Written by Donna Owens, Project Committee Coordinator
The August Stewardship weekend was a great success! Nine volunteers spend 80+ hours over a day and a half preparing Sod House Ranch for its annual open season and tending to needs at Refuge Headquarters.
Due to wildfire smoke, the work party focused primarily on the Sod House Ranch spiff up for opening. Weeding was also a priority, and we did a lot …about 12 bags of primarily kochia… a nasty weed taking over in many areas. It’s everywhere but we focused on the entrance to Sod House Ranch, the Rock Garden at Headquarters and the area around the Crane’s Nest Nature Center.
Heat and smoke made our work time shorter, but we still had a successful weekend. Work on assembling the pavilion is
delayed until the September work party.
We met Friday afternoon for a prework gathering. Loaded tools we anticipated needing for Saturday. We worked Saturday at Sod House Ranch clearing grass from around the buildings, swept, painted, sanded tables, washed windows and made repairs to the brochure box
(remounted, painted, and dug hole for placement). Luckily the grass had been cut but the areas around the buildings still needed clearing. Weed wackers and a mower did the trick!
We had a great deal of fun doing this annually necessary work and hope you will consider joining us for the next Stewardship Weekend, September 13-15th 2024. Housing is provided by FOMR to volunteers at the Malheur Field Station E Dorm.
A HUGE THANK YOU TO BO BONOTTO, MIKE BRAET, CLAY CROFTON, BOB LUCE, CRAIG WALKER, MICHAEL IMEL, AND LINDA CRAIG FOR VOLUNTEERING YOUR TIME AND ENERGY TO THIS WORK!
