Day 6: Raising Fences

Today was cold. Very very cold. If I had come in January, the 45 degree temperatures might seem warm, but after a week of 80+ degrees, we were miserable. We started off the day finishing the fence posts we were working on yesterday.

By this time in the week, we were warmed up enough to the staff to give just about everyone a hard time. We’ve got Terry the Tank/Terrybear, who is the nicest funniest fellah there. He’s easy going but can kick us into gear, taking our crap and dishing it right back. Then there’s Captain Craig and the Concrete Kids. He walks around all day with a dip in his mouth and a cigarette, and he’s only seventeen! He’s a big boy though, he can do all of our heavy lifting. Dan the Tiger Man was in a better mood this morning. I think it helped that I was laughing at all of his jokes. His son Evan was just as big of a jerk as usual, and he actually dropped a pulley on one of the Oswego girl’s eyes today. Oswego is the New York school that is volunteering at the compound, but basically we just compete with them. All of the workers know we are the best ;)

There was also a new guy, Dan. Some call him Dirty Dan, some call him Kyle (to discriminate from Dan the Tiger Man), but he was a pretty good looking dude compared to the one’s we’ve had this week. All of the girls were flirting with him! It was a good distraction when the cold rain started falling. We raised two fences throughout the day, which is no easy feat. You have to bring in the fencing, roll it out, clip it to pulleys, raise it, clip it to the poles, and it takes quite a while to get it all finished. By noon, I was freezing and shaking in my long sleeve shirt. I was getting wetter, worrying about my camera, and we worked partway through lunch, so my stomach was not happy.

While we ate the last of our cold meat sandwiches, the rain fell harder and the weather got colder. I had my sweatshirt, but standing around all day next to a fence getting wet is not the most comfortable way to spend a Spring Break day. We all made jokes about how miserable we were, had plenty of laughs, and sang plenty of songs, mostly Abby. And thankfully, because of the rain, we got off an hour early and got to check out the gift shop. If I leave this trip with nothing else, I’ll have a whole group of girls (and Chris!) that I can consider new friends. It’s so weird how well we all get along! I hope that our friendship doesn’t end when the trip does!

We’re currently watching the UC vs Purdue March Madness game in the lobby and Tracy is not happy. We had Dominos for dinner and are snacking now, and a group just left to go get some Sonic shakes. It’s nice to finally have some down time to hang out and not worry so much about food. Tomorrow, we’ll have breakfast at the hotel, lunch provided by the Rescue, and dinner at some restaurant that Dan the Tiger Man recommended. The only meal I have to worry about now is lunch at the zoo on Saturday! This trip makes me feel ready for adulthood. At least, the grocery shopping half of it. I’m a pro!

One more (half) day to work at the rescue. Bring it on! I’m praying for sunshine and warm weather, but it’s not looking good. After they provide us with lunch, we finally get the tour of the Rescue that we have anticipated all week long. I’m hoping to get some really good pictures to make up for the ones I missed out on today! I’m not sure if I’ll be ready to leave on Saturday and head back to school or not, but I’m ready for the stress and hard work to be over! But the warm weather and sunshine, good times and belly laughs make it all more than worth it. This group is something else!

#CTR