Pin Hunting

Just so you know, it isn’t all daydreams and lollypops with our workamping job here at J. Strom Thurmond COE.  In fairness and full disclosure, we do have an occasional campfire with good friends and marshmallows.

But Marti and I are Type “A” personalities and we like to get things done and earn our keep.  So today, we set out on a new mission:  Pin Hunting.

The COEs has hundreds of miles of boundary lines all around Thurmond Lake.  It had been surveyed over the years and must constantly be checked and rechecked to protect the boundaries from encroachment by people building on or illegally using COE property.  All along the boundaries are thousands of survey pins.   Lost, damaged or missing pins need to be noted for replacement.

The boundary lines are marked with pins and caps attached to the pin, each bearing a unique number.

 

Our mission was to set out, locate and verify the marker pins and caps were in place along an area by a road way out in the boondocks.  When we located a survey marker, we were to check it off our on our map and tie some pink ribbon around it to enable it to be easily located again.

Most importantly we had two items, a guide that shows markings on trees near the pins and boundary lines (to help narrow down the pin location),

and a metal detector to find buried pins.

Because it is deer hunting season, we had to be aware of the dangers of walking around in the woods.

We went out well equipped to handle the job.  Orange vests, a map of the pins along with some Google Earth pictures.  Bug spray, pink tape, a shovel, a two way radio, even a machete to be able to hack our way into the woods. 

 

We located many marked trees.

This one won’t be much help too much longer.

We started our search along a half mile length of road.  We figured this was going to be a piece of cake.

We found car trim parts.

And buried cables.

As carefully as we searched with the metal detector on spots our map said the pins would be located,

we dug many an empty hole,

and found even more wire, but no pins!

Finally we found a very elusive pin, it was hidden under a fallen telephone pole which, fortunately was very dry and rotten.

Alas, the cap was missing.  It will have to be replaced.  Originally the caps were made of brass and over the years many have been stolen and sold for scrap.  Replacement caps are made of aluminum now and are replaced on the metal pins as markers.

It ended up being a very frustrating five hours, we found and marked only two pins.  Along with being stolen or buried under leaves and soil, some of the pins are accidently destroyed alongside roads like where we were hunting by grass cutting tractors.

We came back pretty defeated.  We had very little results to show for our endeavor.  We thought we’d have to turn in our red volunteer vests and be banished from Thurmond COEs.  Turning in our work the rangers laughed and told us how hard it is to find the pins, most of the time, they can’t find many, either. 

Phew!  We thought it was just us!   Maybe next week we can try again…

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Projects

Despite all the “work” we’ve done here at J. Strom Thurmond COE this past week, I still found time to work on and line up a few more projects.

Number One on the list was to give the Journey a thorough wash, we drove it from South Carolina, to Missouri and back to South Carolina, collecting dirt and bugs from every state in between. 

Since we had been in the campground in Irmo, SC under heavy trees, the roof was quite filthy.  So I started there.

The slide awnings needed some TLC also.

Up I went with my scrub brush, some Spic-N-Span, my hose and bucket and had a merry little time attacking the dirt.  While I was up there I enjoyed the view of our little, twelve space Volunteer Village campground.

A lot of our neighbors stopped by while I was up there and offered to make their RVs available for bathing after I was done with mine.  Um, no thanks!

Got the roof done, I’m pretty happy with the result.

Of course, all that dirt has to go somewhere, and it did, coating the sides of the Journey.

I had a solution for that, some of my Blue Coral Wash and Wax and a couple of hours later and the Journey is gleaming.  That makes me Happy-Happy-Happy but Tired-Tired-Tired!

It’s nice to step back and see you motorhome is Queen, instead of looking like a dirty old Cow, E-I-E-I-O (I’ve been watching too many commercials on  TV, I guess).

On to new projects.  My tailpipe that I ordered on line arrived.  It’s five inches in diameter and twenty four inches long.

It has the expanded end to slip over the existing exhaust pipe, all I have to do is measure the exhaust pipe and make a cut, leaving enough to fit the pipe on.  The existing exhaust pipe is in good, solid condition.  You can see the expanded end in the next picture.

I have a new band clamp to attach the two pipes together, but I have to track down a  five inch “U” exhaust clamp to fix the other end in the hangers.  That’s going to be fun, clamps that size are not too readily available.  Hopefully I can find a truck repair shop that will have one in stock.

Since I had so much fun cutting my broken pipe off back in Missouri with a hack saw to make a temporary repair, this time I got smart and borrowed my SIL Brian’s electric Saws All.  Should be some smooth hacking this time.

Nosing around Lowe’s, I found a nice piece of wood and some stain to cover up that hole behind my new LP detector.

Just a few projects to keep me busy, when I’m not “working”.  You know what they say about “Idle Hands”.   ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Mimi And Her Boys

We finished our first week of workamping at J. Strom Thurmond COE and it didn’t seem like work at all.  We’re required to put in twenty hours of work per week between the two of us and by Wednesday, we had already done thirty!  We can’t figure out how those extra hours snuck in on us.

But it’s not all work, there is lots of time for play.  We did get in a nice lunch with Mike and Terri and George and Laurie.  Wandering around a little, nearby town, we guys had to have a little fun while the ladies shopped, er, browsed.

The one thing we’re very pleased with is that along with having a great time with great people on a great site, we’re still about an hour and a half drive to our daughter, Heather’s house.  We drive over on Fridays to visit and for Marti to give Andrew and Owie piano lessons.  Marti’s putting her music degree to work.

The boys are doing great and enjoying the world of music.

 

Of course, after all the fun of playing the piano, Marti and the boys sit together and enjoy their favorite activity…video games!

We went out to dinner at the boys favorite kind of restaurant, Japanese.  They waited with anticipation for some hot action.

 

You know what’s coming next, don’t you?

Too much like fun!

A great respite from all the arduous work of the past week.  :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.