Who has triskaidekaphobia? Not us! Thirteen stalwart volunteers, fueled by only 12 donuts, braved cold weather for the January Work Day at the Audubon Newhall Preserve. Jim Reynolds and his crew of the Rios siblings, Elizabeth, Thaddaeus, and Nathanael extended the milled asphalt surface material up the Audubon Trail. Vice-Chair Lynn Hodgson and Elizabeth spruced up the parking lot pollinator garden and waged war against fire ants. Co-Chairs Jack Coleman and Bob Clemens cleaned out and added wood shavings to two of our three owl boxes. We spared an owl box near the Audubon Pond after finding it occupied by a baby possum! We have dubbed him or her “Pogo,” whose famous Earth Day 1970 quote regarding pollution was: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
Meanwhile, closer to the ground, Karen Lucey, David and Julia Buzzard, Sal Gioia, Tom Marko and newcomer Daniela Duran gathered logs, branches and other debris from around the Audubon Pond into piles to be removed by our friends from Sea Pines CSA. For our traditional photo op, below, we positioned the roses among the thorns . . . From left to right: thorns David Buzzard, Fearless Leader Clemens, Tom Marko, John Grobe, Co-Chair Jack Coleman, roses Vice-Chair Lynn Hodgson, Daniela Duran, Julia Buzzard, overlapping thorn Jim Reynolds, rose Elizabeth Rios, and thorns Sal Gioia, Thaddaeus Rios and Nathanael Rios. It was a great day to be outdoors!
Our next Newhall Work Day will be Saturday February 18th, 8:30 to 10 AM! (Ordinarily we schedule our Work Days for the second Saturday of each month, but your Fearless Leader will be out of town on February 11th, so we will push it back a week next month!)