Friday August 2 we returned for our 4th trip up to Buck Springs. The weekend forecast was calling for lots of rain, so as soon as we arrived, myself and 3 other volunteers began to set up camp quickly. After setting up camp, we loaded up some concrete, hauled the mixer up to the jobsite, and got to work. Unfortunately, after setting and concreting only 1 hole in place, the weather started to look eminent, and we had to abandon that task. We headed back down to camp to regroup and decided that we could haul fence panels even if it was raining a bit, so we loaded up the trailer and got to work. We were able to get the entire south side fence panels staged by the post, and much to our happiness, the storms passed over and the skies were sunny, so we decided to go back to setting posts. In all, we got 21 of the 81 posts set on Friday, leaving only 60 to finish on Saturday when we had a bigger crew. It was a very productive Friday.

Saturday morning, we got up with the rest of our volunteers who had showed up Friday night, and had a great breakfast. After a quick safety meeting, we headed up to the jobsite. This was a hard-working crew, and the weather was great. By lunchtime, we had set the remaining 60 posts. Once you get a system going with the different teams, it flows really smoothly. We cleaned up the area and headed back to camp for a hard-earned lunch. After lunch, we broke into 2 different teams. One team was spreading the dirt that the auger had dug up and backfilling over the concrete that we had poured. Our other team started hauling fence panels to stage. By mid-afternoon we had finished backfilling all of the posts, and had staged panels along the entire east side of our fence. We decided to head back to camp and have some Mexican Chili for supper

Sunday morning, we woke up and since we had done way more than I had anticipated over the weekend, decided to pack up camp and head out. I went back to the job-site early in the morning to take down some string, and saw 2 good sized bull elk foraging on the willow inside where our exclosure will be. This would have been a great picture to show why we are closing this area off, but when I tried to move closer for a picture, they decided to slumber off into the forest. Our next trip back, we will start hanging fence panels. This project is really starting to take shape and moving along nicely. We have 3 more weekends scheduled at Buck Springs.

Friday, August 16 we returned to Buck Springs for our 5th weekend at this project. This project was a little different as we were honored to share our camp with EmpoweRanch and their 1st ever Veterans Camp, in conjunction with our Heroes Rising Outdoors program. We arrived early to set up camp, and had several project volunteers and veterans there to help. After camp was set up, our veterans either could hang around camp and relax or head to the project site to get some work done with us. We started to hang some fence around 1:30, and by 4:30 we had already finished up 240’ of fence, a great start for the weekend. After seeing the progress for the day, we set a goal of hanging 1,000 total feet of fence for the weekend. When we were done, we headed back to camp, where more people had shown up, and we ate some burgers and chips. After supper, whoever wanted to went around for a campsite tour, checking out all the different setups in camp. When we reassembled around the campfire, we had smores and thanks to one of our veterans who had brought a guitar and a couple of the project people, had some live music and singing around the campfire.

Saturday, after a rainy night, we all woke up to a great day and breakfast burritos. For our morning portion of the day, EmpoweRanch as part of their service portion of camp, encouraged the veterans to come up to the jobsite and help out until lunch. We worked hard until lunch, and had a good amount of fence installed before we headed back to camp. After lunch, EmpoweRanch loaded up vehicles and drove out to the top of the Mogollon Rim only 4 miles away and the veterans got to experience some breathing techniques, a small hike, picking wildflowers, and relaxing. Our project volunteers got back to working on the fence. Most of the day we were broken into 3 groups, 2 hanging the 10’ and 20’ panels, and one group that was attaching the single rails above the panels. The afternoon went really fast, and we had a nice visit from our executive director of AES to the jobsite. We decided to call it quits for the day around 5 PM and head back to camp. We had chicken fajitas for supper, and everybody loved talking around the campfire that night. We again had S’mores as a treat.

Sunday morning, we woke up after another rainy night and had pancakes, sausage, and eggs before packing up camp for the weekend. Several of us had to take off and head back home, but the rest of us stayed and working a few more hours on the fence. We not only broke our goal this weekend, but we shattered it, hanging 1,475’ of fence. We have 3 sides completely hung, and will finish the remaining side next week, and putting some finishing touches on it and hanging the gate. This weekend was filled with great times, lots of hard work, and memories made. It was great to sit back and watch our project team interact and work with the veterans of our programs. It was amazing to listen to all the conversations and laughter, not only while sitting around the campfire at night, but also out on the project site as we work together. Getting to watch our veteran’s enjoying nature and not worrying about the stresses of life, but enjoying the serenity of healing outdoor recreation was priceless. Our volunteers work extremely hard and without them we would not be able to accomplish these projects. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to these men and women who give up their personal time to come and help our organization.

Friday, August 23 was our 6th weekend at the Buck Springs project site. When we arrived at camp Friday mid-morning, we got our kitchen set up and then the volunteers that had arrived starting staging panels on the east side of the exclosure we are building so that we could be ready to start firsts thing Saturday morning. This took pretty much all day to stage approximately 1000’ of panels. We returned to camp and had a great meal around a campfire. 

Saturday morning, after breakfast and our safety meeting, we headed out to the project site to start construction of the fence for the day. We broke into 2 teams. One team starting adding the single railing on the north side, while another team started hanging the panels on the east side. The time went very quickly, and by lunch the north side of the fence was totally complete, and most of the panels were hung on the remaining side. It was a beautiful and cool day for working up on the rim. After lunch we broke back up into our respective teams again. By mid afternoon all of the panels had been hung on the east side, and our 2nd team had finished the top rails on approximately 500’ of fence. We combined teams and got quite a bit more of the top rails done. By 5 PM we were all exhausted and returned to camp for a pasta supper, along with great stories and conversation around the campfire, complete with S’mores.

Sunday morning, we woke up for a great breakfast and afterwards broke camp. As we headed back up to the job site, our goal was to finish a 2nd side of top rails, and by around 11 we did just that. This fence now has 2 sides that are complete. All we have to do is install the top rails on the southern and eastern side. In 2 weeks, we will return to finish this project. Our volunteers have worked extremely hard on this project, and we would like to thank each and every one that have came out to be a part of it so far.