Dear Group, On the subject of workshops and training needed, many of you know how nervous and sometimes frustrated I get. Mostly because I know that I cannot possibly share all the methods of stone repair,rights ,wrongs,shortcuts etc. In a matter of hours.I attended my first workshop in October of 1997 and was just shown sticking the pieces back together with Mastico epoxy. You must remember that I was fortunate to live in a County that supported me and the Department they hired me to head. They provided me with the tools and materials needed and 65 cemeteries to practice in not to mention a wage for doing it. When I see some of the first tombstones I repaired I want to do them again, as I learned more with each stone. As far as teaching to do it perfect I have never thought of myself teaching anyone anything, I have just always been willing to share with others what I have learned from others. I was myself ,afraid at first,as I did not want to do more harm than good, but doing nothing is more harm than good. I have mentioned to Lois before that maybe we should have some sort of way knowing what people want and expect from a workshop.Maybe braking up into smaller groups and more hands on, I do not know. We all know what a tremendous job we have ahead of us, there is a few cemeteries needing help, ha ha! What about a training video with from basic repair to serious restoration. I have put a lot of thought into the upcoming Madison Workshop , just like some of the first tombstones I fixed, I know they get better with each one I do, hopefully these workshops can improve also. Your graveyard grooming buddy, Walt

Walt, I have never been able to attend a workshop. Most are too far from me or I just can't get the time. In the Hatfield cemetery in Allen county, Indiana, when we do cleaning there, when we run across a broken or buried headstone, we pretty much put the pieces at the base. The buried ones that we run across, those that we see maybe a corner above the soil, we don'r probe for them, we just uncover. We don't lift them out of the soil mainly because I don't know if they were layed down to begin with instead of being upright. A series of videos whould be great for me, starting with just cleaning. I haven't even tryed to clean any stones for fear of using the wrong things on them. I would gladly put forth the money to buy any videos that would teach me what I really need to do. Brian E. Smead Terre Haute, Indiana ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Walters" <graveyardgroomer@skyenet.net> To: <INPCRP-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2001 9:26 AM Subject: [INPCRP] workshops > Dear Group, > On the subject of workshops and training needed, many of you know how nervous and sometimes frustrated I get. > Mostly because I know that I cannot possibly share all the methods of stone repair,rights ,wrongs,shortcuts etc. > In a matter of hours.I attended my first workshop in October of 1997 and was just shown sticking the pieces back together with Mastico epoxy. > You must remember that I was fortunate to live in a County that supported me and the Department they hired me to head. > They provided me with the tools and materials needed and 65 cemeteries to practice in not to mention a wage for doing it. > When I see some of the first tombstones I repaired I want to do them again, as I learned more with each stone. > As far as teaching to do it perfect I have never thought of myself teaching anyone anything, I have just always been willing to share with others what I have learned from others. > I was myself ,afraid at first,as I did not want to do more harm than good, but doing nothing is more harm than good. > I have mentioned to Lois before that maybe we should have some sort of way knowing what people want and expect from a workshop.Maybe braking up into smaller groups and more hands on, I do not know. > We all know what a tremendous job we have ahead of us, there is a few cemeteries needing help, ha ha! > What about a training video with from basic repair to serious restoration. > I have put a lot of thought into the upcoming Madison Workshop , just like some of the first tombstones I fixed, I know they get better with each one I do, hopefully these workshops can improve also. > > Your graveyard grooming buddy, > Walt > > > ==== INPCRP Mailing List ==== > If we cannot respect the dead, how can we respect the living? > >