By Showandah Terrill

Bill Terrill and Bob Tiemeyer lay out lines, hoping the rain won’t obscure them too quickly. Harry Gravatte brings a load of foam board from Port Angeles despite the howling wind.

Jerry arrives with his digging equipment and the footings appear out of the mud. Say what you will about men who play golf in all kinds of lousy weather – these guys are obsessed with building.

So what’s up, or going up? Shay and Kristal Gooding’s new house, right next door to the Weavers. Plans have been settled upon, paid for and approved. Most of the paperwork is done and soon the concrete trucks will roll in, followed by the lumber trucks, and the race will begin in earnest.

Lest you think Habitat volunteers do nothing but pack lumber and pound nails, you should know that we went to a very successful “Premier Taste of the Peninsula” event at Sunland Golf and Country Club last week, benefitting Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County.

Eight of us, including the Weavers and the Goodings, cleaned ourselves up, put on our Sunday go-to-meeting duds and did Forks proud. There was even live music, courtesy of the Sequim High School jazz band. It was a delicious chance for those of us from the outer provinces to sample delicacies from the various restaurants in Port Angeles and Sequim, wine from local wineries, and all of it was donated. Over $42,000 was raised for various builds and among those honored were Bruce and Shelly Paul of Forks Outfitters. Thanks, you two, for all you do for Habitat and every other organization in this community!

And thanks to all of you who lend a helping hand, or hands, or your strong backs to the cause. We’re building again and we need you and your talents and your enthusiasm just as much as ever. We need workers and food to feed the workers. If you know how to do something build-ish, that’s great.

If you want to learn how to build, that’s great, too. We need enthusiasm as much as we need talent.

We need a strong core group of volunteers to help Shay and Kristal get into their house … which is currently just footings full of muddy water – long way to go!

Same easy-going folks as before heading up the build – Bill Terrill has taken Conner’s place as lead, Conner has dropped back into the ranks of the faithful, as he has a business and a growing family to think about. Nora Alwarth is still our volunteer coordinator and she’s lining up volunteers, so call her (360-310-2744) because we need your help! Talk to Barb Gronseth or Shele Kinkaid – stop Bill Terrill in the hardware store or just run by the job site and see what’s going on! This is exciting stuff! Makes one obsess.