A lot has happened this week!
Our garden was officially introduced to the school and community with a ribbon cutting ceremony. It was a quick presentation during first period outside with all the kids. Emily from the study introduced the garden and our goals for this year. The Superintendent and Principal both spoke for a bit about the important and local traditions of gardening and putting up food and working outside. We had the kids throw some wildflower seeds onto our double dug beds in the south demonstration garden--I can only imagine what it will be like if any of them actually make it. We're still digging in that area, and I don't really want to deal with weeding wild flowers. They'll make a nice addition and we can harvest flowers along with the carrots.
After the ribbon cutting, we had a booster training session with all the teachers about the first couple of lessons. We have only one more week to get everything in order before we start lessons with the kids. Each day, Monday through Thursday, we have about 5 classes come out. Monday and Tuesday is the same group and Wednesday and Thursday is the same group. I wish we could have gone back and forth and taught every kid one lesson, then started over to teach the next one, but apparently the teachers wanted their garden days to be together, not staggered. We're here to help them and get them excited about all this, so that's how it goes.
We've still got to build a 3-bin composting system, build a worm bin (vermicomposting), rig up some gutters for the rain water harvesting, get the plumbing figured out for the rain barrels (we already have the stand for one of two built), finish the double dug beds, lay down landscaping fabric, mulch the pathways, and hopefully have enough basil to harvest for pesto! Wow....
I completed two separate online training sessions in human subjects and research ethics. One was about an hour; the other one was about eight. Most of it was review from my own human subjects IRB days doing my Comps research in college. It felt like I was doing driver's ed. again. Read a long passage. Take a short quiz. Repeat. For eight hours.
I went to Little Rock on Friday for our monthly staff meeting. It was the first time I had been with all of the DGS staff at once. On the one hand, any meeting with a full front and back page agenda stresses me out. On the other hand, it's only once a month? Honestly it wasn't that bad, but I have a special place in my heart for meetings that aren't run as efficiently as I would like. The meeting was scheduled for two hours, and I spent three hours all told at ACH (Arkansas Children's Hospital). Part of that time wasn't for the meeting, but it was more than I thought. I did get a treat of Indian food and Kombucha for my good behavior. Katherine already knows that I'm highly motivated by treats and snacks.
On a personal note, I finally got a working phone! You can text me, call me, email me, any form of contact, and I can probably receive it on my new-fangled phone. I'm still learning all the fancy gadgets, but I've come to the dark side of smart phones. I also sent out my first round of letters/packages. If you have a desire to sample the fine barbecue sauces of Arkansas, or try and read a handwritten account of what's going on here, get me your mailing info, and wait eagerly by your mailbox every afternoon. It's what all the cool kids are doing.
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