Merry Christmas Bay Hill Village!!!

- The Red Bow Committee -

Rachel Foster, Jayne Schmidt, Deb Bullard, Joyce Boyd, Carroll Adams and Betty Harrison.

Someone had a great idea - "let's decorate the Village with red bows!" That one idea grew and bonded our community, wrapping it warmly in red ushering in the 2010 Christmas Spirit in style!





Christmas arrived early November 17th, a beautiful autumn day in Bay Hill Village. The first community-wide Christmas decorating was organized and accomplished by Betty Harrison, Jayne Schmidt, Deb Bullard, Rachel Foster, Carroll Adams, Joyce Boyd and Julie Vaught. Unfortunately, Julie's work schedule prevented her from decorating but she was there in spirit! Fritz Schmidt and David Foster jumped in to assist.

Betty Harrison and Joyce Boyd checked the list ... twice!

Deb Bullard volunteered to make all of the bows and as of this day she'd made about 150 of them! WOW! Deb also welcomed the volunteers at her her home with bottled water and yummy candies. The group was divided into teams, bows were counted and divided and loaded into golf carts

Rachel Foster, Betty Harrison, Deb Bullard, Joyce Boyd, Jayne Schmidt & Carroll Adams

"I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."

~ Charles Dickens ~

Carroll Adams and Fritz Schmidt decorate one of the entrance signs.

With various lengths of cable ties and twine, along with ladders of different heights, the volunteers zoomed off on their golf carts in all directions. On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer and Vixen! On Comet & Cupid & and Donner and Blitzen!




In addition to decorating the shared areas, bows were purchased by many residents to place on their mailboxes, garage lights, lampposts, deck lights and other prominent positions.

Carroll Adams rests a moment, enjoying the sunshine and camaraderie.



"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time."

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder ~

Betty Harrison and Rachel Foster adorn The Villas sign with a lovely wreath.


"Christmas is forever, not for just one day
for loving, sharing and giving are not to put away
like bells and light and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf
the good you do for others is the good you do yourself."

Normal Wesley Brooks
"Let Everyday Be Christmas" 1976

Deb Bullard, Fritz and Jayne Schmidt working hard.

"Christmas is not so much about opening presents as opening our hearts."

~ Janice Maeditere ~

What would we do without our reindeer? Er, ah .... our golf carts?

At Christmas

"A man is at his finest towards the finish of the year;
he is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here;
Then he's thinking more of others than he's thought the months before,
And the laughter of his children is a joy worth toiling for.
He is less a selfish creature than at any other time;
When the Christmas spirit rules him he comes close to the sublime."

~ Edgar Guest ~

Rachel Foster and Betty Harrison take a break while Fritz secures greenery & bow
(Hold onto that LADDER, Betty!)

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

~ Dr. Seuss ~

Christmas wreaths at Rivers Edge entrance signs.

The price of the bows covered the ribbon and the felt wire and also allowed the committee to purchase wreaths for the entrance signs, Villas sign as well as bows for the street signs, lamp posts and fence posts.

Bay Hill's very own Stonehenge was also adorned with red bows. Nothing escaped the Christmas Cheer Committee!

Bows are still available, so if you've not gotten yours yet please be sure to contact one of the committee members. Bows are $5.00 each.

Contributing Author: Carroll Adams
Contributing Photographer: Carroll Adams
Blog Administrator: Debi Bradford

Clean Water Event at Limestone Bay

This is not a BHC sanctioned event but is an event we feel falls under the auspices of our Mission Statement and Beliefs. This event is FREE, and is an outstanding opportunity to learn a lot about our river from the experts. Click on the image to enlarge.

BHC attends Marina Ladies Luncheon

It was a warm, sunny day at Bay Hill Village with just enough breeze to make sitting outside at Captain's Table Restaurant very enjoyable. Several members of the Bay Hill Conservancy participated in the monthly Ladies Luncheon at Bay Hill Marina's Captain's Table Restaurant Thursday, June 18th. This luncheon was attended by Carolyn Green, Marketing Manager of Bay Hill Marina, Helen Kloock, wife of Bay Hill Marina General Manager Arnie Kloock, Sheri Long, one of the investors who is staying through the weekend, Heather Hodges, Bay Hill Marina Operations Manager and Janet Allaway, Bay Hill Marina Bookkeeper. The Bay Hill Village residents - also BHC members - attending were Maria Miller, Linda Grinde, Betty Benson, Mary Radant, Betty Harrison, Wilda Davis, Jayne Schmidt and Bay Hill Conservancy co-founders Carroll Adams and Debi Bradford (that would be me!)



Bay Hill Village is such a fun place to live. Visitors are taken in by the grace and charm of the Village as well as the amenities that it offers. The Ladies Luncheon was born on a whim. Several ladies wanted to meet and chat over cool salads and warm breezes, and the monthly event has since grown to include 15-20 people! We enjoy getting to know the Bay Hill Marina owners and staff as well as seeing neighbors and meeting new residents.



If you haven't tried Captain's Table Restaurant you are missing a treat. They now offer a delivery service within Bay Hill Village, the condominiums and to boat slips. Delivery food! In Bay Hill Village! Now....if we could just get pitchers of margaritas with that I would be extremely happy - Ha! You can download a menu by going to WheelerLake.info and click on Bay Hill Marina's banner. That'll take you to a page with the downloadable menu. Have a GREAT summer on the lake!

Electronic Recycling Day Announcement

Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful, Athens, Alabama - 256-233-8000

Clean and Green

Tanjie Schrimsher and Lynne Hart

Keep Athens Limestone Beautiful

Lynne Hart, Executive Coordinator, and Tanjie Schrimsher, Recycling Coordinator of Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful, Inc gave a fascinating talk on litter and recycling to residents of Bay Hill Village Sunday, May 17, 2009 in the marina’s meeting room.

Betty Harrison signs in

Lynne kicked off the program focusing on KALB’s “Clean and Green” mission, combining the topics of litter and recycling for a well-rounded community educational program. KALB works with Athens events such as the Fiddler’s Convention, Soul Stock and various vendors by providing litter bags to patrons to clean up after themselves and take responsibility for their own trash. Delightfully, she reported that although the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts are fully armed with bags and pick-up-sticks, the amount of litter after each event seems to be lessening.

According to research, there are three reasons people litter:

1 – When people do not take ownership of a place they don’t take care of it.

2 – People believe someone will pick up after them.

3 – People tend to litter where litter has already accumulated.

4 – Lynne adds this to this list – LAZINESS.

Wilda Davis, Helen Kloock, Jim Starke and Sue Starke

Lynne jokingly calls plastic bags “our state bird,” because one can see these floating things in our skies as much as one can see birds. They perch in trees and swim among our waters, just like our feathered friends. That’s rather sad. She informed us about plastic bags in our waterways and oceans, telling us that sea turtles in particular try to eat plastic bags and have been found with them stuck in their throats or wrapped around their heads. Why? A sea turtles favorite food is jelly fish. A floating plastic bag looks just like a jellyfish. Albatross are becoming extinct because they are feeding their young plastic. They don’t know it’s plastic obviously, but plastic pellets look just like fish eggs, a key food of the baby albatross. Dead chicks have been found with their stomachs filled with plastic.

We all learned about an area in the South Pacific called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Lynne encouraged us to Google it, and I did this morning while writing this piece for the blog. I was sickened by the photos and narrative, so much so that I immediately went to my kitchen to see what I have in my trash. An avid recycler, I was shocked by some of the things that I had in my garbage can. I must make even more changes in my household.

Carroll Adams introduces Lynne and Tanjie while Jayne Schmidt, Mary Radant, Linda Grinde and Betty Benson look on.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is easily twice the size of Texas and may be as large as the United States. I urge you to click through the link and read about this. Who knew?

We also learned this critical information: Plastic photo-degrades, it never, ever biodegrades. Plastic will out live us.

Our landfills are so tightly compacted that the elements necessary for decomposition- light and moisture - never reach the products. 50-year-old newspapers have been unearthed intact, and can still be read.

Cigarette filters and their proper disposal gave us much to think about. Cigarette filters are made of plastic, and they take 12 years or longer to break down. However, even more importantly is that these filters collect toxins – obviously, chemical toxins from the cigarette itself. These toxins leach out of these filters into our environment. That may not sound like much but when you consider the trillions – TRILLIONS – of filters that are thoughtlessly flicked out of car windows, rubbed out under shoes and left on pavement, tossed into our waterways – it’s staggering.

Lynne told attendees about KALB’s Adopt A Spot and Community Clean-up programs. KALB helps sponsoring communities and groups with bags, vests, pick-up-sticks and other supplies. Groups can choose and area and clean it up just once, or choose to clean it more often. Call Lynne for information or head to the website.

Betty Benson looks through the KALB handout

After Lynne’s sobering message, Tanjie entertained us with Show & Tell – various recyclables and examples to pass around as she educated us about the local recycling program.

We learned a new word – “Nurdles.” Plastic pellets that are the beginning of all plastic products. Nurdles are what the albatross’s pick up and feed to their young, in addition to other shiny plastic “treats.”

Again – remember – plastic is NOT biodegradable – it is photodegradable. I was going to give you the definition of “photodegradable” via Wikipedia, but link here and read it for yourself. Reading the definition gave me a headache. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodegradation

The United States of America contains 5% of the world’s population, but we generate 19% of the world’s garbage.

Fritz Schmidt reads through the information

Tanjie shared great examples of what can and cannot be recycled at the Athens facility, and passed out a good chart to help us. We learned that our recycling bin here can be analyzed and changed according to our needs, as some were asking about magazine recycling instead of newspaper recycling.

Link here to KALB for a complete list of what can be recycled: http://www.keepathenslimestonebeautiful.com/recyclables.html

Some fascinating Recycling Facts:

http://www.keepathenslimestonebeautiful.com/recyclingfacts.html

Go here for information on recycling hazardous materials: http://earth911.com/

Participants asked about specific recycling challenges, like motor oil, paint and paint cans, batteries of all kinds, cell phones, Solo Cups, shredded office paper (bagged, please), phone books and even ELECTRONICS RECYLING.

For every ton of garbage generated 6 people are employed; for every ton of recycling generated 34 people are employed.

We all need to do our part

This was a fantastic program and we would like to thank Lynne Hart and Tanjie Schrimsher for their time and efforts. Our community really got into the subject and asked all manner of wonderful, useful questions. Thank you all for coming.

The Bay Hill Conservancy sends our sincere thanks to Lynne and Tanjie, and also to Bill Wojciechowski, the Recycling Center Manager. Athens and Limestone County are fortunate to have such a forward-thinking organization leading its citizens toward responsible stewardship. Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful!

The Bay Hill Conservancy also thanks Arnie Kloock, General Manager of Bay Hill Marina for graciously donating the meeting room for our program. We also thank Carolyn Green, Assistant Marina Manager of Bay Hill Marina, for her assistance with preparation.

No wonder I'm gaining weight!

Our thanks as well to all the Conservancy regulars who brought such tasty treats - YUMMY!!! We may have to write our own cookbook - we are blessed with fantastic bakers and cooks!!!

Spring 2009 Program Announced

Bay Hill Marina Crape Myrtle Project

From left: Wilda Davis, Jayne Schmidt, Fritz Schmidt, Carroll Adams,

Debi Bradford, Linda Grinde, Marilyn Bachelor and Dick Bachelor

The Bay Hill Conservancy pruned Bay Hill Marina's crape myrtles Sunday, February 6th. The day was MUCH warmer than our two day stint doing the same for Rivers Edge Condominiums a year ago. Temperatures were in the mid-60's with a slight breeze coming off the water - perfect for outdoor activities. As with Rivers Edge, this Conservancy activity was scheduled to thank the marina in kind for donating their meeting room for our meetings. You'll note that Carroll isn't in any of these photos, but that's because she was taking them. Due to injury she was unable to prune but took photos, hauled limbs, and was an excellent morale booster!

The Conservancy first tackled the newer crape myrtles planted by the Tidwells along Bay Village Drive. This first task was easy, taking a minimum of time and effort.

Lined up like soldiers along Bay Village Drive Linda, Wilda, Marilyn, Dick and Fritz make short work of this task.

Dick and Marilyn Bachelor show off their pruning skills, above, while Fritz Schmidt, below, ponders the proper approach.

If we only knew what loomed before us we would have brought a case of beer. Hindsight is always 20/20.

The crape myrtles closer to the docks are an entirely different story. Wilda laughs while Jayne works. "Hey...these are bigger...and tougher!!! You've got to be kidding me!"

Debi puts her back into it. Not a very flattering pose but oh well.

Jayne and Wilda have this crape myrtle under control.

Linda and Dick concentrate on their pruning methods.

What do you think...this branch? Or this one?

Linda's working hard.

Lookin' good, Wilda.

It takes a Village...

How many more do we have to prune?

Oh, my aching back...

Remember that moment in "Jaws" when Roy Scheider saw the shark for the first time and he said "We need a bigger boat...?"

Well...we needed bigger tools...

Fritz hauls the debris...

Dick prunes yet one more crape myrtle...

Holy cow...where's the beer already? Carroll?

Thankfully, Dick brought a saw for some of the larger limbs.

Fritz takes action.

Is that the beer truck I see...?

Light at the end of the tunnel.

Good job, Dick.

The weary group stops to pose for a photo - thanks, Jim. And thanks to everyone who volunteered this lovely Sunday afternoon to help our community.

REMINDER

The Next Conservancy Program will be held

Sunday, March 1st

2:00pm

Bay Hill Marina Meeting Room

Topic: Recycling

(and maybe butterflies if we have time)