The Cornell Experience Continues...

This past Saturday, a group of Cornellians volunteered to help cleanup Untermeyer Gardens.   I was there, along with my wife and son.  In part, it was for my son who needed community service hours for high school, but it was also a great outdoor experience.

At the garden, a fence was built to keep deer out, but what of the deer already inside? Here we are mapping out a "deer shooing."  

We formed a line, and moving slowly through the bushes, herded the deer to a gate exit.  

The photo above shows the team on the "easy" trail.  The bolder volunteers went through some tough and sloping terrain that included bushes, nettles, and dense branches.

There was an estimated 12-18 deer in the garden and we counted 7 departures.  Not bad, but another round of deer shooing will be needed.

We also got a tour and some history from master gardener Tim.

Finally, we spent a couple of hours clearing an area of some brush, fallen wood, and fairly large branches.  It was part of a larger effort to uncover and restore the "lost" garden.  Some branches were freed with shovels, hand saws, and clippers, but larger ones Tim had to cut down to size with a chain saw.  Then we piled the pieces neatly on the side of the road for a wood chipper. The scene reminded me of a busy ant colony.  It was heavy sweaty work, but fun in a team sort of way.

Laura Fratt and Jim Irish were the Cornell alumni who organized this event.  They lead the Cornell Alumni Association of Westchester.