After months of work and a continual mess in my house, the Endor Bunker has moved out! On Wednesday, the walls I was working on met the framework that one of the other members of my Base in the lobby of the Joliet Area Historical Museum.
The day before the "move in" I went to the museum to put up "drapery" that I made from black tablecloths so that people could not see into the back of the Bunker's "innards".
It took a crew of us all day on Wednesday to get the walls mated to the frame and a lot of things were left to cut and fit as we went along because we were not sure how everything would come together. At the end of Wednesday, the Bunker was, for the most part, up! It looked pretty amazing.
On Thursday, I went back to the Museum along with fellow base-mate Laura Smith to finish up a few things that needed to be covered and add set decoration. I brought along my R2D2, my Endor Commando costume and a few bits and pieces of other "Endor" props. We added a little moss and greenery and called it a day.I do plan on heading back to the Bunker this coming Wednesday to add more moss and to do some final paint touch up.
On Saturday, there will be an event at the Museum in advance of the annual "Star Wars Day". It will be a scavenger hunt in the Museum for kids of all ages. Where I initially intended to wear the costume on the mannequin, it was such a pain in the ass to dress the mannequin that I will wear another costume!
I really have not been doing that many "Star Wars" events this year. I did make an exception and went to the Lego event at the Joliet Area Historical Museum on 4-2-17. I try to support the people who support Nar Shaddaa Base and I can't think of another group of people who supports us more than the people at the JAHM! I had just gotten (mostly) over with a severe muscle strain/spasm and a really bad bout with my ulcers, so I didn't stay at the event all day. It was nice to get out a bit though.
Spring is a crazy time of year for me because not only am I working in my own garden, there is a LOT of work to be done at my FPDWC restoration site. There is a brief window in the spring to start to spray some of the invasive species like garlic mustard and reed canary grass. I have been out spraying as much as possible and as long as the weather is cooperative. The one thing about going out to volunteer in the spring is that the spring blooming woodland wildflowers give you a real show that you get to see up close and personal. Where a lot of the plants can be seen from the trail, it is much nicer to get away from the trail and further back into the woodlands to see them.
My own garden has been under water for months but is finally drying out a bit. We got a lot of rain the past couple of months and the yard just never seems to drain off. The neighbors had the large willow that was on our property line cut down. It has been dying off and looking pretty ratty for many years. The stump was over a yard in diameter. It was so sad to see it go! So many of the trees on their property have been lost in recent years. When I first moved in, there were two large willows that draped over my yard, the first one was removed years ago by the previous owners and the willow that was left was really looking bad. Sad that both of them are gone now along with the beautiful ash tree that used to be out front.
The trees in the yard are in full bloom and it looks like I will get another great crop of tart cherries from my tree as long as there is no really bad frosts.
I also removed one of the shrubs out front to make room for my latest "venture" which is growing concord grapes. There really was no good place to put the grapevine in the yard. Most of the places where there was room it was simply too wet of an area when the spring flooding begins. I also did some other pruning of shrubs that were looking pretty bad and today I will be taking the chainsaw to the pussywillow in the back of the lot. It has never done very well and is mostly dead. I will saw it down but NOT herbicide the stump and see what happens.
