It was an early morning wake-up-call Saturday morning to attend Joshua Serrano’s Eagle Project at around 8:00 a.m. Many of the new and old scouts participated such as Zach Serrano, Joshua Gordon, and Ken Nelson; Eagle Scouts in Troop 448. The morning started out slow; setting groups up, getting tools together, and eating the fresh donuts and orange juice the Serrano’s had prepared. We had to dig an 8 inch hole stretching about 20-30 feet on the side of Saint Catherine’s of Sienna, right across from the playground. Most scouts were scattered on the sides, slicing away with the pick axes, scooping the dirt with the shovels, moving the dirt to the side of the playground and next to the sidewalk and spreading it; while the other extra scouts decided to pick up all the loose tree limbs on the other side of the parking lot.
About an hour or so later, we had already removed all the grass inside the perimeter. It was pretty easy hitting away with my pick axe, but once we got through the soft, fertile soil, we hit hard, heavy-duty rocks. It was a tough job for everyone, even the adults! Joshua had some of the older scouts dig 2 feet post holes, so that the iron poles for the fence could stand up properly. Cracking the hard rocky dirt with the breaker bars and removing the dirt with the dost hole diggers seemed everlasting. Scouts still kept slicing away at the rocky soil, and removing it with the wheel barrows and shovels inside the boundary to Joshua’s liking. You really don’t know how fine air conditioning feels until you’re sweating like crazy! Everybody went inside the church for lunch, which was pizza provided by the Serrano’s, fresh lemonade and Sunny D. It was incredibly refreshing to wash off all the sweat in the bathroom and eat smoking hot pizza in the cold church kitchen. The scouts sat together eating pizza, talking about movies, shows, and enjoying the funny jokes. It was a good 30 minutes that was definitely needed after that whole ordeal, but the ordeal was not over yet…
We left the kitchen and started back to work, in 100 degree Austin weather, which is actually normal these days. We moved the easy-ups to cover the area that we worked in and kept digging out the pit until it was 8 inches. The adults now worked on a different segment of the project, which was getting a frame up for the concrete pouring. The frame was about 8” high, built by the crafty adults, especially Mr. Tovar and Mr. Elizondo. Before the concrete could take place the adults focused on the frame that needed to be built, while the scouts sat by the water exhausted from all the work.
Eventually, the frame work was complete. It was now 4:00. Even though we were supposed to leave at 3:00, we decided to keep going and complete everything that Joshua needed us to complete. Everyone was devoted to the project and wanted to get as much done as possible, so we kept on going. Since the frame was complete, all we had to do was pour the concrete into the frame and then we were done, right? Well as they say, “It’s easier said than done,” and that is the truth!!! We turned on the concrete mixer, which only Mr. Faulkner knew how to use, and mixed bags of concrete and water inside it. Also, we had the older scouts lift bags of concrete, put them in the bins and mixed them with our shovels. We lifted the bins with concrete in them and poured it into the frame work. It was a tedious process and we did not want to spill any of the concrete. Carlos Tovar and I took our trowels and did the finishing touches on the concrete. The day finished at around 5:30. It was a day spent well, helping another scout with his eagle project.
Posted by: Chris Frasquieri (Senior Patrol Leader)
This year, we had 9 new crossovers attend Camping 101 at El Rancho Cima as the Phoenix patrol.
