A couple members went through the Oronogo Cemetery this past Friday (14 May) and were shocked at the number and size of branches and, in places, whole sections of trees down. We instantly wanted to help, so the kind folks at the Oronogo City Hall/Police Department put us in touch with a couple members of the Oronogo Cemetery Board and we offered to do what we could.)
Today, we went, as is relatively common for our group, to a cemetery. However, instead of going armed with video and audio equipment, EMF detectors, and temp gauges, and instead of going at 10pm, we rolled into the cemetery around 10am, armed with pickup trucks, work gloves, water bottles, a hatchet, and a saw.
When we first got there, this is what the cemetery looked like:
We loaded a total of 11 truckloads of branches and took them to a large brush pile.
Amanda loading one of the trucks:
Amie and Boss in the other truck:
No one had an extra hair tie...so Amanda decided to make one using a plastic bag:
Amie, Boss, and Amanda stomp down the pile of branches (and Amanda tries to kill Boss):
Amanda, Boss, Amie, and Marie with the big pile of branches at the end of today's work:
(The camera battery died! :( So the last one was taken via phone camera.)With the threat of rain being announced by thunder, we called it a day until we can go back with a chainsaw for the larger branches and until the Cemetery Board can come in with a tractor to lower some of the larger branches away from the headstones. Amazingly and thankfully, though, for all of the large branches down, we only found two headstones damaged. Lucky cemetery, perhaps? Even if not, a lot less storm-cluttered cemetery, and a group of tired but happy ghost hunters!
