Lands Capers and Workers!

 Before our twice-monthly work days, we sometimes get a landscaping update from Richard (you saw one here as a past blog). He usually has suggestions for potential tasks, so we decided to combine his epistle with some photos of last Saturday’s work day. 

Hi, Neighbors

The fall colors this year have been mixed. I thoroughly enjoyed the early bunches of leaves dropped in the circle by the Mighty White Oak. Yellows, flame orange and bright red, sometimes in clusters falling next to each other. A welcome surprise from an oak tree. Perhaps another sign that our signature tree is doing better. It certainly looked more healthy by the fall than it did in the spring. We will continue to limit erosion and let natural processes condition the soil under it.

The Three Raketeers! On work day these three set to work raking up all those beautiful oak leaves and twigs.

Linda gets the last bit of the leaves on the path between the South Quad and the Common House.

Jacquie can attest to the Mighty White Oak having Mighty big piles of leaves. 

The Scarlet Oaks, on the other hand, were disappointing. Not their year. But, as if to compensate, the Sweet Gum stepped up. They went through their own color show, capped by the brilliant reds still lingering at the intersection of the Pedway and EB Lane.

A flock of small birds burst from the Swamp Sunflowers as I walked down the Pedway just days ago. Now I have to restrain my impulse to clean out the bed. I admit to being as greedy for the seeds as the birds are, collecting whole stalks and stripping the heads into places in the bed where Sunflowers, Sneezeweed and Goldenrod have not yet taken hold.

We still have one shrub blooming. It is Sea Myrtle, a type of aster, not related to Wax Myrtle or Crepe Myrtle which is not even native to this hemisphere. You can see large ones along the edge of the woods west of EB Lane and a couple east of the stock barn.

Everyone should be anxious to get outdoors again after this rain, and our next work day will be a great opportunity. Saturday will be brisk and partly sunny. The landscape committee needs to collect the irrigation donuts and gator bags. Karolyn and Ayn will do that and then go on to harvest zinnias.

I will work on clearing around the Old Apple Tree with Mary Kay. The south end of the EB Lane bed is a good place to weed.

The compost yard is ready for your input. So bring it on.

Any other suggestions?
Richard

Richard didn’t really have to ask. There were plenty of other suggestions of work – from excavating a new South Quad path (Mary) to spraying vinegar on weeds in the pedway (Vonda).

The log cabin has been a favorite project for years! Indeed, for more than a century before we got here. But now it’s our turn to make it weather-tight again. Karen has been learning the art of chinking and patching some very old logs.

One of the purposes of our all-purpose room is exercise. Here we’re swapping out one piece of equipment for a better one - and getting a little exercise doing that! 

Probably just like most of you, we too have surplus exercise equipment. This piece was stored unused in the log cabin until Stewart and Joyce helped it on its way to the Habitat for Humanity store.

Even when work is fun, it’s more fun to take breaks! This was a socially distanced midday break in the sunshine.

Not all the work was outside. Down in the Woodshop, Mike has been building a small wall that will eventually serve to hide the bins of party decorations that we have stored in a loft above the Media Room in the Common House. Saturday Mike put parts together in the Common House.

Nobody relaxes as well as a cat! Arthur’s already looking forward to taking breaks during our next work day!