Friday, November 18, 2016 – Annual Van Service, Sites & Houses, Greenhouse Weeds, Brick Yard, Browning Gun

Friday was much different than we had anticipated. First thing, Elder Lindeburg in the auto mechanic shop, took our van in for its annual maintenance & service, we weren’t expecting that. This meant that for the next couple of hours we couldn’t clean any of the historic sites or mission residences as we had planned. 

In spite of not having our van and trailer to use we still used our time productively. Elder Lindeburg let us use his truck while he serviced our van. We drove around Nauvoo to the rest of the mission residences that are left on our list to clean. We assessed all of them so we will know what tools to use and how much time to allow to clean them.

 

After we got our van and trailer back we were able to go back to work. We cleaned the flowerbeds at the Brick Yard and at the Browning Gun Shop. Usually these flowerbeds are pretty standard and straight forward. But at Browning we came across a lot of poison ivy which necessitates a lot of special handling and precautions.

 

When handling poison ivy I wear disposable latex gloves and make sure the leaves, stems and roots don’t touch anything. No part of the plant can touch my tools, boots, pants or shirt.  As I pull each plant out of the ground, roots and all, I don’t put them with the rest of the leaves and debris in the trailer. They have to go in their own special disposable trash bag to be burned in the burn pile.