Week Two

Garden

Basil Plants

Tomato Plants

More Pavilion Shots

I stacked all of that. 

This week flew by in comparison to the first week. I am very excited that we managed to get zucchini, squash, and a couple varieties of sweet and hot peppers in the ground this past week. 

The plants are all looking a bit shabby now and really need to get into the ground as soon as possible. It is difficult finding the time in the day to work on the garden and continue to deconstruct the pavilion. This past week I have become very accustom to having a hammer in my hand and pounding out nails for hours. 

Rennie is much better with a crow bar than I am so we have a bit of a system down thus far. There is still much to be done with the deconstruction because there are concrete blocks holding up the remaining lumber and underneath that there is a good amount of gravel and trash that will need to be cleaned up to plant more vegetables soon. I hope I can see all of this happen over my time in Greensboro. 

This experience has truly allowed me to see how fortunate I am to work in the University setting. The University may not always have the environment on its mind but there are enough people and money floating around that I can usually get what is needed and get it quickly... Things aren't like that in Greensboro. Time moves ever so slowly and the things that I take for granted (i.e. planters and hay) are donated or salvaged. This has been a great lesson for me to learn and I am proud that I am having to opportunity to learn it.

Rennie, Ryan, and I went to model for some pictures in a HERO/Rural Studio home that is in Sawyerville on Friday. I have never felt so much compassion and force to stay active in a community before. There were houses we past that I were one room and had a patchwork on screen to allow air in and out of the room. I was mortified that people were living in this condition. I guess I always think of shantytowns in far away places not one hour south of my house. Rennie told me that is what she thinks of when she thinks of Alabama. It's crazy to me that people from across the United States think of Alabama that way. I grew up in this suburb of Birmingham and honestly had no idea what the "real" world is actually like. The thing I kept thinking about was what the education of these kids I saw must be like. I would like to look into that more and perhaps do some volunteer environmental work with the local schools through SGA. 

Anyways...

JJ, the UA PhD student, Lydia, and I are going to work out some sort of schedule next week (Monday-Wednesday) to go test water quality in various places (I am assuming). I am excited to get to help her and learn more about what she is doing down in the Black Belt. 

The Pie Lab opened this week. The guys have sold a good bit of pie... it seems that there are people going in and out constantly. I am glad for them, what they are doing is really cool. There website is www.pielab.org.

I will post when I can again. 

Best,

Justinn