A Few Different Tasks

Every month we have a work-play day here at the refuge.

People who show up get split up into groups and go out to help with the grounds. After the work, the Friends group serves a light lunch and then canoe trips are offered (play). The volunteers are in charge of a group.

We went right to work trimming, pulling vines out of the plants, then piling the cuttings to be picked up.

Some people were very good about asking before doing...I like that.

But then there is Michael, a very good worker who loved to pull down the vines!!!
I had to keep an eye on him as he cut down a camellia tree before I could stop him. Other than that, he was great. Vines are fun to tug on until they release. Look at the size of that one.

Over at Bayou Sauvage refuge, I have been finding a lot of drug paraphernalia. The bottom of a soda can where the drugs were burned and two syringes above that hidden in the grass. We have found syringes in the trash can too. Several glass tubes as well. I learn about some of this by watching Cops on tv. We are told to leave it lay and let LE officers know about it.

We have had some graffiti at several locations lately. This I was able to remove with sanitizer. At another place, I found red paint on the back of one of the trash cans. The next week I painted over that with brown paint we had left over from having to paint over more graffiti on one of the interp panels on our boardwalk!!!

I have been noticing a lot of this kind of web lately. Does anyone know what kind of spider makes this kind? I have never seen one quite like this.

Another one of our tasks is to keep the fountain clean.

I thought we could clean up this statue and Wallace got a lot of junk off of it, but it did not do what I wanted. We do what we can though.

Yeah, I finally found a Harbor Freight. I had been wanting this little hammer...now I have one.

We were treated to a tour of Bayou Sauvage by the refuge manager, Shelly. It was an all day affair. It is always great to learn more about the places we volunteer.

The Christmas trees are collected by the city and stored here where we use them out in the bayou to help with erosion.
They are bundled up and taken by helicopter and dropped where they can be used.

The template was too small, so I went freehand.

This is only one of several we will be refreshing.

We did not have enough painters tape...had to make do. It sure helps when you want a nice straight line.

Boy was I sore for the next few days after this!!!

We were proud of the way this project turned out. 

We will put in a request for more tape!!!

I thought this was worth a photo. A redfish painted in a fleur-de-lis design, a symbol that is used a lot in Louisiana.

We are now caught up with our latest doings.

Until next time...