Saturday February 25, 2012-Caddo Lake NWR

I was wakened this morning by Todd's truck when he went down to open the gates. I had said that I would do it, but he must have woke up and decided to go take care of it. It is very cold this morning, the outside temp monitor said it was 36 degrees, but our water is frozen up! I went outside later and saw a lot of frost on the windows of the trucks. I feel sorry for the Boy Scouts, having to sleep in tents!

About nine o'clock, Todd came over to see if I was ready to go and I told him as soon as I took the puppies out, I would be ready. While I was on my way back he told me that I had a water leak at the water filter. We discovered that one side of the Y-valve had split and actually came apart when we tried to tighten it. When it broke, most of the copper of the splitter was left in the threads of the pressure regulator, so to keep the water running, I took the regulator off and hooked the hose up direct. IT WORKED!!!

We went out and hosted the Boy Scouts' project of erecting some trail signs. They were typical kids, about one third of them wanted to work and asked to do all the jobs; another third would do what was asked but didn't volunteer and the final group just didn't want to do anything.

I gave the boys a little more work to do in addition to the signs. While separating two of the sign poles, I cut my hand near my right thumb. I bleed very well due to the aspirin I take, so it looked pretty bad with blood all over my hand. The young man took care of me like a champ, although he got a lot of advice from Todd, who was an EMT and an instructor for many years.

Everything got done and the new signs look really nice. Good job Scouts!

We came on back home and later in the afternoon Todd and Ron took the scouts on a tour of the refuge which they enjoyed. When Todd came back, we went up to the shop at the fire hall and fixed the damaged regulator, so we're pretty much back in business for now. I'll have to replace the splitter, but thats not too expensive. It could have been worse!

We sat outside again this evening. This is one of the things that make volunteering so enjoyable. Friends sitting around in the evening and telling about their travels and comparing notes on different locations. Nice...!

So long.