Eagle Scout Project

Ari Brown
March 9, 2010

Abstract
I built a raised garden for the Upper Valley Haven Society, a local organization
that supports families in need by providing essentials to survive, such as food, shelter,
and clothing. Paul Thompson, another Eagle Scout prospect, had dug the trench for
me to build in, thus Paul and I had to cooperate and share design plans. The raised
vegetable garden was built out of 75-pound concrete bricks from Arthur Whitcomb.
The walls of the garden were measured to be straight and level to produce stable walls.
Two scouts and ten other people helped with the construction.

1 Introduction
The Haven Society supports families in need by providing food, clothing, and shelter to its
residents. This year, due to hard times, they had to buy an extra $10,000 worth of bread
because more people needed the Haven’s help. To help cut future costs, they need a garden
built so that they can grow vegetables at a higher quality and a significantly reduced cost
to support the families that they provide for. I proposed to help them cut their costs for
vegetables. They had had an old garden that was in use before, but it had to be bulldozed
to make way for an expansion to their building. The Haven was committed to the idea of a
garden due to past success, so I knew that anything I could do would directly translate into
success.

I built a raised garden (30’ x 15’) for the Upper Valley Haven Society, an organization
that helps families in need. I built the structure off of a fellow life scout’s Eagle Project,
where he builds the trench for the garden and lays down the gravel base. I had originally
planned to build stairs for the garden and to fill the garden in with the dirt provided, but it
turned out that they didn’t need the stairs and that the dirt was going to be provided late
by master gardeners.

This project will benefit the Haven because the Haven Society will be able to provide
inexpensive vegetables to its guests, reducing the pain of the extra costs it has had to pay
for other things during this recession.

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1.1 Contact Information
Upper Valley Haven
713 Hartford Ave.
White River Jct., VT 05001
802-295-6500

2 Plan and Preparation

I first went to the site and familiarize myself with the state that it’s in. This allowed me to
more accurately plan what needed to be done and what I needed to get for materials and
tools.

2.1 Initial Condition

There was no garden for the Haven; there were only a few piles of dirt marked with cinder
blocks. Paul Thompson another scout in our troop had dug a trench, marked it with string,
and lined the base of the trench with stone gravel to form the walls’ foundation. There was
a pile of bricks and a mound of topsoil.

2.2 Method
I started by lining the walls of the trench with the cement blocks that were provided. I
needed 50 new bricks (10 to split in half to make cornerstones), which I got from Arthur
Whitcomb. With the materials amassed, we evened out the gravel and laid down the first
half layer of bricks.

2.3 Materials
I needed landscaping bricks, shovels, a wheelbarrow, a tape measure, and a crowbar to help
me build the wall. They are listed in Appendix A.

2.4 Schedule
The tasks we thought we had to do before arriving onsite consisted of primarily procuring
the blocks and the speculated day plan are listed in the Appendix.

2.5 Manpower
This project was almost entirely hard, manual labor. The chart detailing the projected
helpers, projected hours per person, and the calculated total number of hours worked is
listed in the Appendix.

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2.6 Financial Plan
The cost was relatively minor, so I paid for this myself and then asked the Troop for a
partial reimbursement. LaValley’s building supplies was managed by a Scoutmaster (Bob
Jackman), who was able to provide a discount, but LaValley’s did not have the bricks I
needed. If needed, I can plan a fundraiser in the spring to reimburse myself. The Haven
got their bricks from Arthur Whitcomb, whose manager is also a scoutmaster. The manager
was able to give me a discount on the bricks. See Appendix A for the financial plan.
See Appendix C for pictures of the site upon arrival.

3 Execution of the Project

On the first day, we were met with inclement weather; it was 20 deg outside and we acquired
6 inches of snow by the end of the day. In the last hour it was whiteout condition. In the
morning there were only a few people, but at around noontime there were about 10 people
there. These numbers dwindled, and at the end there were only 4. I had to come back with
Matt Cutts on the following Wednesday to move bricks, on Thursday with Nox and Chloe
Connelly to purchase the new bricks, and on the next Sunday with a few volunteers to finish
moving the bricks and to clean the site.

3.1 Hours Spent

I personally spent 13 hours planning the project and 14 hours carrying it out, bringing the
total time I worked on the project to 27 hours. It took me and all of the volunteers involved
4 days of labor. On day 1, we evened out the gravel and began to lay down the blocks. On
day 2, Matt Cutts and I placed down all of the remaining blocks. On day 3, Nox Connelly,
Chloe Connelly, and I purchased the new blocks, cut 10 of them to produce 20 half-blocks,
and delivered them all from Arthur Whitcomb to the Haven location. On day 4, we placed
those final blocks and loaded some dirt into the garden, only to find that it was not needed.

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 Name Date # of Hours

Nox Connelly 12/13/09 3

Chloe Connelly 12/13/09 3
Sucharita Jayanti 12/13/09 3
Paul Thompson 12/13/09 1
Timothy Smith 12/13/09 8
Jean Brown 12/13/09 8
Bill Brown 12/13/09 8
Yorke Brown 12/13/09 8
Ambrose Granizo-Mackenzie 12/13/09 5
Amanda Mackenzie 12/13/09 5
Nox Connelly 12/17/09 3
Chloe Connelly 12/17/09 3
Bill Brown 12/20/09 3
Jean Brown 12/20/09 3
Robin Smith 12/20/09 3
Timothy Smith 12/20/09 3
Matt Cutts 12/16/09 2

Others worked a total of 72 hours on the project. Including me, a total of 99 hours were
spent on this project.

3.2 Materials
These were the materials actually needed to complete the project. “Total Price” is what it
actually would have cost to buy the parts, and “Actual Cost” is what was actually paid.

Item Specification Quantity Unit Price Total Price Actual Cost

8”x14”x16” Concrete Blocks 188 $7.71 $1449.48 $50

Bag of plastic pins 1 N/A N/A N/A
Topsoil N/A N/A N/A N/A
Shovel 3 $7 $21 N/A
Wheelbarrow 1 N/A N/A N/A
Crowbar 1 N/A N/A N/A

The tools needed:

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 Item Specification Quantity Unit Price Total Price

Shovels 6 N/A N/A

Wheelbarrows 2 N/A N/A
Tape Measure 1 N/A N/A
Crowbar 1 N/A N/A

Table 1: Tools Needed

3.3 Changes
As with any project, the plan and what actually happens always have discrepancies. Here,
I recount what changed from the original plan.

3.3.1 Materials
I ended up needing exactly the amount of bricks I had calculated. The only thing that
changed was I needed “persuaders”, that is, crowbars to help dislodge the bricks which were
frozen to both the ground and each other. I compared the bricks I needed to the ones at
Home Depot and LaValley’s, and gathered the price to be about $3. I spoke with stone
masons at Arthur Whitcomb, from where the original bricks were purchased, and was told
that they would cost $1.57 per brick. In reality, they were $7.71 per brick, which set me
back $380. After talking with the manager, I managed to get the price reduced to $50 since
I was a Boy Scout and the project was for a non-profit organization.

3.3.2 Schedule and Plan

The schedule was greatly affected because of difficulties with the state of the old bricks and
the information of the bricks. First, the base layers of the garden walls needed to be pinned
together to help with alignment. However, the old bricks (which were the only ones available
at the time) had their holes stuffed with frozen dirt and ice. We had to take the pins and
shove them into each of the holes on a third of the bricks to clear them out so they could be
used. The second issue that arose was that after speaking with the stone masons at Arthur
Whitcomb, I was told that I could cut the bricks by hand with a chisel. It turns out that
we had to use a hydraulic pump only available at Arthur Whitcomb. We spent two or three
hours trying to figure out how to cut the bricks before going back for a second opinion. It
also turned out that the new bricks had been discontinued and so when I actually tried to
purchase them they needed to be shipped up from Keene, NH. When the bricks arrived, I
had to split them at Arthur Whitcomb, which added another step.

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3.4 Brick Story
The core of the changes in the project were effected by the bricks. To start with, I was told
that the bricks could be cut onsite by hand by Tom Kitteredge. However, he told me to
verify that with the stonemasons at Arthur Whitcomb. Upon arriving at Arthur Whitcomb
in West Lebanon, I held a sample brick in my hand and asked both how much it would cost
per brick and how I could cut them. The information told was that it would cost $1.57 and
I could cut the bricks by hand with a chisel. I based the entire rest of my plan on the those
two facts, both of which turned out to be false. Several days later, on day 1 of the project,
we were trying to split a brick, but failed after several hours; the brick came out terribly
disfigured and awkward. Upon the actual purchase of the new bricks, I was alarmed to find
that they would in fact cost $7.71 per block. I spoke with the manager, and he, being the
father of an Eagle Scout, was able to offer me a heavy discount for the purchase of 50 more
bricks. One detail that did not change about the bricks was that I had calculated I would
need 50 bricks, and I needed exactly 50 new bricks.

3.4.1 Manpower
About as many people as expected showed up, however they, on average, stayed for less than
the predicted time. This caused me to rely on my parents and other adults to help out.
Even though we had to level out the gravel on the first day, it did not require us to work
for an extra day; the gravel only needed to be leveled for the first half-layer and half of the
second layer.

3.4.2 Work Tasks

As described under the schedule section, I needed to create a new task of cleaning out the old
bricks. I also had to take the extra step to pick up the bricks after they had been delivered,
which was unfortunately after when we had started the project. Since the bricks couldn’t
be cut by hand on the first day of the project, we had to spend about an hour redesigning
the corners of the garden.

3.4.3 Costs
I was first told that the bricks cost $1.57 a piece, but it turned out that they cost $7.71. My
estimate of $150 was wrong, but since the manager of Arthur Whitcomb has a son who is
an Eagle Scout, he reduced the price to $1 per brick. This brought the total to $50.

3.5 Lessons Learned

I learned several lessons throughout this project, all pertaining to communication.
First, always over-communicate until you’re told not to. This relates to a lesson that I
figured out about a year ago: always divulge all of your information. If I had been saying
too much rather than too little, I would never have created a stir at the Haven because of

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confusion over dates. One time, I wanted to have a workday at the Haven, and emailed them
to let them know. We didn’t connect, though, because it was sent on a weekend when they
don’t check email. I should have sent them an email during the week so that they would’ve
had time to see it and get back to me.

Second, trust but verify, and then do it again. I trusted that the opinion I had been
given about cutting bricks was correct, but in fact it was not. When I went to confirm with
the stone masons, I was given bad information. If I had asked to see exactly what the model
number was of the brick I had in my hands, I would’ve found out that the mason I was
speaking with gave me information about a different type of brick.

Third, expect the unexpected. This means that when a first plan gets trodden over, I
should roll with the blows create a new plan. When building the wall, we found ourselves
several hours behind scheduling because we were finding out for ourselves that the informa-
tion we were given about cutting bricks was all wrong. I was dumbfounded for a while and
we continued to blindly move forward. Although it caused no harm this time, next time I
should figure out that our information was bad and seek to get better information as soon
as possible.

3.6 Conclusion
In the end, I believe I did a good project and I know that I learned a lot from the process.
The project was defined as one thing in the beginning, but came out as something different.
Every other time I do a project, I need to remember the lessons I learned from this project:
over-communicate; trust but verify, and then do it again; and expect the unexpected. I
am proud of the work I did in this project because building the walls was difficult, but I
accomplished it nonetheless (with much help). I hope the garden serves the Haven well in
the future.

4 Thanks
Thank you to Timothy Smith, who helped me throughout this entire project, from start
to finish; to Yorke Brown, who helped me get my plan approved on an unnecessarily short
notice; to Nox Connelly, for letting us use his crowbar and for transporting the bricks from
Arthur Whitcomb to the Haven; to Tom Kitteredge and Laura Shelton of the Haven for
giving me this project and for helping me with all of the details; and to all the volunteers
who helped make this project possible.

A Tables

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Item Specification Quantity Unit Price Total Price

8x16x14 Cinderblocks (new) 50 $3 $150

8x16x14 Cinderblocks (old) 138 N/A N/A

Table 2: Materials Needed

Item Specification Quantity Unit Price Total Price

Shovels 6 N/A N/A

Wheelbarrows 2 N/A N/A
Tape Measure 1 N/A N/A
Crowbar 1 N/A N/A

Table 3: Tools Needed

Task Estimated Duration (hours)

Buy bricks 1:00

Unload them at the Haven 1:00
Survey trench and verify dimensions 0:30
Cut corner stones 0:30
Collect and drop off food 2:00

Table 4: Speculated Schedule Before Arrival on Site

Start Time Task

09:00am Arrive
09:00am Move bricks to form wall
11:00am Build Stairs
12:00pm Lunch
12:30pm Load wheelbarrows with dirt and dump them into garden
02:00pm Even out dirt
03:00pm Clean up
04:00pm Leave

Table 5: The Day Plan for December 13, 2009

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Project Phase # of People Hours/Person Total Hours

Phase 1: Plan Development

- Planning 1 15 15
- Writing 1 3 3
- Meetings 2 1 2
- Approvals 2 1 2

Phase 2: Execution
- Getting the bricks 3 1.5 4.5
- Building the walls 7 2 14
- Building the stairs 7 0.5 3.5
- Pouring dirt 7 2 14
- Cleaning up 7 1 7

Project Total - - 65

Table 6: Estimated Hours

Item Specification Quantity Unit Price Total Price

8x16x14 Cinderblocks 50 $3 $50 ($150 without discount)

Table 7: Financial Plan