Day 15: Port Orchard Build Day 1

8/20/22

The date is August 20th, 2022, the scene is Port Orchard, a small but bustling town nestled against the southern edge of the Sinclair Inlet, near Seattle, with a stunning view of the mountains, a deep history including local bike legend Fred, and enough hills to make a cyclist cry. The cast is Bike and Build, a motley crew of young adults from all corners of the country who came together with a passion and a mission.

Today this crew is jubilant, because after three long and challenging days of riding, they are looking forward to two days off the bikes and in one place, during which they'll get their hands dirty working with community members building houses, and delightfully, a community playground.

The alarm sounds at 6:30, a welcome respite from the 4 and 5am rooster calls of late, and signals the beginning of the first build day in Port Orchard. Breakfast and coffee are had, close toed shoes are donned, vans are filled with warm bodies where sleep and the raucus celebrations of the evening prior still make demands, but those demands are hushed by caffeine and upbeat music quickening pulses into wakefulness.

8am, all arrive at the build site. Today the partner is Housing Kitsap, part of the USDA Mutual Self-Help Program. In attendance are seasoned supervisors with eager hearts, and invested homeowners with willing hands. Introductions are made, questions are asked and answered, and volunteers are separated into groups based on interests (playgrounds!), fears (heights...), and numbers needed at each available task. A roof crew fills with brazen risk takers eager to test their mettle, two full hearts go to work on framing with the kindly proprietors, a strong showing of artistic souls try their steady hand on a painting crew, and the playground crew is peopled with those holding space inside themselves for whimsy and childish delight. Flitting between them all, and even in the air above, a one-man photo crew captures moments big and small. The morning meeting breaks up and each crew turns to its supervisor for instruction. Instructions are given, and work is underway.

This narrator did not join the painting or framing crews, and as such cannot speak to that experience other than to say that the finished product at the end of the day is a beauty and a joy to behold, and their community member counterparts speak glowingly of their impact.

The framing and painting crews represent the two opposite stages of building, the framing at a lot earlier on in its build, the painting on homes nearing completion. The roofing crew takes the middle stages, giving house-like shape to the skeletal structure with peaky trusses, and putting meat on bone with sheets of strand board creating welcome shade from the heavy midday sun. The playground crew represents the final stage of home creation - community integration.

Playground crew discovers that enabling happy childhoods is easier said than done, as backs ache with shovelsful of dirt and wood chips, and brows drip with the sweat of sledge hammers and pickaxes. The ground is rocky and unyielding at first, but with the collective effort it gives way and the vision starts to take shape. Water is sipped, glugged, and chugged. At one moment golden sparks fly as a crew member grins while cutting rebar to size. At another a crew member carefully sets concrete to cure, holding in place stepping pads for future play. Yet another moment sees a line of crew members, the one in front drilling holes, the next placing rebar, and a string of toiling bodies smashing down with all their might to mate rebar with earth. More water is chugged. Then come the layers of future-proofing, and finally the endless stream of wood chips, conveyed with wheelbarrows, shovels, and rakes, until what sits before looks clean, level, and complete. The crew disperses to join the labor ongoing in other parts.

Roofing crew starts large but winnows quickly as the space itself exacts its specifications, and the unrelenting sun takes special pleasure in gnawing on exposed heads and arms. Some crew members join the hard labor at the playground while the specialized setup for the roofing work is put in place, and continue to cycle between the crews throughout the first half of the day. Soon enough a flow is established, and crew members can be seen picking their way along narrow catwalks, hauling and spacing and pushing and pulling various elements of the roof-to-be. The site supervisors are concentrated here at this high risk and high effort task, as B&B roof crew support from beside, below, and above. Heavy beams are lifted, pressure lines are threaded and rethreaded, nail guns are found and loaded, trusses are unstacked and secured in their final resting places, and a two storey house that in the morning had no roof to speak of suddenly has robust slopes climbing towards the heavens, carving out a proud silhouette against the picturesque backdrop. This roof can go no further today, as other specialists (plumbers) must have their turn first. So this crew turns its attention to the lot next door, where the trusses already stand, and the sheathing has begun. Played at double speed, one would see stacks of various kinds of wood getting shorter and diappearing as they are cut to size and passed up, and what looks like a recognizable shade-giving roof growing and expanding geometrically as puzzle piece after puzzle piece falls into place. In a momentary side task, a bathtub is hauled up through a second storey window by coordinated straining of arms and shoulders below and above. In a tender moment, a group comprised of a fellow B&B crew member, a site supervisor, and a homeowner teaches a curious B&Ber how to use a handheld cordless circular saw. As the day wears on, and crews start to wrap up, this one works on, peopled largely by community members with only 2 red shirted B&B crew to be seen on the skyline, and one or two below. Elsewhere tired red shirts are sprawled about at various degrees of horizontal. Some sit, some lean, some are outright fast asleep on the cool concrete of these garage havens. But on the roof crew, the tantalizing prospect of finishing the last mile of sheathing drives an almost manic rate of work, trying desperately to beat the clock. But time waits for no roof and the crew is called down for a group photo and farewells before the last boards fall into place - they will not see this roof finished today.

Let us take a moment to describe the lunch hour, ocurring in the midst of all described above. This is the most glorious hour of the day. High noon has sapped most of the caffeine sipped before arrival, and certainly some of the willpower, so spirits are lagging and shade is inviting. At this critical moment, cheery voices proclaim the availability of food noses had long since sniffed out on the breeze, and hearts leap, spirits soar. When crews trudge towards the tables, their glazed eyes grow bright and wide as they behold what is before them. A sumptuous spread of regal proportions is graciously and generously shared, courtesy of a pair of builders and homeowners working alongside. There are salads of all kinds - green, fruit, potato, pasta - and enough fresh veggies to set up a rabbit for life. There are hearty dishes of quinoa, rice and lentils, that leave one feeling both healthy and full. There are hot grilled proteins - burgers and brats both vegan and not, chicken teriyaki grilled with pineapple - with all the trappings and fixings besides. There are serotonin sparkles like chips, rolls, capri suns, and sodas. All are present in quantities great enough for all builders and affiliates to eat their fill plate after plate until they are beyond sated and slipping into euphoric food comas. The time after lunch passes more slowly for many as they contend with the fully bellies calling them to rest, but for some the fuel is just the needed boost to carry them into round 2 of making an impact.

After the work is done for the day, and after the photos are taken, and after the farewells are said, and the hands are shaken, tired feet find welcome chariots which whisk tired bodies to much needed showers. Naps are taken, costumes are donned, and B&B Prom is on.

Planned for many days, Prom has been generating quite a buzz, not least by virtue of the showy promposals which have been going on all week. On arrival in Port Orchard the day prior, the first stop was to thrift for outfits, some silly, some sassy, some classy, all debuting tonight. In a stroke of luck, Prom falls on the same day as a local Night Market, whose fliers boast of food trucks, live music, local vendors, and a great time for all. Some make it to the market by sunset, and take classic pictures on the dock, but for others the priority is food. The group fragments, each following their heart's calling, and they ebb and flow throughout the night, splitting and rejoining at places and times and moments. Great fun is had by all, and when the time is right, soft beds reclaim one and all.

Scene.

-Skyfire Knight, DW'22