Chopping Wood

We are still cleaning up the back corner. Lots of stuff got hauled off or trashed over the weekend and now we are chopping our way through a pile of crappy wood and stumps.

Here's Ryno getting ready for work. Ryno ran the chain saw and worked very hard to cut up all the stumps that were too big to split.

This pile of wood is split and waiting to be stacked on pallets. That's the log splitter in the background. The guys normally run the log splitter (for some reason they seem hesitant to let me run heavy machinery...hmmm) but this time I learned how to start and run it myself.


And here is the back corner, partly cleaned up, with our first pallet of stacked wood. We ended up with 5 small pallets and one large pallet of firewood.

And here I am, safety glasses, bandanna and all. :)

Scrapping a Trailer

Along with the park we inherited numerous old trailers and RVs. When I say "old" I mean it - some trailers have been in their current positions for decades and are often in awful shape. Others, newer or better cared for, have been moved here and there around the park as we tried to decide whether to junk them or keep them temporarily for storage or living quarters. The trailers pictured below were moved near the parking lot last summer for just that reason.

In the interest of getting things cleaned up (and realizing that we are going to be too busy to blink over the summer) we decided to do some trailer demolition last week. We are continually amazed at how much work goes into dismantling even a simple construction trailer like the one pictured below.

Starting from the inside out (and with the help of one of our most hardworking volunteers) we first stripped away the drywall, ceiling tile, and floor, along with any hardware like lights, ceiling fans or vents, and electrical wire.

We then pull out all the insulation (a nasty job) and haul it to the dumpster.

All the exterior cladding and other metal items are put in the metal trailer to be recycled.

Wood is taken to the burn pile.

The men knocked out the load bearing columns on one end of the trailer and scored the rest of the 2x4s holding up the roof. They tried to pull the roof down:

But it wouldn't budge, so next week we are going to take the backhoe to it.

Next week: Scrapping a Trailer, Part 2: Crunching a Trailer with a Backhoe

Junkyard

Over the years the park has been a family farm, a campground, an RV park, and a historical re-enactment site. The amount of junk that has accrued over the years is considerable.
The junk makes the park look pretty bad. I feel sorry for our neighbors and friends who have to drive by such an eyesore every day. In the interest of cleaning up our park and making it a safe and happy place to be, we spend time every week sorting, moving, cleaning, storing and getting rid of vast quantities of weird stuff. The following is an inventory of one small corner of the park.

These are two culverts that we replaced last summer. Today we loaded them up to go to metal recycling.

Here is an old tractor, which we will probably clean up and display somewhere in the park.

This is the frame for the old honey wagon (a honey wagon is a machine that sucks poop out of RVs or portajohns). It is also destined for metal recycling.

Here are two fuel tanks that used to sit next to the corn crib. We can't quite decide what to do with them, or even if they are still usable. I suspect they will end up being recycled too. Behind them you can see two broken fiberglass paddleboats which are headed for the trash.

These are some old merry-go-round frames which we intend to restore and use. Behind them is a little trailer which bears a label indicating that at some point it belonged to the Illinois Secretary of State.

Ubiquitous propane tanks. I think we had a billion of them at one point. The gas company can't use the older tanks, and metal recycling won't take them unless they can be adequately assured that there is no danger of explosion - in other words, they have to be taken apart or punctured before we can recycle them.

Here you can see a little red truck that doesn't run and a wagon that has moss growing on it. The truck will be towed to the recycling and the wagon, which has a decent frame, will be repaired and rebuilt for our use.

We spent a lot of time today digging things out of the snow, hauling the stuff away or throwing it in the garbage, and chopping a pile of wood that has been lurking in this corner. Soon I will post some pictures of our newly improved back corner.

Winter Continues

We have had snow on the ground since Thanksgiving and the winter is beginning to seem abysmally long. The kids haven't complained a bit and in fact they don't seem to have noticed that winter lasts longer here than in Champaign. Fortunately they cope well with both monotony and hectic change which stands them in good stead for life here at the park. They are happy campers as usual. We have seen two sure signs that spring is approaching. First, an infernal mud pit has developed at the intersection of our two most-used roads. I read a book about pioneers recently which said that in the mid-nineteenth century the deep ruts made by wagon wheels on the Oregon Trail (ruts made in the mid-eighteenth century) were still visible along the roads in that area. I believe it, given how quickly this mess has developed while the ground is still mostly snow-covered. Hopefully we will be able to put down some gravel here soon but the gravel pile is currently frozen solid.Here is the other sign of spring - growing buds on the American Lindens in the parking lot! It is gratifying to see that our baby trees made it through the winter.

New Computer

I got a new laptop (the husband got tired of sharing) and a pen tablet. I love pen tablets! So fun! So much like real doodling! Here is my first effort.

This doodle of boats has nothing to do with the park, but I am extra excited about being able to do sketches of ideas for the park and post them here.

New Camera

Gregg has very kindly lent me his camera to use as mine is still broken. The new camera is much nicer than mine and has a lot more buttons, so we have been taking some experimental photos with it in order to learn how to use it.

The new camera has a much better zoom function than the old one:

It is also better at not making Ryno's eyes red. He has very pale blue eyes but so far so good with the new camera. Here are the many faces of Ryno.

Angry:

Melancholy:

And Popeye:

Here is our kitchen, nicely in focus from the foreground to the background. Way to go, camera:

Here is Aaron very happy at his work. For some reason most of the pictures we took of Aaron today turned out fuzzy. Perhaps the new camera cannot cope with his sheer Awesomeness?

(Ha ha.)

Here is a window frame that Aaron recently built. He is hand-building replacements for all the window frames in the dowstairs of the house. The picture is a bit dark. I will have to work on that.And here, alas, is how the men (my husband specifically) have repaid all my efforts to take nice pictures of them:

Good grief.

2nd Annual Late Winter World War II Tactical Event

Last weekend we hosted the 2nd Annual Late Winter World War II Tactical Event. This was a Western theatre of operations WWII tactical battle using authentic gear with blank ammunition.

We had 142 re-enactors and 20+ umpires, volunteers, and staff and everyone had a great time crawling around in the snowy woods while the two sides fought it out. These re-enactors put a great deal of time and effort into their gear and garb and it really shows.

Here are a few pictures from the event.