(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)
It is true. Spring is coming. I know that it is difficult for some of you in the “bad weather” belt to believe, but it’s true. The Redbud Trees attest to the fact, as you can see in the first picture above of a row of Redbuds in a picnic area. They are beginning to bud. Even here in South Georgia the weather shows its fickleness. It has been very warm for the last few days, up near 80 degrees, but it is forecasted to change again to some colder, wetter weather for a few days. But, true to form, Spring will arrive in three weeks, ready or not. But I bet you are ready. Huh?
Speaking of trees, yes there was something about trees somewhere in the last paragraph, look at the second picture. Do you recognize the tree? It is a magnolia. The picture does absolutely no justice to the real thing. It was necessary to get so far away to get the tree in the lens, one gets no perspective of its size. The tree is at the end of one of the hiking trails, and is reported to be the largest, or second largest, magnolia in Georgia depending on who is telling it. At any rate, I do know that it is twelve feet around. I took a tape measure and measured it. It appears to be some 70 to 80 feet tall, or taller. I am not great at estimating height, but you can tell that it towers over the trees surrounding it. It has to be more than 200 years old.
There are not many campers in the campground. Most of the time there are no campers in the campground. After all, it is Winter. Which means we don’t do much “hosting.” So we are still doing a variety of jobs. One of the projects that I undertook during the month, along with one of the other host, was building a new office for management. Sounds like a fairly straight-forward task. Right? Get some materials. Put them together. Well, not so fast.
The rest of the Trading Post, where the offices are located, is constructed in tongue-and-groove, pine paneling with beveled edges. Do we have tongue-and-groove, pine paneling with beveled edges? No! The Park cannot afford new tongue-and-groove, pine paneling with beveled edges. You have heard of the budget crunch that has hit the States I’m sure. Georgia has been hit hard in this regard. No money for anything much. Volunteers are highly prized.
What the State could afford was a few bundles of old 1” by 6” lumber that had been setting out in the weather at some lumber yard for who knows how many years. There were four bundles of eight foot pieces and one bundle of 12 foot pieces. Each bundle contained 25 pieces. We checked over the bundles and found them in pitiful shape. Some were crooked, some bowed, some broken and all were black from age. Great! What do we do with this junk? Our task was to make pine paneling with beveled edges out of this mess. Forget the tongue-and-groove.
What we needed to do was clean the lumber first. It needed to be planed. Slight problem. The Park has no planer. Solution, check with another Park. Hoorah! Little Ocmulgee State Park has a planer, but we will have to take the wood there. Little Ocmulgee is and hour and a half drive from General Coffee. OK, five bundles of wood, some 12 feet long, 125 pieces altogether. Hum! The wood is loaded on a long trailer we hook it to a Park truck and Wally (that’s the other host) and I take off. Hour and a half there, an hour and a quarter to plane 125 pieces, and an hour and a half back.
OK, step number one complete. The existing paneling had 5 1/8 inches showing. The planed boards were six inches wide. Step number two, rip to size. Step number three, figure out the bevel. We have no router either. So we figured out a “tilt” on the radial-arm saw, fixed a jig to hold the wood and ran it through…..125 pieces, two passes each to cut bevels on each side. Now, all we have to do is cut to size and hang each piece of “panel.” You can see the results of our labor in picture number three above. We nailed in each piece tight to the piece below it. Then, the wood began to dry out and create an unintended gap between each board. Either we leave it “as is” or we wait until it stops shrinking and fill it with something. The jury is still out on that. It may not match perfectly, but it provides an 11 x 13 office with two windows and a door. What else can one ask on such a budget and less-than-good materials. Looks great! Don’t you think?
So you can see that jobs around here for Volunteers provide great variety. Just the other day I was working with one of the Park personnel, picking up trash and the like throughout the Park. As we were riding down the road in the Park we passed a section of ground along side the road that had been “control burned” to get rid of underbrush. The new green growth had already begun to grow back, popping up in the blacken earth. Clarence, the Park employee I mentioned, a 71 year old black man of small stature and a great personality, remarked,
“When I was a kid, we used to burn like that. When the green started to come back, the red, red robins would come in big numbers. I would make me a sling-shot and go kill them.”
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“We eat ’em. They good. Taste like quail,” he said.
Clarence plans to work until he is 75 so he can get a small pension from the State. I have been told that Clarence can neither read nor write. I haven’t verified this with Clarence. I wouldn’t want to embarrass him. Clarence was very surprised to learn that I am older than he is.
The fourth picture above is of the Burnham House located in the Park and used as a rental cottage. It was built in the 19th Century and is furnished in period pieces throughout the house. The history is not clear about its beginnings. Some say it was an old tobacco barn that had a floor installed to make a second story, and then built onto. Others say is was just an old house with additions. At any rate, it has four bedrooms and three baths. It will sleep eight.
The story circulates that the house is haunted. It is said that that is why Mrs. Burnham sold the house. Her husband died, and Mrs. Burnham said she could hear him still walking around upstairs. I walked around upstairs and couldn’t see nor hear Mr. Burnham anywhere. I suppose it was an off day. I know he wasn’t in the living room. That is the last picture you see, showing the fireplace in the center. You can get a sense of how the house is furnished.
Well, that is it for this month. We are looking forward to “permanent” Spring, at least until it becomes “permanent” Summer. With this prospect in mind, it won’t be long until we will venture a little farther north. More on that next time.
It is true. Spring is coming. I know that it is difficult for some of you in the “bad weather” belt to believe, but it’s true. The Redbud Trees attest to the fact, as you can see in the first picture above of a row of Redbuds in a picnic area. They are beginning to bud. Even here in South Georgia the weather shows its fickleness. It has been very warm for the last few days, up near 80 degrees, but it is forecasted to change again to some colder, wetter weather for a few days. But, true to form, Spring will arrive in three weeks, ready or not. But I bet you are ready. Huh?
Speaking of trees, yes there was something about trees somewhere in the last paragraph, look at the second picture. Do you recognize the tree? It is a magnolia. The picture does absolutely no justice to the real thing. It was necessary to get so far away to get the tree in the lens, one gets no perspective of its size. The tree is at the end of one of the hiking trails, and is reported to be the largest, or second largest, magnolia in Georgia depending on who is telling it. At any rate, I do know that it is twelve feet around. I took a tape measure and measured it. It appears to be some 70 to 80 feet tall, or taller. I am not great at estimating height, but you can tell that it towers over the trees surrounding it. It has to be more than 200 years old.
There are not many campers in the campground. Most of the time there are no campers in the campground. After all, it is Winter. Which means we don’t do much “hosting.” So we are still doing a variety of jobs. One of the projects that I undertook during the month, along with one of the other host, was building a new office for management. Sounds like a fairly straight-forward task. Right? Get some materials. Put them together. Well, not so fast.
The rest of the Trading Post, where the offices are located, is constructed in tongue-and-groove, pine paneling with beveled edges. Do we have tongue-and-groove, pine paneling with beveled edges? No! The Park cannot afford new tongue-and-groove, pine paneling with beveled edges. You have heard of the budget crunch that has hit the States I’m sure. Georgia has been hit hard in this regard. No money for anything much. Volunteers are highly prized.
What the State could afford was a few bundles of old 1” by 6” lumber that had been setting out in the weather at some lumber yard for who knows how many years. There were four bundles of eight foot pieces and one bundle of 12 foot pieces. Each bundle contained 25 pieces. We checked over the bundles and found them in pitiful shape. Some were crooked, some bowed, some broken and all were black from age. Great! What do we do with this junk? Our task was to make pine paneling with beveled edges out of this mess. Forget the tongue-and-groove.
What we needed to do was clean the lumber first. It needed to be planed. Slight problem. The Park has no planer. Solution, check with another Park. Hoorah! Little Ocmulgee State Park has a planer, but we will have to take the wood there. Little Ocmulgee is and hour and a half drive from General Coffee. OK, five bundles of wood, some 12 feet long, 125 pieces altogether. Hum! The wood is loaded on a long trailer we hook it to a Park truck and Wally (that’s the other host) and I take off. Hour and a half there, an hour and a quarter to plane 125 pieces, and an hour and a half back.
OK, step number one complete. The existing paneling had 5 1/8 inches showing. The planed boards were six inches wide. Step number two, rip to size. Step number three, figure out the bevel. We have no router either. So we figured out a “tilt” on the radial-arm saw, fixed a jig to hold the wood and ran it through…..125 pieces, two passes each to cut bevels on each side. Now, all we have to do is cut to size and hang each piece of “panel.” You can see the results of our labor in picture number three above. We nailed in each piece tight to the piece below it. Then, the wood began to dry out and create an unintended gap between each board. Either we leave it “as is” or we wait until it stops shrinking and fill it with something. The jury is still out on that. It may not match perfectly, but it provides an 11 x 13 office with two windows and a door. What else can one ask on such a budget and less-than-good materials. Looks great! Don’t you think?
So you can see that jobs around here for Volunteers provide great variety. Just the other day I was working with one of the Park personnel, picking up trash and the like throughout the Park. As we were riding down the road in the Park we passed a section of ground along side the road that had been “control burned” to get rid of underbrush. The new green growth had already begun to grow back, popping up in the blacken earth. Clarence, the Park employee I mentioned, a 71 year old black man of small stature and a great personality, remarked,
“When I was a kid, we used to burn like that. When the green started to come back, the red, red robins would come in big numbers. I would make me a sling-shot and go kill them.”
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“We eat ’em. They good. Taste like quail,” he said.
Clarence plans to work until he is 75 so he can get a small pension from the State. I have been told that Clarence can neither read nor write. I haven’t verified this with Clarence. I wouldn’t want to embarrass him. Clarence was very surprised to learn that I am older than he is.
The fourth picture above is of the Burnham House located in the Park and used as a rental cottage. It was built in the 19th Century and is furnished in period pieces throughout the house. The history is not clear about its beginnings. Some say it was an old tobacco barn that had a floor installed to make a second story, and then built onto. Others say is was just an old house with additions. At any rate, it has four bedrooms and three baths. It will sleep eight.
The story circulates that the house is haunted. It is said that that is why Mrs. Burnham sold the house. Her husband died, and Mrs. Burnham said she could hear him still walking around upstairs. I walked around upstairs and couldn’t see nor hear Mr. Burnham anywhere. I suppose it was an off day. I know he wasn’t in the living room. That is the last picture you see, showing the fireplace in the center. You can get a sense of how the house is furnished.
Well, that is it for this month. We are looking forward to “permanent” Spring, at least until it becomes “permanent” Summer. With this prospect in mind, it won’t be long until we will venture a little farther north. More on that next time.
