Down In A Hole

Gillian Welch has this song on one of her albums and the refrain goes "I'm down in a hole, I'm down in a hole, I'm down in a deep dark hole." Oddly enough this refrain has been going around in my head for the last couple of days. Could it have anything to do with the manhole and the pump issues? Yes, it does. As I mentioned a couple days ago (or was it just yesterday?), the pump is A-OK. But then there is the gate issue right? Well, Sean from Painted Desert Landscaping and John from GJ Pipe will be here today to settle that issue. I like that I'm spending so much time down by the river. It is so full and beautiful.

Coordination

Bill, Denice and I spent all week interviewing folks to be our Volunteer Coordinator. We liked them all. There are so many good candidates. And the candidates were really fun people too. How are we ever going to choose? I know. I know. It is a good problem to have. We are going to do a second round of interviews this week. Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion to "Will the Volunteers Coordinate?"

Please Release Me

The butterfly release on Saturday was great. We had a lot of adults this time. There weren't as many kids as last time but that was good too. The folks there asked a lot of questions. The butterflies were a little sluggish. But once they got going they were a lot of fun. We'll be doing three more butterfly releases so come on down and check it out.

Speaking of butterflies, with the the help of Terry and his crew, Flutter By, the huge butterfly sculpture that was at the corner of 7th and Main, paraded its way down 7th to the Gardens. The installation was amazing. It took those guys maybe 15 minutes to put it in place and they didn't even squish any of the iris. Shirley's got some pictures. I'll see if I can get a couple so you all can see. It was cool. The antennae aren't in place yet. Terry needed to do some work on them. It looks dramatic anyway. You don't even need to come to the Gardens to see it. Just go over the 5th Street bridge or the Riverside Parkway. Thanks goes to GJ Pipe for donating the concrete for the base. We couldn't have done it without them.

Water Gate

So, I heard from Dan over at Munro and it seems that corroded piece of junk we pulled out of the manhole is actually a functioning pump. Those guys are amazing. It seems they have a pressure washer that'll take paint off of metal so getting the rust off a pump is not a big deal. Now all I have to do is find someone who can put in a gate in the manhole to keep the water from coming in.

Standing O

Bloomin' Deals was amazing! Sandra and the rest of the ROOTS gals did a tremendous job organizing, getting vendors and getting the work out. I don't know what kind of money came in but it was satisfying just to see the amount of people in the Gardens. So all of you reading this should stand up and give a big round of applause for ROOTS, they definitely deserve a standing ovation.

Dirty Jobs

Yesterday was a real Mike Rowe day. Thomas and his crew from ACS drove their big vacum truck down to the manhole to suck out all the river sludge. I thought it was funny that of all the companies that I called to do the work ACS were the only ones who didn't have any problem going down into the manhole. See there was an issue. Whoever put in our manhole didn't put in a gate so you'd have to put this thing called a pig into the pipe somehow. Your choices are swimming into the river (brrrr!), digging up a section of pipe or going down in the manhole. If your job is sewer and irrigation you just know by the end of the day you are going to end up wet or stinky or most likely both. If you don't want to get wet and/or stinky working on my pump I don't want to work with you.

Anyway... It was supercool seeing the water level go down and our pump emerge out of the muck like the creature from the black lagoon. And it was the creature from the black lagoon, just ask Dan over at Munro's. Or Jason from EC Electric. He wasn't afraid to go down in the manhole either. I couldn't resist a trip down there myself. The city donated some vaults (that is what you call the thing that covers the manhole) to Tope Elementary for the playground where I went to grade school. So I had a little blast to the past. Plus, I wanted to see first hand where the pipe went in and how the pump was set up and all that jazz before it got pulled.

For those of you wondering how the poor mister motor is doing, it is just fine. After emergency surgery where the starter switch, bearings and the capacitor were replaced it is now resting comfortably and is expected to return to work sometime today.

That's it for now. Gotta go. The big butterfly is coming today. We are continuing interviews for the Volunteer Coordinator and Bloomin' Deals is tomorrow.

Big Changes

Hi All (If any of you are still out there),

I lost my internet connection for a while there. But I'm back. It was a bad month to not post because there has been soooooo much happening down here at the Gardens. The new garden got put in with the Career Center kids and our grubby knuckled volunteers planting over a thousand plants ranging from trees to grasses. The irrigation system in the new garden gave me fits for about a week but I'm pretty sure I can now take apart a Hunter PGH head and put it back together with my eyes closed.

Kenton and the volunteers dedicated to the Harmony Garden have been really dedicated. They pulled up the landscape fabric, amended the soil with llama and horse manure, transplanted trees, and started planting. It looks great. I know it isn't done but it is just amazing nonetheless.

Yours truly has been juggling triple duty being Interim Director and Volunteer Coordinator in addition to the job I'm supposed to be doing, Operations Manager.

Some chucklehead has been stealing the solenoids off of the scrubber valves in the amphitheater. Not cool. So it looks kinda dead down there. If I catch the jerk I've got about 10 acres of weeds that can be pulled.

The mister motor finally gave up the ghost. The starter switch was either sticking open and ruined the bearings or the bearings died and the started switch got stressed either way, that is what caused the capacitor to smoke. It was very exciting. What is even more exciting is that I finally have the answer to the nearly 3 year old question "Why is the thermal override tripping so much?"

The main pump in the manhole down by the river hasn't been maintained in at least 3 years so it was filled with sludge. Hopefully it will get suctioned out today. I'm all excited because I got to buy a manhole lifer upper. Granted I'm not strong enough to lift the manhole cover but I'm happy to have the lifter upper anyway.

The new 5hp pump and netafim system are working great. As soon as I get the main pump going we'll be back in business.

We are doing live butterfly releases for the month of May. Every Saturday at 1pm we'll be releasing 75 butterflies. The first one was last week and it was really cool. I'm hoping we can continue them after May.

There is all kinds of other great things happening, like cool sculptures being donated and stuff like that but I'll save that for tomorrow.

Remember that Bloomin' Deals is this Saturday starting at 9am. Be there! From what I've seen so far there are going to be a lot of great plants!