Recycling Christmas Trees

To start the day off, I did everything right.  Knowing we were in for some extremely low night temperatures,  along with running the propane furnace, I went and put two droplights in my two wet bays to protect the water system.

I disconnected the outside water hose after topping off the onboard water tank.

  I did everything right, but it turned out wrong.  The Journey’s water system still froze up. 

We awoke to the lowest temperature we’ve ever seen in the Journey.  This was at 8am, overnight it was in the single digits.  (Just ignore the time number on the bottom, never can keep that time set right.  The outside number is in the middle.)

I decided to see if the water system would thaw itself out as the day “warmed” up.  Fortunately it did with no damage. 

Of course, on the coldest day of the year (so far) we headed out to help in the COE annual project to recycle discarded Christmas trees.

One of the nearby schools is the drop off point for trees.  The trees are loaded onto trucks and then dumped off at all the boat ramps around Thurston Lake.  Fishermen happily take the trees, weight them down and them dump them at various points around the lake.  These trees provide cover for fish and increase the populations immensely.  It’s a hugely popular program for fishing recreation and the trees naturally degrade over the year. 

But first the trees have to be loaded on to trucks to be transported.  That’s where we, and most all the volunteers came in.  Of course, we all bundled up to ward off the cold.  Marti was wrapped in a whole bunch of layers.  If she ever fell down, she’d never be able to get herself up without help!  :c)

There were well over a thousand trees dropped off.  

Every size and shape as well as color were in the huge pile.  Some even had that fancy simulated snow sprayed on them.  Don’t worry, it is harmless and biodegradable.

We loaded truck after truck with trees.

We even had a huge tractor trailer truck come.  In no time we filled it up with a bunch of trees.

While we waited for more trucks to fill, we dragged and stacked trees close to the curb to readily fill the next available truck.

Mike actually looked like he was having fun!  Maybe he missed his calling as a lumber jack?

We worked for over six hours dragging, loading and stacking trees on trucks. 

At the end of the day, it looked like we had moved a little over half of the trees.  We’ll be back on Thursday to finish the job.

We slept good last night.  The 800mgs of Motrin I took sure helped the aches and pains despite being very careful of my back and shoulder.  I sure can’t do what I used to, it was nice to have many younger park rangers to do most of the heavy lifting.

Thankfully, we didn’t have the water system freeze on us.  The past two nights, we’ve used over half of our full onboard tank of propane.

Below forty degrees, the Journey’s electric heat pump automatically shifts over to the propane furnace.  Hopefully, the days and nights will warm up more so I can use the little portable propane tank that I have hooked into the Journey that I can easily refill instead of having to drive the Journey into Augusta, GA to get the tank filled.  About a 36 mile round trip.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Where’s Noah When You Need Him?

We’ve had an unusual amount of rain here at Thurmond Lake.  Water levels have been approaching historic highs and the Savannah River is much higher than it normally is this time of year.

As a result, Marti and I where sent out to look over all the campgrounds and boat ramps on the South Carolina side of Thurmond Lake while Jim, another volunteer, checked the Georgia side of the lake.

The fear was with the water levels so high, the concrete lanes of the boat ramps would be so submerged that it would make launching and recovering boats too dangerous, the boaters might drive off the ramps and get in serious trouble.

Also, some of the COE docks were submerged.  All these sites needed to be inspected for damage and closed off until the water level subsides.

We drove into all the campgrounds, flooding even back from the lake occurred.

We taped off many of the ramps, the water level was so high, the concrete lanes were way under and invisible.

We checked a few boat ramps that had been closed off the day before.  Some boaters just tore down the tape and used the closed ramps anyway, so we had to re-tape the ramps.

At the Thurmond Dam, the COE was letting out large amounts of water to help lower the lake levels.  It caused large, turbulent waves and eddies below the dam.

 

A couple of the boat ramps were okay, so we left them open as they could be safely used.

At one ramp we encountered some duck hunters who had given up for the day and pulled their boat out of the water.  I talked with them and they disgustedly said they had been out since early morning and hadn’t seen a single duck.

 

Guess what came waddling up the boat ramp right behind them.

Hunters: 0  Ducks: 1  :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Last Workday Of The Year

Yep, Pin Hunting again.

We’ve come to really enjoy this work.  It’s fun to get out and hike in the woods, enjoying nature and accomplishing an important task.  We’ve refined things to make our treks easier and more fun.

We follow marked trees along the boundary lines to get to the survey pin locations.

There are many club communities along Lake Thurmond that are close to the COE properties.  Today, we went to the Interstate Club to survey the property lines.

With all the heavy rains the area has been experiencing recently, the level of Thurmond Lake has risen significantly.  Many areas are flooded.

 

Most of the docks are under water, too.

The COE boat access ramp docks around the lake are also under water.  Thankfully, they have been taped off to block access to the public.  Wouldn’t want someone to accidently get wet trying to walk out on the dock…  ;c)

As we drove through one of the communities, we had to slow way down. 

We kept our work day short, because we had a New Year’s party for all the Volunteers at the Rec Hall.  Everyone brought some light snacks.  Of course, we didn’t feel too light after eating all of them.

We had a big card game that went past midnight into 2014.  Lots of fun and laughter.

And what would a New Year’s Eve party be without hats?

Mike was a little surprised at my hat.

I’m going to audition for a role on Duck Dynasty.

We got a picture of our little granddaughter Rebekah in Missouri wearing her New Year’s party hat.

 

Yep, the acorn truly does not fall far from the tree!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.