FORT PARKER - WEEK FIVE

Wednesday March 17: I’ve been a bit behind in working on the blog and not for any particular reason. Sunday part of the day was spent at the shop working with Bubba on adding a top to the Cushman we’ve been using. The park had two old battery powered golf carts that no longer would hold a charge. Rather than spend the $600 for batteries, the park is junking them. Another volunteer had taken the top of one and installed it on the center drive Cushman. Apparently the fiberglass top was in bad shape as he had replaced it with a piece of ½ inch plywood. It took some engineering and some welding by Bubba but it is now mounted and solid. At least it will keep some of the rain off and more for the summer, the sun. Judy worked on her sewing projects. We also spent some time doing the canoe and kayak thing. They actually rent the units at the park office; the renters then come to the old park store where we fit them with life vests, paddles and get the appropriate vessel into the water for them. At one point we had three kayaks and five canoes out.


Monday our task was to clean the group barracks buildings. They had been rented to a group over the weekend and a new group was to arrive Monday afternoon. This was not a deep cleaning, just sweep out and wipe down. Never the less, it was a real project and we finished about noon. Later in the afternoon, Tom stopped by and wanted to meet with the four of us at 9 Tuesday to give us a ‘small’ project we might like to work on. So at nine the next morning we all gathered at the office.

The park recently acquired most of a forty acre parcel at the south end. In the 40’s the area originally was divided into small lots to be used for vacation homes. Most of the lots were anywhere from 75x100 to 100x135. All but 15 had been purchased by one gentleman who turned the area into a hunting ‘ranch’ for ‘wild boar’– nothing more than domestic pigs gone wild and cause lots of damage, but that’s another story. Anyway there are no clear markings between most of the lots. The park does not own the entire area so they want to know where those lots are they did not purchase. They need to know what they can clean up and what they can’t. There is a lot of trash. In some areas there is fencing and in others nothing to determine lot lines.

They will be working on purchasing the remaining lots, but it will take some time. The area is completely over and under grown with brush and vines. We spent three hours and were finally able to find one fence line and the approximate location of three lots. There is so much ‘trash’ it will take a long time to clean it up, and some of it you can’t get to unless you hack through all the vines. We saw old coolers, lots of cans, an old air compressor and even a large (maybe 100 gallon) water tank – this was near the river and it appeared they were pumping water from the river for use.

This is what the area looks like.

There are several ‘cleared’ paths that run along new or old power lines.

Oh, forgot to add that as we were preparing to leave the campground, the right rear wheel on the Cushman started to come off. Apparently somewhere along the way the cotter key and nut came off. Tom drove us to the area and gave us a general tour of the area and pointed us to a start location. He said to call on the radio and he’d some pick us up.

As we were preparing to leave the area, the ladies decided to ride in the back of the mule back to the camp ground rather than call Tom.

That evening the sunset was uniquely different through the mist over the lake. Almost like one of the moon rise pictures from last year in Florida.

Today we all decided to take off. We did not much of anything all day. In the afternoon we took a drive over to FairfieId, a town located about 25 miles to the east. I did read through the Garmin GPS book and found a way to ‘project’ a waypoint so we may be able to use that to find other points.

Also tried to do some more work on the bikes but it is readily apparent that they both need major work. Judy’s will shift through maybe 3 gears and mine through 2 so we really haven’t used the bikes like we did in Florida.

Friday March 19: Wednesday the rangers had repaired the Cushman so we are back with transportation. On Thursday we headed back to the new property to continue our flagging. Using the GPS to project points made it easier than stretching a 100 foot tape through the brush. By using the compass headings of the map and the lot line distances we were able to fully flag off six lots and the back end of two. The weather cooperated and the sun felt good, but the composting forest ground hardened like cement on our boots.

The ‘red buds’ are beginning to pop out, one of the first signs of spring in Texas. Not at all sure why they call them red as they look more purple-pink to most of us. It is really “Cercis Canadensis” or Judas tree. Apparently it is a not uncommon small flowering tree that can be found in other area’s but in different colors. Soon the blue-bells will be popping up too.

This morning Bill and I went to the office to transfer the data to a chart for Tom. We showed him what we had done so far, but he would like at least one more lot flagged. Within the property is a 20 – 25 foot metal pipe tower (may have been a water tower), now laying on its side. He wants to know if it is on property the park owns, or one of the pieces they have to buy. Other than that it was a nice quiet day off. In the afternoon we took a drive to Groesbeck and then one of the “Ranch Roads” out of town. We turned on to a paved county road and soon found ourselves on a dirt road. We found some nice ranches and property as well as places surrounded by the usual Texas antiques (old vehicles, farm equipment and just plain junk). Tomorrow we begin our major painting project – the interior of the staff building in the Group Barracks area. Fortunately Tom has agreed to paint walls and ceilings a semi-gloss white so there will not be a lot of cutting and edging to do. The 10 windows will be fun though.

Saturday March 20: Awoke to light rain, but the forecast calls for heavy rain and dropping temperatures. When we looked out, no tents could be seen but there were still a few pop-ups. Shortly before 8, the wind picked up and the rain came – hard. We decided to leave the Cushman and drive the truck to our painting job. On the way to the Group Barracks Staff building we had to stop off and feed Dan, the Lead Ranger’s cats. He had ‘rescued’ four cats and they prowl the maintenance area. They have certainly cut done on the rodents in the shop buildings. We finally got to painting and it’s a chore. The paint does not cover the gray painted cement board very well and the rooms are quite crowded with two bunk beds in a 9X10 space. We will run out of paint soon and will not get any more until Monday. Ah well, the furnace works and it was warm to paint. A cold front is moving through following the rain earlier today. Sunday we may see 45 and the low 30’s at night. But, Monday it turns and nice again and it will be much much warmer.

The Rushes may depart early as they have had a couple of problems at home. Guess their sump pump failed and their basement flooded – again. Think this is the third time they have had this problem. Their basement is completely finished, so the carpet and pad are ruined and not sure about some of the furniture. If they leave a bit early, we will only have a couple of tasks to finish.

So much for this week and one more to go.