Monday May, 19 2007, today everyone got the privilege of being out at the new site to pull all of the members out of the semi-trailers that we had just so recently placed in there. We sorted these members by what wall they came from and placed them on pallets in piles. We were also working on the construction documents. Another group would figure out how to put the church back together. Since we are trying to use as much of the old wood as possible, we made a proposal to use modern connections, like hangers and using plates, so we could cut off the bad parts of the joist and connect it to a new piece, so we would not have to buy all new floor joists.

On Friday the 20th we attended Material and Methods for our last quiz. The majority of the class worked on AutoCAD drawings, PowerPoint presentations, and movies. I was lucky enough to give a tour to five people from The University of Southern Mississippi. They wanted to visit the Rural Studio to see how we interact with our community. First I showed them the pods and explained what we could see. We visited the Red Barn, Subrosa, and the Firehouse. While we were in Subrosa Rusty Smith had a chance to tell them about Samuel Mockbee’s relationship with his first clients at Rural Studio. He explained how Mockbee would take a nap at the Bryant’s house. He told us that Mockbee used to make paintings of Alberta on a turtle to symbolize her strength. We visited Pam at H.E.R.O. and she had a chance to explain her interaction with the community. Pam told us about a project that they built for a man. After the house was built he told Pam that could get married now because he was part of a community. I was then treated for a lunch at the local Mexican Restaurant. We made a stop at the dog pound on our way to Mason’s Bend. We were invited in at the Haybale house. As we were looking around we came upon an elderly woman. We came to find out that this elderly woman was none other than Alberta Bryant. Alberta told us that her and her husband were looking for a trailer or a house. Just moments later Samuel Mockbee pulled up in his red truck. He told them that he wanted to build them a house. That was how Rural Studio began. We could all see how strong of a woman Alberta is. Our day was now complete and we had come full circle.

Today a few of us stayed in Newbern and attended the Lions park opening. The first pitch ever on the fields was at 8:00 a.m. The dedication for the project was at 12:00 p.m., this is where the thesis students were recognized. It was suppose to be held at the park but instead it was at the elementary school because it decided it was going to rain all day. I could not believe how many people from the community of Greensboro attended it. After the ceremony was done we all left and went back to the park were they had free food for all of us. Some of us stayed at the field and some of us went back to the red barn to get some work done on our water colors that are due very soon. Then the hospital had its official opening at 4:00pm by then it stopped raining so we tried to have it out in the courtyard that they designed. But to no surprise it decided to start raining again so we had to go to the armory, which is located right across the street form the hospital. Later that night we all got together to celebrate the completion of the projects at club 28, which is a local bar that everyone goes to in town.

In the words of Van White, fondly known as Master C, “It has been one loooonng day.” Jason and Natalie and Danny Wicke are in San Francisco this week for a conference and we have been left here alone to fend for ourselves amongst each other. Cameron, Frances, and Bill went to help the Dog Pound super-thesis team today. Today, most people were in the Red Barn working on their various tasks that are due Friday for Jason. The crack auto-cad team consisting of John, Adam, and Chris huddled in their little corner all day working away on all the drawings of the church. They have taken on a lot of work to be completed in a short amount of time. They are going back through last semester’s drawings and correcting them to what we figured out this semester. In addition to that, they are doing all of the elevations, floor plans, reflected ceiling plans, and much much more. Eric was sick most of the morning so Erin, Sarah, and Jamie worked by themselves on cataloging each members current condition and what kind of repair will be needed on each “customer.” Candace worked on the never ending power point. The idea behind this job is to document the project from the beginning to the end. She and Cameron have been adding upon what the fall semester students started and they will have it up to date so that next semester’s students can follow up with the last steps of the project. Nick Bishop and Golpar continued working on the connections for the rebuilding phase. Walker has been diligently going through hours of film from the year and eventually will be the producer of our Pig Roast video as scary as that sounds. Interestingly, over half of the video footage is a Van the man himself explaining how to organize a trailer amongst many other hilarious outtakes. As for me, I have been sorting through all the files for the project and trying to find some sort of organization as well as trying to find a storage structure for the wood over the summer. The whole idea behind all of these different jobs is to put together some sort of manual for next year’s students to go by when they come to rebuild the church. We were all disappointed that we would not be reconstructing the church this semester like we originally had thought. However, by compiling our drawings, documents, contacts into a construction manual, we will still have our hand in how easily the church goes up in the fall. And now back to watercoloring….

After a long week of cold weather and a weekend of storms, the sun is finally shining again in Newbern. We started the day off with our normal Monday morning weekly meeting to plan what everyone is going to be working on all week. Then all the groups split up and began working on their individual tasks. We headed out to the site to finish sorting through all the members of the church and placing them in organized piles according to walls. It was so nice to be back outside working rather than sitting in the Red Barn working on the computer. Everyone was in great moods, getting a lot accomplished and enjoying the warm sunshine until word traveled to us about the shootings on Virginia Tech’s campus. We were all shocked and saddened to hear of this horrible massacre. After we left the site, many of us tried to enjoy the rest of the beautiful day and went running and threw the football before having to work on our amazing watercolor paintings.