Hello again.

It’s been a while since we last heard from The Buckthorn Man.  I’ve been laying low, or maybe laid low — a little of both I think.  If you recall, I spent over 3 months during the late Spring and early Summer working on mold remediation and it may have been enough to save the house, but, I’m not sure about the home.

I traveled bit and finally got back to work at The Springs in September with a sense of urgency.  The symptoms of Dupuytren’s Contracture in my right hand got much worse over the last year and, with surgery scheduled in November, I tried to get a few projects done that have been on my mind for a couple years.

The surgery was a success and the scar will be good for many jokes about “the time I tried to stop my chainsaw with my bare hand.”  I should be back to work in a few weeks.

I wanted to be conscious during the operation and practiced a lot of bio-feedback using Heart Math and relaxation via Transcendental Meditation so I could stay calm and aware during the procedure.  It was very interesting and I got a good look inside before they stitched me up.

The first thing on the agenda was to build a new bridge over a drainage canal to make it easier to access the cut-off trail from the main trail.  The area is circled in Yellow on the map below.

I hope you like the Gallery feature of the new website.  Check out the story-line in the captions.

First step was a reroute of the …

first 50 yards or so of the trail…

where it merges with the main trail…

near the marl pit factory ruins.

Paradise Springs sans pond

The dam sprung a leak.

Ben Johnson uses a dolly like some people use duct tape.

Let’s go!

Ben can visualize a structure…

and make it happen.

I improved the trail while Ben applied the finishing touches.

I love the new location for the connection…

to the cut-off trail.

Next up was the little spur trail down to the Indian Spring that looked more like a gully (see the Blue circled area on the map above.)  Rainwater was collecting on the trail above the spur trail intersection and washing the sand out.  I did this project in two days: installing two water bars above the junction to divert the water off the trail and then, installing steps and water bars on the spur trail.

First water bar where the downslope makes a turn

Second water bar location, again where the downslope makes a turn.

“spoils” excavated from the water bar construction…

were used to start filling the gully at the spur trail junction.

The lower of the two water bars.

The stone was salvaged from the pools at the…

Scuppernong Spring and the Indian Spring.

The Upper water bar…

At the first location shown above.

Back again to finish up work on the spur trail…

that leads down to the Indian Spring.

I used salvaged wood from home…

and the site where the bridge was moved near the Hotel Spring.

This could use one more step to bring it up to the height of the trail.

It was tough to divert the water out…

of such a deep gully.

Water bars going down the path.

It has held up pretty well in the heavy rains we’ve had since I put this in.

We’ll keep an eye on this.

I have been wanting to lift this boardwalk out of the muck for years (see the area circled in Red on the map above.)  I was really inspired by the work that Ben Johnson led last year when we raised two boardwalks up out of the mud (read here and here) and I called on Ben again, and my old buddy Lindsay Knudsvig.  We had a great time!

This broken hickory would provide the pedestals needed to raise up the boardwalk.

The 4″x6″ beams under this boardwalk…

trapped water that would submerge the deck…

by a few inches during wet periods.

Ben got the demo started while…

Lindsay and I brought over the hickory logs.

We cut notches in the support pedestals…

to stack them and…

lay the 4″x6″ runners in.

Ben and Lindsay Rock!

We barely paused for lunch…

and we wrapped up in time…

to take a leisurely walk around the loop…

and catch the sunset.

Well, I hope you like the new site.  I won’t be posting much at the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail anymore.  This is my new home, so please do click the Follow button on the main page to get email notification when new stories are posted.

See you at The Springs!