April (Snow) Showers...

The April workday was productive despite cool weather and persistent snow flurries. Water was flowing all over the hill and the grounds were "mud luscious". A hearty work crew accomplished a lot. Tom Walker and Kevin Collins boxed up the 24" and 18" mirrors and took them away for re-coating. Joe Zuraw, Ray Burk, Barry Hirveaux and I all worked on making some quick repairs to the gravel road. Once the road thoroughly drys out we'll still have to do some grading work, though I was able to get my little Matrix to the top of the hill without too much problem.

Barry fired up his chain saw and cut up the tree that came down in the December ice storm just a few feet from the telescope shed. He also removed some of the debris that had fallen near where the driveway opens up to the clearing. Our outhouse wintered well, but the shower is knocked out of operation. Maybe a rebuild job for the WPI fraternity?

We had a visit from members of Troop 45 in Southington, CT. The will be camping on the hill and working on their astronomy merit badges next month and wanted to check out the facility. They look forward to a service project, and I think they are going to tackle clearing the trail to Scout Haven that has been badly clogged with damage from the ice storm.

After examining Scout Heaven we realize we were lucky that all of our buildings came through fine. Scout Heaven had a "near miss" from a big hemlock that fell behind it, and the telescope shed wasn't too far from a fallen tall beech tree.

As I was leaving, Peter Scherff arrived, we talked briefly about his exciting plans for NEAF this year. If anyone has some time to volunteer to help staff the Arunah booth please contact me or Peter. NEAF is April 18th - 19th in Suffern, NY.

-Ed