Project - day one
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Posted by StroppySam on July 21, 2010 at 18:57:51 from 91.125.125.103
Dad's great project for the summer is to buld an assault course / adventure walk through the woods and swamp, using us teens and kids as the cheap, or more likely free, labour. Typical - we finish all the hard work of school only to be made to work during the holidays!
Charlie took the six of us to the local army surplus stores as mum told dad that if we were going to get soaked and muddy every day, she was not going to let the resultant filthy clothes go through the washing machine and he need not think that she was going to be hand washing anything when on holiday. He took his orders calmly and with dignity.
The result is that we've all got a set of camo or khaki long trousers, khaki long-sleeved shirt and t-shirt, khaki briefs (ugh, but for our own well-being, according to Charlie) and socks and been forbidden to wear anything else whilst working on the project. None of the kit fits terribly well, arms and legs either too short or too long; Ben and Adam look completely swamped by theirs, whereas Mike and me look quite the part with a tighter fit and correct length. We've all got walking shoes with us as mass hikes are always part of our holidays here, so we'll wear those to protect feet.
UJ is already swaggering round like a drill sargeant with a bunch of new recruits, barking orders and telling us to work faster or harder, and its only the first day. I'm sure that we can think of some suitable revenge in due course for UJ, Uncle Charlie and Mike; I can see UJ tripping into the swamp mud very soon, probably with the other two not far behind. We still owe them for this morning's wetting in the pool, even though it was fun in the end. Hope they don't try to do it every morning, I'm getting tired already of sitting down to my meals in sodden clothes after yesterday's lunch and today's breakfast.
After lunch we all changed into our new work clothes and headed off to see where the construction was going to take place. We started at the far side of the woods where a spring emerges from the rocks on the hillside and then spreads out across a woodland clearing where it forms the muddiest part of the swamp. UJ was asked to check how deep the swamp was and he waded into the mud as being the easiest and quickest way to find out. It took him a while to get to the centre of the pond and he was chest deep in the muddy mess when he took one step too far, and with a startled cry he dropped below the surface before surfacing again a yard or two further on. He looked so funny with mud and weed covering his head, you couldn't even see the colour of his skin or his blonde hair. He need not have shouted out that "I think there's a deep hole here".
We started helping dad, Charlie and James to mark out the proposed route as shown on the plans so that tomorrow we can start bashing support posts into place. We ended the afternoons work having placed white tapes along the route we wanted, most of us got wet and dad, Charlie, James and Mike were all soaked from head to toe as they were the only ones tall enough to be able to wade through the ponds without having to swim.
Having surveyed our work and discussed what needed doing next, a mud figth broke out after James shook his still muddy hair in Charlie's face. If you've never been dropped into deep mud and then tickled until helpless with laughter while an evil cousin tries to stuff handfulls of mud down your shirt and trousers, you've never lived. Revenge was sweet when I rugby-tackled Mike and face-planted him in the gloopiest pool of mud I could see.
We all ended the afternoon hosing each other down, stripping off and jumping in the pool for a naked swim - even dad, Charlie and James - much to the amusement and pretended scandalising of the females watching. As it got cooler we clambered out and dried off wrapped in nice warm towels before pulling on dry clothes, ready for tea. Our sodden work clothes are all still hanging on the line ready for tomorrow, dry or not.
More tomorrow, hopefully, if we've not all perished in the forced labour camp that our holiday has become.
Sorry this is abit long.
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