Winter gardening

It is getting cold and winter is arriving.  Already the days are getting shorter and shorter, but there's work to be done.  The community garden is moving along.

 Thanks to Patrick the utilities were notified.  I couldn't read this scrawl at first, but Lou pointed out that it's OK to dig.  We were hoping to do some tilling, but there doesn't seem to be an available tiller except for what can be rented.  Renting is a cost I hoped to avoid so we might be turning the soil by hand.

I was outside two hours today working on staking out the garden.  It's hard to make out, but there are string lines marking the beds.  It wasn't until I had half of it done that it occurred to me that I should measure the lawnmower.  It turns out that our mower is 27" and I spaced the beds 24".  I figure we can make allowances when we make the actual beds.  I also found that we're going to have to cope with some shaded areas unless the church allows us to cut some limbs.



I spent much of last week completing the INSPIRE Grant.  This isn't a huge grant, but they have several requirements that need to be met to satisfy the grant.  I thought that it wouldn't be all that tough to complete the grant, but I was wrong.  Diana Hess of the Neighborhood Resource Corporation who reads the grant, was really helpful making suggestions and offering some direction.  If the grant isn't approved I think I have a could other sources to which I can turn, but I wanted to get the grant resources so I could begin some work on the garden.

I had submitted a program to the South Bend Housing Authority, but it has yet to be approved.  I think that things are good to go and then I'm hit with another hoop to jump through.  This seems sort of disorganized, but it is a governmental agency and I don't figure that many people offer their time and talents to assist that program.  We'll see what happens.

I'm putting together a neighborhood association in the far Northwest come spring.  Ryan Yazel in Keller Park wants to work with me to put together an association there and we hope to start work on that this winter.  I've been talking to members of TAP (Transforming Action through Power) and hope to take a larger role in that organization.

While I thought that I would have a lot of down time in the cold weather, so far that hasn't been the case.  There are enough little odds and ends to keep my pretty busy.  Keep me in prayer as I brave the cold and please pray for Westminster and Memorial churches as they deal with some issues touching their ministry.