Tuesday, November 15, 2016 – Angel Trumpet & Acalypha, Stone house spiders, Pageant stage, Visitor’s Center Nativity & Christmas Tree, V.C  NE Flowerbed, Barker’s home on Ripley

Wow, what a busy day. We started by hauling all of the Angel Trumpet and Acalypha plants from the outdoor tables to the basement of the “Stone House.” Both of these plants are sensitive to cold and they can’t stay outdoors during winter. And, there isn’t enough room in the greenhouses for them either. So, they were all put in the cellar of the “Stone House” because the house is unoccupied and there is room enough for them all.

The “Stone House” is famous around here for its spiders! There are tons of spiders, both alive and dead. Talk about “Arachnophobia,” this is the place for it. And now that the basement is full of plants with their accompanying bugs, the spider population will probably skyrocket.

Our first cleaning location was the flowerbeds at the outdoor “Sunset by the Mississippi” stage. This was the flowerbeds were there were HUGE red Hibiscus all summer. They were really beautiful.

Our next flowerbed to clean was at the Visitor’s Center. That’s where we discovered that the Christmas decorations inside were in full swing. Richard Hancock & Scott Higley (our bosses) along with a crew including FM’s interns Adam Williford and Kiana Duenas were setting up the Visitor’s Center Nativity. The “Manger Tree” that overhangs the manger scene was harvested right here on the grounds of Old Nauvoo. The “Manger Tree” has almost five thousand lights on it. When the manger scene is done, it will be spectacular.  

The Visitors Center’s Christmas tree was being assembled as well. Sis. Gibson & Sis. Lee Master are over Conservation in FM so the tree decorating is under their direction. Others were there helping decorate the tree including Sis. Hacking and Sis. Hopkin. They were all doing a wonderful job. The tree, like the manger scene will really be an “Eye Popper” when it’s done. 

Our final cleaning of the day was the “Shevokas” house on Ripley Street in Nauvoo. Like so many other houses we’ve cleaned so far, this house had a ton of Volunteer / Rogue trees. In fact I’ve been poisoning so many wild trees that I ran out of “Tordon RTU,” the chemical I use. The applicator is an eye dropper so it doesn’t take much to kill the rogue tree’s roots.