May 14th was our spring work day at the Old Michigan City Light. Our work weekends are a real highlight for us – not only the chance to visit with friends, but also the chance to work our magic for our favorite lighthouse. This weekend would be no different.

For the past several work weekends I try to get to Michigan City to round up many of the supplies we thought we would need in order to save time on Saturday morning. We knew we were going to need mulch, lots of it – plan was to start with 60 bags. First challenge of the weekend – how to get 60 bags of mulch from the store to the lighthouse. Well, I had driven my ‘land yacht’ so I made as much room in the back as I could and we loaded up 30 bags for the first run. Actually was kind of nice doing it this way as I drove onto the yard of the light and society director Laura and I were able to stage bags of mulch in the areas they would be needed. Workers wouldn’t have to lug them around on Saturday. Soon as we got the first load distributed I headed back to the store to try to reload and return before it started to rain. (It had started out to be such a pretty day, but the Friday the 13th thing kicked in and the weather took a turn for the ugly.) About the time we finished up it was starting to rain, so that was good timing.



Did take a moment to take a quick pic of the bus with the lighthouse as a background – do think the color fits in well with the environment. Had I had a little more time (or less rain . . .) I would have liked to back up a bit to get all of the light in the picture.



Now that the initial hauling was out of the way, it was time to head to what has become the defacto start of the weekend dinner at Swingbellies. When I had called for our reservation, the lady taking my information asked about the group and I told her who we were and what we were doing. The lady recognized us and let me know it would be nice to have us back (and I didn’t even tell her Rip wouldn’t be with us!) As folks gathered at the restaurant, conversations picked up on what was happening in everyone’s life. Laura and the society’s newsletter editor joined us for dinner, which was nice.



During dinner I discussed with some of our gardeners an idea that had been suggested for a garden. One of our projects for the weekend would be to enclose the area around the new anchor and capstan, and I suggested we work a garden into that project, combining the project with the suggestion. Laid out the rough concept for how we would build the garden and enclosure and got down to the serious business of dinner.



The above is part of the reason we like Swingbellies. Very generous portions of good food, and they let us come back . . . After dinner it was back to the hotel and our hospitality suite for more socializing and catching up.