Summer Workday

As we ventured up the Hill on a cloudy morning, we were greeted by the adorably wet and curious alpacas who joined in on the morning’s devotion given by Peirce. As there were less than a handful of us at that stage of the day, Peirce’s reading about Gideon was an encouragement.

The friendly tenants of Pilgrim Hill.

 

 

While we had a few items on the work agenda, the battle against the invasive thistles became the priority. These thorny and hostile weeds were attacked with some trepidation. A positive attitude and a sense of humour was the only way to approach such a large scale infestation, we informally named the area ‘Thistleton’. Perhaps the most disheartening sight was seeing hundreds of thousands of tiny seeds that had already spread before we could capture the cotton heads of the thistles. Picking all of the seeds up was impossible.

The Californian Thistle, one type of weed we removed.

 

However, there were many things to be grateful for on this day. The weather was just right for weeding, that is, not too hot, windy or rainy. The rain had cleared earlier that morning and left the soil perfectly moist for pulling weeds. Although the team was small, there was a real sense of camaraderie as we tackled this epic task. Good conversations were had and word games were played to pass the time. Furthermore, a Pilgrim Hill workday is always accompanied with good food and this one did not disappoint. American hot dogs were enjoyed by all, some for the first time, complete with chilli and iced tea.

Whilst this ragtag team could be mistaken for the cast of the next Jurassic Park film, they were actually the willing volunteers of a productive Pilgrim Hill Summer Workday.

Finally, as the day drew to a close, there was a real sense of achievement. We managed to clear the entire problem area and although it remains to be seen if we have won the war on thistles, we did win this battle. 

Spring cleaning and giving thanks

Our Spring work day at the end of November was a time of thankfulness of the year that has passed and building on foundations already prepared. 

Our family had celebrated the American holiday of Thanksgiving just two days earlier, and we served the volunteers at our workday some traditional dishes to thank them for their help (turkey legs on the grill, cranberry relish, cornbread dressing and sweet potato pies, if you're curious). 

Some more work was done on the base of the iconic PH table (see the video here if you don't know what I'm talking about), with specialist advice from Mick Elliot, the pastor at Redeemer in Huonville.

The area around the 'bespoke' pizza oven - built for us by our friends the Tullys (doing a different kind of gig!) - needed a bit of love and care, and it was amazing to see how well it cleaned up after being attacked by half a dozen people with shovels and mattocks for an afternoon.

To our delight, Seth Isham put together a beautiful improvised dry-stone retaining wall from on-site mudstone. Finished with a railroad tie, the wall doubles as seating. There was also brush cutting, wood cutting and shovelling of alpaca manure (let me know if you want some - it's great for the garden).

Thanksgiving is a time to remember and be thankful for God's care for us and for the blessing of both work ("In all labour there is profit" Prov. 14.23) and rest, and to share our thankfulness with each other -  a fitting theme for our workday.

Thanks to Fiona Lockett for the snaps.