Boardwalk planking done -- low railing to be installed

The boardwalk planking is effectively finished, and they are starting in on doing the low rail that will run the length of both sides. (The rail isn't going a hand rail, but something more like a low guard rail about 4" high that runs along the length of the boardwalk; a rail very similar to that on the dock.) I asked about the depth of the screw anchors used in the boardwalk area, keeping the idea of the amount of muck found in that area in mind. The guys told me that most of the anchors had to drill through 20 feet of unconsolidated muck after punching through the root mat and before reaching hard ground. That's a lot of distance between root and ground!

I saw an end-of-the-season monarch butterfly. The wave of warm weather brought out a last hurrah of insects. 

Axes are sharp, silly!

I was chopping wood for (future) firewood, and I stumbled with one chop, and thump! it went onto my foot, puncturing my shoe. Oh, shit. I took off my shoe (which was perforated) and checked the sock: no cut there and no obvious bleeding, but it kinda hurt. Still, I finished chopping up the wood (more carefully), brought it back to the barn, piled it in the barn, and walked back to the house.

Taking off my sock, I noticed that the skin was split where the axe hit it. Luckily the cut wasn't any stronger!

Setting up for SNRE Campfire

This Friday (day after tomorrow) is SNRE's annual Campfire event. On Monday, I mowed the lawn back.

Yesterday, the pumpkins (for carving)

and the straw bales (for sitting around the campfire)

were delivered. Today, water (for drinks), the port-a-johns (for 'evacuation'),

the tent (for covering the food), tables (for placing food upon) and lights (for illumination, of course)

 were all delivered. Tomorrow, the caterer comes at around noon and student volunteers will be showing up at around 1:30 to help with various things that need to be done (including hauling and setting up a log for the saw competition, collecting more wood, and chopping up some of the bigger stuff). I hope that things go as well tomorrow as they have been going so far (knock on wood).

Boardwalk coming along

I had a look at the boardwalk progress this morning, having returned from an out-of-town trip. The pathway of the boardwalk had been flayed and the pilings had been sunk. Today George and Eric were starting on the wood. I doubt that the structure will be done by the end of the week, but we'll see I suppose.