A Very Busy Week for the Building and Grounds Teams!

Big thanks to the following members:  Cathy Allen, Wendie Highsmith, Elise Eller, Molly Hargarten, Alisa Burrous, Larry Arp, Nicholas Scribner, Steve Nelson, Eric Williams, Hiram Wolgemuth, and Sam Henderson.  (If I've forgotten anyone, please let me know. db)

This was an incredibly busy week for the volunteers serving on the Building and Grounds Teams! 

Photos below.

• Supervising the semi-annual HVAC inspection and repairs (room and ceiling access for 28 filters, lubrication of hardware, etc. - 6 hours)
• Supervising the annual National Fire and Safety inspection.  This company inspects and repairs the fire sprinklers in the ceiling, the back flow valves (4 of them), the batteries (5) in the alarm panels, etc. (8 hours)
• Supervising the annual inspection of the irrigation water back flow device and turning on the water for sprinkler irrigation.  (Be sure and ask me about the 6' long sprinkler key fiasco.)
• Installing drip systems for the fruit tree orchard, pollinator garden and raised gardens.
• Cutting down broken apple tree trunks from heavy spring snowfall, one in the south garden and one in the raised vegetable gardens.  Tree trunks and branches were sawn into manageable lengths, piled into truck beds and driven to the Erie and Broomfield tree limb reception areas.
• Creating a french drain in the west side garden behind Robyn Rathweg's mosaic wall, to prevent flooding.
• Rescuing many boxes of HVAC filters that were hiding in the second floor attic in Fellowship Hall.
• Taking a trip to Tribbles Stone Co. in Lyons to choose 10 big boulders for the gardens.
• Organizing the office supplies closet in the main work area.
• Investigating a sticky window crank in the minister's office.
• Installing the Fellowship's newly minted archives in the Mountain View room.

It takes a village to maintain the Fellowship's building and grounds in a shipshape manner. 

You are invited to join one of our teams.  

Contact David Burrous for more information.

The Fellowship's New Pollinator Garden

 "It takes a village", and a Fellowship, and a pack, and a den, and a bunch of kids and adults who believe in service to the earth to plant a new garden of pollinator plants.

Approximately 30 cub scouts (who can count them, they never stop moving!), parents, members of the Fellowship, volunteers from Sister Carmen and Friends of Coal Creek plus our 3 presenters; came together for 2 hours to teach cubs and adults about mother earth.

Lafayette Cub Scout Pack 79, in appreciation of the opportunity to use the Fellowship for weekly and monthly meetings, donated $1,000.00 to purchase pollinator plants for a new garden at the Fellowship.  

Cub Scouts present the colors.

Pledge of Allegiance and the Scout Oath

Scout Master Derek Christensen gets the day's activities started with a singalong.

Parents and scouts are ready to get to work.

So many trowels!

Big thanks to Larry Arp who rototilled and raked the soil 
several times prior to planting.

     He will also install an underground irrigation system to                       automatically water the plants.

The scouts get started with help from Henry Gibb (left),
a volunteer from Sister Carmen.

Casey Lyons of "Friends of Coal Creek"
organized the plants and the planting.

Martin Ogle of Geo Sapiens did his presentation
under the gazebo in the Cove.

Several Fellowship members joined the different presentations.

4 teams of kids rotated through 4 different events:
planting, bees, mulch, Geo Sapiens.

The bee presentation by Taylor Hood
who maintains his bee hives on our property.
Stay back 10 feet folks!

 "To bee or not to bee." So many questions.

More planting by the next team.

Rutger Myers of Eco-Cycle, introduced kids to the
miraculous properties of mulch.
Who knew?

All done!  The cub scouts planted over 100 pollinator plants. in 2 hours.  They learned about Bees, Mulch, and Geo Sapiens, and how to plant stuff.  But most importantly, they got to dig in the dirt.  

The Fellowship is so grateful for this wonderful gift from
Lafayette Cub Scout Pack 79. 

Big thanks to camera shy Robyn Rathweg,
Wendie Highsmith, and Elise Eller
for all their support of this project.

Planting our Pollinator Garden

 Children and Youth Planting the Pollinator Garden

at the Fellowship

[north side of the building]

Sunday, April 12, 2026

3:00 - 5:00 pm

Guest Speakers: 

Martin Ogle (Geo Sapiens);
Casey Lyons, (Friends of Coal Creek); 
Rutger Myers, (Eco Cycle),
Taylor Hood (Bee Keeper)

2:30 pm Adults, presenters and planners arrive 

                            Gather tools, wheel barrow, and hoses

3:00 pm Start time

Pack 79 opening ceremony, awards and announcements 

3:15-3:30 1st activity -

Children and youth join one of 4 activities and then rotate through the other 3 throughout the afternoon.

3:30 pm Rotate

3:35 - 3:50 pm 2nd activity

3:50 pm Rotate

3:55 - 4:10 pm 3rd Activity

4:10 pm Rotate

4:15-4:30 pm 4th activity

4:35 - 5:00 pm

Cleanup and put tools and benches away

5:00 pm End of activity

Bee Hives at the Fellowship!

 

1.  Last summer, the Building and Grounds Team planted a fruit tree orchard directly south of the barn:  peach, apple, plum, cherry, and pear varieties.

2.  This year, we are adding 3 new bee hives located in the furtherest south west corner of the Fellowship's property.

3.  April 12th kids from Cub Scout Pack 79 and the Fellowship will plant a pollinator garden north west of the building. Pack 79 donated a $1,000 worth of pollinator plants to the Fellowship.  Friends of Coal Creek will help direct the planting.

 

Bee Rules

• Please Bee Kind!
• Do not touch, push, or open our homes!
• Give us a little space, please stay back 10ft to avoid our busiest flight paths!
• We want to bee good neighbors, don’t bother us and we won’t bother you! 
• Have a nice day!

Honey Bees

These are domestic European honeybees, they are very calm! Honeybees are great for local gardens and plant-life as prolific pollinators. 

You will see the bees around gathering pollen to make honey or supping water for hydration and batting their wings to help keep the hive cooler on hotter days. 

Bees start as eggs, then develop into larva, then pupa, then they come out as fully formed bees after 21 days. 

Our Bee Keeper

Hello everyone! My name is Taylor and I’ll be your resident beekeeper.

I am so excited to be keeping my bees at your beautiful Fellowship!

I’m a third year beekeeper and I’d love to take a minute and walk you through what’s it’s going to be like to have new bee neighbors.

I will be checking on the bees about once a week. Normally keeping a distance of 10ft gives them plenty of room, but if you see me tending to them you’ll want to give them a bit more space since they won’t be in the best mood! Besides that, all I need from anyone is for you to sit back and enjoy seeing the bees around the garden!

There are a lot of great benefits to having honeybees. They are good for local gardens and prolific as plant life pollinators. Surrounding gardens and orchards will see a significant increase in flowering and fruiting. My gentle bees will also help dilute more aggressive bee behavior by interbreeding with more aggressive feral bee colonies.

Beekeeping can actually reduce stings in an area by outcompeting feral bees. According to studies by CSU and Utah State University most insect stings can be attributed to yellow jackets and papers wasps. In fact their estimates concluded 90% of all stings are yellow jackets alone.

European honeybees are very docile and unlikely to sting. If they sting they die so they only sting if they feel threatened. 

Next year, the first jar of Fellowship honey will be auctioned off with a starting bid of $1,000.  🤣

The bad guys:

The good guy:

If you have any questions about our new ventures to encourage pollinators, don't hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Building and Grounds Team

🎶🎶 Shave and a Haircut, 2 bits! 🎶🎶

A big thank you to members of the grounds team: Larry Arp, Hiram Wolgemuth, Steve Nelson and David Burrous. They showed up on St. Patrick's Day to "shave" the ornamental switch grass and carry it out to the western prairie where Larry chopped it up with a riding lawn mower donated by Jane White.  (Anybody want to volunteer to take photos in the future?  😀 ) 

A Gazebo in the Cove for your Relaxation.

 

The Building and Grounds Team has been busy for the last two months building a foundation and fabricating a gazebo in the Cove for your enjoyment.  See our progress here. 

Thanks to Larry Arp, Steve Nelson, Hiram Wolgemuth, Chris Rathweg, Paul Brynteson, Hans Jordan, and David Burrous.

  

Pavers have to be carefully placed.

Rafters

Moving rafters from David's garage to the Fellowship

Moving rafters.

Fabricating rafters and covering with roofing sheets.

So many pavers.  80 lbs apiece.

Tamp tamp tamp.

2' X 2' pavers.  Heavy!

Preparing a solid base of recycled concrete and sand.  5 1/2 tons!

No need to join a rec center.  We get our exercise.

Sand, sand, and more sand.

Larry loves to play with the machinery.

Get it level guys!

2025 - Fellowship Grounds Clean Up Day a Success

 Saturday, September 27, 2025 was our annual grounds clean up day.  A big thank you to the following for their help:

Robyn and Chris Rathweg

Joan Mulcahy and Hans Jordan

Hiram Wolgemuth and Joseph Reid

Larry Arp and Larry LaVerdure

Susan Redick and Rex Loker

David Burrous

Part of the crew enjoying a well-deserved break.

So many little leaves.

More leaves.

A newly-planted cherry tree in the orchard.

Lots of additional seating during coffee hour.

Respite: 
a picnic table under the gazebo in the playground.