Clay Plager-Unger
Clay Plager-Unger is the former director of Planet Drum Foundation's Eco-Ecuador project.
July 30-August 3, 2007 This week we lucked out by finding some extra hands around town to pitch in with the work, since our numbers have dwindled to one volunteer. Simply keeping up with watering the planted sites proves to be a challenge. Fortunately some travelers came out to help the cause for a couple days. On Monday, Brian and I went to the greenhouse […]
July 23-27, 2007 This week we were down to one volunteer. Fortunately, Brian is a hard worker because as usual there’s a lot to get done. On Monday we went to the greenhouse, watered, dumped off compost, weeded and checked on the plants. From there we walked over to Maria Dolores and Don Pepe to do some watering. With only two people it took two […]
July 16-20, 2007 Summary: As volunteers continue to depart from Planet Drum, the rest of the family keeps the work going. We are planting seeds like crazy to build up the arsenal of trees for next year’s reforestation sites. Dry season weather persists with many overcast days and breezes that could be described as “cool.” There was another field trip this week, to a community called Los Caras, named […]
July 9-13, 2007 This is our last complete week with a full house. Many are beginning preparations to take off and soon our numbers will dwindle. Nonetheless spirits remain high and everyone is enjoying themselves and working hard. Despite the occasional nighttime drizzle and lots of overcast days, we continue watering. We are also planting seeds like crazy in the greenhouse to have more trees […]
June 25-29, 2007 Announcement: Our volunteer numbers are still strong, there are currently eleven, but for many, their stay here is coming to a close in the near future. And soon we will be understaffed, so if you’re thinking about volunteering, now’s a great time to get in touch. planetdrumecuador@yahoo.com This week we took care of a lot of site upkeep by installing a few more bamboo […]
June 18-22, 2007 Things can change so quickly here! I went back to the US for a short family visit and left one of the volunteers, Lise, in charge of taking care of the Drum family. Many thanks for her help and wonderful reports. I returned to a brand new house of volunteers and a new season as well. Farewell wishes to Lise, Andy, Jim and […]
May 28-June 1, 2007 It rained consistently from last Wednesday through Saturday night. Although very late this year, they have been real rainy season rains, every night, almost all night long. Some people are talking about delayed rains since they were never that strong during the actual rainy season. The climate has definitely changed from winter (typically wet season, hotter and sunnier) to summer (typically […]
May 21-May 25, 2007 We started the week with a greenhouse trip to drop off some fresh compost material from our house, water and clean weeds. While there we planted some more Guachepeli and Cascol seeds. We then filled up water jugs to take over to the Don Pepe and Maria Dolores revegetation sites. A slight dry spell forced us to resume watering a bit. […]
May 14-May 18, 2007 There are Ceibos and Guarango trees in our greenhouse that we seeded in November that are already two meters tall. Some of them are poking through the lower sections of the roof of the greenhouse. Although it is very late in the year to be planting, we are finding homes for them. We will plant a fresh batch of these species […]
May 7-May 11, 2007 It’s been an interesting week full of greenhouse visits and international outreach. On Monday we worked on the bioregional education materials. A nearly thirty page booklet, in Spanish, on the concept of bioregionalism, with a focus on the Bahia bioregion, is taking shape, complete with field trips and outdoor exercises for kids. We dumped off our house compost at the greenhouse, collected some 3-liter […]