The First Restoration Event

25 October 2003

Early arrivers enjoy the bucolic peace of the old cemetery.

The weather was about right as we started but got hot as the sun rose higher. The humidity wasn’t much help either. But at least it didn’t rain. The problem was we got so busy nobody took many pictures. These are the only three I made.

Jerry Flannigan prepares his weed eater for serious work.

By noon we had cut through the brush enough to lay out two survey lines and stake out the southern half of the cemetery into 50 by 50 foot grids. Each survey stake is set to within plus or minus 2 inches – not an easy task considering the uneven terrain and high brush. After lunch we plotted the first row of graves and figured we were getting each grave located to within 6 inches of its actual position. The plotting board was too small for our purposes, though, so we halted plotting until we can make bigger plotting boards. Of course, there are no pictures of the grid work.

The Rova’s arrive loaded for bear.

The next restoration effort will be in two weeks on Saturday November the 8^th at 9:30. Bring brush clearing equipment – lawn mowers, sling blades, bush hogs, whatever. We will try to get two plotting crews going. It takes four people to plot and record one grave efficiently. A team can do about 12 to 15 graves an hour. There are over a hundred graves out there. Maybe two hundred. We won’t know until we get the area cleared better and start looking for unmarked graves.