Operations Manager Tom Gentry arrives early on Monday mornings to get the coffee dripping and to make sure the work area is cleaned up.  By 7:30am the first of the Over the Hill Gang volunteers arrive, tool buckets in hand. The size of the group can vary from 8 -14.  The young ones are in our 70s and we go up from there, says Duke Monroe. They greet one another as old friends do and await instructions from Jim Manville, their designer and organizer.  By 8am they have their marching orders. Shortly thereafter sawdust is flying and groups of men are crowded around chop saws and work tables. Opinions are voiced about how the task at hand might be improved or speeded up. At 10am everything stops for coffee and donuts. Stories are swapped and updates shared on the whereabouts of those not present.  Each week the group receives a pithy email like that below from their chief communicator, Bruce Blackhall.

Believe it or not……………..The sand boxes are done (finally) and the wrap-up activities are underway for the fencing panels for the goat pens. And then, just when you thought you had seen all the gadgets designed for the Ferncliff campers, along comes the Giant Sling-shot.  There you have it, now you know as much as I do regarding this latest project to test the imagination of the OTHG.  Come on out to Ferncliff Monday morning and hear the rest of the story.  See ya BEB

The group has been working together for decades. The name Over the Hill Gang became their tag line a while back. About five years ago they started working in Ferncliff’s Disaster Assistance Center (DAC) making Emergency Storage Units for tornado survivors. They liked working indoors where they could be out of the weather and near a coffee pot. So Ferncliff started coming up with things they could build in the DAC shop and then transport. Picnic tables, benches, trash barrel holders, shelves, sheds, deck railings, trusses, wardrobes, footstools, micro-libraries, fence panels, garden raised beds out of bathtubs, easels, sandwich board signs, stages, platform beds, sandboxes, portable shower unit, boot hangers, toiletry cubbies, toy storage units, tables, hanging swings, and more.