Monday, Oct. 17, 2016 – Shredded Bark, Visitor’s Center, Front Loader Training, Sarah Granger Kimball Home

We had a big, full, hard, and HOT day of work today. We worked a couple of hours beyond our scheduled shift. Sis. Johnson and I were really hot and tired. It got up to 90 degrees today! Who’d have thought that in the middle of October in Illinois we would still be hitting day time highs of 90 degrees?

First we cleaned the flower beds in the visitor’s center north gardens. We cut down the remnants of the Peony plants that were so vibrant with color last spring. They are mostly all dead now so we cut them back a couple of inches above the ground.  Next spring they will all come back as beautiful as ever.

After cleaning we spread shredded bark on all of the newly planted Tulip, Hyacinth, and Jonquil beds on the north side of the visitor’s center. After planting, these beds were just exposed soil while the rest of the older plantings around them have bark chips or shredded bark as a soil covering.  Now they all look uniform and much more pleasing to the eye. 

While we worked spreading  shredded bark we had a visitor from the Church Public Relations Dept., Sis. Alderman. She said her job was to document the activities of the mission and find interesting stories to submit to Salt Lake. She took several pictures of Sis. Johnson and I along with Elder & Sis. Nagel as we worked in the visitor’s center north garden.  

I found it interesting that after Sis. Alderman finished taking pictures, we were all asked to sign and date releases giving permission for our images to be used. I say I found it interesting because I take pictures of anyone and everyone and post them on FaceBook and my Blog without giving a thought to asking permission. So, I guess I own a lot of people an apology. But, if anyone is planning to sue, I hope they realize “you can’t get blood out of a turnip.” 

And speaking of my Mission Blog, here is the link if anyone is interested in following Sis. Johnson and I on our mission to the Illinois Nauvoo Mission: http://davidpamnauvoomission.blogspot.com/

During today’s work I had another first. I got to load our trailer with shredded bark using FM’s front loader. In an effort to keep damage, injury, and accidents to a minimum the mission doesn’t let anyone operate the heavy equipment without training.  So, this morning I was trained and certified on the use and operation of the tractor with the front loader. It’s kind of nice now, not having to wait while someone else comes to load our trailer.

After lunch we finished our work day at the historic “Sarah Granger Kimball Home” gardens. It was really hot by now but we still worked for a couple more hours cutting down the remnants of the peony plants and spread shredded bark, just like we did earlier this morning at the visitor’s center. In the spring the Sarah Granger Kimball Home gardens are spectacular.