CAO Fall Work Party Report for October 2024
On the weekend of October 4-6, 2024, several Toronto Centre member volunteers stepped up to help with the annual Fall Work Party at our E.C. Carr Astronomical Observatory (CAO) on Blue Mountain. The planning and purchasing for this major event had started weeks before by creating and purchasing for the list of jobs, as well as arranging the food and drink for all participants. Our thanks go to Tony Horvatin, Mark Doyle and Elaine dos Santos for their efforts.
This work party included several major outdoor works so the mild dry weather was very welcome indeed. Excellent headway was made in completing the list of tasks although a few jobs had to be completed on the following weekend by members who were on site. Folks started arriving on Friday night with the rest arriving on Saturday morning.
We received and graded 40 cubic yards of crushed stone to help manage weed growth in our parking area and driveway lane and distributed 8 cubic yards of topsoil in the damaged areas around the new U of T dome and low spots around the parking area. The wheelbarrow, shovels and rakes were very busy! A 54-foot eavestrough was installed on the south side of the house to collect and divert water that was being trapped there and caused some flooding during the storms of this past summer.
During work parties, members are provided with meals starting from Saturday breakfast through to lunch on Sunday. Our delicious meals were prepared by Elaine and chef Mark. A heartfelt thank you goes out to them for keeping us well fed and watered with delicious dishes at every meal and with home baked goodies too!
Work captains of Tony, Dave Brodie, Don Stewart and Ralph Chou organized their teams of volunteers and then dug into the page-long task list. Several special jobs were tackled in addition to the usual fall closing tasks of putting up storm windows, stacking picnic tables, packing up the pergola tarp, putting hoses away, mowing the grass and weed trimming and much more.
One of the beds in the Orion Room was replaced with a superior unit and the old mattress and much other material from the garage and house was hauled to the local dump for recycling and disposal.
Two large hazardous trees were removed at our property frontage by Dave Brodie and Jill Smith-Brodie. Dave is a certified arborist with the Bruce Trail Conservancy and he and Jill happily obliged us by bringing their skills to bear on the need to safely handle these trees. A special shout out to them both for expertly dealing with a task that we would have otherwise had to contract with professionals!
This was also the third work party where TC members who are also U of T staff or students participated in our joint effort of maintaining the site under a Memorandum of Understanding where the University installed and now operates a 0.5 metre robotic telescope at the CAO as part of a course in telescope operations. In this partnership the U of T contributes to the regular annual cost of operating the CAO creating a win-win situation for both parties. Staffer Mike Williams and two students contributed to the efforts of the weekend and we appreciate their efforts.
Then on the following two weekends several more volunteers continued work on several projects that were not competed at the work party. This included picking up and distributing a half-yard of limestone screenings around the perimeter of the parking area, the packing of the POD for sale into our trailer, finishing the downspout on the new eavestrough, removing and replacing the wiper seal on the bathroom window, tending to the SLO building’s roof track area to prevent the ingress of squirrels and mice and resetting the polar alignment of the main pier mount, replacement of the house water filter cartridge, mowing all the lawn area, picking up additional limestone screenings and placing a border around the fresh parking area, and even digging out a fouled ditch at the corner to prevent winter melt flooding. Wow!
The CAO Committee would like to convey our thanks to the following volunteers for giving so very generously of their time and talents to make this event yet another successful and safe work party!
Thomas Bernard, Jeff Booth, Dave Brodie, Jill Smith-Brodie, Jennifer Chan, Ralph Chou, Elaine dos Santos, Mark Doyle, Denis Grey, Gaetan Godin, Grace Horvatin, Tony Horvatin, Anditya Khandelwal, Pavel Krasnopolski, Tom Luton, Rory Ring, Steven Spinney, Don Stewart, Mike Williams, and Ruyi Xu.
The success of your CAO depends on the good will of member volunteers who are willing to help keep the grounds and property running smoothly but we can’t do it without you. If you are visiting during a supervised weekend, consider asking what you can help with to lessen the load as 'it takes a village' as the saying goes. Visitors to the site are routinely amazed to hear that we have no staff and that the site has been developed, operated and maintained entirely with member volunteer efforts.
The next work party will take place in the spring of 2025 so watch the Forum for the announcement of the event and consider helping if you are able to. As we always say, you don't need any skills to participate, just a willingness to dig in and help. And work parties are a great opportunity to meet other members and perhaps learn some new skills all while building community and friendships.
Until next time, clear skies!
The CAO Committee
Photos by Jeff Booth, Ralph Chou and Tony Horvatin