Postholders and Levelers

After driving some winding, twisting backroads of Kentucky, we arrived at Pat and Doyle Perry’s house. Pat greeted us warmly, apologizing that she hadn’t made us cookies. Also warmly greeting us were about four dogs; some of us were happier with that greeting than others. We elected Christian our jefe (bossman). That turned out to be a very wise decision. He was an impressive leader, working hard and delegating responsibility throughout the day.

We were anticipating building a deck and putting on some vinyl siding; however, Doyle decided he wanted to work on the siding himself, so our primary job is to build the deck. Today, we worked on digging postholes, making sure the posts were placed correctly and were level, pouring concrete, and setting the postholes. While that looks simple once it’s written, the process, we found, was not so simple. Digging the holes wasn’t so bad, but the leveling and placement of the posts took a while. It was extremely hot and humid, so we took turns holding posts and leveling them. Liza was an expert postholder; Steve and Ben were master level boys/men, and Katie did an astounding job of holding the string to make sure the posts were in a straight line.

Meanwhile, Laura made sure everyone was drinking enough water. Since the work was lighter than we anticipated, we took turns talking to Pat. She’s an interesting, sociable woman who has had more than her fair share of hardship—from a daughter’s tragic death to her own diagnosis of breast cancer a few years ago to a series of back surgeries. Our day was cut short by a thunderstorm, so we left a little early and are now at the campground snacking and trying to stay cool.