Volunteers at Work

It's always great to have volunteers here at Willow Retreat.  Over Thanksgiving, we were lucky enough to have some help from a couple of young people from Ontario.  Earlier in the summer, we had made a nice firepit area using a few wheelbarrow-loads of gravel:



The gravel keeps the grass from getting burned and also provides a place to stack firewood.

When our volunteers arrived, we already had a few jobs lined up for them.  Remember the old bridge that Paul replaced?  Well, all those rotted timbers were still stacked in the trailer.  Firewood, you say?  Sure, but a lot of them were still good, too good really to just burn.  What the firepit lacked was a bench with a backstop to keep the cold and wind at bay while folks enjoyed the fire ...



Enter our volunteers: young, strong and ready to work ... and a lovely sunny, warm day for it too.  Did I mention this was the middle of October?  No shirt required...



Of course, before work starts, a certain amount of goofing around is required ...  :)




The first job was to fetch all the old wood from the trailer, then remove any rusted nails.  Then, select some pieces to make the bench.



Next, drive in the uprights for the bench.



Two uprights done, and the base piece.



Putting the backstop boards in place.  Old (but still good) wood is perfect for this kind of use.  It may no longer be capable of supporting a truck across a bridge, but it can certainly make a great fireside bench!



Everyone still hard at work.  Notice that the bench seat is now in place.



Ta-da!  The finished article.  There's even a ledge for your drink!

This is a great example of the eco-philosophy at work.  Why buy new wood when you have perfectly decent wood lying around?  These timbers, having outlived their usefulness as a bridge, are now re-used as a firepit bench.  With a little ingenuity and thought, many items can be re-used in this way, thus reducing our drain on the planet's dwindling resources.



A lovely fire, and a beautiful, functional bench to sit and enjoy!

Thanks to our volunteers Robyn and Luke for their hard work!