What a Week...

My gosh I'm glad it's Sunday - it was quite a week. A few of the highlights:

1.  I finished expanding the garden bed out back and we spread a truckload of mulch
2.  Sleet, thunder, lightening, and snow all happened simultaneously
3.  Our plumbing backed up and flooded the laundry room
4.  School was closed for two snow days
5.  I got the car stuck in our neighborhood and we had to push it back to the house and into the garage
6.  We went to see Keller Williams play at George's
7.  I read two whole books
8.  Great turnout and a fun time at the Fayetteville Seed Exchange
9.  The crocus (croci?) are blooming

A few photos of the backyard (before the last week's snow), because it's way more exciting than a flooded laundry room:

 Before and after mulch - I was expanding this area to plant a cherry tree until I learned we basically have a utility super highway running through the back yard with gas, cable, phone, and electric lines all where I wanted to plant. The pink paint was my proposed line - everything else is marking underground utilities - yikes!   I'm going to have to find a new spot for a tree, but at least now this area is prepped and mulched and I'll probably plant tomatoes there later this year.

 Planted these sugar snap peas two weeks ago knowing it was a little early.  Despite being under snow most of last week, I'm hopeful they'll sprout this week.

Charlie makes sure I take plenty of breaks when working in the yard :)

I'm Back!

Holy moly it's been a long time since I've written a blog post - almost 3 years!  I just finished reading Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson.  Although it was probably the worst book I couldn't stop reading, it did inspire me to start blogging again.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend reading it - unless you're into random ramblings with lots of curse words - or perhaps, like me, you want to be inspired to blog again.  Because, really, if that lady can publish a whole book based on her blog I can surely write posts more than once very three years.

It's going to take a little time to get back into this.  For crying out loud it just took me half an hour to remember my password and get logged back into this dang site!

After reading through my old posts, though, I think it will be good to start writing again.  Initially I started this blog to document and share my experiences on the farm I was interning at the time and then it evolved into just documenting and sharing experiences period.  My posts were not always well written (I can pretty much promise they won't be now either) and often highlight fairly insignificant happenings (like this one which pretty much just rambled on about how dirty I was most of the time -funny but quite random), but despite all this, I really enjoyed looking back at the photos and reading the posts.  I'm not sure I would remember everything that I wrote about at the time so I'm glad I have a record of it - like my "bucket list" from 2011 that I otherwise would have (mostly) forgotten about.

So here we are again - while this first post is basically about nothing, it serves as my recommitment to documenting the milestones and otherwise forgotten moments as a I wander through life (and, if my other posts are any indication, a record of what's growing in my garden at the time).

I'll post again soon with a real life update, but for now, thanks for re-joining the adventure!

Growing

We had a slow start to the growing season with torrential rains and cool temps this spring followed by a few sweltering dry weeks to welcome summer, but things are finally starting to perk up and grow!

I'm already getting some sungold cherry tomatoes, a few squash (zucchini and zephyrs), peppers, and plenty of herbs. I've also dug the potatoes and have all the onions and garlic drying in the garage. Had a decent first year blueberry harvest (even though you're supposed to pinch off the first year's flowers - oops!)

Here are a few pics from the past few weeks of growing at the house.....

drying onions

sungold tomatoes, oregano, and rain barrel

squash in the front yard a few weeks ago

squash again (also notice the nectarine tree that replaced the dead apple tree)

summer squash in the front on the 4th of july :)

zephyrs are becoming my favorite summer squash

volunteer pumpkin plant in the back and the largest marigold I've ever seen - the pumpkin might have to go if it starts taking over my blueberries......

Happiness.....

......is a garden growing.

Joplin, MO

As many of you know, Joplin, Missouri, was hit by an F-5 tornado on Sunday, May 22, 2011. The three-quarter mile wide tornado stayed on the ground wreaking havoc for nearly seven miles.

This kind of damage was unfathomable to me until just a few days ago when I was called as an AmeriCorps member to help with tornado recovery. Even several days after assisting I am still processing my experience. This post is mostly just an overview of what we did, but I've tried to capture a little more as well. There are so many things about the whole experience that just can't be put into words.

Our team of 11 Energy Corps members from Fayetteville drove the 80 miles up to Joplin on Wednesday morning not knowing what to expect but ready to help however needed.

Due to some organizational challenges associated with coordinating hundreds of volunteers, we initially experienced some down time when we arrived (a frustration that was really difficult to accept, but definitely a personal learning experience). By the afternoon we began assisting in the Red Cross shelter moving cots and personal items for people staying in the shelter. I heard some heart wrenching stories on Wednesday that I can't begin to do justice to by retelling here. There were some amazing people who had just had their lives literally torn to pieces just two days ago, but yet they were thanking us for moving their cots. It really put things into perspective.

During a break in the afternoon we drove down to the area worst hit by the tornado. Every picture I'd seen on the news and online of the devastation was completely accurate - except the damage just kept going. There is absolutely no way to capture or describe what 7 miles of tornado destroyed land looks like. Below are a few photos of the damage, but it's just a small sampling of the damage.

After coming back to Fayetteville late Wednesday night and being extremely thankful for our own families, homes, and beds, a smaller group of us returned to Joplin early Thursday morning. Because we had already made connections with the AmeriCorps leaders we were put into service much more efficiently and went out in the "field" to lend a hand with cleanup.

We spent the day Thursday clearing tree branches and debris from houses "on the edge" of the tornado path. These were homes that people were still living in or returning to shortly (they had just turned the water back on in many of these neighborhoods Thursday morning, but generators were the only source of power). Initially it felt like we should be doing something more but the worst areas were so damaged they are beyond repair at this point so helping the people who still have homes is vitally important.

I worked closely with another AmeriCorps volunteer from Colorado to manage a group of approximately 40 volunteers moving from house to house with chainsaws cutting and moving trees. There were some amazing stories and people who from all over who were helping. It was simultaneously heart wrenching and inspiring to work beside some young people whose rental house was completely destroyed by the tornado while they huddled in an interior room. As they showed me pictures on their cell phones of where there house used to stand I was speechless - unable to relate to their experience and humbled by their willingness to help other people.

I didn't take any pictures on Thursday, but just imagine the worst ice storm damage to hundred year old trees you've ever seen and then apply that to thousands of homes. It's an image I will not soon forget.

I'm definitely still processing the experience of helping in Joplin. The amount of damage is still hard to comprehend - even after seeing it firsthand. The recovery is going to take years, but I am comforted by the courage and strength I saw in the survivors and the outpouring of assistance from people all over.

These are pictures I took on my phone from the car on Wednesday. You can see more pictures from our trip taken by a fellow EnergyCorps member on the Arkansas EnergyCorps page here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.230242866990179.79286.178196745528125

(notice the American flag hanging on the house)

Houses were spray painted with an "X" and often numbers after they'd been searched by the search and rescue crews.

This was the Home Depot

**I promise an update post soon of all that is growing and greening around here - this just felt more important to share right now.

Rain

In the words of Forrest Gump: "we been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain....and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night......"

As a matter of fact it's still raining tonight. I started to lose count after we had 12 inches in less than 72 hours, but suffice it to say, we've had A LOT of rain. With all of that rain, we've also had flash flooding.......and regular flooding. And our roof even leaked (we haven't fixed it yet because it won't stop raining long enough).

My lettuce was under water for a few days. I planted tomatoes in the mud Saturday morning.

Alas, we did have a little break in the rain last Thursday and again Saturday. So what did we do????

Hosted rain barrel making workshops!

Actually, they were scheduled long before the never ending rain, but the timing could not have been more ironic.

Thanks to a partnership with the Washington County Cooperative Extension, Cargill (the Tyson equivalent for processing turkeys headquartered here in NWA), and the school district (me), we were able to host two "make and take" workshops where people could come and learn to make a rain barrel for just $15. The co-op folks are incredibly awesome and really did most of the work, I just helped secure some funding, organized the location, hauled some barrels, and then showed up and took photographs. It was awesome.

The workshops were set up so people did most of the work on their own barrels creating a genuine sense of accomplishment when completed. Oh, and they learned while doing! Where I come from they call that experiential education :) If only we could get more of it in the schools......

Anyway, the workshops were great - 40 people in Fayetteville now have bright blue rain barrels to catch some of this rain. Two participants have already happily let me know their rain barrels are hooked up and flowing over.

Here are some photos of the happy barrel makers in action........

Thursday evening crew

Katy from the co-op extension hard at work

I've never seen such a large socket wrench, just holding it made me feel powerful

Some people had the benefit of long arms to install their hardware.....

Others did not have such long arms.

This is the principal of the school, Ms. Champion, with her husband hard at work on their new rain barrel

Stapling on the screen.

Beth especially enjoyed stapling the screen

Dan and Laura got creative with their barrel :)

Happy rain barrel owners!

Spring Has Sprung!

The snow has melted and the sun is shining - it's finally spring in Fayetteville and time for gardening!

It's also time for some exciting projects including a garden at Owl Creek school. The project is a partnership between the school, Boys and Girls Club, and Apple Seeds, Inc. - a local nonprofit. We'll be starting an after school club for 4th - 7th grade students the week after spring break and working with teachers to determine how to incorporate the garden into class work.

I'm so excited to be part of the project and getting my hands dirty again! There are lots of really cool components and tons of potential, but I'll share that as it progresses :)

Most recently, one of the teachers at the school had the genius idea of getting each fourth, fifth and sixth grade student into the garden to prepare the beds before planting. Only one fourth grade class came, but ALL of the fifth and sixth graders made it out thanks to two amazing teachers. Each class spent approximately 30 mins in the garden and helped mix compost and topsoil, filled the beds, turned over sod, and mulched between the beds. I helped with some of the classes in the morning on Wednesday and Friday to get the teachers going and make sure everything ran smoothly. The students were awesome! Here are a few pictures of the classes that worked so hard.......

Fifth graders with Ms. Richardson

Sixth graders with Mr. Smith

Fourth graders with Ms. Price

Another sixth grade class with Mr. Smith

Fifth graders hard at work

Eight raised beds and a greenhouse foundation

Beautifully filled beds and newly mulched pathway

These students were all amazing - they worked hard, asked lots of questions, and were so enthusiastic about the garden. Many of them also wanted to know when they could come again! This was a huge success for the first garden event of the season - oh, and did I mention we even got a picture in the local newspaper?!