What a day. We started our workday with 4 eager 
souls waiting in the parking lot before 8:00AM. That alone was exciting and probably a first in the 8 years I’ve been here. We started them out digging. Our first project was to take out our “grass garden”. Our front beds have been waiting for serious landscaping for about 2 years. In the mean time the grass grew with a vengeance. We’ve totally removed the grass about 3 times now. This time however we found the grass was not well rooted and it came out much easier than before. It seems persistance has paid off. Now we’ll lay down casseron, plastic and bark on top for a long lasting grass free bed.
Our primary goal for the day was to do siding. We did very well with that. We now have the North facing wall of the sanctuary covered in
siding. 
It was a very good effort from a lot of people. We have pictures of several here, though not all. One of the great things about today was that 6 or 8 people 
now have experience siding. That should make next weeks work day even more effective as we can set up several crews and do multiple wall sections at a time.
We had a great lunch, thanks to Gabi Bailey. Unfortunately there are no pictures. The potato salad and boiled corn were fantastic with hamburgers. We’re so glad Fred came. He was able to set up chairs and tables as well as shuck the corn. One might overlook that contribution, but for those that ate it was very much a blessing.
Once the grass was dug out, we moved the diging crew on to an all important job: Skunk Abaitment. Yes, for you who have not been here on one of those odiforous Sunday mornings when a frightened skunk has taken refuge under one of the cement slabs near our doors, skunk abaitment is a very important task. We have found concrete is the best method. We
especially appreciate the efforts of Jerry Holcom saw the project through to 
the end. As you can see in the pictures, a trench was dug. Rebar was pounded into the ground and the trench was fulled with cement. We’ve had some success with this method at the parsonage, except where the scunk burrowed out through the wet cement, and hope it will work here. 
Aparently some lucky little guy even got to write his name in the cement. Some kids get to do all the cool things. His dad would have never let him do that. Thank you Jerry.
All in all it was a great day. We’ll pray the scunks to try to break in or out tonight and we’ll start preping on Monday to so we can put up siding on the south side next weekend. Please join us Saturday, September 20 for our next siding party. We look forward to seeing you here.
-P. Mike