Snake in the grass

We worked on the backyard at Tim's house some more today. We put the finishing touches on the back yard by cleaning up the random pine cones, sticks stones and other random debris that hadn't been touched since 2005. While we were cleaning the small garden near the back of the house, we found a snake in the mud. It wasn't a big snake, just a small brown snake with black dots and stripes that probably wasn't poisonous. We made up a story for the rest of the group that Jim, who was painting the side of the house, saw the snake as well. He picked up the snake by the tail and whipped it on a rock and its head popped right off with Jim standing there triumphantly. Unfortunately, that didn't really happen, but it was interesting to see the wildlife that developed in the backyard of one home. Earlier that day we found a frog, the day before we thought we saw a Black Widow spider. There are many many anthills all over the yard, not to mention the bugs that would have been there anyway, like small spiders, roly polys, cockroaches and mosquitoes (being in Mississippi). Later in the day another snake came out, much bigger than the first one, and slithered its way under the deck in the back yard. It wasn't too significant, but it made for a much more interesting day.

Q: "How do you kill a gecko?"
A: "Put it on a leash."

I spent the morning helping to move sheet metal roofing and plywood that were donated by a Baptist church, some of which we will use this week to build a shed for laundry and storage. Although their were enough supplies to put together several sheds like this, I was surprised to hear that their value was estimated at $100,000. It is amazing the extent of the contributions that people have made to help the community here, and this is just one example. During the afternoon I helped to finish painting the exterior of a house. I felt that once we got going, our group really started working together well and we finished painting the siding faster than we had expected. Again it's great to be able to work together with so many other people that are committed to the same goal and being able to see visual progress.

I got over my fear of the extension ladder today. Hey, that thing bends and wobbles. And that's about as profound as I can get after 8 hours of painting over my head.

The food at camp and at the Baptist church in town is amazing. At the church today, the ladies made green beans with ham hocks, chicken and a wonderful peach cobbler.

"Objects in the rearview mirror appear closer than they appear."

I looked in my rearview mirror as we left the work site and saw the woman that lived there. She was walking to her car with a bag of Sharpie markers. Earlier in the evening she told us that we could sign her shed when it was finished.

This woman had the biggest impact on me. She was an older woman that seemed like she was made out of old world material. Her determination inspired me. This determination was in stark contrast to her environment. The wildeness was on the edge of her broken home and we were fighting it. Our weapons were hammders, nails, and our team spirit.

This situation provided insight on how much that we actually help. The woman seemed so small in the mirror, but I knew that we only a reflection of Pearlington's determination, hope, and spirit. --Byron, Biology 2009.75

Small group discussions today have been very insightful and productive. My group stumbled upon the realization that Americans have been bred into a very independent society, and it is often hard for us to depend on each other and work together as a strong community. In other words, accepting help from our neighbors seems to be a thing of the past, referencing the ever classic 50s mom who would borrow milk and sugar from Betty Sue next door for the double chocolate chunk cookies....mmmmm (my mom never baked cookies.) We concluded that the only way to solve this problem would be to force every state to succeed from the union. We felt this would be a close model to the small Eastern European countries (like Maldova and Romania) who apparently have stronger communities, according to our group. However, we found ONE potential problem with this plan. Texas, seeing as it is a country already, would eventually conquer all of the independent states of the artist formerly known as the United States of America. This would result in a terrible travesty: the United States of Texas. Oh, the horror. ;)