Paradise, CA – Feb. 26 – Mar. 4, 2023

After saying goodbye to our CBC team, we welcomed seven new Church of the Brethren volunteers from CA and ID.  Anna & Ivan Martin from PA continued as our cooks; Harlan Newswanger and Keith Sensenig from OH, as our crew leaders; Mary-Ann & Pim Van Oeveren from BC, as assistant cook & long-term volunteer and Don & Rachel Horst from KS, serving as project director and office manager, bringing our total this week to fifteen.

In spite of the winter mix of snow, fog and rain at the beginning of the week, we painted interior doors at Robert Ream’s house, as well as some touch up painting and installation of door knobs and shelving.  When the weather cleared up, installation of siding and finishing touches to the framing at Bill Kellogg’s continued.  At the Loomis house, front and back steps were built, drywall taping and mudding well under way.  Several worked at camp, applying a coat of primer to trim boards.  Some of our southern California volunteers eagerly volunteered to shovel snow at the Reyes house, making it possible for the installers for the Fire Protection system to get to the house.  Additional happenings at Reyes was the completion of the four-way inspection and the building of beautiful porch steps.

Our California volunteers brought wonderful oranges, grapefruit and lettuce greens from their personal trees and gardens for all of us to enjoy.  In spite of the delays due to the heavy snowfall, we were very pleased with how much progress was made on the houses this week.

Next week we hope to move ahead with insulating the walls and hanging drywall at the Reyes house, doing interior painting at Loomis and installing windows at the Kellogg house.

The weather patterns this week made us keenly aware of how much the elevation in the town of Paradise changes.  The houses in the northern part of town had much more snow, fog and rain than what the houses on the south end of town received.  Over the weekend our cooks and crew leaders headed back home.  We are very grateful for their willingness to give of their time and talents over the past weeks.  Each day they’ve done a golden deed by helping those who are in need.

Submitted by Rachel Horst for the Paradise team.