Tuesday, March 20, 2007 ;
12:44 PM
Sat Mar 18
Church Work Day
This involved mostly the men, although there were 4 women who helped to clean the building the whole of Sat too.
The church purchased another house and the whole place needs to be spruced up. Since weather is quite good now, they decided to designate a couple of days to work on it together.
The place was really quite overgrown and the men really worked very very hard and yet, at the end, there was still more to be done.
It was an eye opener to me because I'd never witnessed such DIY work done on such scale at home. I already felt my father-in-law was a very hands-on man who did everything at home himself (electrical wiring, painting, repairs, automatic gates etc), and admired that. But this was jaw-dropping.
I kind of visualised 5-6 men getting together to pull weeds and clear rubbish, but oh my... How many turned up? I can't even count... Maybe 10 grandfathers? Fathers and even young teens. And surprisingly, it was the grandfathers who did the most.
They came with lots of tools: chain saws, wheelbarrows, axe, all sorts of things I don;t know the names of. And the shocker was the excavator. Someone actually towed/ hauled one in. You can see part of it at the right hand side of the pic below.
This was in the morning, when they pulled down the metal fence, and sawed some trees off. Then they used the exca-thingy to drag the fence and the felled trees away. Some men will then saw up the trees into small pieces and then feed the wood into this machine that works like a paper shredder, only it shreds the wood into chips. Amazing. Ok, I run the risk of pple who are very used to this reading it and laughing at what a suaku I am, but I must be true to my feelings. I really was in awe...
I even wanted to learn how to operate the exca cos it looked fun and then my sons will "idolise" me... But then considering how, in the past, I played an arcade game (at Marina Square) involving operating an excavator and bulldozer and I knocked down almost everything that should be standing and yet didn't achieve the desired goals of the game? Uh-oh.. better not... some more in front of so many pple.
Pic below shows the trees still standing. ds1 is in red, he was very interested in "helping" and so walked around the whole time, acting very important. :-) ds2 was the mummy's boy, sticking to me like a leech.. but mainly he was very afraid of the chain saw noise...
Pic below shows dh using an axe and swinging it real hard. They laughed at him cos he didn't dare use the chain saw. But to us, it is scary cos the chain saw cuts real fast, and I saw the elder make a wedge cut and the tree fell in seconds.
Pic below shows considerable clean-up being done already, trees felled, area cleared, fence removed. Next work day set in April, where they'll try to finish up.
What was I doing in the meantime? I was busy serving drinks and snacks. :-) And I cut 4 apples. Initially I wasn't sure if they wanted it, cos they brought their own water. But the Oreos I put out were gone in seconds, mainly by the teens, so I began bringing out more food. And the 7-up was also very welcome. Seeing how hungry and thirsty they are, I should have prepared beforehand. I was just haphazardly raiding my pantry for things that are handy and edible. There wasn't enough ice and water in the end. :-)
Well, they sure worked very hard and they deserve more. The next time, I will be more prepared. They've also realised how they can work non-stop and forget about food, so they're tasked some other women to get pizzas and lunch the next time too. :-)
It was a fun experience! And I was impressed with how everyone spent their precious Sat, turning out in full force, to do this. When everyone does it together then it becomes less of a chore.
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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What was I doing in the meantime? I was busy serving drinks and snacks. :-) And I cut 4 apples. Initially I wasn't sure if they wanted it, cos they brought their own water. But the Oreos I put out were gone in seconds, mainly by the teens, so I began bringing out more food. And the 7-up was also very welcome. Seeing how hungry and thirsty they are, I should have prepared beforehand. I was just haphazardly raiding my pantry for things that are handy and edible. There wasn't enough ice and water in the end. :-)
