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Thursday, December 19, 2013

A New Volunteer

Volunteers here at J. Strom Thurmond COE come in all shapes and sizes and we got a special little one.  Our grandson Owie (Owen) came to stay with us for a few days while his big brother Andrew is recuperating from a successful tonsillectomy.

We gave him the grand tour of the things we do here.  We went to a Christmas Party luncheon at the Thurmond Dam Power Plant.

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Owie was fascinated by the big generators inside the Thurmond Dam.

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He enjoyed the food, especially, his favorite, Black Olives.

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On Wednesday nights, we get together with some of the other volunteers at the Rec Hall and play cards.  Owie learned a new card game called Golf,

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and he smoked us all!

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Today, we took Owie out in the field with us, we did some more property line inspections and pin hunting.  Owie was given the proper attire to wear.

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He learned how to use the metal detector.

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Some of the pins were buried so he had to dig them out.

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The buried pins are usually very dirty and it is hard to read the serial number on it, so we use a brush to clean it off.

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On some pins, they are so dirt encrusted we have to use a wet rag to wipe off the dirt.

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Once the pin is cleaned off and the number recorded on the map, a pink ribbon is tied around the pin to ease locating it in the future.

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Owie learned to read the map, Mimi Marti had fun teaching him map reading.

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We found a few properties that had encroached onto COE land.  If you look just over the bird bath, you can see Owie off in the distance standing next to a boundary line marker, just to his left (click on the picture to enlarge).  I took this picture looking down the boundary and this homeowner had built a deck over the line and a large fish pond.  The COE will be contacting this homeowner to get the deck cut back and the fish pond removed. 

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Other homeowners kept their decks on the right side of the line…just!

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We enjoyed having Owie along, with his help, we were able to complete another large section of COE property lines and verified the location of over two dozen survey pins.

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And Marti was really pleased because she didn’t fall into any ditches, this time…

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But it’s not all work.  We had to feed this little bundle of energy.  Pizza for lunch was the way to go.

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The rangers were very pleased with Owie’s work and awarded him his Junior Ranger Badge.

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He’s one happy guy proudly wearing his badge .

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He had one question for us.  After six hours of tramping all around in the woods, he wanted to know:  “Why are we stopping so early?”

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

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21 comments:

  1. It's nice that you're giving on-the-job training for Owie. Only six hours? I think Owie was looking forward to all the overtime dollars he was going to get.

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  2. Making more MEMORIES!!! How much fun was that!!!

    Great Photos of the new recruit:o))

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  3. Now that was a really cool day for all of you. So, tell me....why did you stop so early?

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  4. What a great memory for that little boy. He will be telling that story of his cool grandparents to his grandkids.

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  5. Nice day! Learning to be a volunteer at an early age has to be all good:)

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  6. Owie is just cute as the dickens! Great post!

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  7. Wonderful! Such for for everyone!

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  8. Great pictures of your newest volunteer. Teach 'em while they're young! I bet it was a day Owie will never forget. I don't think I have ever seen a kid who did not put black olives on their fingers.

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  9. Your grandson must have enjoyed all the days wonderfully with you by learning many different things...

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  10. Owie has the makings of a future COE volunteer ... all he needs is his own RV ;-) That's going to be one unhappy homeowner when the COE contacts him about the encroachment.

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  11. Now that looks like fun! Love a young persons perspective!

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  12. Oh wow! I'd love to have Owie along on our adventures... what a great day you had... who said working can't be fun?

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  13. So cool that they allowed Owie to help! Even cooler that now he's a Junior Ranger :-) You two better watch out, he may replace you!

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  14. Oh the energy of the young ones, sounds like you had an awesome day.

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  15. What a fantastic day for Owie and for his terrific grandparents too. I'm sure that Ranger badge will be a proud keepsake for him.

    If Owie can't find it in the next day or so, I'll bet I know who will be wearing that nice, shiny badge after he goes home!!!

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  16. A good way to make pin hunting more fun.

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  17. Gosh, he must be thrilled! Poor Andrew. I bet he's going to be jealous.

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  18. What a great experience for your grandson. He was beaming in every photo. It looks like he had a good mix of work and play--just like you seem to do.

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  19. Of course, Owie would like hunting for survery pins, after all he is an expert geo-cacher. What a great time you all had.

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  20. After 6 hours, Owie was probably just getting started. You must be mighty proud of that Junior Ranger!

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