Attwater...Final Days

Our little Christmas tree representing the states and the refuges we have volunteered our time. At the top, is Texas. To the right is a stained glass prairie chicken made by our biologist, Rebecca. Then the Maine lobster. The garlands are from Mardi Gras and the Saints symbol...Louisiana. Below is a bison (Wichita Mtns...Oklahoma, and Sully's Hill...North Dakota. The moose, Arapaho...Colorado. Little mementos. The patchwork at the base was made by Peggy from Moosehorn.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Wallace with the jackhammer. Darrell wanted the top layer taken off in order to put a little house over this part of the well.

Just about finished.

I drive the skid steer over with this load of dirt to fill in the hole and then we level it up.

Russ is working the concrete, Darrell mixes the last load and goes to pour it in.

Then Russ finishes it off.

After taking the braces off, this is what we now have.

Now the little frame that Wallace and Russ built gets set down for placement.

Next we insulate it, marking my corner (perfect fit) ha ha. The whole inside is insulated, even the roof.

All it needs now is paint and it is finished. 

Russ took the paint can out and finished it up.

Our ladder labels finally came in, so Darrell and I spent some time cleaning the areas and attaching signs all over those ladders. We think they are now safe for the next inspection. The funny thing about it is one of the two extension ladders got all the labels upside down!!!

The guys putting the extra window on the excavator. That took all of us to get that thing back on.

The skid steer needed a new seat put on, so we got that done. Now it has a comfy seat to ride on.

One of our days was interrupted when we had to go help our law officer get freed up from getting stuck.

The guys were out in the dump truck doing another errand, I was in the skid steer leveling out some gravel they had dumped when they got the call for help.  

They went over in the dump truck, got that stuck...then called in the tractor for help.

The chains are getting dragged out to hook up on a hog trap that was illegally placed on refuge property. (That is why the law officer was here).

Here the guys are hoisting it over a barbed wire fence to put it on a trailer.

Their deer feeder was also confiscated.

There were a lot of gravel trucks coming in this day.

Our roads are really a mess right now.

Hoping it does not rain until after our exit.

It's hard to say just what we do here at the refuge as the day is filled with all kinds of stuff...this just gives you an idea of some of them.

We have had another great time with all our friends, and it gets harder and harder to leave them as we go off to another refuge where we have friends waiting of us.

Here we are having our going away luncheon, which happened to be on Wallace's birthday.

We have been blessed by so many beautiful sunsets over the prairie.

We will spend some days at Christmastime in the Valley before we head to Louisiana.

Until next time...