Week 8
The weeks are only going by faster!
Week 8 has been completed with Maintenance and it felt like I was back home
working during my summers again. Having an extensive background in both
groundskeeping and landscaping, I was glad that I was able to lend a hand to
the maintenance staff during one of their busier times of the year.
Conveniently enough, I made it just in time for the toughest projects for the
seasonal staff and on the hottest week of the summer! Coincidence? I think not.
The days consisted of a 6am start
and 2:30pm finish. I personally enjoyed these hours because I could finish my
workday and still have some time to spend in the afternoon. The first project
(complimented by the photo with the footbridge) required a crew of five to
clear the underpasses and sides of the footbridge so that it was maintained and
groomed. This being said, the bamboo that is native to the area in our
workspace grows back with a vengeance every couple of weeks. In order to
provide safe access to the footbridge for inspections and make the walking
trail below the footbridge accessible to visitors, the maintenance staff and I
used tools to clear the space and clean it up as well. This project was
probably the most challenging in my opinion, mostly because the stalks of
bamboo that needed to be removed were averaging at fifteen feet tall.
Another project that we embarked on
was similar to the first. We needed to clean up underpasses and sides of every
bridge that traffic crossed over the Colonial Parkway. Close to ten bridges
were included in this project but with the help of the staff, we completed this
project within the day as well.
The project that gained the most
notoriety over the years however, always appears to be saved for ProRanger
week. Being that I’ve been working so hands-on over the weeks, I was glad I
could get my hands dirty on this project. Jones Mill Pond is an area along the
Parkway that visitors can park and view the pond in an effort to better
understand the landscape around Yorktown during the American Revolution and
Civil War. This area around the pond however, can grow rampant with invasive
plants and can overgrow into areas where visitors have access. We used a
tractor with a “long-arm” on it (almost like a mower that extends quite far) to
clear the way around the pond in addition to the number of weed-whackers
(pictured) for every maintenance worker on the ground. As you can see in the
photo with the vest that I wore, I would clip the weed-whacker to the harness
so that it could rest on my hip during the hours that I used it instead of
having to hold it over the course of the workday.
We were able to complete every
project tasked to us and I even got to jump on one of the heavy duty mowers and
cut some of the 10,000 acres of the park. As I mentioned earlier, my experience
in groundskeeping made me quite familiar with the machines that the employees
at Colonial use and so cutting with it was nothing new to me. It took me back
to my summers before this internship and I was quite nostalgic of those days. I
was thankful that they let me go for a few laps on the mower. When the weather
got to be quite the nuisance (upwards of 110 degrees with heat index), the
maintenance staff used time wisely by washing trucks under the cover of shade
to remain cool. We washed nearly fifteen trucks inside and out over the course
of the week, so that the division could retain a professional appearance.
Maintenance, as you can expect,
undoubtedly is crucial to the park as is every division. With so much to be
covered and maintained year-round, the maintenance staff works tirelessly to
ensure that the park is protected and accessible to future generations.
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