18 June 2010

Dear Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery,

I was delighted yesterday to be back at the cemetery after having missed the workday last month due to illness. The Finley wooden markers replaced in my absence are perfect - many thanks to the Gibertis for the labor and Jerry Lites for the wood. With so many of our markers and headstones repaired and reset, Spring Hill is a lovely, serene site to behold. The sixth attached picture shows the cemetery as we left it, many of the newly upright headstones in view.

Our weather was perfect yesterday with cool breezes, sunny skies and the sun filtering through Spring Hill's many trees. Regional Parks once again supported us with the tool trailer and dump truck. Regional Parks also mitigated the poison oak problem which was prevalent last month.

We had a couple of notable events at yesterday's work session. Most importantly, Paul Schoch came with a preliminary Spring Hill map in hand (the last attachment is a photo of the map, just to give you an idea of what it will look like)! He is showing it off to Sally in the second attachment, and has it in hand in the third group shot. He made a few adjustments and additions while walking the cemetery, and noted a few comments to be added to the final version; but assures me that our "official" Spring Hill map will soon be complete. I will be reviewing this preliminary map and forwarding comments to Paul. Many thanks to Paul, a civil engineer, for using his expertise and taking his time to help us with this, and to Fred and Joe Phelps of Phelps & Associates Land Surveyors in Sebastopol for inputting our data into their auto cad program and generating our map. When complete, Paul assures me we will have the map in some sort of format that can be emailed to those interested in having a copy. The map will be invaluable for us now and into the future.

Our other notable event - Richard Parmeter's record for having traveled the furthest to join in a Spring Hill workday has been shattered. Claudia Faiß (on the left in the forth picture) came all the way from Reichenbach-Fils (near Stuttgart, Germany) to labor with us on Friday. Many of our regulars were on summer holiday or attending graduation ceremonies on Friday, but nine other volunteers joined Claudia at the cemetery. Together we battled the ivy and dandelions (first attachment), collected and disposed of trash, explored "suspicious" areas of the cemetery(fifth picture), and, as mentioned above, checked and noted changes to our map. We still have a few headstone bases to be reset, and repairs to be made in the upcoming workdays. Laborers willing, I am hoping we will be able to complete all of them before the end of this year.

Our next workday will be Friday, July 16th. Please come join us if you can.