COMMUNITY CLEAN UP WEEKEND

I live in a lakeside community of about 90 homes and several "future build" lots.  This year we decided that we would pitch in to clear the right of way shoulders of small trees and overgrowth.  Two of our neighbors spent a couple hundred hours cutting off branches, removing fallen trees, clipping off weedy shrubbery and the like and stacking it at the edge of the woods along the two plus miles of road loop and culdesacs over the last year or so.  This past weekend, several of us finished the job.  We rented a chipper and walked both sides of those two plus miles, dragging the cut branches and trees to the chipper.  On Saturday we had 13 men doing that while 8 women raked the debris and swept it from the road as well as prepared a scrumptious feast for lunch and ran a golf cart back and forth with water and juice and coffee as needed.  At the end of the first day, we were down to 9 men and 5 women, and we had put in almost 8 hours nonstop working in teams.

This is Nancy, standing in the road at the rear of the entrance to the development.  She also walks the roads every day, picking up trash in the neighborhood, and she was among the hardy lasses who chipped in during the cleanup. 

On Sunday, we started with 11 men and 5 women.  That day we also added a leaf blower to the tools to help sweep debris and sawdust off the roads.  The chipper threw the ground up branches back into the woods, but both days had a brisk breeze that sometimes blew it back at us here and there.  Again we made a yummy lunch and had cold and hot drinks for our workers.  By the end of the day, we were down to 7 men and 4 women, and we had worked another 8 hours using two shifts at lunchtime.  Each person's contribution was invaluable, whether it was cooking or hauling branches or sweeping or whatever.  We also added a bucket with ibuprofen, acetaminaphen, naproxen,enteric coated aspirin and Tums to the "refreshment" offerings as the day wore on.

And we finished the job! 

Today I hope to get back to some quilting.  Something nice and quiet and not so taxing on the muscles.  But the weekend weather was wondrously sunny and pleasantly cool, and we all slept like babies from being outside all day long.