Adios, Green Valley!

During the last week of April the trail crew wrapped things up at Green Valley State Park just in time for camping (and trails!) season to begin.  All in all, the crew completed the following tasks at Green Valley:

• Cleaned out the Gater house and yard
• Picked up trash around the park 
• Demolished two old sheds/hog houses 
• Finished building, insulated, sided and roofed a new cabin 
• Installed/repaired a stone drainage area around all three cabins 
• Graded the area around the new cabin 
• Planted grass around all three cabins
• Cleaned up around the newly-renovated campsites
• Installed ADA walkways to the new cabin and four new concrete restroom buildings
• Built, insulated, sided and roofed a check-in stand for the campground

The last task the crew tackled was installing tongue and groove siding on the inside of the check-in stand as well as for the soffit outside the building.  The inside was a bit tricky since holes needed to be cut for electrical outlets and light switches, and the boards needed to be fit around windows, but having already completed this task on the third cabin Delilah and Ceith were up to the challenge.

Delilah uses the scroll saw to cut an interior siding board so it will fit around a window

Ceith uses a brad nailer to secure the siding, making sure to blind nail the brads so they won't show

Meanwhile, JB, Adam and Ewan worked on the soffit outside, making sure to install a soffit vent, as well as tackling the somewhat tricky angles on the architecturally interesting underside of the roof.

Showy angles

Adam makes an angled cut

Adam and Ewan secure one of the boards 

After finishing these tasks and picking up wood scraps around the worksite, cleaning and putting away all of the tools, and cleaning/packing back at the house, the crew headed back to the shop.  The first two weeks of May will be spent preparing for the arrival of twelve new crew members for the summer, who start May 17th.  We will host an orientation for the new members at Mines of Spain State Recreation Area near Dubuque, and we are very excited to try out the brand new facilities at the park's interpretive center for some of our presentations and seminars.  During orientation we will also organize a service project (or volunteer-generating-project) on Tuesday the 18th at Pictured Rocks near Monticello, Iowa, where the trail crew built an ADA-compliant trail last summer and flagstone terrace last fall.  More details on the service project will be coming soon!