Fence-Building Day (Part 1), March 27, 2021

The Fence Building Event was a huge success!

Approximately 25 volunteers showed up at Rebecca’s Homestead on Saturday, March 27th – some from as far away as Maryland! – to build a fence around a section of the property that will eventually house raised garden beds for the residents. As the saying goes, Many hands make light work. That was certainly true in this case. Because of the abundance of helpers they were able to complete the fence by lunch time.

Speaking of lunch, a great big thank you to Evelyn Dudziec, founder of Katie’s House, and the Katie’s House staff, as well as Andre’s Lakeside Dining, of Sparta, for generously providing a delicious hot lunch for all the volunteers. (The food was great!)

After lunch, Dennis Elmers, founder of Rebecca’s Homestead along with his wife, Michele, used some of his own equipment (from his underground sprinkler system business) to dig an underground trench from the barn to the new fence – a distance of about 100 feet. The trench was used to run a water line and electrical conduit that will both eventually be used for the raised garden beds.

But there was other work going on, as well.

About six men assisted master arborist Joe Gorgolione (aka “Joe Tree”), from Hopatcong, who generously donated his time, equipment and tree-cutting expertise to take down over 20 trees around the edge of the property. The crew worked for about five hours (under Joe’s supervision), felling trees, feeding branches into the wood chipper, and sawing up logs. By the end of that project the side area of the property had a lot more usable yard space.

Inside the house two volunteers, a husband and wife, took on the task of reinstalling all the kitchen cabinets, which had been removed and repainted recently. (All of the door hinges and hardware had to be reinstalled, too, so this was a big job.) They did a great job on the install and the cabinets look beautiful!