Did you ever have a dream come true? Me either; well, not until today! If you remember, last week, Nell, Chris, and I started moving mulch from a HUGE mulch pile, just enough to get it off the street. Volunteer Aillene spread it for us. It took all we had to do that!
My dream state during REM sleep was while I was still awake but with paralyzed muscles. (In case you didn’t know, most of your dreaming is during REM sleep. Your brain paralyzes your muscles during this time, so you do not act out the dreams.) And since I was awake, with muscles paralyzed, I had a dream. ;)
Walking up the driveway with a wheelbarrow full of mulch, I dreamed of a dozen or so strong backs and cheerful dispositions helping us move the rest of the mulch. Voila! Meet the Samet Corporation and Xylem BA Teams.
The DREAM Team! To say we couldn’t have moved this mulch without the help of these eager workers would be an understatement, but true. All were the outdoorsy type and it was clear from the start, it would be hard labor to mulch rough terrain paths. Upfront I told them to considers it “Outward Bound” mulching. With that, I heard cheers of “alright, awesome, right on! What a wonderful group!
Our Dream Team made short work of our huge pile! The volunteer team was on-site from nine to noon, Of that time, after instructions from the City’s Volunteer Services Specialis, Olinda. Oliveira, breaks, and summation, this team worked about two and a half hours, but given we had 13 volunteers or 32.5 labor-hours, they managed to eliminate our pile.
Loading crew filling wheelbarrows while deliver dudes waiting and, no doubt, taking a deep breath!
Here is THE face of youth and strength. This young man look as fresh going up our “Outward Bound” hills as he did coming down!
Would you believe, each barrel-full of mulch was spread by smiling faces? Believe it!
We also had help from one of the City of Raleigh’s Dream Teams, Neal Wisenbaker’s District 4. Neal provided us with a souped-up gator and operator, Teddy. I hope I can work with Teddy again soon! Amazing work ethic!
District 4 Operator Teddy and Helen Yoest. Note Helen has a Barbie-foot pose, and it looks like Teddy has a thigh-muscle pose ;) It was so wonderful to work with Teddy. Honestly, given where the pile was dumped, we couldn’t have done it without these two powerful machines—Teddy and souped-up Gator. Teddy estimates the gator can hold around eight wheelbarrows full of mulch, and he made six street runs to move the mulch around to the street behind us, so those barrels full could then be moved downhill.
This last pile went to where Volunteer Aillene and I were working. Aillene was tasked with cutting down the invasive nandina, Nandina domestica.
Volunteer Aillene making nandina piles.
Volunteer Aillene’s results!!!
We then covered the stumps with heavy cardboard to smother the roots. This is a trick we learned from Nell Joslin.
Additional smothering with a load of left-over mulch. We hope to never see this stand of nandina again!
Volunteers are the backbone of any origination! If you are interested in volunteering for The Joslin Garden, please contact us! If you are interested in volunteering for the City of Raleigh, click HERE!
To see more pictures of this fine day, click HERE!
Until soon,
Helen Yoest,
Environmental Scientist