Week 16 January 23 - 26

To Vancouver !
This week we finally got outta town !  There was a big project sponsored by the Washington State Department of Transportation that we were to help out with.  Two other crews were there with us, though most of the time we would all be working on different parts of it.  The sites were closer to Washougal than to Vancouver, and were scattered along the Lewis and Clark Highway and the Evergreen Highway.
     The first day we were there, it was gorgeous and warm.  The rest of the week, we got SOAKED !  It was the first time we had to break out our rain gear.  And we still got soaked with the rain gear on.  We got a fair number of plants put in the ground throughout the week.  They were all bare root and could just be popped in the ground.  The last morning was all about putting willows in the ground, though technically it was mud. Lots of mud.  It was nothing like putting willows in the ground on the Eastside.  No rebar or mallets were required, which made for a kind of pleasant change.  The La Quinta we stayed at was pretty nice. Clean too.  Our evenings were spent playing cards together or just hanging out.  All in all, it wasn't a bad first spike of the year.







Yeah, we're getting soaked . . .














But we're ok with it !









This was our last day, when we planted willows with Dave Coffey's Crew.




































































There was lots . . .














and lots . . .



















of mud.

It was GREAT !

Week 15 January 16 - 19 MLK

Martin Luther King Jr Week of Service

For our week of service we helped out an arena that is host to the Spirit of Hope Therapy Center, located in Selah Washington, in the Wenas area. The Spirit of Hope program provides social skills, boundaries, and assertiveness training for people of all ages.  It also provides non-verbal communication training for medical providers, as well as leadership/communication/ team building sessions.  The program aims to provide "healing through horses".
     A lot of work needed to be done around the place, so we came up with a list of priorities and started in on it.  First we brushcut a bunch of weeds surrounding the clubhouse and down the back driveway.  We also took a drive further up the Wenas where we had arranged to cut some downed trees for firewood for the clubhouse.  Next on the list was to burn all the brush piles and keep tidying up out in the  arena.  Once most of the work was done on the outside, we then got to tear up the kitchen floor in the clubhouse.  As the floor was being worked on, a few of us went into the arena to put in a few hitching posts that were needed.  Once the floor was all torn out, we worked on putting a better floor in.  At the end of the week we were finished with putting the first part of the flooring in.  When a good final flooring is found, we aim to go back to the clubhouse to put it in.

The following photos are of us working on the floor :




First we had to move everything off the old floor.













Tearing out the floor came next.

































































We found some interesting electrical setups.



Once all the old stuff was off, we got to start putting new stuff down.









































































































































One more piece to glue down and screw in !

























































Now to put everything back in the room.

Week 14 January 9 - 12

DEMOLITION CONTINUES ! !

This week we kept on with the demolishing of the trailer.  It was a blast !  Removing the insulation was kind of a pain, but we got it all out.  All the tin siding was recycled and all the crappy wood was thrown away.