Part 2 Fall Gathering at OMC Lighthouse..

Start with Part One if you haven\'t started there!!!


This is Part Two!!!


Shellie starts weeding on the newest flower bed that was started this past spring. It needs some heavy-duty work!


Meanwhile the guys start attaching the boards with screws carefully spacing them to perfection, to form the top of the deck


Dave starts the pizza line for lunch. The finished edge of the deck makes a great table. In the background you can see the word is out about the pizza and Harold leads the charge!


The finished edge of the deck place also makes a great place to sit for our picnic lunch.


Mark claims this was an empty box that he is using for a table....sure it was!!

The brownies, guarded by Mark, were the object of a most exciting moment just minutes before this picture was shot. They were sitting on the 4th board from the edge (the first 3 boards were attached, while the 4th was not) when Jeff crawled across the deck and leaned on the 4th board...the brownies took flight when catapolted thru the air and landed on the 100 yr old sand below the deck. Mark used the 10 second rule on each brownie dusting off as much sand as he could. They were renamed dirt brownies ....but most were eaten by the end of lunch.


This is one of a few times you can actually see most of the group in one picture...as they talked about what they had accomplished that morning.


They guys are back at it, attaching more boards to the deck.


No, they are not on strike, they are taking a mandatory break while John Tamlin purchases more screws to finish the job.


Before Doyne and Carl put the covering back on the bottom of the stairs, they both signed and put their personal message on the steps...hoping no one will have to read it for another 100 years or more.

Obviously, John made it back with more screws as the guys are getting close to finishing the deck.


Mary, Kay and Shellie are finishing weeding the last flower bed of the day. What an improvement!!


Carl and Doyne are reattaching the boards to the bottom of the stairway.


When finished, Carl observes that it looks as good as old! No new marks and they did not split any of the century old boards. We all tested the stairs and found out they were solid!


Kate is pictured with a truck full of flowers that the club provided to spruce up the porch area for the open house celebrating the 100th anniversary of the pier light to be held the following day at the lighthouse museum.

Jeff does a straight line trim of the ends of the boards forming the deck.


He celebrates when the deck is finished!!


Team work was never so evident as when the club members gathered to lift the extremely heavy cart onto the deck.


After a couple of unsuccessful tries, Judy came up with a plan that worked to perfection.


It was satisfying to all when they were successful raising the cart by working as a team together.

Tom and his crew perform a pit stop while reattaching the ancient rubber to the wheel.


A job well done!!



While some improvements the club makes are very obvious, such as the weeding the flower gardens and the addition of the new deck, other improvements are sometimes hidden from view. The visitors who will come should benefit from all that was done this day...as we benefitted from doing it.

Back to Part One!!!

Ladies & Gentlemen of the Hoosier Lighthousing Club:

Way To Go!

Now I see that the men are working in these pictures, although it appears to be the ladies who get their hands 'dirty'.

Kudos to the volunteers for the great work. It looks like the weather cooperated but I'm curious about the heavy jackets being worn in many of the pictures. We're still in short sleeves and shorts out here. Is it that cold already in Michigan?

Bob

P.S. Many thanks for "covering" the event, Paul!

First of all, Bob, Michigan City is in Indiana... It started in the 40's in the morning with wind gusts to 20mph, then it was supposed to make it to 60 but it didn't quite make it to that in the afternoon but wind died down and the sun was out all day..

All in all a Great Day!!!

Oops, my mistake on the geographical location. I guess that's like our Florida has not received one bit of damage from hurricanes. That's Florida, Massachusetts....

Bob

Good job everyone! It looks like it was a busy busy day. And Judy- thanks for continuing with our pet project.

Great work to all those who participated. Wish that Carol & I could have been there.

Dan

Great work done by the Hoosier Lighthousing Club. Every year, all of you keep making it look more beautiful both inside and outside.

Nice to see the great pictures of what another wonderful LIghthouse group can do when they put there time and talent together to get things done. GREAT JOB!

Bert

Wow! Those are such great improvements to the lighthouse and grounds. You won't have to worry about anybody not noticing those changes. I wish I had been there but I had to do some digging of my own Sat. at the cemetery. Sorry Paul, I WAS planning on being there to surprize you'all.

That would have been the topper to a Great day, Digger.. Wish you could have made it.

I know that those guys who were standing around talking about how to do the job had already spent a LOT of time before they got there figuring out what was needed, making a tool list, parts lists and hand-drawing some plans.

And since things like the display platform have to last another 100 years or so, there needed to be a discussion on just which materials to buy and who had the best vehicle to haul the items in, etc.

And we all know that guys have to get on the same wave-length whenever anything is to be done that involves hand-tools.

Now ladies and gardening, it's every woman for herself and the outcome is sure to be beautiful with the natural abilities of the softer sex.

(Blind Tony left a threatening message on my answering machine so this is being posted at his demand request.)

As always this group of people has a great time together. The jobs may seem large at the beginning of the day but with many hands working together the jobs are finished and a sense of accomplishment is felt at the end of the day.

We are proud to call these people our friends. Many of us drive for hours to gather together for these weekends but I don't think many of us would have it any other way. Next time any of you are in the area for one of our gatherings stop by and see what I mean.

Mary and Jeff

Sure wish Larry and I could have been there. Our plans were abruptly changed when our youngest daughter Joan decided to start planning a wedding and needed mom, rather the credit card in moms purse to secure the hall she chose for the reception. It was a tough toss up....clean up at the lighthouse verses wedding plans in Indy. All kidding aside you all did a terrific job ...as usual. I hope we can make it next fall ...the wedding is Sept 24, 2005. September is going to be a very busy month for us.

Thanks for posting the photos Paul. Gloria and I were there in spirit but not in person. Just toooooo many things going on. Hopefully we will catch the next work detail.

Jake & Gloria Toering