We've been using repellent wipes, easy to carry around and effective on exposed areas!! Usually it's the ankles but these lads were a little more adventurous !!!!
Below are photos of a service project our district was involved in. A member's house burnt down and he had to move to a new site. This is near the top of a mountain and what we're trying to do is create a level surface for him to build on. As you may be able to see it's almost a 45 degree angle so with the tools we had that's a lot of soil to shift, plus a tree and a couple of tree stumps. I dug around this tree and a few strong elders uprooted it.
Don't forget your shovel if you want to go to work (Our Irish Blog followers will understand) We could have done with a few good shovels or a JCB but sure where would the fun be in that. How would you ever understand what back breaking work was if machinery did all the work. As Theresa's brother-in-law Mick would say "Sit down there Bernie, I'm exhausted looking at you working,.. but isn't the garden lovely."
There is some pipe laying being done near where we are living and the trenches are dug manually. They have removed huge tree trunks and roots after several days digging and chopping with machete's its astounding to see what they can achieve. Another great tool is the broom its continuously in use everywhere, its hard to describe but they sweep, sweep, sweep. In the mornings when we walk in the park there is a school nearby and the students sweep the streets surrounding the school with these brooms. It would appear that different groups supervised by teachers have this duty to perform each morning. There are regular workers that clean the streets in the park, they collect litter and sweep, and the litter bins are emptied regularly. One morning we saw a small group of elderly women sweeping the streets in the park and noticed a sign which said something about *programme to support living assistance* I wondered if they were volunteers or if they were doing it as part of the social welfare system for financial assistance payment !
If you are wondering why there is so much sweeping the trees seem to shed leaves and flowers and branches continuously and people do tend to litter. After a heavy rainfall at night there is always plenty of debris to be cleaned up.