The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

First day of work!

Wow, that's something we haven't said for a while!

But you know what? It was a totally enjoyable day. Essentially, we make our own schedule and decide what the priorities are. Sometimes we work together, and sometimes we have different things to do. Here's what we accomplished yesterday...

It was a little chilly first thing in the morning, but it was a clear blue sky and the sun was shining. So we went up to the overflow area where it's a little less shaded and worked on getting that part of the campground ready. We flipped over picnic tables and put them in the right spot and got out garbage cans from the storage compound and put them on their posts.

The campground is officially open, although there are no campers scheduled until the May long weekend which begins on the 17th. If anybody happens to show up right now, at least there are sites in the overflow area that are usable. Except for water...the lines are still frozen! Hopefully they'll be thawed by this weekend, but if they're not there's nothing we can do about it.

After we got that part of the campground ready, we brought two loads of firewood from the storage compound to the lower campground. Sturgeon Lake Regional Park supplies one bundle of firewood per day included in your camping fee, so they go through a lot of wood. Fortunately, we don't have to split the wood, it arrives here all ready to burn. But it is our job to make sure the storage bin by the registration office and store is always full, as well as another bin in the campground itself. If anybody wants a second bundle of wood, it costs $5 for eleven pieces of wood. Why eleven? No idea. I'm gonna have to ask someone how they arrived at that number!

Brought down a spare picnic table for the guy who runs the registration desk and set it outside his door, then installed some of the garbage cans in the lower campground.

After lunch, I hopped on the tractor for a couple of hours and moved some snow from some of the lower sites. It took me that long to clear from the four worst sites. Some of the snow was still two feet deep! And the bucket on the tractor isn't really huge. But it was far better than trying to shovel it by hand! Things are supposed to warm up this weekend (calling for a high of 24C or 74F on Sunday!) so that should get rid of most of it.

While I was on the tractor, Ruth went around and made sure all the garbage cans had garbage bags in them, then she started with some raking of the drier area between our cabin and the store/restaurant. Looks better already. She loaded five or six bags of leaves! There's going to be a lot of time spent raking over the next few days.

Before we knew it, it was close to 5pm and we called it quits for the day.

Better get to it...it's already 8:15am. Time flies when you're having fun!

21 comments:

  1. I love it! Having fun working. I think that is very possible when you
    1) haven't had to work in a long time
    2) picked the work yourself
    3) get to work outdoors
    4) get to see real changes as a result of your efforts.
    Carry on.......

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    1. And 5) It's only a five month contract, so there's a light at the end of the tunnel!

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    2. I think that is the best thing about workamping. If the job isn't all that you expected, it will end soon.

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  2. Sounds like the perfect job. You two are the workers and the bosses.

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  3. Sounds like you two will have the place looking good before opening.Wish you the best of luck. Sam & Donna...

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    Replies
    1. We're working on it! You need to come up and visit us this summer.

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  4. Hey Kevin - I don't think you can stand to lose weight with all that physical labor. Better add one more beer at the end of each day! Or maybe a brownie!

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    Replies
    1. May-Pat, he can't have any beer at the end of each day because the beer, wine and alcohol is so expensive here that we are refusing to buy any. I am just making sure to feed him more. :)

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  5. I just had to clean up after a flood in my site, can't imagine doing a whole bunch of sites to prepare for new campers.

    My arms hurt all over just thinking about it! I'm glad you're doing what you like. :)

    Erik

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    Replies
    1. Lucky for Kevin the water damaged is going through the regional disaster relief program so the region will be doing a lot of the work. The smaller stuff Kevin is able to do with the new little tractor that they bought this year.

      Hope your site is looking good now. Hard to believe the damage that the water can do!

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  6. I agree with Mary-Pat, add another beer and you should be fine. BTW Ruth, I had a craving today for some of your granola bars! Yummy.
    Did you know Derek and Teresa are not far from you guys.

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    Replies
    1. Chris, how quickly you forget, Kevin isn't buying beer so he can't have one let alone a second one! When we said we weren't buying beer, wine or alcohol this summer we meant it. Now if you come up to visit us this summer you are more than welcome to bring some up for us! :)

      I am planning on making some next week.

      Yes, we know that Derek and Teresa are sorta close by. Too far to go and visit though as they are about 340kms west of us.

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  7. Ok somethings not right here....74 in Canada on Sunday...50 in Dardenne Prairie....its snowing now just west of us. 11 pcs, humm maybe Canada has some kind of tax on 12 or more ? I know here they'll tax anything they can. At least the campground work will help keep you in shape since you are so used to those long hikes.
    What do campground dog ?

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    Replies
    1. It seems like everyone is getty crazy spring weather this year. Hope you don't see anymore snow!

      Not sure why 11 pieces but that's what they said. No tax on it as you get 1 free bundle for every night your stay here.

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  8. I meant What NO campground dog.....

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    1. Nope, no campground dog :(. Can't wait for some campers to come in with a dog, I need a doggie fix! I thought of fostering a dog during the summer but with us working all day everyday it wouldn't have been fair to the dog.

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  9. Think you should be making your own wine for the summer, we made our own wine and beer for years before we went fulltime. Easy to do and cheap too.

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    1. We used to make our own wine at home before we started motorhoming and then when we were in Kingston for the two summers we went to one of those make your own wine places and the same in Nova Scotia but they still want too much money. Also it isn't as easy to find one here. Nope, we will just do without this summer, it will be better for us anyway.

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  10. Glad to hear the weather will be warming up.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, we have had a couple of beautiful days but they are calling for cooler temperatures again by the end of the week. Hopefully they are wrong!

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