Expect the Unexpected
A caretaker’s work is never done.
The Woodcock staff is a cohesive team with varying areas of focus. The buildings and grounds are the caretakers’ charge.
We keep our nature center, office and outdoor structures clean and functional day to day.
We tend our grounds on nature’s schedule; trimming back trails in Summer, rearranging fallen leaves in Autumn, clearing snow and ice in Winter and tidying up for new growth in Spring.
We know what needs doing, but there is an unspoken motto that keeps us flexible and at the ready. Expect the unexpected.
It could be a broken rung on a playground ladder, a yellow jacket nest at a go-to trail spot or a malfunctioning piece of infrastructure.
We prep for the storms we see coming, but life often brings surprises even on the loveliest of days.
The recent Nor’easter brought a Beech tree down, blocking our entrance and knocking out power. Sometimes being the caretaker means relying on specialists when the unexpected is outside our skill-set. We professionally fell suspect trees in significant areas, but even the hardiest of trees is no match for some stormy gales.
While waiting for local utilities to tend to the power lines, we got to work setting up our generator to keep our well water flowing, our animals’ filters and heat lamps running, and the freezers that store their food supply cold. With the grounds inaccessible, we kept in touch with staff working offsite to help care for the animals and make sure everyone could hit the ground running when returning after power was restored and the driveway cleared.
Sometimes being the caretaker means calling in volunteers when there is more than we can handle on our own. Once the greater property was assessed, we called on our volunteer chainsaw enthusiasts to help clean up the driveway and trails.
Back up and operational, you might never know we had the unexpected happen.
There is always work to do. Whether we can do it ourselves or need to enlist the help of others, we handle whatever nature sends our way.
