Spring Cleanup
Spring means that I’ll be getting a text or call from Jodi Litchfield.
It was a text asking if I was available to help with the two landscape islands on either side of Livingston’s I-90 underpass. Not to seem too eager I waited ten minutes to reply. I actually like doing spring cleanup, weird huh?
We scheduled it for early April at ten in the morning. It was raining buckets when I woke up. Me no like work outside in rain. Just saying.
Secretly I was hoping that I’d get a cancellation text or call from Jodi. Fingers were crossed, I didn’t want to be the one to say I don’t like to work in the rain – it makes me sound like a whiner and a wimp. The cancellation text came saying that she would reschedule it.
“Yes.” I punched the air. I’m not a big fan of doing landscaping, or any outdoor work in the rain, sleet, damp fog (i.e. that yucky stuff called drizzle), or any type of cold wet moisture. I don’t mind shoveling or playing in the snow. Working in the rain is one of the reasons I moved away from the Pacific Northwest to sunny ol’ Livingston, Montana. I’d take a -20 degree temp over 35 degree and raining any day of the week.
Spring Cleanup Excess Dirt
Spring Cleanup Wheelbarrow April 2017
Jodi rescheduled for the following week. I was still interested and we’d be starting later in the day. Totally works for me. I replied with my high-tech flip phone. Guess what happened that next morning… it snowed.
Damn it, man.
Spring Cleanup in the snow doesn’t work at all. I checked the forecast first before texting Jodi. It was supposed to warm up to the mid-to-high forties and it wasn’t even 9am yet. I called up a friend of mine, Scott Denniston here in town, to see if he wanted to play Spring Cleanup with us.
Spring Cleanup Trash April 2017
Spring Cleanup Scott Denniston April 2017
“Yeah that sounds great,” he told me. Scott’s a really cool guy and a lot of fun to work with. We were both in the local Shane Center play Evita together, he was the Officer dressed in white, I was the short, bearded Officer.
I picked Scott up early and we headed out to the underpass to get started. I brought some of my landscape tools. Jodi Litchfield and Jeanne McCormick showed up minutes after Scott and I got started. We cruised through the beds cleaning out the weeds, removing excess soil and garbage, just making the landscape islands look great with our Spring Cleanup project.
Spring Cleanup Jeanne McCormick April 2017
I used my GoPro and my iPad to take the pictures and video of this service project.