Black Hills, Muddy Boots, Full Heart

Hello my friends!

Like I said in my last post, my next Habitat adventure came faster than one might think! I’ve had promptings on my heart for quite some time to visit the Black Hills of South Dakota. Though I wasn’t planning on taking another vacation this year (I went to Disney with my roommate from Pennsylvania, it was a blast!) things at work fell into place out of nowhere and I was able to take the plunge and plan a solo adventure out there this past week! I must admit I had butterflies in my stomach from excitement and from nervousness; though I’ve done nearly all my builds alone, I have never gone to an unfamiliar place completely alone for such a stretch of time. But I decided to follow my heart and set out this past Sunday to explore and to volunteer with the Rapid City affiliate chapter, officially making South Dakota my eighth state in my Habitat journey.

This blog is about my work at the builds I participate in, so I won’t go much into my explorations of the Black Hills. However I must say, this part of the country was absolutely beautiful. God outdid himself on this masterpiece. I had the opportunity to interact with wild horses, take a horseback ride along the base of the Buckhorn mountains, viewed the Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore memorials, and visited Custer State Park.  I even felt spontaneous one day and hopped on a zip line and a 2,000 foot alpine slide for a bit of a thrill! The hills are spectacular; hearing the wind howling through the forests, and experiencing the serene calm of the mountains as the sun rises in the morning, was something I will never forget. I highly suggest everyone visit this area of the country if you have the opportunity. I’m not exaggerating when I say I found a part of my heart there, and being out in the wilderness a bit really does wonders for the soul.

Day 1: Dirt for Days

Measuring to make sure

dirt is level

But here I go talking about everything except Habitat, like I said I wouldn’t. So let’s dive in to the real reason why I was there, to pull on my old boots and a pair of work gloves and get to work! I arrived on site in downtown Rapid City bright and early Tuesday morning, and it was there that I met Cliff, Jory, and Caleb. These guys are all employed by Habitat and were the main guys I worked with on my trip. Alright let’s be real, they were the ones chaperoning me and were my muscle when my noodle arms couldn’t move all our materials. But we’ll get to that shortly. Cliff is a career marine, so he was a pro at taking charge and wrangling us all so we could get some solid work done. He was very kind and did a great job not only at demonstrating how to do each job, but answering my questions and explaining why we were doing each task and how it helps with the build. Jory is the supervisor of the Garfield site, as it is known, and Caleb has worked for Habitat for a year and was very helpful at assisting me with preparing materials and doing some of the heavy lifting for me.

Retaining wall being built

Our task for the day was to redistribute dirt throughout the backyard of one of the homes in a lot containing eight total Habitat homes. By flattening the dirt and making it level we were preparing to continue building a retaining wall, prepare for river rock distribution and a small deck to be built, and create a natural slope up to the nearby sidewalk to assist with drainage. There is not much I can say to make this sound any more glamorous. We moved dirt. A lot of dirt. As Jory said as he was helping us shovel, we had “dirt for days!” It was exhausting, especially as the sun rose and took the shade away little by little. Thankfully at times we could use a bulldozer to help us move larger amounts of dirt around. We used a laser level as well as stakes and string to measure dirt levels across large areas and ensure the dirt was level across the yard.

The fruits of a 

day's labor

Learning how to

saw blocks!

At times I stood back examining our work and couldn’t help but think of how demoralizing it is that we put so much effort into simply moving dirt from one place to another, only to have it eventually covered up and made into a yard where no one would be the wiser that we put so much work into making a nice yard. By the end of the day I was sunburnt, dirty, and exhausted. But I must say, my piles of dirt looked pre-tty darn good! We were nervous we were going to get rained out once we saw dark storm clouds coming over the hilltops in the distance. Thankfully we got a full day of work in and the rain that came later in the evening did not wreck our efforts, though it did make the site muddier than it already had been.

Thank goodness for my old pair of boots, I’d sink down past my ankles in mud at some points…and that was before the rain we got on Tuesday night! At the end of the day Cliff had me take a break from shoveling and taught me how to use a saw to cut the retaining wall blocks. I am not the most coordinated person ever (I can hear my parents laughing at me as they read this already, let’s just say I’ve never been graceful) so I was a little nervous using something that could chop my fingers off if I didn’t have enough control over it. However once I started I realized it didn’t require as much effort as I thought it would to cut through the blocks, and it was actually kind of fun! After a while it was time to finish up for the day. I left satisfied but spent, and was excited to come back and hang with the guys on Thursday.

Day 2: Walls, Cement, and the Red Rattler

Gluing caps on 

retaining wall

If I thought I was tired on day one, nothing prepared me for how sore my muscles would be after day two. As soon as I got to the site we began finishing one of the retaining walls by gluing the caps on to the top of the wall. We had to place the caps on the wall to make sure they fit close together, and alternated seams so they did not land on the same seam as the blocks below them. This helps ensure the wall is strong and stable and won’t fall apart over time. If we ran into a spot where this didn’t work, we simply measured the blocks and sawed them apart to fit the area, and then continued with full blocks again. Once we figured out the placement, I used liquid nails to glue each of the caps into place. The job itself isn’t complicated, but let me tell you-those blocks are heavy and it’s so exhausting to move them all day!

By the time we were done doing that with two small walls, Cliff asked if I wanted to help him at another site nearby and learn how to pour cement. Um, yes! So around 11:00am he and I hopped into a truck dubbed the Red Rattler to head over to a site on Lemmon Street. The Red Rattler lived up to it’s name; the doors creaked, the seats slid a bit as you rode, and third time’s a charm when it came to starting the poor thing. I told Cliff I came to the Black Hills to live on the edge, so he laughed and said, “well here you go!” We stalled at a light and had a hard time getting to and from the next site, but it was a memory and added a little humor to our day.

Pouring cement

We arrived at the Lemmon Street site and met John and Tyler, who were preparing to pour concrete into a deep square hole and what was about to become the front porch area of the home site. John has done construction for many years and helps with Habitat quite a bit, and Tyler is in a program with the Department of Labor where he works for Habitat but is paid a wage through the Department of Labor. They were both nice guys and I was excited to help them with their project. The cement truck arrived and we got right to work shoveling concrete down the truck’s chute into the square hole. After we had enough cement in the hole Cliff and I took a 2x4 and shimmied it back and forth across the top to smooth out the cement and scrape off any excess to make it a smooth surface. We did the same thing with the porch area. Cliff, John, and I helped shovel cement down the chute and all over the porch area, trying to make it as even as possible. Afterwards Cliff and I took a longer 2x4 and shimmied it across the surface until everything was even and we got rid of a lot of excess cement.

Using the fresno to

smooth the concrete

The cement truck left at this point and John and Cliff worked on smoothing out the bubbles in the cement, and cleaning up the edges of the porch by using an edging tool to make everything nice and crisp. John used a broom-like tool called a fresno made of magnesium to smooth out the top of the surface. He explained to me that this magnesium tool helps bring water to the surface of the cement, helping them get the bubbles out. After that was done he took a fresno made of steel to go over the cement again; John said that the steel helped seal the water in now that we have the cement where we wanted it. Cliff finished edging the concrete and at that point, he and I were done helping out and we hopped in the Red Rattler and miraculously made it back to the Garfield site in one piece.

Cliff cleaning up the edges

After Cliff and I ate lunch (everyone else had eaten while we went to the other site) he and I started another retaining wall on the home next to the one we had worked on the past day and a half. He helped me move several large blocks into place, which I would then use plastic stakes to drive into the blocks and secure them in place. As we stacked the blocks they were placed 3/4” set back on each level. Jory and Cliff said that was to ensure that the wall remained stable over time and wouldn’t fall forward. As Cliff leveled the base level of dirt and started the first level of the wall, I staked the blocks of the upper levels together. At the end of the day I stayed a bit late to help the guys finish capping the wall just as we did with the wall in the morning.

Back of the house,

there's our dirt and wall!

It was a bittersweet moment leaving everyone at the end of the day. I was filthy, sweaty, and tired and was ready to relax for the evening on my last day in Rapid City. But these guys had huge hearts, were incredibly welcoming, and I had such a great time learning new things and building with these people. As I thanked them and walked away they told me to come back if I ever make it back to Rapid City-I told them that I would hopefully be back, and I would most definitely look them up. This trip to the Black Hills has been exhilarating, refreshing, but not without it’s hard work. But that’s what I love about this journey of mine. Each time I venture out I learn more about myself, about how to engage with and love others, and that as long as I bring my best effort to the table I can make at least a small difference in the lives of those who will call these houses “home”. The Black Hills and the Rapid City Habitat chapter will forever hold a special place in my heart, and I hope I can carry this joy into my next stretch of my journey to serve.

Until next time,

Lisa