Saturday, April 26 was the formal Work Day for the Spring of 2022. A number of projects were undertaken and the results of those projects will improve the quality of our range for all of our members.
Prior to Saturday, a lot of work had been done in adding crushed stone to the entry driveway and leveling it to take out the potholes and washed out places. Getting into the range is a lot more pleasant now. As part of Work Day, all of the graveled driveway and parking areas were scarified, graded and leveled. It was a task that just went on in the background as the John Deere just went up and down the drives, but it paid a great benefit in accessibility to the areas on the range. I did not get the name of the gentleman who did the gravel work (or even a picture of him on the tractor) – but a huge Thank You from all of us for your effort!
Weed control is always an ongoing task at the range and spraying weeds requires water to mix the herbicides. Until now we have needed to bring water to the range to fill the tank on the sprayer (the well has so much rust and scale that it clogs the strainers and nozzles in the sprayer). It was decided to build a system to catch rainwater to use for spraying. What we were building was a cistern and gutter system a lot like what our great-grandparents used on many farms back in the early 20th century!
Another project we had the material and people to finish was installing the set of new number boards on the 200/300 yard range. The old ones had gone ‘way past their use-by date and new ones were needed. Dave Fritz, a longtime member from up around South Bend painted us a new set of numbers (he also painted the previous set as well). A couple of posts were replaced and new mounting rails replaced the weathered ones. The new numbers can be removed for winter storage and they look very nice.
There are several ongoing projects that will be done as time goes on and it may be necessary to close the range to allow this work to be completed. We will try to give several days notice when range closures are needed, so keep an eye on the website for updates.
UPDATE: May 5
We have had a rainy spell since work day and the cistern is working well. It has filled to overflowing and we have plenty of water for weed control. I would not recommend using the water for other purposes for a while because there might still be traces of Glysophate (Round-Up) in the plastic container.
