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What Happens When 7 Strong Women Handle Power Tools

I love my job, especially when I get to meet strong women!  It’s even better when I get to watch strong women build houses!  You see, I make my living taking photographs.  Being my own boss allows me the privilege of taking on all kinds of odd jobs just for the fun of them.  It gives me lots of opportunities to check out different locations in my community and to meet people.  I just love meeting new people, especially when they are powerful females!

When my phone rang last week with an invitation to photograph a Habitat for Humanity build, I jumped on it.  Now, I know a little bit about Habitat for Humanity.  I know that families can apply to get a home built for them at a great low price.  I assume that these families must demonstrate some level of financial need, but that’s about as much as I knew before showing up at this build.

Click HERE to learn how this AMAZING organization, Habitat for Humanity, empowers women and families!

What I didn’t know, but learned later, is that the families who receive approval for an affordable home must be willing to partner with Habitat for Humanity.  Among other requirements, they must commit to working a specific number of hours on their own home.  Habitat calls this “Sweat Equity.”  Inspirational women love terms like “Sweat Equity.”  It means they get to work for their reward, and that’s just inspirational!  Is there anything better than when strong women build houses!?

Future homeowners are also welcomed to bring family and friends along, who support them in their journey to a new home.  While they are working, they get to meet other people who have previously built Habitat homes and make connections in the community.  They get the gift of learning new skills, too.  Habitat for Humanity home recipients work for their home, and they work hard!  And they are rewarded in many more ways than simply a roof over their heads in the end.

This was not your ordinary construction crew! It was a crew of Amazing Women!

The day arrived to photograph the building site. I drove there and expected to find a work crew.  However, what I didn’t expect to find was a work crew made up of all amazing women!  The future owner of the home, her mother and 5 other beautiful and strong women were all there dressed in Black and Pink Habitat for Humanity tees and ready to work.  There were seven women there and one man representing Habitat!  The man (whom I will call Ed) was there to give basic building instruction, provide consultation, and answer questions.  Not only was Ed an experienced builder, but he was also fluent in Spanish.  The team of women was speaking English and Spanish interchangeably.  I am a beginning Spanish student, so it was a pure bonus to practice my very limited Spanish with these inspirational women.

The story of habitat for humanity – get your copy HERE! You might even get to read about some strong women building a house!

If you are looking for one of those awesome work pouches that the ladies are wearing, you can pick one up at your local MENARDS for less than a dollar apiece.  I have several!  They’re great for projects around the house and the yard!

The job of the day was to place trim along the floor in the rooms.  After the team heard some instructions from Ed they got busy working.  There is nothing quite like watching strong women learn to use power tools!  They were rocking the Compound Miter Saw and taking measurements and cutting angles like they’d been doing it for years.  I could not have been more impressed.  It was an amazing, powerful experience to not only watch these women at work but to know that those same feminine hands were responsible for bits and pieces of the entire house in which I was standing!

I was immeasurably inspired!

Can you see the depth of field in these two shots above?  How the focus is on one area of the photo and the foreground or background is blurry, or out of focus?    There is a simple way to achieve this effect, called Depth of Field.  Check out TAKE YOUR PHOTOS TO THE NEXT LEVEL BY UNDERSTANDING DEPTH OF FIELD so you can make it happen next time you pick up your camera!

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Between the clicks of my camera, I watched these strong women work. They were an incredible team!  In tiny corners, on their hands and knees, they measured, cut, and nailed the trim into place.  They laughed, they asked questions (mostly in Spanish), and they even stopped to pose for a quick group photo.  I was only there for less than an hour, but in that time I was vastly inspired.  Watching women rock out manual labor was so impressive. Listening to Ed unpretentiously educate them was fantastic!  I was inspired by amazing women who had never used power equipment to step up to the task with no hesitation whatsoever. 

An organization that has the power and ability to gather together funds and labor from multiple partners in the community is so impressive.  Nothing went on in that house that day that did not touch my heart.  I hope you’ll take a minute to learn about this organization and recognize the power of working together, no matter who you are, what gender you are, or what language you speak! You can learn more about Habitat for Humanity by clicking HERE.