An Outstanding Success

Saturday dawned clear and cool, a perfect setting for National Public Lands Day here at J. Strom Thurmond COE.  It was amazing and very heartening to see all the people from surrounding communities, clubs and organizations come out to help make some of the COE parks a better place for everyone to enjoy.

Over 150 kids and adults turned out and they pitched right in.  A girl scout troop helped Marti with the weeding and mulching around several of the gate houses.

                 

With plastic buckets, the girls carried mulch from piles to the gate houses.

                  

A couple of the finished gate houses, now looking good for another season.

                    

                     

Another team, comprised of local college kids and soldiers from the Wounded Warrior Project pitched in to help cut and clear brush from some areas.  It was hard work, but in just a few hours all the work was done.

                    

                    

Even this little guy worked his heart out.

                     

All the bluebird houses were screwed together by another troop of girl scouts in record time.  The girls loved using battery powered drills to screw the pieces together (closely supervised by adults, of course!).

                     

Many trails were cleared, trash and debris that floated down along the dam was removed by divers and hauled away by Sea Tow boats.  Picnic tables and benches were stained, grills were cleaned and painted, there were many projects that kept every volunteer occupied.

However, we couldn’t end the morning of hard work without feeding these wonderful folks.  A cookout was put on for them.

                    

While the burgers and hot dogs were cooking, some games, like beanbag toss,

                    

and volley ball were available. 

                    

Where did they get the energy after all that hard work?

I helped out a little here and there too, and enjoyed my “feast”.

                    

A great day, good planning and willing volunteers made the National Public Lands Day at J. Strom Thurmond COE an outstanding success!  Judging from the interest and enthusiasm of these young kids, the future of our nation’s parks will be in good hands.  :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

                          

National Public Lands Day

We really are glad to be back volunteering at the J. Strom Thurmond  Corps of Engineers project in South Carolina. 

                   

We did six months over last winter and had a blast helping the park rangers who oversee all the campgrounds, day use areas and boat ramps that surround Thurmond Lake.

                  

A mural of the dam and Thurmond Lake in the conference room

We had many great times doing all kinds of tasks that freed the rangers up for more important duties.  (We did a lot of boundary line pin hunting and enjoy that job the most).

Saturday, September 27th, is National Public Lands Day, where folks from all over the country come and spend a day helping out with work projects at parks near them.  Here at Thurmond COE, the COE volunteers have been getting everything ready for work projects at the West Dam campground.

Much credit has to be given to Ranger Dave, who is overseeing the whole program. 

                

A talented leader and a great guy to work for, he keeps track of a myriad of details and at the same time makes it fun for the COE volunteers.

All kinds of supplies, paint, rollers, brushes, cleaning gear and tools have been purchased, organized and loaded onto trucks to take it to the work site.

              

Pre cut wood to build bluebird houses is packed and ready for some girls scouts to assemble and hang.

                

Tools for brush clearing have also been procured.

                

Signs have been posted announcing the free day on the fee collection boxes at all the COE areas.

                 

An important job Marti will be working with her crew of helpers is weeding and spreading mulch around the campground gate houses.

                 

                 

Just another kind of job that needs to be accomplished to keep the Thurmond COE looking beautiful and maintaining the high standards expected from one of the nation’s most valuable resources.

The local community volunteers will have fun giving some time to help, but they won’t go unrewarded for their labors.  Each person will receive lunch, a neat t-shirt and a coupon for a free entry into any national park.  Boxes of shirts are ready to be handed out.

                 

Another great activity at the Thurmond COE and we are glad to be here and participate in it.

It’s not all work all the time, though.  Along with the satisfaction of volunteering and giving something back, we get to enjoy some  beautiful sunsets from our campground where we’re staying during our next three months of volunteering.  :c)

                  

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

                      

History Repeats Itself

Or in the immortal words of Yogi Bera:  “It’s like déjà vu all over again”.

We finished off our week with Andrew and Owie sleeping over in the Journey and an afternoon out geocaching.  It’s amazing the places geocaches can be hidden.

Like under the bolt cover on a parking lot lamp pole.

                

The boys worked together to get the log back in the container.

                 

Off into the woods to search for then next cache.

                

Andrew found the next one in the crotch of a tree.

                

This cache was big enough to contain some trade items.  Owie pondered which item to take before replacing it with a bunch of small items we carry.

                

It was a fun outing, we only had a couple of hours before the boys had to head to a friend’s birthday party.  But we were lucky, we found three caches out of the three went went looking for.  The boys are getting good at this sport, and love it.

This morning we “pulled chocks” and headed to the J. Strom Thurmond Army Corps of Engineering project where we’ll be volunteering through the end of the year.  Because we’re a week earlier than planned, we got a site in the Modoc campground until a site opens up for us in the nearby Volunteer Village campground 1 October. 

We have no complaints, a large, shady spot right next to Thurmond Lake.

                

It has a large patio area,

              

and even its own stairs and pathway to the water’s edge.

               

Because the site is so heavily wooded, our rooftop mounted satellite dish couldn’t get a signal, so I put up the portable dish.

                 

I didn’t hold out much hope to get locked onto the satellite through these trees.

                 

But I lucked out.  My Align-a-Site came through again and helped me find a hole in the canopy.  All the comforts of home and we’ll start our workamping week on Wednesday. 

First up is helping the rangers with National Public Lands Day, (this upcoming Saturday), where lots of volunteers all over the country spend the day helping with work projects in our National Parks.  In return, the participants get a free t-shirt, lunch and a free one day pass good to be used in any National Park.  A nice reward for a day helping keep our nation’s parks clean, neat and preserved for future generations.

We love this workamping job!  Not to mention there are still plenty of boundary line pins out there just waiting for us to find them…   :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.