Don Don the Mom

Well Donna Forlenza,
Your bday was on the 17th. I'll ruin the surprise and tell you there is a pretty sweet card coming your way. However, I felt as though you deserved a blog shout out, especially since you're one of the only people who reads this. Last year, we celebrated your historic day of birth with a carriage ride through Philly during which Chris tried to hit on the tour guide. There was also cake at Aunt Patti's and a bonfire. I apologize that I'm not there this year to celebrate with you, but I'll owe you dinner when we get back. If you play your cards right there could be Chinese buffet crab legs in your future. I know how you roll, Mom.

Will Maple 4 Survive?

This is Greg at work.


This is Greg with Dr Tom getting a root canal.


This is Sam with a power washer.


This is Sam in the hospital with a broken ankle.


This is Gaby and Drew sharing cheese balls from a giant container I purchased at Walmart.

Gaby and Drew are 2 of the 5 members of M4 who have been sick with flu symptoms this week. Yup, it's been an illness and injury-filled round. I'm starting to recognize the hospital staff, and becoming very familiar with their cafeteria and the location of restrooms throughout the building :-) Over the course of this year I've probably been to the doctor at least 25 times. Then again, prior to NCCC I think I was already the go-to for taking friends to the hospital, and I even ended up dating a hospital admittance guy once who I met while taking a co-worker to the ER. Maybe I should look into hospital jobs. It feels like I'm meant to be here. In fact, I'm writing this post from the ER waiting room right now...

Personal Protective Equipment

PPE, as it's called, is the stuff campus issues NCCC members to protect us on the worksite. That includes gloves, a helmet, safety glasses, earplugs, coveralls, steel toed boots, and rain gear. During our last few projects, we've used some of these items off and on, but Minot's been the first time that I've seen all of this Personal Protective Equipment used in concert. Wearing nearly all of that stuff at once, on top of your normal uniform looks something like this:


Why is Diana (on the left) wearing so much gear, you ask? Because this is what it looks like in a basement, power washer on blast behind you, poo water splashing off walls that were once covered in sewage, pieces of drywall shooting out of hidden cracks in the wall. It's foggy, dark, and difficult to see, even with a string of lights plugged into our generator.

Our sanitizing process involves carefully spraying every piece of wood in the house from about 6 inches away, then hitting it again with a soapy Simple Green solution and finally rinsing. Lastly we mix bleach and water together in a sprayer and go over all of the wood again to kill any remaining mold. Rain gear is a must when bleaching, or your clothes underneath can get ruined. I learned this the hard way. (sad face) Then you've got the muck & gut houses where we shovel out basements full of debris that have not been touched since the flood. Those jobs require us to wear P100 masks that filter out junk in the air and keep us from getting sick due to mold and possible asbestos.


Some jobs are demo houses, where we demolish flooring, rip out drywall and nails, remove hot water heaters, duct work, and that sort of thing, to prep them for future power washing. When working in those types of houses, we'll wear an N95 dust mask.


Sometimes it can be a pain to put on all the gear. With enough PPE for 9 people thrown into the back of our van, it's confusing to sort through in the morning. And because of contaminants, we have to wash our 2 sets of coveralls every other night so that we have a clean one each morning. It's worth it though, to keep the team safe. I certainly don't want a nail in the foot or mold in my lungs. And I usually try to keep the amount of poo water I'm covered in to a minimum, so the rain gear is my friend.

Honey Bees

One strange thing about Minot is the number of bees. They attack your peanut butter sandwich. They buzz around you in circles and gun for your soda whenever they have the chance. Greg screams a lot when he sees them. It's pretty hilarious. One day I made a comment along the lines of, "Why the hell are there so many dang bees around here?!" To which my site supervisor, Dave, replied that North Dakota is the #1 honey-producing state in the nation. No crap? Yup, makes sense now. One trick I learned is to cut the cylindrical top off a water bottle. Invert it back into the bottle, then fill it with a sweet liquid. The bees are drawn into the bottle and then get stuck inside. It works, no lie.

Our Pal Lucille

Meet Lucille.

She's a member of the church that we're staying at. So far she's made us hot breakfasts on two separate occasions; and went out of her way to make our teammate Sam feel comfortable recently when he broke his ankle. She always keeps our toilet paper and paper towels stocked; and even let us borrow her electric skillet. Good 'ole Lucille. Does it get any better than that? Oh yes it does. This weekend Lucille had us over to her farm for a family dinner. She invited us into the living room where we had an appetizer of homemade artichoke dip. There was casual conversation and an orange juice and spritzer mix. Then we made our way to the dining area where we shared a lovely meal of turkey, cranberry sauce, yams, salad, assorted jellies, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and apple pie.




Delightful! We even played a party game. It was a quite nice to enjoy a meal/ activity together for 3.25 hours without bickering or wanting to run away from each other. And now I can honestly say that if there's something North Dakota has going for it, it's most definitely hospitality to strangers.

Land of the Vikings!

A surprising fact about Minot is that it is home to the largest annual Scandinavian festival in North America: Norsk Høstfest. Although the flooding may have led to the cancellation of the state fair (which also occurs in Minot) those dang Vikings could not be robbed of their annual pilgrimage. Our sponsor organization, Lutheran Disaster Response, hooked us up with complimentary tickets and the day off to indulge in the festivities. First we drove over to the local Scandinavian park to tour some traditional buildings.


Upon arriving at the fest, we were greeted by a giant troll man.


Then there was the Swedish Dala horse, a Scandinavian mascot of sorts.


An outrageous book I came across with a picture of an entire family naked in a sauna together. Classic Scandinavian stuff right there.


Not to mention traditional foods all over the place. Gaby and I went on a quest to eat them all. I had some Swedish meatballs, and we tried this dessert called Rommegrot, which is incredibly caloric and delicious treat made with cream, butter, and copious amounts of cinnamon sugar. Here is Gaby, initially deciding whether she likes it or not:


There were also a ton of vendors and people showcasing their arts and crafts. Lots of wood-workers, and performances including this accordion player's rendition of "Sweet Caroline," a Boston favorite:

Vikings fighting with swords:

And girls dancing on skis. I can't make this stuff up, people. I didn't take a very good video, but there's one online if you want to see what it's all about. Which, of course you do.


Our second day at the festival was spent working with some volunteers from LDR to serve food cooked on site by Scandinavian chefs. Spiffy outfits, right?


All in all it was a fun time, and like I said, a surprising turn of events. Minot, the Viking capital of North America? Go figure.