You Want to Jump From a Bridge on a Rubber Band!!??

June 21, 2011
The time really goes by fast!  We've been back home for almost two weeks and it's been a blur.  We can't believe how fast the summer is going by and all those projects in my job jar are still there. Oh well...

From Grandma Ritzman's 1914 diary -
June 14, 1914 - Sunday, went to Sunday school and church, the painters was here for three meals and all night, Frank Farst, Mr. Heller and father and mother was here in afternoon.
June 15, 1914 - Monday, done washing, set out ninety cabbage plants, had the painters for three maeals and all night, had two callers.
June 16, 1914 - Tuesday, ironed, mended, painted, and put up screen door, had the painters for three meals and all night, had two callers.
June 17, 1914 - Wednesday, hoed in garden, set out thirty five sweet potato plants, mended, had the painters for three meals and all night.
June 18, 1914 - Thursday, baked seven loaves of bread and pan of biscuts, three pies, sixty four cookies, hoed in garden, mended, had the painters for three meals and all night, Mr Gougler was here for dinner and supper, had four callers.
June 19, 1914 - Friday, churned butter, baked eighty seven spiced cookies, set out sixteen mango and eighty five cabbage plants, had the painters for three meals and all night.
June 20, 1914 - Saturday, baked eleven pies, done saturdays work, set out one hundred and seventy five cabbage plants, had the painters for three meals and all night, had two callers.
June 21, 1914 - Sunday, went  to Sunday school and church, had painters for three meals and all night, had ten callers.

I've been scratching my head some over the size of the garden that grandma was planting.  I remember that we always put up a couple large crocks of sour kraut in the basement but with more than 200 cabbage plants put out I have to think that a lot of the garden was to supply produce for sale.  Dad used to tell about having a regular route in Akron where they would take produce by horse and wagon for sale.  He would tell how the horse knew the route and grandpa would take items to houses and the horse would pull the wagon ahead and even around corners and then stop and wait until they caught up.  Ahh- the good old days.

There was another story told by dad involving horses and I think that this was while he was still young.  Grandpa and grandma were coming back over Killian Rd. after dark late at night in the buggy and probably from grandma's parents over on Pickle Rd.  They had fallen asleep at the wheel so to speak and all of a sudden they woke up and the horse had stopped at the railroad tracks on Killian and a train was passing by right in front of them.  Good horse!

I am not trying to compete with grandma but before we left the first of May I set out about a dozen tomato plants, a half dozen pepper plants, a couple of eggplants, watermelon, cantalope, and a pumpkin plant.  I had decided that if they survived OK and if not that was OK also.  Well, I think that the groundhog took out or ate a couple of the eggplants and some of the pepper plants, the watermelon and a cantalope.  But - I still have ten tomatoes of various kinds, a couple of pepper, one very weak eggplant, and a pumpkin vine that is doing well.  This past week I added four more cantalope, and some acorn squash.  I've had a row about ten feet long of asparagas that's produced for about 5 years but wanted to add some more so added twenty more roots which gives us two parallel rows about 10 - 15 feet long.  I had planned to rent a rototiller when we got back and make a much larger garden with corn, beans, and some other things but have decided to pass on that.  Just not enough time at the moment.

Back to the New Zealand trip -
Before we head to Queenstown we always tell everyone about the AJ Hackett bungy jumping center just north of town at the Kawauru River location and if anyone wants to try it that's the place to do it.  If no one from our group decides to jump it's fun to watch others do it.  Richard took the bait and decided that he was going to do it.  So on a foggy, misty morning around 9 AM we all gathered at the bungy jump center to watch Richard jump from a platform on the side of the bridge over the river with the big rubber band attached to his ankles. Apparently since it was considered late fall or winter season they no longer allowed jumpers to go into the water so that option was ruled out.

Richard displayed extremely nice form on the jump with a real nice swan dive.  You can share the experience watching the YouTube video of the jump below.

Richard - we admire your spirit and courage to bungy jump and watching you seemed to be the best approach for the rest of us.

I may not have explained before but Richard is from a town close to Montreal, Canada.  He had applied for the trip but is 19 and the minimum age to rent a vehicle in New Zealand is 21 years old.  We kept hoping that another applicantion would come in for someone that he could pair up with to share a motor home but nothing worked out.  Joan and I discussed it and decided that if he wanted to he could ride with us during the day and then stay in a "backpacker" cabin at night.  Most if not all of the RV parks that we stay at in NZ have the backpacker cabins that are just bare bones - no bathroom, no kitchen, just a bare cabin with a heater and a few bunks or beds.

RV parks in NZ are different in that respect from US campgrounds in that they have sites including tent sites, powered sites for a motor homes, backpacker cabins, all the way to a standard motel type room.  The campgrounds have bath houses with showers and also complete kitchen facilities with cooking utensils.  Backpacking and hiking in NZ is popular and the campgrounds cater to everyone from those on foot to those in motor homes.

Back to Richard - Richard was a very nice young man to have with us and we really enjoyed having him with us.  All of us on the team were old enough to be his grandparents but his personality and ability to get along with us oldsters allowed us to enjoy each others company.  We all bonded well and enjoyed traveling and working together.  Hopefully some of our paths will cross again in the future.

Richard got talking with one of the previous partner family homeowners who was volunteering on the worksite and found out that he did tattooing.  Maori men and women have a lot of tattoos as part of their culture and he had quite a few himself. He offered a free tattoo to any of the volunteers who would like one and Richard decided that he would (he was the only one on our team by the way).    Joan asked Richard some motherly type questions: are you sure you want to do this?, what would your mom and dad say?, etc.  The only other word of advice she gave him was make sure that his shirt sleeve would cover the tattoo when he stood in front of the church to get married.  

Below Titia and the two plumbers working on the house came by to watch the action.  Left click on pictures to enlarge them.

Below is the finished art work.  It came out pretty nice with the fern leaf and Maori symbol above.



More NZ Building

June 11, 2011

It's been a busy week since we got home last Tuesday sorting through a pile of mail and just getting reconnected with family and friends but will continue trying to get up to date.  From a practical standpoint about once a week seems to be as often that I can get something together for the blog.

From Grandma Ritzman's diary:

Some of grandma's entries become a little repetitive but I still find her daily life in 1914 interesting.  In some later diaries her writing style changed a little and gave more personal insight into things.  For now here's more from June of 1914. 

Grandma mentioned that the painters have been there and they were painting either the house or the barn.  It's likely it was the house as the barn was built in 1911 and would only have been three years old.  The barn may not have been painted originally so it may also have been what they were working on.  Apparently my grandparents were providing food and housing while they were doing the painting.  Sleeping quarters for the painters may have been in the barn as it seems that there was other family or friends staying often.

On one of the listings of costs of items from way back when there was a list of painting supplies and it included such things as white lead oxide and linseed oil so apparently they mixed the white paint themselves.  The cost of the painters labor and materials to paint the barn and house must have been a major hit to the annual budget.

June 5, 1914 - Friday, baked ten pies, cleaned cellar, father was here for dinner, painted flower stand, hoed in garden, the painters was here for three meals and all night, baked a cake.

June 6, 1914 - Saturday, done saturdays work, mowed the lawn, painted a flower stand and cellar windows, hoed in garden, the painters was here for three meals and all night.

June 7, 1914 - Sunday, went to Sunday schoo., had the painters for three meals and all night, Aunt Mary, Aunt Vin, Uncle George, Father, Mother, Hazel, Maud and Walter Smith was here in the afternoon.

June 8, 1914 - Monday, done washing, mended, hoed in the garden, had the painters for three meals and all night.

June 9, 1914 - Tuesday, churned butter, swept upstairs, painted window screens for summerhouse, had painters for three meals and all night, hoed in garden.

June 10, 1914 - Wednesday, ironed, mended, washed crocks, put up window screens in summerhouse, set out thirty five sweet potato plants had painters for three meals and all night.

June 11, 1914 - Thursday, baked eight loaves and bread and biscuits, painted four screen door frames, had the painters for three meals and all night, Mr. Gougler (carpenter) was here for dinner and supper, had three callers in afternoon.

June 12, 1914 - Friday, baked two pies, painted storm doors and put them away for summer, fixed and painted two screen doors and put them up, set out sixty five tomato plants, had the painters for three meals and all night, Mr. Gougler was here for dinner and supper, Hazel was here for supper, had three callers in afternoon.

June 13, 1914 - Saturday, baked ten pies, done saturdays work, mended, painted, and put up one screen door, had painters for three meals and all night, Mr. Gougler was here for dinner and supper, had two callers.

Back to the New Zealand Habitat build.  We had a good time on the build working on the houses and interacting with the partner families in the neighborhood, local volunteers and with the affiliate supervision.  Work can be fun and we all enjoyed the time spent doing this volunteer work.  The site supervisors always had a number of different tasks to be done so as they said at the beginning of the day - if you don't like what you're doing just ask for something else to do.

Here's Dwight waiting for the next panel to be put into position.

Left click on picture to enlarge.

William, a local volunteer is nailing in a 3x2 on the outside perimeter of the walls.

William was getting some help from Sami (partner family whose house was dedicated the Sunday before) to keep the 3x2's plumb.

Some of the plumbers handywork in the joists under the second floor bathroom.

Our supervisor Mike showing his nailing technique.  Make sure you hit the right nail!

Here's a view of the second floor floor joists in place with the floor sheeting stacked waiting to be put in place.  Notice the blocking in place between the joists down the middle.  Here on the New Zealand north island these are called nogs, on the south island they are called dwangs.  Interesting!

Working while sitting down here Therese and Marilyn are painting the Hardy backer board siding for installation later.

Dwight and Kathy are nailing 3x2's in place.  Kathy really found her niche with that nailing gun, maybe enpowered is more the word.  Imagine going from a quilting hobby to using a nail gun?  I don't know where "Cabin Boy" came from on her hard hat, probably a previous volunteer.

Kathy seems to be saying - "give me a nail gun and a saw and I can handle anything..."  Dwight admires her enthusiasm.

Here Richard is using his newly learned skill of using the chop saw.  "Tell me how long you want it and I'll make it" were his words.

Here's our supervisor Titia admiring (?) our work.  Thanks for your guidance Titia.

Life is Good, God is good down under!

Next time:  bungy jumping and tattooing.



Back to Building

June 4, 2011

We are back in the good old USA once again having arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon.  We are down in Long Beach, CA until Tuesday enjoying the good life here in southern California with my cousins from Palm Desert.  We have had beautiful weather here with blue skies and temps in the low 70's.  We will be leaving Tuesday for home in Ohio.

As usual I am behind in real time with the blog so will be trying to get caught up once I have a good internet link.  The hotel we are in has a very weak wifi link unless I go sit in the lobby but I prefer the comforts of the room.

From Grandma Ritzman's 1914 diary:

May 31, 1914 - Sunday, went to Sunday school and church, read five chapters of Jeremiah, Leland was here for breakfast and dinner, the painters was here for three meals and all night, had five callers in afternoon.

June 1, 1914 - Monday, done washing, the painters was here for three meals and all night.

June 2, 1914 - Tuesday, churned butter planted peas, beans and radishes in garden, the painters was here for three maals and all night.

June 3, 1914 - Wednesday, ironed, mended, the painters was here for three meals and all night.

June 4, 1914 - Thursday, baked eight loaves of bread and pan of biscuits, worked in the garden, the painters was here for three meals and all night.

Back to the building program, below is the left side and right side of the finished duplex homes.  This was one day after the dedication and the families were about 90% moved in.  The places look real nice I think.

Left click on the pictures to enlarge them.

After the dedication on Sunday we went back to work on the new homes that started from the bare slab the day we arrived.  Hopefully the description below will give you an idea of the construction method currently being used.



Below you see the T supports that are holding up the ceiling panels from the bottom side.  These panels are really heavy and have to be lifted into position with a crane.  These are similiar to the wall panels which are made from a type of particle board.  These supports have to stay in place until the floor joists for the second floor are installed and then clips are installed between the second floor joists (or trusses in the case of a single story) and the panels.  Before the the joists are put in place metal plates or strips about 2 1/2 inches wide are installed over all the joints between panels.  First adhesive is put along the edges of the joint and then the plate is screwed down with about a gazillion screws.  The screws of course do not penetrate through the panel.  The panels are prefinished and form the finished surfaces for the walls and ceiling.  Other than minor patching of any holes or scars from the installation the finishing is done and ready for painting.  No gypboard or drywall is required.



Here a couple of the students from a local college that have worked with us are installing the clips that hold the ceiling panels up against the floor joists.  The clips are angle clips about three inches long and screwed to the top of the ceiling and the joist.  A side plate is installed around the perimeter of the house flush with the outside of the first floor walls and any other interior openings.  The red colored joists are used in dry areas and slightly green joists are used for the side plates and upstairs bathrooms or any area that might be subjected to dampness.  Once these clips are in place then the T props downstairs can be removed.  The same procedure is used on the second floor ceilings.

Here Dwight and Marilyn are putting up the fence on the back property line.  Quite a job!

A darn nice looking fence - nice job!

Below Therese and Richard are sorting and painting the siding for the new houses.



Here you see the first floor of the homes in place and the second floor joists are being installed or in place.  The vertical 3x2's form kind of a balloon type of construction keeping things flush and plumb.  The siding is attached to these.

 Back at the RV park after a hard days work.



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.