Another grueling weekend. Actually, it's not just the work - although that's hard enough. It's the heat that makes it so difficult. The heat just saps all the strength out of us.

It was fairly cool when we arrived on Friday night, and we had high hopes that it would stay that way. But no luck. It was hot and humid.

In typical Liefveld fashion, we worked together every day until Loretta hit the wall. Then Robby continued on, while Loretta stared blindly, comprehending little else beyond just following the simplest directions.

But the decks are done! (Well, except for the stairs and picket fences). As you can see, we didn't take many pictures this weekend - we were just too busy trying to get things done, and just too tired to even pick up the camera.

(As always, click on the picture to get a larger picture that you can see better)

South Camp at the beginning of the weekend. See the loose boards on the tent deck in the background? Also notice that on the left side of the patio, there's no post in the middle. (Last weekend, we forgot there was supposed to be a tall post there, and we cut it off!	We unloaded 140 boards from the Blazer onto the patio, laid them out, and sealed one side.	Tent decks are done! Look at the shiny screws in the deck. Not too bad for a couple of amateurs, not to mention that the boards were terribly warped from sitting out for two weeks - and very crooked, to boot! We got really good at forcing them back into submission.	A couple of friends stopped by to watch us work..... At the end of the day, Loretta sits at the side of our new road and checks out one of them with the binoculars.
The deer on the left has a notch out of her right ear, and is much more wary.	The second day, we nailed all the planks to the patio. Then Rob added braces to the structure. We had also trimmed the trees at the end of the first day, so now the tents and canopies will fit. That was quite a trick since the planks weren't nailed down at that time, and kept slipping, threatening to send Robby plunging through to the ground.	At the end of the second day, our friends came back. (Hmmm - wonder if that dried fruit that Rob put out on the trail had anything to do with it??)	In just this one weekend, we screwed over 2100 screws into the decks.... not to mention the finishing touches on the frames, adding the post, and the braces, and the 3rd screw in all the intersections on the patio (oops - in looking at last week's pictures, Rob noticed we only had 2 screws in most of them).
The shade tree that we sit under when we take a break in South Camp. Underneath, Loretta sees soft crunchy leaves, keeping the dirt and dust down. Rob sees places for snakes to hide..... we'll be raking that out soon.	Our old weedwhacked camp road (on the left) that we forged runs next to our new road (on the right)... what a contrast.	Now you can really see how much better the new road is! (on the right)	Finally, at the end of the 3rd day. The patio deck is sealed, screwed, braced, and painted, and pickets for the picket fence (lower right), have first coat on them.
Our 'little' campsite is comprised of 5 units(counting the patio as two units, put together). Look carefully through the veil of leaves camouflaging our campsite and you can see them all. Our campsite can't even be seen from the road.

Links to other photo pages:

2006
Camp Repairs5    Grading the Road    Finish the Road    Clear Homesite Circle    Start Hydraulic Ripper Installation    Waterfalls & Rainbows    Chain Saw Loretta    Easter 2006   

2005
New ATV-New Year2005    Home Layout     Kyle Comes to Camp     Loretta Kills Road Weeds     Ryan Visits     Starting Counter Top     Finishing Cabinet     Easter 2005     Wesley's Spring Break     We meet the Architect     Finishing the Tree House     Our First Fire     Memorial Day 2005     Water Witching     Preparing the Well Site     Grading the Well Site     Digging the well     Our New Tractor     Labor Day 2005     Rusty comes to Camp     Smoothing the Road     Our own Water     Fire and Rain     Tractor Maintenance     Customize Tractor     New Backhoe     Thanksgiving 2005    Changing Oils     Solar Chargers & Toothbar    Rainy New Year Weekend   

2004
Three Rivers Home Page     Animal Friends     Then and Now     First Pictures     Rattlesnake Campout     Easter 2004     Building the Road     South Camp Construction     Building Decks     Finishing Decks     The Stair Master     Done at South Camp     Labor Day 2004     Leapin' Lizards     Tracking Bear and Deer     Securing the Camp     Our First Rain     Loretta's Family visits     Coco and the Boardwalk         Start the Treehouse     Frame the Treehouse