Hurley, VA – March 17-23, 2024

Crew leader, Lauren King, returned home to Ohio last Saturday. Rob Beiswenger from Pennsylvania arrived later that day as her replacement.

The weekly volunteers this week are all men from the Ephrata, Pennsylvania area. The four friends traveled together and arrived late Sunday afternoon. The narrow, twisty roads were no problem for them since two of them were semi-truck drivers and both had traveled on similar roads previously.

The men took care of restoration work at Ben and Stephanie’s house. They installed soffit, repaired and finished the flooring and repaired the steps. They re-routed wiring, framed the pantry, and renovated and drywalled the bedroom closet.

 At Patty’s house, they placed sheeting on the back garage wall, added flashing on the porch, finished the roof edge and added protective plastic underneath the floor. They installed roofing on Ulvert’s garage. When the wind forced them to abandon roof work, they moved on to the Atwell/Dotson house where they installed house wrap under the deck. They also installed the formica countertop and screwed in deck and ramp bolts at the Atwell/Dotson house. They installed deck bolts and added finishing touches on the steps and railing at the Baker house.

These men worked hard, even during the cold morning temperatures, although some of them attempted to prolong breakfast so as to delay their starting work time until the temperatures warmed up! They fit in a couple visits to fascinating hillside cemeteries. Some of them took a drive up a steep, gravel mountain road where the switchbacks were so sharp they had to back up the truck to negotiate the curve. They retreated to camp before they reached the top of the mountain. The men were always glad for a hearty supper and rest time in the evenings.

A generous neighbor who lives on the hill above our camp brought in pizza for our supper Friday evening.

The team from Hurley, VA