Dev Does NCCC: Historic Washington State Park and wrapping up!

As I mentioned before, the last week and a half of our project was spent two hours south of Queen Wilhelmina in a tiny, tiny, tiny town called Washington--population 141. The vast majority of Washington is owned by the state park, and it's just about the cutest thing ever. Many of the buildings are original or replicated houses from the 19th century, and park guides give tours and talk about the former inhabitants, what life was like, that sort of thing.

We stayed in a schoolhouse dating back to 1914 that's been reconfigured for lodging. Beds the size of beds! A kitchen (despite a persistent lack of oven)! WiFi! Enough rooms for alone time!

The work was unpredictable and varied, though I'm pretty sure that's just the Americorps way. Several days were spent clearing brush and overgrowth from fence lines, along with one of my favorite parts: clearing away brush, thorny vines, and trees from outside of a historic cemetery.

 Though part of the cemetery has been restored already and surrounded by fence, records and ground-penetrating radar show that there are many now-unmarked graves well outside the marked area. It felt really good to help reclaim so many people's final resting place.

We also cleaned out all the historical houses in preparation for the park's annual Christmas celebration, Christmas and Candlelight. And here comes the fun part...

We all dressed up...

In some pretty funky 1850's outfits...

And paired with park workers and volunteers to help with the event, telling tourists all about our assigned houses and life in the 19th century.

In between work, there was lots of play. The staff at the park was super great and welcoming--and fun! With a few of the staff members we did Zumba, played board games, watched movies, and learned to squaredance. Of course Americorps is all about the work, but we definitely found time for fun.

Steph drew this:

To represent all of us, and... if you can figure out what's going on in the picture, it's a pretty great representation. (We had to ask. Just trust me when I say it's good.)

We learned to make Irish soda bread (four tasty ingredients) and went caroling at a nursing home. Ryan and I went to the cemetery around midnight to try and find some spirits--Ryan swears someone held his hand and he heard some freaky business, and who am I to tell him he was wrong? We made scarves and told stories, and got to know each other better than I know some of my longtime friends back home.

Then we packed our bags and went back to Queen Wilhelmina for a couple of days to pack up everything we'd left behind, clean up some of the mess the ice storm left behind, and say goodbye to our sponsor and FOOT with a potluck. After that we headed back to Denver and said our goodbyes for the holiday break.

Our first round was... crazy and unpredictable. I definitely had some "why the hell am I doing this?" days... but then, looking back, I know I had at least twice as many "this is the best decision I ever made" days.

And that, I guess, is the answer.

Dev Does NCCC: Trail Shelters and Bad Weather

Firstly, let me be the first to admit I suck at keeping this up. Limited WiFi access is my excuse, even if it's not strictly true at the moment. I'll probably continue the pattern of no posts for weeks and then several posts in a 48-hour period. Life goes on.

The first two weeks were brutal, in a really good way. We worked with FOOT--Friends Of the Ouachita Trail--which is a group of retirees that have way more beef than I do. We hauled logs, gravel, concrete, and tools down a big, steep hill riddled with switchbacks. We worked 4-6 on some of the bigger logs, while 2 of the FOOT members were able to carry them down without a problem.

The first trail shelter we worked on wasn't very hands-on--we spent most of the time hauling while FOOT did the actual building. Still, the sense of accomplishment was very real when we saw the finished product.

The second was much more hands-on--the team worked on the shelter start to finish, from the post holes to the roof.

Some of us also worked on damming a stream so backpackers would have a water collection point. We named it RADS Dam to go with our initials.

When all was said and done, we said goodbye to FOOT, with many hugs and a sad tug in our hearts. When we heard our project would involve working with senior citizens--I admit--I wasn't the only one who felt a touch of apprehension. But not only did they prove to be complete beasts, they were amazing people overall. Doughnuts or brownies or other treats were an almost-daily gift--and one gentleman brought his dog, Tubby, whose playful spirit kept us going through the hardest days.

Back at "home," we ran into issues pretty constantly. In addition to the first windy night that forced us into campers, we dealt with power outages, leaks (which were duly duct taped), breaking doors... the list definitely goes on.

For a few days, ice kept us on the mountain...

... and, since it wasn't safe to do trail work, we were left to clean the campground bathrooms and clean infinities of rat poop out of the historical house onsite.

But we kept our attitudes positive... for PT one day, we had a dance party in the bathroom--the only place that was warm enough to stay.

We ended up moving a couple hours south to Historic Washington State Park to avoid an ice storm--a wise move, as almost a week later Queen Wilhelmina still doesn't have water or power. But that's a topic for another post.

Though we've had not a little turmoil this round, I'm glad it was the first. If we can survive this project, we can survive anything. And it was definitely good to be able to see tangible evidence of the work we were doing--a shelter for weary or weather-bound travelers, built by our own hands.