Volunteers from Cabin Work Day in Sept As the temperatures dropped, our volunteer counts started to rise. We had 2 wildly successful volunteer events, and we are making good progress on the cabin sites. However, staying ahead of the volunteers keeps us busy. But not too busy to spend some time with kids and grandkids.
Work Days
On National Public Lands Day, we had 30 volunteers scraping, priming, staining and painting at the Paspahegh Cabin group. The volunteers made progress on all of the buildings in the group. Just 3 days later, a Lowe’s employee team arrived for the first of 2 planned Red Vest Days. With a dozen employees from the nearby store and 5 other volunteers, we made progress on Weyanock, this year’s primary cabin group site.
On National Public Lands Day, we had 30 volunteers scraping, priming, staining and painting at the Paspahegh Cabin group. The volunteers made progress on all of the buildings in the group. Just 3 days later, a Lowe’s employee team arrived for the first of 2 planned Red Vest Days. With a dozen employees from the nearby store and 5 other volunteers, we made progress on Weyanock, this year’s primary cabin group site.
Installing a new vent screen in a cabin The Red Vest Day teams tackled a number of tasks. One team partnered with a long-time volunteer to replace the screens in the upper gable vents that have been compromised by squirrels over time. After removing the original screen (most of which were original – made of copper), the team installed hardware cloth to better defend against the crafty squirrels and then framed it so that the original screen (or a replacement if necessary) could be put in place. The screen was then trimmed with molding strips that volunteers have been making over the last few months. When this work is combined with the repairs to the shutters and screens during Cabin Work Week, the squirrels will have to find another place to live this winter. Sorry, guys.
Priiming screen molding. The rest of the volunteers were deployed across the cabins to scrape, prime and paint. We had some volunteers willing to do high ladder work, which allowed one to finish the lodge siding near the top of the chimney that had eluded Mary and Angie last fall and another to the paint the last 2 remaining peaks, saving Joe from having to tend to them on his return. As several volunteers made their way around the sides of the remaining cabins, we had a couple make steady progress on our screen molding. With over 1000 pieces needed to be primed and painted, this is something that is pretty much an endless task, but bit by bit we are building a stockpile.
Dave recruits the Lowe's employees for Cabin Work Week. We have a 2nd Red Vest Day scheduled for late October in the week before the Cabin Work Week begins. There will likely be lots more people to help us position supplies and finish preparing Weyanock for the start of the project. If the first day is any indication, it should be a big success.
Hauling a ladder in the golf cart While these workdays are an important part of our time here at Pocahontas, we still have our focus on the Cabin Work Week at the beginning of November. Various medical issues have caused several late cancellations that keep us actively recruiting to fill the open slots. And Cathy spent time building our final supply order that Lowe’s will be delivering just before the next Red Vest Day.
Adam drills a hole for his shore power. Family Time
A couple of visits to Adam’s allowed Dave and he to finish some electrical projects – installing a shore power inlet and connecting his 2nd solar panel to the controller. This required drilling a sizable hole in the side of the bus. Dave let Adam do that.
A couple of visits to Adam’s allowed Dave and he to finish some electrical projects – installing a shore power inlet and connecting his 2nd solar panel to the controller. This required drilling a sizable hole in the side of the bus. Dave let Adam do that.
Troy tries to light his mini-grill With cooler temps, we were willing to have grandson Troy build a fire, which he did both in our fire pit and his “mini-grill” that he made out of a can. We preferred toasting our marshmallows on the big fire though. They cooked a bit faster.
