In the Park

I suppose a few of you might be wondering.

What?  No one is wondering?  Oh well, I'll tell you all anyway.
Volunteer Clean-up Day at Haskins Park was a success!
A HUGE success.

A neighbor, a dog walker, and R loading the last load of the day (we filled it with twice what is shown here)

It all started last Wednesday when the DPW sent two representatives to meet with me at Haskins Park.  D, C and I walked the grounds and discussed the property.  I requested only their crew mow and weed-whack.  Two areas in particular.  Oh, and park a couple small dump trucks on site for Saturday. They obviously thought I was taking on too much for volunteer labor (and they were correct) because they offered to bring up big equipment on Friday to do the massive loading and hauling.  They also offered some welcomed suggestions for future improvements to the property.  I was pleased.
More than pleased.

As a matter of fact...after they had left and at the finish of an impromptu walk that I took in the woods with a local artist...I got back to my truck amazed to find one of the guys already weed-whacking!

On Friday morning the big equipment was on site.  Major debris pile removal was taking place.  I could actually see the southwest stone wall!  The crew had filled two small dump trucks and one massive truck by 9 a.m.!

R and I arrived at 7 a.m. Saturday morning.  After seeing how much debris the DPW had removed, I had figured the volunteers would only need one truck.  It arrived by 7:30.  It was full by 11 a.m. and one brave volunteer drove it to unload at the 'dump'.  We filled that truck two more times before our pack of 21 hard-working volunteers finally could work no longer.  What a day.

R dragging a load of clippings from the east wall

 At some times there were only 3 or 4 of us working hard at loading up debris, other times there were a dozen folks at a time.  The average age of our volunteers?  62!

One of the first of the day volunteers working on trimming overgrowth from the stone pillars

Thank you everyone.
Amazing what a bunch of older folks can do!

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I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more photos over at Mr. Scribbler.  He took some great shots on Saturday AND from the DPW work on Friday.  Please encourage him to post them.

On Our Street

Our street is narrow and there are many spots where you must pull your car over to the very edge of the road and stop to let a second car pass in the opposite direction.  There are also a few twists and turns.

It's also a dead end.

Probably not a good route for a very large tour bus!

Yep, he's backing all the way out.

This must happen to him a lot as he was quite good at navigating in reverse.

Time the company springs for a new GPS.

In The News(paper)

The stone mounds at Haskins Park

Although there are a few glitches, the essence is written in the article.

It was short notice for me to meet up with the Times reporter and photographer.  It got squished in, with only about an hour notice, between reed organ work in the morning and an afternoon tuning for a Dana Farber benefit concert.

You can read it all here:
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/topstories/x2076994994/New-life-for-historic-Rockport-park

New Promise and Recognition

Well, I didn't want to say anything here until I was sure that it would be a go.

I have met with the Town Administrator - twice. 

I have submitted a 17 page proposal to the Board of Selectmen from the Sandy Bay Historical Society.

I have attended two Board of Selectmen meetings.

Soon the Heberle brothers will be traveling to Rockport and they will be visiting the Haskins property.  Their father was Dr. Heberle...the doctor who ran Restcroft at the Haskins Hospital...and they lived on the property for six years.  Richard from the age of 2 and Clem from the age of 3. 

So, the brothers will be traveling with daughters, nieces, and cousins. The first of several goals is to be sure the property looks nice for them. 

This is what the posters look like (my contact info won't be whited-out).  They will be all around town by Tuesday.
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Waiting...

 and waiting...

Sometimes you just have to wait!

I've been working on a Mason & Hamlin reed organ rebuild for a church in Boston.  It's a complicated job.  Bits and pieces of oddly manufactured stuff.  Fun and annoying at the same time, if that's possible.  So, right now I'm waiting for my glue pot to heat up and thought I'd fill some blog space while I'm waiting.

'A' and I went for a long walk this morning.  I'm trying to walk at least 5 days each week with her.  She's trying to lose weight and, well, I am too.

So here are some of the things we saw on our walk today.

The seven swans that swam

Added my bit to some sidewalk writing.  Nice that they left the chalk!

Guess that glue should be hot by now.