We’re Getting There!

I have to start this post by saying the outpouring of support for our Dam Project is amazing.  On Wednesday morning we launched our crowd funding campaign to try to raise $10,000 towards this project.   By this morning, supporters have funded a little over 50% of the goal.  WOW!  Thank you.

We are also making progress with the dam itself.  Yesterday staff and volunteers filled more sand bags and placed them in the creek. The temporary sandbag dam is making a difference.  So far we’ve used 650 sandbags and water is starting to flow back into our headrace.  (The headrace is the canal that channels water from the dam to the frog pond, fishing ponds, and mill.) Right now it is only a trickle, but that is better than nothing.

You can see in the image in the bottom right of the photo collage that water is so close to flowing past the wooden control gate.  Once we get that water flowing through, we can get our fishing ponds and the mill back up and running again.

We planned to fill and place sandbags today, but the rain is making us adjust those plans.  (We’ve checked on the temporary dam and it is holding secure so far.)  We will be filling sandbags tomorrow from 10am-3pm.  Volunteers are welcome and encouraged to come out and help throughout the day.  (If you’ve also contributed to our fundraising campaign as a dam donor and we’ll give you your promised high five!!!)

Next week we’ll be placing the rest of the sandbags in the creek in preparation for the restoration work to start the following week.

If you are interested in donating to our project, you can find our campaign link here: http://igg.me/at/damproject/x/7519877.  Please help us spread the word about the project and about the campaign.  You can find us on Twitter (@newlingristmill) and on Facebook as well (search Newlin Grist Mill).