Progress Slows due to too much play!

Progress has slowed now that the courts are suitable for play and the weather has been nice. Here's the extent of the crew (Dave) that showed up at 12:30 for the work party. But I heard 8 were planning to show for play at 3pm. Play first, work later...you gotta love the priorities of the typical volleyball bum. Actually, both George and Kurt were on the way to help Dave when I left about 1:30.


What still remains is installing the border logs that will make the courts look a lot more finished. Two out of the 32 logs are now in place.


We meet with the City tomorrow afternoon with hopes of coming to an agreement on needed fencing and additional landscaping.

Our grand opening ceremony still doesn't have a date. Too many key people will be gone on the Oct 11th weekend, so it might be Oct 4th or Oct 18th.

Play Begins on Court 1

Chris and George teamed up against Kurt and Dave in the inaugural doubles game on the new courts. Appropriately, the weather was a typical light drizzle. Grass would have been too slippery and dangerous to play. It was for days like this that we built these courts. Of course, we'll be out there when it's sunny, too.

It was a good game. Dave closed out the final point with with a roof.

Here, Chris pounds cross-court off of Dave's block for point.

Here, George casually digs Dave.

Chris had his jump serve going.

Dave was hitting well like usual.

Kurt shows off his patented cross-court pokie.


The guys gave the sand an A+ rating...clean, fine, and firm enough that they could get out of the sand to spike.

What remains before we can claim we're done...
1) Install power poles form the border around the sand.
2) Fencing around the south, west, and north sides of the court if the City allows. We'd like the City to provide the fencing. The slope on the west side is quite steep and potentially a safety issue. We'd like to have some of the fence post extended 15-20 feet in the air so that we can install a mesh netting to keep the balls contained.
3) Grass seeding on the steep slopes to keep the dirt in place.
4) Clean up the rip-rap construction entrance/exit and put the parking lot back in shape.

We're tentatively planning a grand opening celebration for Saturday, October 4th.

Net Systems Go In

The final step before play is to install the net systems and guy wires.

Scott and Eric pound away to bury guy wire anchors provided by Peninsula Light.

Thanks to precise calculations, all the net pole are close in height...ready for the nets.

Sand is Spread, Grading is Done

Bill finished spreading the final 6 loads of sand. He also "tuned up" the banks around the edges of the sand pit. Next we'll place the wood poles donated by Peninsula Light around the borders, and the dirt work will essentially be done.



The City plans to seed all the dirt banks with grass seed to control erosion, and they may add some more dirt along the west property line to reduce the slope on that bank.

At this point, there's nothing holding us up from installing the net systems and starting play. The first game should be Saturday afternoon.

We're almost there!

My last post was too many words and too few pictures, so this one will be the opposite.

Tomorrow (Friday), the last of the sand will get spread, and the log border installed. Bill Winchester, owner/operator of Wauna Tractor Services, will finish final grading and build some mounds for our BMX neighbors. Then on Saturday we plan to install the net systems, and get the first games going. There might be some final raking that folks can do while waiting to play.

We've seen an awesome week of progress, and it's hard to believe we're this far along only a week after we took over from the City. Bill has been amazing helping us solve problems as they're encountered. He truly lived up to his reputation as one of the best "dirt guys" in the area.

This first photo is from the City crew's last day on Thursday the 11th. I want Kyle, the big guy, as my doubles partner.


And when we took over, there was that wet spot we needed to deal with...


Monday was gravel spreading day...6-8 inches of drain rock covering the entire area...



Looks pretty nice at this point...ready for the layer of drain fabric.


Inserts for fence posts were installed in concrete on Tuesday evening...these are the two center post awaiting a final yard of concrete before the sand goes on.


Unfortunately, we missed the deadline for obtaining the heavily discounted sand from Narrows Plaza Bowl. Imagine our surprise and elation, though, when we obtained that same sand from its new owner Walrath Trucking for $1500 less than we would have paid to purchase from Narrows Plaza and pay for trucking separately!!??

Spreading the sand on Wednesday...

We Will Succeed!

Wow...amazing progress is being made. And not without a boatload of extra effort.

Since the last post, we've finished installing all of the drainage...lay drain fabric at bottom and sides of trench, lay gravel base, add drain pipe, connect drain pipe to outlet, then fill trench with more gravel.

As it became clear that we'd be spreading gravel on Tuesday and perhaps sand on Wednesday, the necessity to dig the post holes before Tuesday morning pretty much told us what needed to be done Monday evening. Sounds simple enough...rent a 2-man power auger, stake out where the four 6 foot deep holes go, then let that auger do all the work before placing sonotubes in the resultant holes. Well, it might have been that simple if two of the poles didn't stake out on top of drain trenches. This meant a bunch of extra effort to dig the hole while safely keeping dirt out of the trench and gravel out of the hole. And of course, a 6 foot deep hole is WAY down there...especially when you keep running into rocks that keep stopping the bit and sending an explosive jerk up the shaft to the handles.

As darkness neared, Dave and George knew that they were up against more than they could deal with (much like they must have felt the last time they teamed up against Gregg and Kurt in grass doubles). A desperate plea for help brought proper responses from Janson, Sunia, and Kurt. With light from cars parked next to the work site, the fivesome finished the task a bit after midnight.

Someone owes those 5 guys (except Janson) a couple pitchers of beer for the evening's efforts. There's something satisfying about accepting a challenge, finding your team in a serious pickle, then pressing through to success with that "We will not fail!" attitude. I sincerely admire these guys and hope they tell the story of this fateful evening long into the future.

Left to right: Sunia, Janson, Kurt, and George try to show the machine who is boss. Based on the bermuda shorts and flip-flops, it appears that Kurt merely stepped in for the picture.
When the manufacturer named this machine a "Two-man power auger," it must not have considered how many Gig Harbor volleyball players it takes to match the strength of two normal men.


When the job called for serious heavy muscle, Sunia the Fijian Phenom met the challenge.

Cantorwood Crew to the Rescue!

Project leader Gregg tore his quadriceps loose from his right patella while playing grass volleyball on Saturday. He'll be out for 6 months, and won't be much help on court construction. George and Kurt and Dave were there to experience it with him. They, along with Chris Nelson, have stepped up to fill the huge void left by Gregg's absence.

Hopes for completing the courts in mid-September with discounted Narrows Plaza Bowl sand slowly slipped away as the City encountered various delays with the grading plan and extended the 3 day schedule to 8 days. This left us too little time for us to dig drainage ditches, install drain pipe, fill trenches with drain material and drain rock, and spread 6" of gravel before the September 15th sand deadline.

Dave and Eric ponder what to do next...


Here Dave carries a large rock he uncovered while re-digging the City's tight line pipe.


Now that the Sept 15th milestone is blown, we're trying to press for completion at a reasonable pace. On Friday the 12th, Kurt suggested that the Canterwood crew could provide some expert help installing the drainage system. They, along with Dave, Chris, George, and Eric worked most of the day to dig the trenches, lay perforated drain pipe, and tight line the standing water to the corner of the court where the water enters a large solid pipe that the City buried. Unfortunately, no pictures of the trench work yet, but the last report was that water was flowing.

City completes grading

A lot has happened since the last posting. The City crew continued adding and moving dirt around. After it became clear that the courts wouldn't fit, the City relented and brought in some extra horsepower to cut into the East slope and dig the hole 2.5 feet deeper. They worked hard all day and finished by close of business on the 11th. For a little while, we thought we could finish our part (drainage ditches, poles, final grading, gravel substrate) before the deadline for sand delivery on Monday the 15th, but alas, there was too little time. As expected, the site has a serious drainage problem, and we didn't want to rush to the wrong solution and waste all our efforts. Unfortunately, we had to tell our sand supplier and new volleyball friend, David Gallagher, thanks but no thanks, which was a big disappointment because we were to receive that sand at a 66% discount.

These are just a glimpses of the large amount of dirt that was brought in.



We ended up with nearly what the grading plan designated...a large flat bowl with a 3 foot rim all the way around the edge...and it's only a couple feet smaller than we planned. We still think we can make it work.


Note the huge pond in the SE corner that we now need to deal with...

Day2 and Day3 of Court Construction

The City crew has done a lot of work leveling the site. We have some concerns with the width being too narrow and the elevation being too high. We'll talk with the City folks tomorrow, hopefully, to understand their plan and propose ideas.


The southeast corner where they've cut into the bank is wet...perhaps from a spring. The ground is very spongy. Good on the knees, but we'll need an excellent drainage system to ensure the water goes elsewhere. You can see what's wet just by the color of the dirt.


Here Dave and Chris are checking out the extent of the soft, wet ground.


George expressing our general feelings about the small size of the court area due, it appears, to a hesitancy to kill some scrubby birch trees.

Court Construction Begins!

On September 2nd, after the City submitted and gained approval of the appropriate permits, city workers began construction by leveling the site.


Meanwhile, Gregg secured a sweet deal on sand and two complete net systems from Narrows Plaza Bowl in Tacoma, which decided to discontinue its parking lot courts. But there was a catch...the sand needs to be moved by September 15th!

Way Back in January 2008...

With encouragement from City Manager Rob Karlinsey, volleyball enthusiasts Gregg, Cliff, Dave, George, and Chris descended upon the Parks Commission with an idea to build two sand volleyball courts in Gig Harbor. After a detailed trade study and much discussion about feline defecation habits, the group settled on a location at the southeast corner of the BMX Bike Park at the corner of 96th and Crescent Valley Drive. By the middle of April, the project was approved by the City Council.


The group's efforts to cooperate with BMX bikers and city officials were highlighted in a Peninsula Gateway article by reporter Paige Richmond.
See http://www.gateline.com/104/story/1243.html

A couple months later, the group had lined up the necessary monies to pay for the courts...thanks to monetary contributions from Peninsula Athletic Association and PenMet Parks, and volunteered service and labor from local businesses and individuals.

From the Seaside Volleyball Mens' A Quads tournament in August, this is an example why we need a sand court for practice in Gig Harbor...Roof!