Polar Plunge 2010

From Polar Plunge '10

I'm a little late getting this up, but definitely wanted to put it out there as a Thank You to all the people that donated to my pledge drive, and to our team's other pledge drives. Together we raised almost $1500.00 for Special Olympics!

From Polar Plunge '10

We had a beautiful day, with temps in 40's and warm sunshine. Unfortunately, that only made the water feel all that much colder! There's nothing that will take your breath away like going all-under in freezing water.

From Polar Plunge '10

From Polar Plunge '10

It was a great day, we all had fun, and the Special Olympics got some much-needed support. Thanks again to all who donated!

Verm Cleanup

Sunday was the Annual Vermillion River Cleanup, and we couldn't have had a better day. The weather was beautiful, the volunteers were plentiful, the sponsors were awesome, and it was a great experience all around.

The river was in better shape this year than I'm used to. We only found about 1/2 as many bikes as normal, and less trash in general. It was great to see! Because there was less hauling to be done, a few volunteers were able to devote their time to trail clearing! Over the past couple years, about 8 trees had fallen over the path between the bridge and the falls. The tree crew cleared them all and trimmed back some of the overhanging branches that made it difficult to walk. The trail is now clean, clear, and as safe as it can be. Now if only we could find a way to get some stairs over there...

I was feeling a bit under the weather, so I decided to stay dry this year and do shore cleanup. Thankfully Alex (and later Mike J) brought water gear and waded the length of the river, pulling out all kinds of debris. In fisherman's pool Alex found an old motorcycle and several other large or stuck-in objects. Mike had an old climbing rope, so we rigged up a pulley system to drag them out of the water and up the cliff. The water guys tied on the object, Jay and Art rigged the rope through a tree-mounted carabiner, and I backed my truck to the edge of the cliff to provide the pull. It worked great for the Motorcycle and the first stuck-in bicycle (see the video on Nora's blog), but when we got to the second stuck-in bike we had a bit more trouble. I'm not sure what it was caught on, but the second bike was so stuck that we snapped Mike's 1100lb-rated climbing rope trying to get it out. Apparantly when the rope snapped it looked like a 100' bull whip, cracking like a gunshot in the direction of my truck. Thankfully, we were all standing well clear of the rope and nobody got hurt. Unfortunately nobody got that on tape, so the story will have to suffice.

Huge thanks to Nora for organizing the cleanup again this year. As always, she put her heart and soul into making it the best it can be and really pulled through. She got swag from lots of great sponsors, cooked tacos and homemade salsa for everyone, made the reservations with the Park, got us all gloves and bags, and made a kayak pinata! Thanks for all the hard work!

Last, I have to once again give a huge thanks to Jackson Kayak, Worldkayak.com, and Julie out at Wausau Whitewater because the boat I won at the Midwest Freestyle Championships came! It's a lime-green Jackson Hero, and I'm incredibly stoked to try it out. Though I haven't gotten it on the water yet, I have spent some time sitting in it in my kitchen (this is why I live alone) to get the outfitting just right. Can't wait to get it on a river. Thanks again to everybody helped make the event (and the raffle) possible!

I'm Back!

Photos:

1) This is a nearly completed house that Habitat built. Our crew built the steps you see, and shortly after this picture was taken built a fancy railing around the porch. This was taken at the presentation ceremony in which Habitat turns over the keys to the new homeowner.
2) These are the steps that our crew built...
3) The front of the "siding job" that Matt and I worked on. This is what it looks like nearly completed.
4) Address sign
5) Doug working on the siding. You can also see part of the 2nd story that Matt and I were assigned to. We did the siding and got a good start on the facia and soffit.
6) Ron using a powershears to cut the Hardiboard siding sheets. He was Matt and I's sawyer pretty much the whole time we were on that job.
7) View of our first job from the driveway. The house was completely underwater during the storm surge, but is now almost ready to be moved back into. The entire interior was gutted and re-done and the exterior is in the process of being repaired. We framed a porch on the back of it. Notice the FEMA trailer the homeowner lives in to the left of the house.
8) Matt's dad and two uncles getting started on the porch.
9) Matt and Gary working on the Gable
10) The roof, ready for tin.
11) The framed porch. The tin and siding were both on order, so this is as far as we were able to take it.
12) An example of how many people are rebuilding - elevated. Many homes are being rebuilt with parking space beneath the house. This will both conserve space on the compact lots and allow as much as eight feet of water to pass harmlessly beneath.

More pics from this trip, as well as from when I was there in '05 if you click on the "My web albums" link on the right of this page.

Story:

Matt and I returned last night from Biloxi. The trip was great. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to update the blog from the phone, but everything else went well. We were with a great group of people from MN, WI, MA, and the DC area. Almost everyone in the group had already been down there working on houses before, so the skill level of the group was pretty high. We got a lot done, including building a porch on one house, building stairs and a porch railing on another house, and working on siding and soffits on a third house. Matt and I were specifically called over to the siding job because we'd earned a reputation for climbing up on roofs and into rafters. Turns out they had some scaffolding work that needed doing, so there we were.

It was nice to see the progress that has been made down there. While there is still a LOT of work to be done and plenty of residents down there are still getting the shaft from the insurance companies and the government, there has been much improvement since I was there last. Many homes have been repaired or rebuilt, now with greater storm resistance. Most homes have been removed from the lowest and most vulnerable areas, and most of those that have been rebuilt are now elevated anywhere from 4 to 10 feet to allow any future storm surges to pass beneath them. Additionally, most houses are now using steel roofs and cement-board siding. Supposedly these materials can withstand 140mph winds, which would greatly diminish the odds of damage from future storms.

Many people are now living in "Katrina Cottages," which are small, prefabricated homes that were designed specifically for families displaced by the storm. The homes start at the same dimensions as a FEMA trailer and about the same cost, though larger versions are available. What sets them apart from the trailers is that they are drastically more livable (courtesy of some brilliant design work) and much more attractive as a home. They also have the advantages of being permanent, being easily expandable, and helping residents get away from the stigma of living in a camper trailer. This seems to be a huge improvement and I was glad to see so many of them popping up down there.

The bad news is that there are still far too many people in FEMA trailers. There are still FEMA trailer parks, where large numbers of displaced residents now live together, as well as many trailers in the front yard of what used to be the family home. Hopefully, with lots more work from volunteer groups, these people will continue to transition back into their homes as they're repaired or rebuilt.

Commercially, the area is well on the road to recovery. There are huge casinos that employ many residents and draw tourists to the area, there are tons of new and re-built restaurants and stores, and things generally seem to be picking back up economically. Again, still room for improvemenet, but it was heartening to see.

I saw some unexpected, but familiar sites down there. First, the huge Salvation Army operations center and food tents are still right where they were 2.5 years ago and still operating for volunteers and people in need. Second, I ran into Dr. Bob, who is a retired MD from MN that was working at HandsOn when I was down there last. Turns out he was staying at the same church I was. Small world.

So, that's a rough recap. I have tons more info and some great stories, but it's all too much to write here. I'll post pics in the next couple days when I get a chance to go through them.

Off to Biloxi!

Beecher and I are off to Biloxi to rebuild some houses that the hurricane smashed 3 years ago. I was down in the same area a few weeks after the storm, so I'm excited to see what's changed. Here are some pics from the first trip to give you an idea of what the damage was like originally. Let's hope it's different now.

I'll do my best to update the blog while I'm down there. Supposedly I can upload pics from my new phone right to the blog, so that will be cool if it works. Stay tuned!

Bedrace for Bridging!

Matt, Danielle, Kressen, and I spent Saturday evening on a bed together... Don't worry - it was for charity. Actually, we were racing on an inflatable mattress down the tubing area of Buck Hill to raise money for the Bridging foundation, which helps low income families get beds, tables, and other household necessities that they can't afford. There were 150 teams of 4 people participating in heats of 5 or 6 beds going head to head down the hill. To make it all way more amusing, nearly team was in costume. There was one group that went as the Jamaican bobsled team, the Blue Man Group (except with 4 members, instead of 3), some crazy guys who went shirtless as Chip 'n Dale dancers, and one really cool group that each wore 1/4 of a truck costume so that when they were all arranged on the bed it looked like a truck going down the hill. It even had functioning head and tail lights. We went as Barbie and the Rockers. Notice Matt in drag. We did pretty well, making it through 5 heats before being eliminated in the quarter finals.

The funniest part of the night, however, was our first run. We were inside the chalet having some drinks and checking out the other costumes. What we didn't know was that they weren't announcing the races inside. We went outside just to find out when we would race. Much to our surprise, we were supposed to be racing at that very minute. We ran up the hill (no chairlift), slamming our drinks along the way. We got to the top to find about 20 teams waiting on us. There was a bed waiting for us in our lane and as soon as we got to it the official said "Go!" Away we went. We had no idea of what the rules were, no strategy, and no time to think about it. We took a couple steps forward and flopped onto our mattress. Kressen didn't fully make it on the mattress and kind of dragged down the top half of the hill and yelling. I tried to reach back to pull her up, but the only thing I could reach was her huge blonde wig. By luck, she managed to climb on just as one corner of our bed caught the edge of our lane and we started to spin. I think we made 3 complete revolutions before we finally came to a stop. By some miracle we came in 3rd, which was enough to bump us up to the next round. We went 4 more rounds before getting knocked out, so it was good that we made that one.

All in all it was a really good time for a good cause. Highly recommended.

There's more pics you can see if you click on the "My Web Album" link on the side of this page. Also, for pics of the various costumes, check out http://homepage.mac.com/djdalsin/PhotoAlbum1.html

Pool Session

Well, I made it to my 2nd pool session of the year on Sunday. I went purely as an instructor this time, though, and didn't even bring a boat. I really enjoy teaching, though, so it was easily as much fun as practicing my own techniques. The only problem is that all of the students were first shown a video that outlined the Sweep roll, and I use (and teach) more of a C-to-C style roll. Dennis had to bail me out with my first student because I just didn't know how to explainthe way to keep your center of gravity low in that roll. I think that for the next pool session I'm going to spend some time working on my own sweep so that I can actually teach it properly. In the meantime, thanks to D for helping a fella out.

Clean up!

That's right, this past Sunday was the annual Vermillion River Cleanup. Nora did a great job organizing it and it really went well. Not sure how many people showed up, but I've got to think it was at least 20. What was really nice was that a bunch of the people were High School students from Hastings. Not only did they really pull their own weight and then some, but it's nice to get some local people involved in cleaning up the river. Maybe it will have a bit of a trickle-down to all of the bike-throwing punks that make the cleanup necessary every year.

Like last year, Nora organized the event and managed to snag some sweet swag from a whole bunch of sponsors. I'm pretty sure that everybody that volunteered got something, which is pretty cool. I spent my day in the water with Ivan, Dennis, and three high school seniors dragging bikes, scooters, railroad tracks, a steel staircase, and more over to shore where the dry volunteers carried, roped, and dragged it up the cliffs. Everybody worked hard and I was amazed at how much big heavy stuff they got up to the trash pile. It was a good time, there were good people, and the river is that much cleaner and safer.

Check Nora's blog for the pictures and some more info.

Vermillion Cleanup

About 25 of us met to clean up the Vermillion River today. The local kids make a hobby of throwing trash off the cliffs and the bridge, so every year local paddlers go down there to clean it up. We took out 16 bicycles, 1 television, 1 mattress, 1 bench seat from a pickup truck, and a couple dozen bags full of miscellaneous trash. Thanks to Nora for bringing her raft along to use as a garbage barge (be sure to hit the link to her blog to see more pics), and big thanks to Bill for taking the pics. Also, props to Dennis and Dave for organizing everything and gathering supplies.