It's time to mow our new lawn.... but we need some help.

 Dear Friends:  It's time to start mowing our new lawn.  

We could spend several thousand dollars a year and hire a landscaping service, or we could do it ourselves for free.  

Being UUs, guess which alternative we chose?  Right!  We'll do it ourselves.

So, now we need a team of enthusiastic mowers to take care of the lawn on a weekly basis.  

We need two mowers each week.  

If we had 8 volunteers, each volunteer would only have to mow once a month, April through September.

Larry Arp, Hans Jordan and Rich Evertz
have been trained to use the riding mower.

We need 4 volunteers to mow with the Toro mower
in places where the riding mower can't reach.

If you would like to join the BVUUF Lawn Mowing Team, please send us an email at  groundsteams@bvuuf.org

Pruning the Apple Trees & Trimming the Switch Grass

Larry Arp, Hans Jordan, David Beumée, and Rich Evertz trim the switch grass.  We're saving the cut grass for the new seeding-over on the west side of the berm this spring.

Robyn Churchill Rathweg, Kathy Partridge, Wendie Highsmith, and Hiram Wolgemuth prune our two apple trees.

Repairing the Split Rail Fence

Both the north and south ends of the split rail fence were damaged during the construction last year.  Yesterday, Larry Arp and I tackled the job with gusto.  After 3 1/2 hours, here's the results.

Winter Watering Team - Inservice

Saturday morning at 10:00 am saw a hardy group of BVUUF shipmates who came out to learn how to winter water our bushes and trees to ensure they  make it through the winter.  Our intrepid and fearless instructor was none other than Mr. Larry Arp.  

 

Winter Watering the Trees & Bushes

Dear Friends:

In order to get the City of Lafayette Planning Department to approve our remodeling/building project, it was necessary to improve the landscaping around the building.  We spent a little over $100,000 for trees, bushes, turf, and underground irrigation systems.  Yes, $100,000!  

So, now it is time to make sure that our trees and bushes make it through the winter.  We need to protect our investment and we need your help.

We need 16 volunteers who are willing to water a quadrant of our property once a month for about 2 hours.  That would be 4 teams of 4 volunteers each.  One member of each of the 4 winter watering teams would be responsible for watering their quadrant on a Saturday or Sunday.  Each new tree needs 20 gallons of water each week. No need to water the established trees!   Training provided.

Bring a timer and set it for 4 minutes for each tree.  That's about 20 gallons.

Would you like to help?  If so, please send David Burrous an email with your name and email address to the GroundsTeams@BVUUF.org

David will make up a schedule and post it for you to review. 

Planting Trees

Monday, November 2, 2020, the Playground Team planted several new trees in the future playground area to the south of the School of the Spirit.  All the details are included in this video entitled BVUUF - Planting Trees in the Playground.  

Click here:  Planting Trees in the Playground

Saturday, October 17, 2020, the "Raking Up the Pine Needles" Party occurred.  9 intrepid members of the Grounds Needles Team spent several hours raking up the pine needles from under the trees on the east side of our property.  Click here to see the video.

Here are the statistics:

1. 5 truck loads went to Western Disposal to be turned into compost.  You can buy it back next year.
2. 1200 pounds of needles and tree limbs were loaded and hauled.  
   
1. Just a little over 1/2 a ton!
3. 3 neighbors thanked us for our cleaning up the street, their gutters and sidewalks.  I believe it was a first for them. 

I also realized that we've only just begun.  We still need to trim the junipers down to about 12 inches high and then we can get at the needles underneath.  Also, a decision needs to be made about the fence.  4 choices as I see it:  1.  split rail fence remains.  3.  missing sections are installed. 3. split rail fence is removed.  4. install a 3' high solid cedar fence where the split rail was.  Fodder for our next Grounds Teams Zoom meeting!

• Larry Arp repaired the split rail fence.
• Rich Evertz was The Man with the leaf blower borrowed from the Haradas.
• 4 strong UUs moved the picnic tables closer to the building for their use. (Oh, my back!)

Thanks for all your help.  We really did a thing on Saturday.