Thursday was a Community Service Day on Palmyra

Usually on the day before the plane arrives with a new group of scientists, everyone at the station spends an hour raking up the leaves on the paths between the cabins and other buildings. The leaf free paths don't stay that way very long, but they should still look pretty good when the new teams arrive on the plane around 11 am tomorrow morning unless it is real windy tonight.

Below is a pair of "before" and "after" photos.

You may notice the "before" photo is a bit hazy. This is because my camera had been in the air-conditioned dry lab, and it had not adjusted to the hot and humid outside air. I would have been late to the raking party if I waited for my camera to adjust, so I wiped the camera lens and took a photo as quick as I could before it fogged up again. I just wasn't quite fast enough.

path before raking

path after raking