John's Eagle Project
On Saturday, John had his eagle project. He chose to build a retaining wall for the city of Thornton to help keep mud off a trail. Early on, he realized that he was going to need a lot of bricks - like 400 bricks. A major endeavor for him was asking multiple Lowe's and Home Depots for donations of retaining wall bricks. A sand and gravel place donated the 1.4 tons of pea gravel he needed for the foundation, and between six different stores he got 425 bricks (he expected some would break in transition.)
On Thursday, John and two people from the Thornton Parks and Rec Department went around to all the stores that had agreed to donate bricks to collect the bricks and put them on a flat bed truck. That took several hours.
On Friday, John went to pick up the gravel and had that loaded onto a Thornton truck.
Finally on Saturday we showed up at the site at 7am. (Or the men folk did, anyway... I was walking a dog, but I joined them later.) The trucks from the City of Thornton delivered the gravel and the bricks to the site. Several men and boys from the ward came to help as well. They dug a trench six inches deep and a foot or so wide along the side of the trail. They had to remove some concrete as well, which I hear was a challenge. Then they poured gravel into the trench and laid the bricks, checking that they were level. We ended up with a wall about five bricks high and almost 90 feet long.
Later Steven and John went back to glue the top bricks down, and then the job was done! Now he just needs to get it all written up and approved before his birthday in a couple weeks.
Steven put together a photo album with comments and the like. You can see it here. But here are a few of the pictures:
On Thursday, John and two people from the Thornton Parks and Rec Department went around to all the stores that had agreed to donate bricks to collect the bricks and put them on a flat bed truck. That took several hours.
On Friday, John went to pick up the gravel and had that loaded onto a Thornton truck.
Finally on Saturday we showed up at the site at 7am. (Or the men folk did, anyway... I was walking a dog, but I joined them later.) The trucks from the City of Thornton delivered the gravel and the bricks to the site. Several men and boys from the ward came to help as well. They dug a trench six inches deep and a foot or so wide along the side of the trail. They had to remove some concrete as well, which I hear was a challenge. Then they poured gravel into the trench and laid the bricks, checking that they were level. We ended up with a wall about five bricks high and almost 90 feet long.
Later Steven and John went back to glue the top bricks down, and then the job was done! Now he just needs to get it all written up and approved before his birthday in a couple weeks.
Steven put together a photo album with comments and the like. You can see it here. But here are a few of the pictures:
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