Thursday, December 10, 2009

Beauty And The Beast

The bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) near the Horticulture Center (above) sure looked good this morning as did much of the gardens with all the snow clinging on the branches. However, this same snow created major challenges for us this morning. The snow, while wet and heavy yesterday, became frozen, creating many broken limbs and branches. We saw some large limbs down out in the gardens and will deal with them later. A mulberry tree actually fell across the access road to the Horticulture Center and many of us parked a distance away and walked in until Dick H. could plow a new "road" for access to the Horticulture Center. The downed tree was tangles in electrical lines so we stayed away and many of spent the morning doing snow removal. Sounds like many were without power and I really hope all the bent over trees and shrubs bounce back as the snow melts. We were fortunate to have Larry and Bill on snowblowers and Ron, Dick H., Marv, John and myself shoveling. We came to the quick conclusion that we should have cleared paths yesterday as we were dealing with a stubborn frozen layer on top of the snow that was challenging to relocate. Regardless, lots of good help today. Dr. Gredler and Maury worked on painting and the carpenters (Bob, Vern, Dave and Jim) finished a bench and continued with creating our cucumber supports for 2010. My blog postings will be more sporadic thru the rest of the month as I take vacation time and contend with the lights show.

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