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Friday, January 8, 2016

I'd Rather Paint

The holidays are over, but that doesn't mean we're slacking off here with our workamping.  In fact, in January, there is one very big job that the Corps Of Engineers does every year.


The rangers set up a drop off point for area residents to drop off their Christmas Trees for recycling.  There are usually hundreds, sometime thousands of trees dropped off.

 
Rangers and COE volunteers, along with other local volunteers come, sort through the trees and drag them to the cub in an orderly fashion.
 
 
From the curb, the trees are loaded onto trucks and trailers.
 
 
 
Thank goodness that we have some young, strong rangers to do the actually lifting onto the trucks and trailers.  I can drag the trees to the curb carefully, but my days of lifting are over because of my back and shoulder injuries.  I do what I can, with the amount of trees, every little bit helps.  With lots of trucks and volunteers, we were able to load all the trees in one day.  Other years, it has taken several days to pickup and distribute all the trees.
 
 
The trees are then taken to the boat ramps all around Thurmond and Russell lakes.  Fishermen then take the trees, weight them down with old cinder blocks and place them in various locations around the lakes.  This gives the fish a safe place to breed and grow to adult size.  The fishermen love this opportunity to increase their chances to catch fish.  The trees naturally biodegrade putting nutrients into the waters.  It's a good program.  Just a lot (a lot) of work.
 
After the trees were all loaded up and sent on their way, I rode my motorcycle down to the Thurmond dam to see how things were progressing with the lake levels.
 
 
The dam still has the floodgates open and they will remain open for the next several days at least.  The flow of water going over the dam is enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool every two seconds!
 
 
 From the looks of things, the water levels are going down, but there is going to be lots of cleaning and painting ahead in our future. 
 
 
 
 That's okay, though.  Given a choice between dragging trees and painting, I'd rather paint!  ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

11 comments:

  1. As long as there isn't a needle gun in the vicinity, I believe I'm with you on that.

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  2. That's the first time I have ever heard of doing that with Christmas Trees. Our local municipality grinds the Christmas trees into mulch that they put over the flower beds.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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  3. I remember that from last year. What a great idea repurposing the trees. Hope you're enjoying your birthday!

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  4. Great Job with the Christmas Trees, but I really think you prefer riding your Motorcycle even more than painting.

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  5. With the high water, will that mean you'll have to repaint benches that you did this fall?

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    1. Yep, some of them for sure, after they are pressure washed from all the muck in the water. :c(

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  6. HA! Never thought I'd see those words in print from your fingers "I'd rather paint". Pretty deep waters still.

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  7. I would love to see the waterfront campsites at Modoc. The last time we were there, the water was way down and all you saw were steep banks of red clay. Just hard to comprehend how much water is flowing through the dam!!!

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  8. It's amazing all the work you are doing at the park. Retiring is definitely not part of your vocabulary. Time to relax a bit but I hear a cruise is coming up soon too.

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  9. That really looks like an incredible place from the photos. That RV in the first picture reminds me of the RV my wife and I used to have before sold it. We are retired now so we just cannot drive longer distances without the rest of the children joining us, and they are far too busy at the moment. Thanks.

    Liza Pilon @ Prairie City RV

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