Here’s the summary of our November Work Party. Thanks to those who helped, and those who will help in the future. Martin Berger B&G Chair

Work Party 21 Nov.  Present: Marguerite Felice, Jim Rak, Lowell Satre, Bob Seibold., MB.

I arrived 9:45 and made coffee.  Found the paper-towel holder that belongs on the island, put it where it belongs, and installed a roll of towels.  In Channing Hall, the can-and-bottle recycling container was bagless, presumably left that way by the Thursday food-distributing people; I put a bag in and left a note specifying where to find trash bags.

While awaiting volunteers, I picked up trash outdoors, unlocked the Patio and Cave, and found the Mulch sign detached from the RE wall, probably by recent strong wind.  Too much other stuff to do, so the sign remained out of place.  Replacing it will require five minutes and a washer. I put some fallen branches on the devil strip to take home and cut up for heating.  

Jim arrived and began mulching leaves with the mower.  He had worked on the leaves during the week, and managed to disappear most of them, reducing them to small particles that settle in to support the lawn.  He followed up with his leaf-blower.  We ended up getting most of the leaves off the lawn without moving many into the caged area at the north end of the RE Wing where I had expected to pile them.  

Marguerite did some mower work and weeding, and showed me a picture of plants that she would like to install on the south side of the banked area inside the Patio fence.  She also distributed the remaining mulch that was piled outside the Patio gate, so the concrete is now clear of mulch.

Bob weeded, and assisted Lowell and me in filling in the gaps left between the new concrete Illinois Avenue driveway and the surrounding dirt.  We used many of the bricks piled alongside the RE Wing at its south end, near the HVAC unit, as a base and distributed mulch on top; now all the accumulation of mulch from out many sessions of chipper-shredder work, as well as the rich black dirt that had composted beneath the stuff-to-be-mulched pile is put to use, eliminating the gap, so that persons using the driveway won’t stumble into the gap and fall.  Future improvements involving planting s around the driveway may require excavation of the bricks, but for the moment it seems worthwhile to reduce the likelihood of injuries and lawsuits.  It’s also nice to have some of the bricks (scavenged from the demolished building across Illinois Avenue) to use and out of the way.

The wheelbarrow’s tire was very low, and I went home to get an air compressor to reinflate it.  The tire needs to be properly deflated and shifted to straighten the valve stem, but there wasn’t time to do that.  Wheelbarrow was vital to moving mulch and bricks.

Jim reported that Paul, who did the most recent boiler maintenance, will return in the next few weeks to deal with a corroded valve.  It will be good to have something fixed before it breaks.

Everyone but Jim had departed by about 12:30 when I ran out of energy and back function and went home.  

A modest turnout, but an efficient group, and necessary stuff got done.  We’ll probably skip any December Work Party, and try to do some indoor work during the rest of the winter.  

Thanks to the good comrades who assisted.

When it snows, though it seems clear that even when we’re not making much use of the building because of pandemic precautions, the Church ought to keep sidewalks passable.  I won’t be teaching after mid-December, so I can do some of the snow blowing, but it would be good to spread the work around a bit.  The snowblower is fun to run, and now we have a real driveway so it won’t be such a hassle to get the machine out of the cave and into operation.  Volunteers welcome!

Let us hope that we can stay safe and attend to minor maintenance and improvement work during the coming chill.