Playing In The Sand

Sometimes skills you learned as a youngster pay off when you’re an adult.  When I was just a wee lad, I loved to go to the beach and dig in the sand.  Many a magnificent sand castle was built with my shovel, bucket and hands.

It’s be a while (decades) since I dug holes in a beach, but I was able to recall those talents and put them to good use here at Thurmond Lake.

Around the lake, there are numerous beaches maintained by the COE.  Due to budget cuts, some of these beaches have been closed for years.  Recently, some extra money was allotted to the COE and it is going to be used to reopen a formally closed beach.

Marti and I hopped in a Ranger truck and headed out for an hour long drive to get to this particular beach.  Because the beach has been closed for years, the sand needed to be inspected to see if there was a need for grooming, replacement or adding additional amounts.

Arriving at the beach, we walked around and looked at it.

                

I had to dig several holes at various locations on the beach to measure the sand depth.

                

                

In the mid part of the beach, the sand averaged about 12 inches in the several holes I dug.

At the waterline, it was less that three inches.

               

Looking at the water’s edge, you could see how the sand had been eroded away over the several years the beach was closed.

               

The bottom inside the swimming area is in need of a bunch of sand to bring it up to the COE standards.  Nobody would want to swim in this water with all the mud and rocks.

               

We drove back and turned in our results to the park manager, who will arrange to get loads of sand to get the beach ready for opening this summer.

Another unusual job we’ve done, another reason we enjoy our workamping job here with the COE.  The variety of things we get to do is always fun and never boring.  We’ll be here for about another six weeks before we head out for our summer travels and look forward to see what interesting things we’ll do next.  Childhood skills proved to be helpful on this job.    :c)

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