FATS Sat Aug 10th & Sun Aug 18th

[Angela]

We are working to set up a work party at FATS for this Saturday afternoon from about 2 to 6pm - yes it will be warm and humid but the DR mowers will be tied up at Horn Creek in the morning. We are looking for 8 people but all must be willing and able to use the equipment since it is hard working and there needs to be an operator and backup/spotter that will change out as needed.

The DR mowers will be used in specific places on Brown Wave, Skinny and Great Wall. The hedgers will be used on most of the power line crossings. We will train you on the equipment if you have not used it before but would prefer to have one experienced operator on each crew.

If you are able to work this Saturday please let me know - again we only need 8 at this point in the planning - more details to come.

Here is what the hedger looks like:
m.stihlusa.com/products/hedge-trimmers/professional-hedger-trimmers/hl100135/

And here is the DR Mower:

www.drpower.com/prdSell.aspx?Name=fab-sp-pro-xl

On the following weekend we will bring in the loppers to finish up the work on the trails - that will be on Sunday, August 18th more than likely between 9 and 12. We will need quite a few people but will expand or contract the coverage based on the number of people we have signed up.

Please respond if you are willing and able to work one of these two work parties - [e-mail]

Thank you!

[tzeaser]

I got two of the power line crossings on Deep Step cut - the crossings closest to Deep Step Road (1 each side). I think these were the ones that needed it most.

[jp3]

Angela,
Put me down as a DR operator

John Pilcher

[dsquaredmsquared]

Someone's got to help Mr. Pilcher with that big lawn mower.  If I don't make it to HKSP on Saturday, I'll help Mr. P.

[Ross D]

Hi Angela, put me down for a trimmer.. I will be (need) to bring my 7 year old, so will only be able to work about two hours as I'm sure that's all hell be able to handle.. I can do what ever, just keep that in mind.. He's good at using his "clippers" for cutting face slappers etc.. Just let me know and I'll be there..

[Angela]

Thanks Ross!

Currently we have 6 people signed up to help and we have 5 pieces of equipment that can be operated to mow and hedge the crossings and a couple of other overgrown places on Skinny, Great Wall and Brown Wave. With 6 we can only operate 3 pieces of equipment. 4 of these people can operate the equipment but we need their backup and spotters to make this an effective work party on Saturday aft.

Surely we can get 4 more people but if not the sections of trail may be left as they are and the problem will handle itself when everything dies back in late fall/early winter.

Please commit 4 hours and help but let us know by emailing [e-mail]

[dsquaredmsquared]

I'm heading to HKSP to plan out the second, and hopefully final, work party to repair Lakeview Loop, so I am out for this mowing event.

I think I know of someone who might be able to replace me and help tomorrow afternoon.  I will have them send you an email.

[Angela]

It can be hard to appreciate what it takes to get this work done if you haven't participated before and on a lot of our work parties people just get out there and get it done and go home too busy getting it done to take pictures but thought I would share at least a little of what it can take -

Before a work party involving equipment can even begin someone or ones have to make sure everything is working, that fuel and any supplies are gathered and then hauled out to the work site. In this case we had workers scattered all day long across four of the six FATS trails. We had two DR mowers and three hedgers at work on Saturday.

• Jon T and Becky L started early with the hedger on Great Wall and then Deep Step (to finish another crossing - Tom Z had managed to get two crossings finished before dark on Thursday night and a crew of runners were out lopping on Deep Step Thursday as well).
  
• John P and Seth Y took care of a portion of upper Skinny and through the second crossing CW on lower Skinny with a DR mower
• Ross M took a hedger and did both crossings on BW and the connector up to the bench on Skinny
• Banks M and Pete H took care of 3 crossings on Skinny
• Daniel and Angela A took care of a section deep in BW

There are still at least 3 areas on FATS that will need a DR mower or hedger (BW, upper Skinny & lower Skinny). We have another work party for FATS on next Sunday more later about that!

Getting ready to roll -



Ross looking very fresh and energetic BEFORE he started hedging -



Sometimes you have to do some trail work just getting into the trail to work - in this case we knew it was there and the mini-saw would take care of it quickly -



Sometimes one pass will do but in others you have to take two or three passes along some sections of the trail just to get a decent corridor in overgrown places -



It was so humid out that even though it was only 90, with a 2PM start everyone was totally done by the time we wrapped it up at 5:30! Here are 5 members of the crew -



Thanks so much to everyone who came out to get this work started from Thursday through Sunday! More to do but we put a very good dent in it!

[Angela]

Trying to work it into the schedule and not interfere with the FARTS at FATS series, the next work party will be this Sunday (08.18.13) from 9am until noon. This will be the big one, still some mowing and hedging to be finished on Great Wall and Brown Wave but we need mostly loppers. Will take at least 30 people to get the trail in great condition but we will work with whatever we have once people sign up.

We do not plan to schedule another widespread work party at FATS this year (there will be smaller work parties for some tread repair and later in the year we'll need to clear some drains) so please sign up at [e-mail]. It is critical that we know the number of workers so we can ensure we have enough tools and can organize the groups.

More details to come. This work party is dependent upon trail conditions so please check back here before heading out to the work party.

[Angela]

The trails will be too wet on Sunday, we will need to reschedule this work party for a later date!

We only had enough volunteers signed up to operate the powered equipment (10 people signed up) so the next work party might be just a mowing/hedging work party. More details to follow!