Four more headstones rescued from Mother Nature’s clutches

Recap: I clear out overgrown gravestones in my local cemetery.

Link: I Fought the Nature, and I Won!

Link: Hanging Out in an Old Graveyard

I did a few more today, including two veterans, a married couple, and the Freemason woman’s grave that I had mistaken to be a satanist. I thought I’d share the results, as well as a few other discoveries I made in the cemetery.

Before I get into it, I have to make an obligatory disclaimer about grave-cleaning. I know you’ve seen the following two memes before, but again, I’m posting them as an obligatory disclaimer.

I don’t restore gravestones. I am not advocating to restore gravestones without training and permission. I am professionally trained in garden maintenance, and therefore, I restore gardens.

Why: I fought the nature, and I won!

This does lead back to the link I gave above, but now it also has the most thorough explanation on why it’s best to leave a gravestone alone.

It will also explain why I did not try to remove the lichen on the grave.

Moving on…

I made this sound like it was hard to find. The gravestone was right next to hers lol. I was a little surprised that his grave was in better condition since it was older.

I also recognized the symbol on his headstone, just not Mary’s.

I don’t talk about my religious beliefs, because I don’t feel like there’s any reason to (and most people tell me it doesn’t make sense to them anyway), but I’m not prejudiced against religion.

I don’t intend to leave an overgrown grave if I can truly help it (there are just too many for me to reasonably do alone) and I CERTAINLY would not do so over religion.

Obligatory PSA that earthworms are amazing for the environment, and you should always try to relocate them if you can.

It was a rainy day, so I came across a lot of earthworms. It was almost stressful to work, because every time I’d begin to dig again, there’d suddenly be three more HUGE earthworms that came out of nowhere. I love earthworms because they are great for the environment, but they are still creepy to look at.

It was creepy to start to dig, and then see more wriggling earthworms out of nowhere.

I meant to add that I only apply WATER. WATER ONLY.

I don’t like the remaining black stains, but I don’t like the possibility of damaging the headstone more. It still looked nicer than before, though.

That made me sad.

It was most cleared out, but I also felt like I could have done better. It didn’t feel “complete” enough, if that makes sense.

I was born and raised in Texas, and Texas is the land of fire ants. I did not know what kind of ants these were, and did not want to find out the hard way.

*Next to Roland’s grave, not Alexander’s

I find this so fascinating. It is amazing the way that nature adapts around anything.

It has a sleek granite perimeter that I think will look BEAUTIFUL when actually polished.

You could read most of the writing (though I don’t understand any of the military terms), but it was slowly being swallowed by the earth, and needed a little help.

I hoped that when it dried, it would look prettier.

Phew!

This PSA might be annoying, but I wanted to put it out there anyway.

There’s not that many. Most of them are science related. I hope it isn’t too underwhelming lol.

This was the only grave in the family set that had a caption under the name and date. “Clothed in white” feels almost ominous, but I’m presuming it’s a biblical reference.

This made me feel superstitious. It was such a creepy contrast from the other grass in the graveyard.

Lichen is bad for gravestones, but they’re actually amazing for the environment. They’re one of the living creatures that turn a barren landscape into an ecosystem. They break down rock to make it habitable for other bio life to come in after it.

If this wasn’t a gravestone, this wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. It’s actually kind of cool how they spread out and change different colors. This lichen is just having lunch, and all other bio life will come after it!

But this is a gravestone, so that’s not exactly ideal…

These little anthills always confused me because my understanding of ants is that they have large expansive empires, and they fight for territory. All of these little pop-up anthills seemed like a threat to one another.

It was exhausting, satisfying, and curious. I’m looking forward to clearing out more.

Like I keep saying, feel free to join me. Especially if you bring extra wash cloths. I never have enough lol.