Sunday, April 6, 2014

April 6. 2014

Finally...no snow left on the ground.  I had a bit of snow still on the north side of the house where I did a bunch of piling of the snow I shoveled from the patio area through the course of the long winter and that finally melted.  The garage has been underwater or should I say under ice for months.  During one small thaw during the winter where we got rain, the garage flooded and then it froze into a block of ice for 2 months.  The ice finally thawed this week so I used a floor squeegie to get as much out as I could and then had a fan going in there 24/7 for a week. 


It is finally almost dry in there.  Spring also finally sprung as I put in the "spitting carp" and pump into the water feature yesterday.  Today is supposed to be fairly nice again and I am headed out to Hickory Creek Barrens in a few hours to do some more cutting of honeysuckle.



I actually have been spending most of my free time volunteering for the FPDWC this past month.  I have done workdays most every weekend.  On 3-22-14 we did a workday at Rock Run and had a staggering amount of volunteers.  I chainsawed the entire day and in some places it was a bit "dicey" to be sure as I worked on a slope that went into the small lake there.  My feet did end up in the drink on one occasion. 

I then did a workday at Goodenow Grove that was also challenging as we had to drag the cut stuff up a rise to the burning brush pile on the top.  After a couple hours of dragging large branches up that rise I really got tired. 

This past Tuesday I put my day off to good use as I joined the "Usual Suspects" as we burned Lily Cache Prairie with the Nelsons.  The day was cool in the morning and very windy.   Due to the wind we had to be extra careful that we didn't get any spot fires outside of the burn unit.  The burn was successful and the site had its most complete burn to date. 




Before the burn I got a chance to go to Peter Rubi's and buy some of their great produce and after the burn we had lunch at Baby Back Blues which is a really great BBQ place right near Lily Cache.









I haven't felt much like doing Star Wars events lately.  All of the drama that goes on with the groups is souring my desire to go out and do events. 



I have, however, been working on display pieces to use at the upcoming Joliet Library Star Wars Day event in June and will be focusing my efforts on the Rebel Display.  I made these stands out of 12" diameter concrete forms that I cut in half and painted white and then painted some 17" rounds white.  The stands will be utilized to display items that go with costumes which will be on mannequins and dress forms.