Back To Work for Week 2

Monday, January 11, 2021

Sunday morning we were surprised to get up to a temperature of 36 and heavy frost but today we loved that we were back to a low of 53. Love that southwest Florida has only a day or two of winter. So we have had our day and now we can get back to an early spring with pretty flowers and fresh strawberries.

It was another beautiful day for us to head back to work. We had devotion with the staff at ECHO again today and then Max, Anne, Karen, Ken and Vi went back to the bamboo pressure treatment area. Now that the footings are in place and the concrete cured, we began working on reinstalling the French drain that we worked so hard to remove last week. We then covered the trench with stone. After that we began working on putting together the scaffolding (we are missing a few parts.) and preparing to install the ledger board. The board is ready and holes are drilled. Tomorrow morning with some help/strength from the rest of the team we will get it installed.

Replacing the drainage system. We used a sifting screen to separate the gravel from the sand.

Drainage system complete and ledger boards ready to be lifted

The bamboo pressure treatment equipment. Bamboo is connected to the black sleeves with hose clamps and the sugar laden sap is forced out with a sodium borate solution.

Gregg, Kevin, Suzan, Wanda and Janet spent their day working on the bridge in front of the gift shop. They removed the wooden deck boards, and assessed the structure. It is in need of a few repairs prior to the installation of the new Trex deck boards. (Thanks, Suzan for the photos.)