Tree Planting and Bonfire 2006
The Count: 525 plants in about 3 hours. No, wait, adding the ones dragonfly8 and psycho_tabby brought: 531 plants. 
The Team, 16 strong: ascetic_hedony, Bunny, cricketk, specially imported visitor danov, dragonfly8, emma_in_oz, haunted_attics, J, juffles, maharetr, mr_booboo, psycho_tabby, sarren, special_trille, wobowikkles and me.
Last year's problem was too much long grass, this year's was not enough moisture in the ground, but SuperJ and others compensated by hauling buckets of water from the creek for hours. It's raining now, hooray hooray. Grow, little plants.
For entertainment, I demonstrated how I still can't vault onto my horses, some other people demonstrated how they can't do it either, and we did some bareback riding after hoisting people on in a less athletic fashion.
My mother outdid herself with the catering, except that there were no chocolate cake leftovers.
Favourite quote from the day: Five-year-old Bunny to six-foot-four juffles, who was still hard at work on the shovel when everyone else had stopped for a drinks break: You have to come have a drink now because MY MUM SAID SO.
Then five minutes later: Everybody can start work again now! (A child after my own heart. It sounds much better when she says it!)
One benefit of a driest-on-record winter is that it's possible to have a bonfire and toast marshmallows in July.
Taking the bags off last year's plants, on crutches!
The bag ladies
Planting. Photo courtesy of wobowikkles.
Planted. And this is just some of it!
Ready to Burn
Burning
Ready to Toast
Toasting
Thanks for driving all the way out here and for working so hard and getting wet and dirty and crawling through fences, in one case with a broken foot. You are all great, great people to know. Photos of those of you who don't want them public will be in a locked gallery here, once I get them all uploaded. ETA: Done, 27 extra photos added! If you'd like me to mail you larger versions of any of them, just let me know.
The Team, 16 strong: ascetic_hedony, Bunny, cricketk, specially imported visitor danov, dragonfly8, emma_in_oz, haunted_attics, J, juffles, maharetr, mr_booboo, psycho_tabby, sarren, special_trille, wobowikkles and me.
Last year's problem was too much long grass, this year's was not enough moisture in the ground, but SuperJ and others compensated by hauling buckets of water from the creek for hours. It's raining now, hooray hooray. Grow, little plants.
For entertainment, I demonstrated how I still can't vault onto my horses, some other people demonstrated how they can't do it either, and we did some bareback riding after hoisting people on in a less athletic fashion.
My mother outdid herself with the catering, except that there were no chocolate cake leftovers.
Favourite quote from the day: Five-year-old Bunny to six-foot-four juffles, who was still hard at work on the shovel when everyone else had stopped for a drinks break: You have to come have a drink now because MY MUM SAID SO.
Then five minutes later: Everybody can start work again now! (A child after my own heart. It sounds much better when she says it!)
One benefit of a driest-on-record winter is that it's possible to have a bonfire and toast marshmallows in July.
Taking the bags off last year's plants, on crutches!
The bag ladies
Planting. Photo courtesy of wobowikkles.
Planted. And this is just some of it!
Ready to Burn
Burning
Ready to Toast
Toasting
Thanks for driving all the way out here and for working so hard and getting wet and dirty and crawling through fences, in one case with a broken foot. You are all great, great people to know. Photos of those of you who don't want them public will be in a locked gallery here, once I get them all uploaded. ETA: Done, 27 extra photos added! If you'd like me to mail you larger versions of any of them, just let me know.