Remembering Jake
As Written By Jake Mayes:
For my Eagle project I plan on building a bocce ball court at Pioneer Park, the local park in my hometown of Nevada City. After meeting with various park representatives, we determined that the best placement for the court would be in the section of the park by the river, near the horseshoe pits. If you are walking from the pool to the horseshoe pits, then it will be on the right side of the trail. A complication I will have to over come is that there is a small hill on the side where the court is going, which tends to cause a flood zone. The park is planning on putting in drainage so it won’t turn into a muddy swamp again. For the court itself, it will be about 12 feet wide by 80 feet long and the lane will be made up of either decomposed granite or oyster. Additionally, I would like to put in some benches on either side of the court for seating and to help make it a comfortable gathering place. I will do some landscaping around the immediate area to make it look nice and inviting.
Day 1
Digging
On the first day, I had to dig out a trench where I wanted the cement curb to be. So on the first day I got 11 kids to show up. It was a good turn out. At first the progress was slow with just me, my little sister and other younger scouts. I had to show the smaller scouts what to do constantly and monitor what they were doing with the sharp shovels and pointy rakes. After a while they got the hang of it. When the next 4 people showed up (3 older scouts and an adult) the progress increased dramatically and we ended up finishing early. I submitted that day’s photo of us digging to the local newspaper “The Union”. It was accepted and put in.
Day 2,4
Cement Forms
Cement Pouring
I decided to combine these 2 days into one because it keeps things a bit simpler. This day I got to skip school and work on my project instead. At first when I arrived, I was just going to take pictures of the workers building the wooden forms, then one of the workers handed me a hammer and I began to hammer nails into the forms. The next week the Cement truck showed up and I knew at this point there was no turning back. This time I knew I would be taking pictures the first half and working the other. So I handed my camera to my dad who began to take pictures of me working with the slowly drying cement. After the cement truck left, I handed the tiles to the workers who then softly banged the tiles into the cement with the palm of their hand. The tiles were for the foul and center lines of the court. We then pulled the forms off of the cement and loaded them into the pickup. The curb around the court looked great.
Day 3
Building benches and sign
This day I picked everyone up at the park and drove them to our house where the power drills, fresh lumber and food was located. My grandfather took aside some of the scouts to be his “apprentices” making the sign. They had to stencil the letters one by one onto the sign and then my grand father would use a dremel (A wood carving device) to write out the letters in the wood. With the other scouts my father and I organized the other scouts to cut the word to length with a power saw and began to build the benches from the directions. This day I had to be extremely careful. I had my brother and his patrol. They were a bunch of younger scouts who liked to horse around. I had to constantly watch to make sure they wouldn’t mess around near the power saw as It could easily take off a hand. Any ways, a few got board and took spare wood and had sword fights. I quickly took the wood from them and assigned them to sweeping, stacking wood and food preparation.
Day 5
Gravel
This day My brother’s friend rode his bike to “hang out” with Sam (my brother). My brother started messing around and I knew that if I told him to help with the project, he would still mess around. So I had to have my dad tell him to work. He was a good worker after my dad was through with him. Otherwise, this day was working with sharp shovels and pointy rakes. I had to watch older hard working scouts as much as the younger inexperienced ones. The older ones because they were swinging heavy shovels of rock and the younger, because they got under foot and weren’t as aware. The reason for using gravel was to make sure the court would drain.
Day 6-7
Dirt
This Day I made a bad mistake, I brought my camera but there was no memory card in it. I had to call my mom and have her bring my back pack (which contained the memory car). It was a much easier day because there were less young scouts and more older ones. I assigned the tallest to dig holes for the benches and sign to go in. They quickly made 10 holes one for each piece of wood. Once the benches were in the younger scouts started to show up. I gave them easier tasks such as getting water from the stream for cement, putting caution tape on the newly cemented benches and rolling out the black tarp that went over the entire court. One scout noticed a cardboard tube in the middle of the roll of tarp and he used it as a sword whacking anyone who happened to get in his path or challenged him for it the cardboard tube. I ended up having to take the tube away.
Day 8
Final Day
On the Final Day I was very excited. The DG (Decomposed Granite) was there lying in 2 heaps on either side of the court and I got a formidable amount of scouts that showed up. My grandfather then helped me assemble scouts to carry buckets of DG and pour the buckets into the other areas of the court. When almost all of the mounds of DG were flat, Dave Martinez pulled out a 15-foot piece of wood that we used to level the court. We used 2-4 scouts pushing/pulling the wood and the rest of them purring buckets into any gaps between the courts surface and the wood. After about half of the court was flat, we took out a heavy “vibra plate” we used it to compact the DG. After the DG was flat, we used any extra around the edges. It was quite a chore loading it onto the small trailer and pouring it off. Last was the sign. As soon as I peered into one of the holes I noticed that that the rainwater inside of the holes was almost flush with the surface. I produced a long piece of pvc pipe from the back of the trailer. I put the pvc into the water and put my hand over the top of the pvc and lifted the pvc, then I moved the edge of the pvc out of the water into a bucket. Then I moved my hand from the pipe and water came out of the tube. We repeated the process until the holes were empty. We then sank the sign into the holes and put the concrete into the holes and let it dry. To my surprise my dad came down with a blanket and wrapped inside was a stone bearing “ Jake Mayes eagle scout project September 2011” we then cemented it into the ground at the foot of the sign. My grandfather then took the clay like mud around the area and the DG and made the area around the sign look good. My project was finished at last.
