Thursday, a day late because of Technical Difficulties

Today is the last day that the students from the Career Center to come out to help. They come out once a week for an hour to volunteer. I know that doesn't sound like a lot of time but you get a group of people working for an hour and an awful lot can get done. I am really going to miss them. They have been a huge help. Plus they are a bunch of really cool kids. Thank You!

This is first period, my muscle men. They did a great job with the heavy work, digging holes, clearing weeds, that kind of stuff.

Not everyone from second period made it today but they did a really good job at the more detailed work, like getting the beds ready for winter and spring and helping with transplants.

And here we have third period. They can do anything that needs to be done. As the last group in every week they often have to do the "clean-up" so that we can finish whatever project we've started.

I want to say a special thank you to Horticulture Instructor Carol Ann Popp. She has done a tremendous job in getting the kids to the Gardens every week and keeping them focused and motivated. She has also been a huge help to me not only because of her vast knowledge of gardening and horticulture but also of organic and sustainable practices, two things that I am trying to incorporate into the way we maintain the Gardens. Thank you Carol Ann for all your help.

And speaking of thank yous, these folks deserve a huge Thanks. The guy in the light blue shirt? That is our new Executive Director, David Brown. I've been wanting to post a picture of him on the blog but I didn't want it to look like a posed studio shot. So here he is in the wild. He was talking with a group of folks from High Noon Solar. Why is that exciting? Because we are getting solar panels. YAY! It is kind of a long story but the condensed version is that a class at West Junior High (my alma mater) figured out this amazing solar design and won a contest sponsored by High Noon Solar for a solar set-up. Unfortunately, they were unable to utilize the system. High Noon came up with a list of Grand Junction non-profits that they could donate the system to and it was decided that the Gardens should get the system. The installation will begin in a couple of weeks and there are some neat things planned for the West Junior High Students as well. I'll keep you posted as things develop.

Who are these two handsome men? On the right is John from GJ Pipe (I love GJ Pipe) and Sean with Painted Desert Landscaping. They are helping not only with the installation of the new Celebration Plaza but also with my general irrigation irritations. Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou.

Oh and here isn't a picture of Beverly weeding. She comes on Thursday to weed the gardens. Thanks to Beverly for keeping the weeds from completely taking over our beds!

There is one more thing for today that I am super excited about. The Community Gardening Group met. I was a little discouraged because only two people besides me showed up, then one had to leave. However, what transpired has truly gotten me excited about our little Community Garden. I'm not going to say anything more than that until I get our plan down on paper, but it is going to be really cool.