Eagle Scout Project: Installation Day

We could not have asked for a better day for the playground installation.  It was sunny in the mid 80's and the ground was dry. Honestly, it was the best you could ask for in mid-August though we only wish it had been June so that Mr C (and us) would not have been balancing all of this with the start of school  God was good, however, to give us such a glorious day!  July was so hot in these parts.

P and Mr. C meet the certified installer at 7:00 to work on putting together the climbing wall and prep the holes for the concrete footings. The wiggle walks needed duraforms and meant another trip to Lowe's, but thankfully Dad took this run to the store as I've become a little to known by the Lowe's crew the past few weeks.  Let's just say I don't really know my way around a hardware store, but they were so nice to me.

By 8:30, a great crew of Dads and Boys had arrived to get this party started.  According to P, the timing could not have been better.  Literally, the moment the installer said "we are ready for the concrete now," the Cement Truck pulled into the school parking lot.  Thank you God for perfect timing!  The installer said that he'd never seen it work out so perfectly before.  Normally, you wait and wait for the cement truck.

Mr C and the guys got busy hauling wheelbarrows full of wet concrete to the playground, dumping them into the holes, and creating footings. Let's just say football practice and conditioning has really paid off for Mr C, he's got some muscles.

These guys really hustled and the concrete footings were in place in about an hour and way ahead of time.  That's when we called in Nana to give the guys a cookie break so that when the next crew arrived at 10:30, there would still be plenty to do.  Of course, there was still all that gravel to move back into place>  It was a little like Groundhog Day as it seemed like we'd already moved that gravel once!

Oh, that's right we did.

I was then on lunch duty.  Mr C's number one request for installation day was that he really wanted a "big sandwich" for lunch so I was off to Blimpies to pick up two 3 foot sandwiches.  Guess the way to get boys to work is to provide food!  The crew was big and hungry and in no time they polished off almost all six foot of food, chips, cookies and lemonade! 

Our original plan had us working until about 2:30, but after lunch they plowed through it all and by 1:30 we were already on clean up duty.  It was an exhausting, exhilarating, and productive day.  The progress we made was amazing.  Of course, the work was not quite complete, but welcome to the world of construction. 

We are so grateful to all those who came out to help us on Saturday.  Mr C's scout troop was fabulous, never have we seen so many dads and boys show up to help with an Eagle Scout project.  There were others who came to help Mr C who were not Boy Scouts, just great friends who wanted to be a part of this day; thank you.  To Nana and Papa were always ready to help with the girls, making cookies, or moving gravel. Aunt J ,Uncle S and A who came up to help and provided us with tools, shovels and all kind of gadgets.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the financial support of a lot of our friends and family who have supported Mr C's efforts. This was a huge undertaking on many levels and we couldn't have done it on our own.

Thank you.