Party Time

Garden Party-Celebrating Accomplishment

A lot has happened since I last blogged.  Actually, that's usually the case. I underestimated the amount of soil that we would need to fill the garden beds as well as the ease with which we could get that dirt.  I found myself looking at having to purchase the dirt and pay for delivery, but God led me to Concrete and Asphalt Recycling on Lathrop Street.  These folks were kind enough to give us the dirt for the cost of transport.  Two tri-axled dump trucks!  Over 40 tons of dirt.

 The next difficulty came when considering how to move this dirt from the piles into the beds.  We had a couple wheelbarrows and some willing folks-no problem.  Patrick, Rosemary, Jerry, the Stuckwich family and I worked on this for a few days.

There was a lot of dirt there.  

In spite of the help, this was just too big a process.  I checked around and had no friends with a bobcat.  Renting a bobcat was out of the question due to the cost.  

Again, God intervened.  When Melissa and I were out passing out flyers I noticed several trucks, including one with a bobcat on it.  There was a neighbor building a garage and Temple Concrete was doing the work.  Working on this project I have been amazed at how generous people have been.  I took the opportunity to chat with Tim and tell him what we were doing just a couple blocks away.  He was willing to bring his excavator by and, for a small price, make short work of the dirt piles.  What an incredible time and effort saver this was.  We would probably still be shoveling.

The dirt piles were gone, the soil was distributed and the garden was just about ready to be planted.  It was time for a celebration!  Thanks to Kelly and Sidney, who were major organizers of the gala, we provided dogs, chips and drinks for approximately 50 people.  Patrick was a great chef and Hands Across the Keys gave us some background music.  The party was a success on a day that was cold and rainy, surpassing my expectations.  What a great feeling to see this project moving forward.

The ultimate goal of the garden is to build community and a neighborhood association.  Associations usually happen when there are problems and issues, but the neighborhood around Memorial Presbyterian is a good one.  I think the rallying cry for the association is one of assisting our neighbors.  We want people to come into the area and it's my hope that the neighbors can teach new folks how to be a good neighbor.  We support each other and the association gives us another forum to do that.

[This is the second time I have written the blog as I deleted the first effort right before posting.  Please forgive terse sentences as they reflect my frustration.]

Another Busy Week

I finally got over to Richard and Lisa's to check out their new place.  I helped them move last week and had seen this place, but this was the first chance I had to really check it out.  This week the weather was great and they were all outside enjoying the spring.  As I expected, they are the neighborhood hang out.

The New Crib

These were some of my best hook-ups by the church and they moved.  The new place is really nice and I got the grand tour.  Darryl has like a bachelor pad upstairs.  Pete said the only thing he needs now is a woman.  These are really good people and care about their neighborhood.  A good resource.

The awesome garden crew

We got the garden beds done.  The crew showed up and did the work-impressive.  It was a good afternoon to do all this.   Fortunately, Valerie brought her guy, Max.  The good thing was that Max had a grinder to cut the rebar.  I had a jig saw, but it just didn't have enough guts to cut the rebar.  We had to hand saw some of the timbers and Patrick was amazing!  Patrick sawed through those timbers like they were butter.  Anyway, we got the beds done.  We're a little short on rebar, but I picked it up this week and there's some dirt piles that I think we can use to fill a small bed.

I had a meeting with Josiah this week and he told me about how he had a handle on a dump truck.  Thank God.  I checked out dirt prices and I didn't know how we were going to fill the beds.  Now we have a truck and can get the free compost from the city.  God is so good!

I am really loving doing this community ministry and the challenge is figuring out how I can keep doing it.  I might be able to get something out of the presbytery and I have been talking with a guy who would like me to do a program thing.  I pray God works this so I can keep doing what I'm doing for the next several years.

Community Garden Party

 The garden gang

 Saturday was the organizational meeting of the community garden initiative.  Pat wasn't optimistic, but he was proven wrong.  We had a good turnout and there is hope to add even more to this venture.

This is the group!  I was really excited by our meeting on Saturday.  We have a good group of highly invested people from the neighborhood.  Even more than that, these folks want to meet again next month because they know of several more people who would like to be involved in the garden effort.  Many of those present have experience with gardening and LaRena, the woman behind the big book, is a master gardener.  This is gonna be great.

We surveyed the site and talked about next steps, of which there are many.  We hope to get some roto-tilling done before the freeze and even talked about building some beds so we're ready for summer.  Valerie stepped up to be the secretary and Sydney is willing to be one of the storytellers.  Gene had said that he would be another story teller, but he couldn't be at this meeting.

We discussed the future plans for this group and talked about creating a neighborhood association.  I thought there would be a lot of resistance to that idea, but people were on-board.  I believe God has blessed this group and our purpose.  There's a lot to do and we pray for ongoing good weather in which we can complete those activities.