worked hard with us for the first week that we were on site.  She bakes some excellent snacks for morning and afternoon teas.

Friday evening we left after work and went to a rugby match between the Auckland Blues and a South Africa team.  There is a three way competition between New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia going on.  It was the first rugby game I've ever been to and it turned out to be a good game.  At half time Auckland was winning 19 to 2 but in the second half South Africa came storming back and won 28 to 26 with the final score in the last 2 minutes a disputed one requiring a instant reply for the referees to make the final call.  I'd have to say that rugby is a fast moving game and rough with little or no padding worn by the players. The game clock hardly ever stops and the two 40 minute halves go by fast. 
Another cool thing was that we got to see the updated and renovated Auckland stadium where the rugby world cup will be held later this year.  It's a beautiful stadium but a little problematic in that there is no parking at the stadium and you have find a place on the neighboring streets to park.  There is a train station right outside of the stadium and public transportation is encouraged.

Saturday we had the day off and we went to the Auckland Zoo and then over to the Skytower.  At the zoo we saw a red panda which was kind of interesting. 

They had a couple of bengal tigers - very big cats.

Building Homes

May 24, 2011

The Habitat home construction continues here in New Zealand.  Before I continue with that here are a couple more entries from grandma Ritzman's diary.

May 23, 1914 - Saturday, done saturdays work, churned butter, baked fourteen pies, hoed in garden, set out six early tomato plants, some peas and lettice, Ervin Cramer was here for breakfast and dinner.
May 24, 1914 - Sunday, went to Sunday school, read six chapters of Jeremiah, had seven callers in the evening.
May 25, 1914 - Monday, done washing and ironing, mended.

We've been working on the Habitat houses for six days now but decided to go back and put in a couple of pictures of Napier and maybe Rotorua.

Napier is a beautiful small city on Hawks Bay on the lower east coast of the north island.  There was an earthquake there in 1931 which pretty much leveled the city.  Art Deco was the architectural style at the time of the rebuild and that was the style of about all the buildings that were rebuilt.  Many years later as renovation was being done once again to update the buildings it became apparent that much of the tourism to the area was to see the Art Deco buildings.  From then on the effort was to maintain the beautiful Art Deco buildings.  Below are a couple of pictures around downtown.

If you have bought a New Zealand wine and the bottle said it was from Hawk's Bay then it was from around here.  Hawk's Bay below.....

The campground in Napier had a "Guest Chiller".  I didn't think that I needed chilled out so I didn't go in.

Below are a couple of the Art Deco Buildings -

On the way to the Tamaki Experience in Rotorua we are picked up by a bus from Tamaki at the campground.  The driver informs us that the bus is really a Maori canoe which in the Maori language is a waka.  The waka with us warriors on board needs a chief and the driver at times will take a suggestion on who the chief should be.  Our team member Jon was selected to be the buses chief.  This was fitting as this was also Jon's birthday.  This is a highly honored position and we treated Jon with the upmost respect from this day on.  He did a great job of leading the waka passengers through the evening functions.  On the way back he also led us in song.  What a guy! 

By the way our waka was named weka after the NZ bird.  Therefore we were on waka weka.

A laid back sheep at the Agrodome Farm Show.

A Maori warrior at the Tamaki Feast.

Wellington to Manukau

May 22, 1911
Still attempting to get caught up to the house build .  The trip from Wellington to south Auckland took us to Napier (Art Deco city) for an overnight and then up to Rotorua (hot pots, steam vents, and mineral baths) for another overnight, and then with a slight side trip to the Waitomo Glow Worm caves on up to Manukau on the south side of Auckland where the Habitat build is. 

Richard and also my breakfast of choice - pancakes and eggs.

A stop at the Otorohanga Kiwi Park gave us the opportunity to see a collection of birds.  The most interesting was the Kiwi exhibit where they had three or four brown north island kiwis.  We got there at feeding time.  The feeder said that the one large kiwi thought that she was intruding into his/her territory and started to attack her.  It was incredible as it jumped at her legs and poked it's bill at her.  They're pretty harmless actually but it was so different that any other kiwi display that we have seen.  As usual it was in a darkened room with no photography allowed and you have to speak in quiet voices not to scare the kiwis and here this one is going kinda nutso after the keeper.

KEA - a mountain parrot here in NZ.

Quacker

First day on the build site.  The truck with crane arrived and we started putting up the panels.  The affiliate here builds with panels that are about 2 inches thick and made with very dense particle board type of construction.  They are very heavy and made with special glues giving them high strength.  You can take a sledge hammer to them and it just bounces off.  They come to the site pre-cut to exact dimensions.  The corners are rabbeted and when joined are glued and nailed together.  The are all numbered from the factory according to the engineered drawings and you had better hope that someone who understands the system is there to put the puzzle together.  The time and labor savings come from not having to build up the interior and exterior walls from 2x4's or here with 3x2's.  Also no drywall is required as the panels form the finished wall. I will try to explain this better with pictures as we go along.

Jon, Dwight, and Mark assisting with putting the panels up.

Richard hard at work.

Check the website below to learn more about the Greater Auckland affiliate.  They're a great bunch of hard working people.  The leaders of the construction operation are very well organized with assignment of volunteers to make the most effective use of everyone.  Materials are always at hand and safety is the key point of each morning meeting.  Each day starts with a meeting reviewing what we are going to be doing that day and what the safety issues are with doing that work. For a volunteeer it really helps to know what the expectations are for the day.

The almost finished two family duplex below.  This unit has five bedrooms in both sides.  They are very attractive homes.

Life is Good Down Under!



Greymouth - Picton - Wellington

 May 21, 2011

As of today we have been at the Habitat house build in Manukau for four days working Tuesday through Friday and we had today off.  I think that it was a needed day of rest for the team.  Our original schedule had us working today but the affiliate said that if we wanted to visit Auckland  that today would be a good day to do that.  Tomorrow, Sunday the 22nd will be the dedication of two homes and we wanted to be there for that.  The affiliate had scheduled the dedications during the time that we were here which would provide the opportunity to be here for the finish of a project and also for the beginning of a project and be able to work on both plus attend the dedications.

First - Continuing from Grandma's diary:
May 20, 1914 - Wednesday, cleaning house for mother, set out forty sweet potato plants.
May 21, 1914 - Thursday, cleaning house for mother.
May 22, 1914 - Friday, baked six loaves of bread, ironed, Erwin Cramer was here for dinner and supper and stayed all night, we all went to the High School commencement in the reformed church in the evening.

I am trying to get caught up to the Habitat build time in Manukau so will jump ahead some.  The touring time has been incredible once again.  Even though we have had rain almost every day it only lasts about a half hour or so and then the sun comes out for a while leaving beautiful clouds.  Below was coming back from Seal Beach to route 6 and a farmer was moving cows between fields with his sheep (cow) dogs.  Always interesting to see the dogs working and hearing the whistle commands from the herders controlling the dogs.

Left click on picture to enlarge.



Below we are are waiting in line for the ferry from the south island to the north island.  It's always hurry up and wait.  We got there about a half hour early and found out that the ferry was running 45 minutes late.  We got chatting with a New Zealander in the line next to us.  He and his wife had a large motor home with a stall in back for their horse.  They were coming back from the south island where they had gone for I think  for a  steeple chase event.  They had these two we think fox terriers. 

Here's our team with everyone but me.  Still waiting in line.

Finally on board and relaxing for the three hour trip to Wellington.  It was nice after the 400 km drive the day before.

Here we are in the Te Papa museum in Wellington.  It's a great museum telling the story of the New Zealanders in a very creative way.  The displays are very nice.

The main entrance hall at Te Papa.

Fox Glacier to Greymouth

May 19, 2011

From Grandma's 1914 diary -
May 17, 1914 - Sunday, went to Sunday school and church in the morning, Mr. and Mrs. Jim Moore and Gilbert was here for dinner, Aunt Manda and Howard Shoup, Proctor and Minnie Gright and two children, Lucy and Sherry, father and mother were here in the afternoon, Mr. and Mrs Moore stayed for supper then we all went to the Baccelaurate sermon in the Luthern Church in the evening.
May 18, 1914 - Monday, done washing, father was here for dinner, mended.
May 19, 1914 - Tuesday, cleaning house for mother.

From Down Under in New Zealand -

We traveled from Fox Glacier up to Greymouth on the mouth of the Grey River. Good name for the town I guess even though not very creative. This was a continuation of the Highway 6 drive often called the most scenic highway in New Zealand. Following are a few pictures. Left click for a larger image.

Bird - don't know what kind.

Pukeko - pretty common in NZ, about 10 inches tall.

Mount Cook and Mount Tasman - beautiful mountains, Sir Edmund Hillary and practiced climbing Cook to ready for his Everest climb.

A cemetery in Greymouth.

Sunset on the Tasman.  



Te Anau to Queenstown

Today is May 16, 2011 but reporting on New Zealand trip days May 8-9, 2011. 

Some more from Grandma Ritzman's 1914 diary:
May 11, 1914 - Monday, done washing, planted beans, peas, radishes, lettice, onions and parsnip seed in the garden.
May 12, 1914 - Tuesday, ironed, mended.
May 13, 1914 - Wednesday, mended, was over home. (we think that over home meant her parents home on Pickle Rd.)
May 14, 1914 - Thursday, cleaned house for mother.
May 15, 1914 - Friday, done sweeping and dusting, baked six loaves of bread and fourteen pies, went down to Sams on an errand, set two hens.
May 16, 1914 - Saturday, done saturdays work, baked a cake, hoed in garden, Paul and I washed the surrey.  (Paul was my uncle and dad's older brother)

Continuing with our New Zealand trip -
On May 8th we drove from Te Anau up to Queenstown, a relatively short drive of around 170 km.  The Milford Sound boat trip was very  nice once again.  The weather cooperated and the sun came out for the trip on the Sound.  The bus squeeze through the one lane tunnel is always interesting as the exit of the tunnel is not visible from the entry so you never know if you're going to meet another vehicle.  There are two passing spots in the tunnel but with the huge bus that Real Journeys uses you wouldn't think it was possible.  We met a car coming through and at first it looked like a standoff but eventually they squeezed by each other.

Some of the couples drove up to Arrowtown north of Queenstown where they were having a fall festival.  Arrowtown's history is of gold mining and quite a quaint little town.  Myself, Joan, and our adopted son Richard walked around Queenstown a while and then got ready for dinner on Bob's Mountain.  Some of the team went up the gondola ride early to ride the luge ride above the restaurant.  We all partook of the buffet dinner and went back to the motor homes full and happy.  Joan and I were a little disapointed with the meal but overall it was good.  The view down from the mountain after dark with all the lights on in Queenstown was spectactular as usual.

On May 9th we drove up to Wanaka and picking up Highway 6 which is reputed to have the best scenery of all the routes in New Zealand.  I lived up to it's reputation on this day.  Highway 6 goes over the Haast Pass which is the lowest point to get over the Southern Alps in the south.  The drive truly made it understandable why the Maori named New Zealand Aoteroa translated "Land of the Long White Cloud".  I believe it was the explorer Abel Tasman that gave the English name of New Zealand to the country.  The clouds and mountains were spectactular with the long thin clouds at about half of the height of the mountains.  Almost impossible to capture with the camera.

The trivia contest for the day was to answer the question - how many one lane bridges do you pass over from Queenstown to Fox Glacier.  We made Richard the official counter and judge and he counted 27.  We try to do a trivia contest everyday to encourage the team members to pay attention to the surroundings while they are travelling.  Winners usually get a post card to send home.  The trivia prize is trivial also.

On the way to Fox we stopped at Haast Beach and Joan fed the ponies apples.  This was the fifth time that we have done this I think.  We spent some time admiring the Tasman Sea and then went on up to Fox Glacier.

Left click pic's to enlarge.

Richard at Kiwi House, Bob's Mountain

 Hackett Bungy Jump at Kawarau River

We stopped at this fruit stand and bought some New Zealand gala apples.  They are great right from the orchard.

An example of the "Land of the Long White Cloud"

Biking and camping - tough in the Southern Alps

Feeding the ponies at Haast Beach

Joan and I at Haast Beach with the Tasman Sea in background.

Life is Good -