Home again, Home again! + Shelter Building!

Like I've always said, "I love going on vacation", but I love even more coming home from vacation!  There is absolutely no place in the whole wide world like our home sweet home.

Look, look, look what Tom found in the garden when we got home!

Wow, that is a beautiful pumpkin!  The biggest one Tom has ever grown in the garden!

Nothing prettier than watching a sunset right here at home.

The week after we got home from our Arkansas/Louisiana vacation, we were back in northeast Arkansas near Mena, Ark. to volunteer once again helping to build a shelter on the Ouachita Trail.  It is very rewarding and fun work with other "FoOT", Friends of the Ouachita Trail, volunteers.

We met up with our group at this railroad crossing along a Forest Service Road.  We caught a ride to the shelter site with one of the guys who had a 4-wheel drive truck since it was a rocky dirt lane for about a mile up Black Fork Mountain to get to the shelter site.

About half way up the mountain, we stopped to offload a 8 foot long 6X6 post to be used for the shelter sign.

This is what we saw when we arrived, the foundation work done the previous day by the FoOT crew.

Slippery, slick mud everywhere due to the recent rain.

You see that blue truck thru the trees, that is as far as he got before he lost traction, so we all walked down and unloaded tools and supplies from that truck and carried them up to the work site.

This group works together like a well-oiled machine because they are very talented and most all have previous experience in constructing these shelter from start to finish in 5 days or less, and they bring along all their own tools along with their expertise.

This is Bo Lea, our FoOT president checking the level, he wants it just right, nothing haphazard, these shelters must be built right and sturdy to withstand the forces of nature out here along the trail.

                                Teamwork Rocks!

It's break time and everyone has hauled their own provisions up the mountain, we find a place to sit, and enjoy the camaraderie while we eat lunch. 

Following lunch, the Black Fork Mountain Shelter really starts to take shape and what a gorgeous setting this is for a shelter, a little fall color beginning to show in the woods surrounding the worksite.

Wow, that is an enormous circular saw that Norm is using to saw thru those logs!

                         
                           Hey, it's coming right along!

It takes a team effort to lift that huge beam up on top of the front shelter posts.

When you hammer a giant nail, you need a giant hammer, actually a sledge hammer! 

As usual, this shelter is situated on the side of a mountain.

 

Unfortunately Tom and I have only this one day (Wed.) off in the week to help on this shelter, but I know every little bit helps.  The plan was to put the roof on the following day however it began to rain after we left in the evening (Tom and I had to hike back down the mountain to our car) and the shelter was not finished until the following Monday.

 

This is an example of what the shelter will look like upon completion:

This is the Stateline Shelter that we helped with last year.

 

These shelters are truly a welcome sight for hikers on the Ouachita Trail.  The final three Ouachita Trail shelters are scheduled to be erected in 2016.  There will then be a shelter approximately every ten miles along the entire length of the trail.  How awesome is that!