Friends, Mud, and Sixteen Ditches ... An Experiment in Family Volunteering Chapter 8

Friends, Mud, and Sixteen Ditches ... An Experiment in Family Volunteering Chapter 8

Tim Streeter Tim Streeter

Tim Streeter

Published Sep 30, 2018
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Our August Family Volunteering event was in support of our neighbor and friend Owen. A high school senior and classmate of our older son Connor, Owen is leading a large community project he conceived as the culmination of his Eagle Scouting career. 

His idea was to build an Observation Deck in the Dicken Woods so that the Dicken Elementary students who regularly use the woods for real-world learning would not have to trudge through the swamp. Owen had already spent a significant amount of time planning the project, applying for permits, recruiting volunteers, and clearing the space in the woods. We thought he just needed help for the final phase and we would all come and support him for a couple of hours and get to see the end product. However we quickly learned that was not the case.

The previous weekend he and several others had planned to dig the ditches required to house the posts which would support the deck. Since the site is the middle of the woods, they encountered many roots and stumps which took longer than expected to remove. Also, the area is quite slanted which means the ditches have to be deeper and deeper as the land slopes. While we were thankful to have missed that part of the project, we soon realized that the ditches were only just started. And there were 16 of them. And 7 of us.

My role was to dig and remove dirt, but I already knew from a previous failed effort to install my own mailbox that my skills with a post digger tool are limited. As a result, Owen’s dad did most of the hard work scraping out an additional 1-2 inches at a time. My job was to clear it out while he rested for a minute. Connor and Donovan were part of the team of high school kids which transported and mixed the concrete and poured it in to set the posts as we finished each hole. Jennifer somehow scored the role of assistant surveyor and learned how to use the tool to ensure the right height for each post. But we all got supper muddy.

We worked from 8am to 12:30pm or so and got 14 of the 16 ditches to the required depth, and 8 of the posts set in concrete. Despite only supporting a small part of the overall effort, we were completely exhausted and I was sore the entire week. It actually hurt to type - no exaggeration! As we ate pizza with everyone during lunch break, we talked about how much had already been done, how much we accomplished that morning, and how much work was still left to be done. It’s really quite an undertaking for a high school senior.

Since we had spent more than double the amount of time we originally planned and our kids had other activities scheduled for the afternoon, we left after lunch. We did however agree that we would come back for another 4 hour shift once they reach the deck-building phase. We want to see the end product and know our kids (and us) will take pride in being able to say “we helped build that.”

With strong connections to the school, the organizer, and the other volunteers, this event easily had the most personal connections of any one in which we have participated to date. It was also by far the most physically demanding, but somehow the time flew by and we had fun while we were working together. Our kids were impressed their friend was leading the project, we were impressed with how well the teenagers handled their part of the job (and without complaining!), and we all confirmed we were thankful that digging ditches is not part a regular part of our lives.

With an awesome new Observation Deck in the middle of the woods, the students of Dicken Elementary will have more opportunities to observe and learn in the real world. And who knows, maybe it’ll help inspire a few future environmental scientists?

This is Chapter 8 of a 12-part series on Family Volunteering. Previous posts can be accessed below:

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