Sixteen Friends of Shimek met at the lower campground in the early hours of the chilly Saturday morning October 19 to tackle several jobs---the biggest of which was to put up the walls for the stalls in the new horse shelter. Other jobs completed including painting the outside of both restroom facilities at the upper campground--this was done by Pam Larson and Sheri Seggerman. Ann Bennett cleaned up the upper campground. Several firepits had been used for trash and two campsites had been left so messy that she had to load and haul away 8 loads of bedding and manure. Marsha Achenbach cleaned up around the lower campground and sorted the mountain of cans to recycle, with help from others later. Neal Hartman, Lala O'Hara, Jerry Dale Hartman, and Debbie Miller spent the morning clearing downed trees from trails.
Ray and Lora Conrad, Bob Achenbach, David Featherstun, Nancy Grams, Bill Smith, Brian and Jewel McDonald all worked all morning on the horse shelter stall walls. In the afternoon, Pam, Debbie and Marsha joined the crew on the shelter stall walls. Workers left as their schedule required with Bob, Marsha, David, Jewel and Brian finishing up about 3:30PM.
All together, a total of 124.5 hours were donated to help improve the equestrian facilities at Shimek State Forest. Thanks very much to everyone who came--one volunteer was from Anchorage, Alaska, two were from Elgin, Illinois and others drove from Iowa City and Columbus Junction.
The photos below document some of the activities of the day.
Bob Achenbach, saw in hand, Brian McDonald, holding his drill, watch Nancy Grams cut a countersink hole for a nut and washer. David Featherstun is shown below checking board spacing before measuring and cutting the next board. Boards had to be abutted carefully in the middle of the posts.
Bob Achenbach is shown cutting off the end of the bolt after it is tightened to be sure it does not protrude to hurt a horse. He cut off 168 bolts!!Bill Smith holds a board in position while the hole is drilled at the other end---rough cut 2 inch oak boards about 10 inches wide are heavy!
Debbie Miller and Brian McDonaldchange out a battery and find the right drill to use.
Several people brought tools by the pickup truck load --- including generators, drills and bits, sockets, wrenches, skill saws, chain saw and numerous other tools that were needed. Also provided were 200 carriage bolts, nuts and washers that were hot-dipped galvanized to protect the bolts from rapid corrosion by the treatment used to preserve the wooden posts.
Lala O'Hara made these two photos of her team out on the trails removing downed trees. The photo above shows Jerry Dale Hartman, Debbie Miller and Neal Hartman--ready to tackle the tree across the trails. The next photo shows Neal and Jerry Dale hard at work removing it.
Piles of deposit paid cans and bottles
to recycle for the Friends of Shimek
fund-raiser. Jewel, Marsha and Sheri are
almost finished sorting and bagging them
--so many that Ann could not take them
all in one load so Jewel and Brian took a
load to Ann's for recycling this coming week.
Finally--about 12:30---everyone stopped for a short lunch. Ann is shown tending the fire to warm the chili and make the coffee.Lora provided the lunch. Everyone was hungry after the morning of hard work.
Friends of Shimek Volunteers are glad to help improve our trails and camping facilities. What we are not happy to waste time doing is cleaning up after people who throw cans by the trails and leave their mess in the firepits and leave their horses' mess for others to remove. We need your help as a person who rides in Shimek---please clean up after yourself and your horse--and let others know you expect them to do the same. The trails and campgrounds are to be protected and enjoyed for years and years, not trashed!
