Building the Path
Saturday, March 13, 2004

The original date for building the path from the parking lot to the labyrinth was March 6, the weekend following the construction of the labyrinth itself. However, that was called off because Thomas from Austin Power Equipment believed rain earlier in the week had made the ground too soft for scraping. (He’s the expert.) However, many who came out on Saturday just to walk the labyrinth wondered why we weren’t working. The day was very beautiful. Oh well, we had planned for one rain day.

However, the labyrinth folks were not idle during that weekend. Mike met with Becky at B-Remembered Monuments and finalized the details of the dedication stone. A group met and began planning the dedication. Susan produced a flyer for the dedication.

One good thing about waiting an extra week was that we discovered that a path from the parking lot to the labyrinth was not such a good idea. By watching people use the labyrinth, we found that most of the walkers were coming directly from the Church building. Since the Church building itself was wheelchair accessible, it was decided to have the path run from the Church to the labyrinth. We would build the second path from the parking lot later.

The unfortunate part about moving the path building back a week was that Bill, our Bobcat driver, would not be able to make it the following Saturday. To make matters worse, it rained again that week, threatening to delay the path again.

On Friday, March 12, Thomas delivered the Bobcat to the church, although the weather that week was not much better than it had been the week before. Bill arrived and cleared the path from the building to the labyrinth. John had instructed him to make it very “feminine, with lots of curves”. (No right angles, check!)

Mike arrived to help Bill in this effort, and to learn how to drive the Bobcat himself, since Bill wouldn’t be available on Saturday. Mike also installed a pipe in a small drainage channel that the path was going over.

That evening, Susan sent out an email proclaiming that “The path from the church to the labyrinth was cleared today by Wild Bill and his trusty steed Bob (the bobcat that is)” and asking workers to gather the following morning to build the path.

Building the Path

The group that gathered Saturday was smaller, but no less dedicated. The weather was definitely worse than it had been for the previous two Saturdays. It was foggy and drizzling. We discovered for ourselves Thomas’ concern about operating the Bobcat when the ground was wet, for it made a mess of the grass where ever it went.

John lifted everyone’s spirits by pointing out that the length of the path was the same as the final circuit of the labyrinth. If we put our minds to it, we could be done in no time.

So, the weed block was lain over the scraped area, the limestone blocks were placed on the edges, and crushed granite was poured in. Mike, after he got the hang of the Bobcat’s controls, was moving unused blocks and granite from the far side of the labyrinth to where they could be used on the path. Within no time, the path was complete. We even had a little left-over material, which, before we left, was moved to the back parking lot, out of the way. (They would also be in a good place for building the parking lot path.)

Before he left for the day, Mike gave “Labyrinth Bob” a good cleaning with the garden hose to get (almost) all of the mud off of it. Austin Power Equipment had been very generous donating this machine. It would not be very neighborly to give it back with a inch of mud on the wheels and bucket.

Labyrinth Bob

Susan’s summary of the day

MANY MANY THANKS to all who toiled and labored during the labyrinth workdays to see the construction through. We finished today with the path from the sanctuary leading out to the labyrinth. All that is left to do is construct another path from the back parking lot to join the existing path…a project for another day.

I’m so glad the weather didn’t keep our dedicated workers away! We had close to 30 workers the first weekend and around 20 today.

All that remained was installing the dedication stone and the dedication itself.