Pickin' and Rakin'.....

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6:40 am - Wednesday - 38º F, humidity 86%, wind - CALM......clear blue skies......forecast high for today is a wonderful 72º F!  Another short pants and t-shirt day!

Tuesday we got our new staff members busy working......after a brief meeting at 9 am I headed out to Section G with my 'Ranger Crew' to take a walking tour of that section and to demonstrate to them how to do 'site checks properly.  That exercise took us about an hour, but it helped familiarize them with the issues in that section, and what we will need to do over the next week to get it ready for the summer season.

After that we began the first sweep of Section G to pick up all the trash which had accumulated during the winter.....Section G is the only section open in the winter, and with the harsh winter we had a lot of trash got buried under the snow before it could be removed.  Once the snow melts there it is.  We picked up the trash first before raking the pine needles as it will only be harder to remove once it is mixed in with all the needles.  Since we don't remove the pine needles from the campground sites, but use them to form the borders of each site, we need to remove the trash first.  That took us (5 of us) up to 12 noon when we all took our 30 minute lunch break before returning to begin removing the pine cones from each site and piling them along the pavement to be picked up later.  Once the pine cones are out, then we will rake the pine needles to the borders of each site.  With the 5 of us it should take less than a week per section to get this done.  Last year I did this all by myself as we were way understaffed.

While the 'Crew' worked on removing the pine cones I got back to other things on which I had been working......I removed another crumbling concrete picnic table which I had come across in Section F.....it took me a couple of hours to do as a result of its proximity to several large trees making it difficult to get the Case loader close enough to remove the concrete base.  I also took inventory of our shovels, rakes, pickers, buckets, etc. so we can make a run to Scotty's TruValue to buy some new ones Wednesday.

The day passed by quickly and suddenly it was 5 pm and time to clock out......once again I was 'whipped' and ready for a nap, but instead of taking a nap TLE and I walked over to our neighbor's (Michael and Mary) site to have a drink with them and wind down the day.  By 6 pm I was getting hungry so we bid our adieus and headed home where I grilled some pollo asado for tacos, and then settled in for the night.....that's when I took my nap.....:-)

While I was grilling the pollo asado I looked up and was struck by the majesty of the amazingly tall pine trees surrounding our site.....

......life is good......we are 'home' again, and the summer is getting off to a wonderful, smooth beginning!

Before I close for the day both TLE and I would like thank those of you who have ordered things from Amazon using our Amazon Affiliate link (shown below).  We are humbled and grateful at your response resulting in many orders being placed and commissions earned. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

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