Sunday, November 29, 2009

We love our new courts

After a rousing best of 5 3-on-3 match on Friday (no photos), regulars Dave, George, Chris, JohnV, Slade and Michael were joined by Tim for a couple games of doubles on a dry, but not so clear Sunday afternoon.

Low light and poor photography provided just a glimpse of the decent play.


Good scramble...


George can't pass...


...but when he does, he can hit


JohnV uses tape a la Scotty


See Chris chip to open court.


See Chris hit


See Chris hit hard!


Nice pass, Mark.


Dave hits


Mike hits

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Play resumes after 2 full days of work

Yep, after two more days of hard work by contractors and volunteers, the nets and lines are back in place, so play can resume.

On Friday, Bill Winchester of Wauna Tractor returned to work his magic. After filling in the drain rock from Purdy Topsoil behind the two walls, fine tuning the east embankment, and spreading a couple truck loads of wonderful fine screened sand from Lloyds Enterprises, the courts and surrounding area were lookin good. He also regraded the court surface to make it nice and level again. Gregg, Chris, Eric, Andrea, Stephan, and George pitched in with another 32 hours of hard work laying drain pipe, raking gravel, digging dirt, and spreading sand.





On Saturday, another large work party consisting of Ana, Bill, Vicki, Andrea, Toni, Michael, Scott, Eric, JohnV, Dave, George, and Gregg spent another 50 hours grooming dirt piles and putting up the new boundary netting and reinstalling court equipment.




Maybe there's good reason that the City forced us to sign hold-harmless agreements. Actually, the guys were very safety conscious in strapping ladders to the fence and balancing against the poles.









Sunday, November 15, 2009

Another Big Volunteer Work Day

The objectives for the day were to finish the concrete walls, dig holes for netting poles, and install all poles in concrete. Mission accomplished and more.

You can see the extent of this improvement project from these two photos. 330 feet of concrete border or wall around the entire edge of the sand to form a nice border plus poles installed outside the fence around 2 sides of the court.

The poles will be used to hang netting...a crucial improvement necessary to keep the ball inside the court when George pounds a spike down the line off of an unsuspecting digger.


Expert concrete contractors Ron Miller and son Matthew of Universe Construction gave us a great discount on their labor. Thanks to rain and landslides, the east wall turned into a real bear, but as you can see here, the Millers had it under control by week end.




Bill Miller provided not just hard work, but expertise from his experience creating other beautiful parks around the harbor. Here Vicki takes a short break from chipping away the slag to observe Bill pulling off some forms.


The poles around the entrance to the courts took a bit of extra figuring by (from left) Eric, Ana, Chris, and Evan.


Hard workers Scott, Gregg, and Vicki wrestled with the other entrance pole...

...while 6 others, including George's twin, Evan, Dave, Andrea, and Chris offered advice from on high.