Empress Cemetery on FacebookVolunteer Work in the Empress Cemetery
They have limited funds for maintenance, and their policy is that maintenance of graves is up to the families of the deceased.
Empress Cemetery Bylaw (2018-08): On the Village website, or here.
This website (EmpressCemetery.ca), is not associated with The Village of Empress
I am Bruce A. Johnson in Empress, Alberta, Canada and here is what I am doing, plan to do, and want to do, in the Empress Cemetery. If you have any ideas for me, or would like to help, please contact me.
Anyone can do volunteer work in the cemetery and don't need to contact me or the Village.
Trees & Bushes
I and a couple of other people cut back trees & bushes that have overgrown graves. I also dug out dirt and duff from graves under these trees to uncover the grave covers, moving the dirt to fill in other graves that are sunken.
Most of the work left to do is digging up and clipping off roots to try to stop growth where it is not wanted. It is very mind-numbingly boring and so far only one person has tried to help me with that, and they soon quit.
Headstone Repair
I have repaired two broken headstones.
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There are 4 headstones that are off their bases and they are too heavy to lift by hand. Their bases need to be levelled & prepared before they can be joined. Tools needed that I don't have: - Skid steer to move bases aside and level where they go, maybe bringing soil from refuse pile. - Mechanical means to live heavy headstones. - Straps for the lifting. |   |
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Stone plates not attached to their covers
There were 11 graves where the engraved stone plates were not attached to their fiberglass grave covers. They had been glued repeatedly, but kept coming off. None of the ones that were bolted to the cover have any problems, so that is what I did. All done.
Marking unmarked graves
I want to mark currently unmarked graves with something that the mowers can't destroy, and which are non-religious.
Need at least 23 for 21 unmarked graves and 2 graves that have had temporary markers for more than 2 years.
There are 125 white crosses that could be replaced with something better.
Done:
- Marked the unmarked graves with wooden stakes.
I've given up on my earlier idea to use large rounded stones because of the labour involved, and the results would not look as good as ... Concrete Headstones - Details on its own webpage
Headstone Cleaning
Never use a pressure washer on a headstone! It will damage the stone, and not just old stones. The high pressure water forces its way between layers of stone (delamination), like the outer layer and what's under it in the engravings, flaking the stone and causing cracks or pits. Even tiny, almost invisible cracks will hold water. The freezing and thawing of the water in the winter will make the cracks larger. So a tiny defect can get larger with the years. Remember, cemetery headstones are supposed to last 100 years or more.
Most of my cleaning is to remove lichen. I'm using:
- Scrapers, scrubbers and brushes made of plastic or wood. Plastic razor blades (Amazon Canada, Amazon USA). Bamboo BBQ skewers.
- Orvus Paste Soap, a safe cleaner recommended, though it doesn't kill the lichen. It is commonly used to clean old quilts and as a horse shampoo. I have one 3.4 kg jug (7.5 pounds), which is going a loooooooooong way. I won't need to ever buy it again!
- D/2 Biological Solution kills algae, lichen, moss, fungi, etc. This is the cleaner most recommended by Cemetery Conservators for United Standards because it doesn't damage headstones, but it is very expensive and hard to get. I'm now only spraying it on the headstone after I've cleaned it, to kill the any remaining lichen. It will run out soon, and I don't want to buy more because of the cost.
I have just learned of a new product that is an alternative to D/2, and it costs less ... if you live in northeastern USA. Shipping cost to Alberta is 3 times the cost of 1 gallon of the product, not including any tariffs that might be involved (d#mn you Trump). So the cost would be more than D/2. What a shame.
Filling Sunken Graves
I have done this when I had dirt to move, but haven't yet specifically addressed this. I'm not keen on using my small garden wagon to move large amount of dirt. This goes along with the next job.
Levelling Gravestones & Covers
There is a need for this, but I'm not planning this anytime soon. It will require mechanical means to lift headstones, covers, and to move dirt.