Pine Ridge mission trip, Day 6

Mission trip lesson #5: Younger members of most youth groups, like those we have in our group (ranging in grade level from sixth through ninth), will really only work hard for three consecutive days (at most). So if you get any of a fourth day of work out of them, consider it a bonus.

Apparently Jimbo knew this rule from all of his prior youth group mission trip experiences. He simply failed to share it with me until this afternoon.

We finished up work at Madeline's house by around 1:30 today. Among the tasks finished up:

Robert painted the floor of the front porch with both brush and roller under the expert guidance of Clark, who also painted window trim with the same brown:

Several of the youth and I finished up the east side of the house, as well as other white painting on the north side. Meanwhile, Sydney, Erin, Jimbo and Lindy were busy inside Madeline's house cleaning up from the popcorn ceiling repair:

Final tally of work done over two days Wednesday and today at Madeline's:

• Drywall patch, repair in her living room
• Popcorn ceiling repair
• Scrape and paint four exterior walls
• Repair porch railing, including building two brand new slats
• Paint porch
• Fix roof on one side of A-frame house

From there, Jimbo, Clark and I made two more dump runs from the Makasan center to remove the remaining debris from our work there, as well as some other items Asa was looking to get rid of.

The final list of work done here, mostly Monday and Tuesday:

• Replace slats on one sun shade with boards from the other one, scrape and paint
• Completely remove old wood and replace with all new lumber on the second sun shade, plus paint
• Scrape and paint metal picnic tables that go inside sun shades
• Demolish three old outhouses behind the church and remove debris to the dump
• Use weed trimmer to create fire barrier around church and multi-purpose building, plus remove other weeds on property
• Mow property with church's lawnmower
• Picket fence repair (made 10 new pickets and painted them)
• Paint bench around tree in front of church
• Deck repair (front and back of multi-purpose building)
• Kitchen sink repair in multi-purpose building
• Bathroom door lock repair in multi-purpose building
• Multiple trips to the dump to haul trash and debris

After our last trip to the dump, Jimbo, Clark and I went to the town of Pine Ridge to see if we could repair a metal roof over the porch at Madeline's sister, Christine's house. I was a good supervisor while Jimbo the roofer and Clark (who could pass as a roofer, and who I have decided is a true Renaissance man) removed the two sheets of metal, realigned them and reattached them with 16-penny nails:

After a dinner of pork chops on the grill, green beans and a fantastic pasta salad, we turned the youth all loose for free time all evening at 6:30. All except Sydney, Conner and Robert, that is, who sat and wrote postcards (made by Rev. Sandi, who included the reservation flag on the side they wrote on; thank you!) to the people who donated to allow them to participate:

All in all, another productive day, yet with enough down time this afternoon and evening to hopefully rejuvenate some very tired youth (and their adult leaders) so we can all go have fun tomorrow at Crazy Horse Monument, Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills.