Posts

May 15-21st The long awaited compost finally arrived at the greenhouse this week from the city’s composting plant. To accommodate all 900 kilograms that was delivered we dug another trench alongside the greenhouse (appoximately 50 feet long). While Hugo, the compost supervisor, was at the greenhouse he commented on the quality and richness of our […]

May 8-14, 2006 The greenhouse lay silent for most of the week as little has been germinating, but more so due to an infestation of 9 wasp nests. With Mark holding a shovel, Brooke with the can of Raid and me with the hose, we set out to destroy our beloved greenhouse occupiers. We turned […]

May 1–7, 2006 If I take but one thing from Ecuador it won’t be weavings from the village of Otavalo or turtles from the Galapagos Islands… it will be a new found respect for the farmer’s almanac! The locals had said there will be one week of rain in early May and here it is! We’ve […]

April 24-30, 2006 It rained on Wednesday for the first time in a month! Although it only lasted for two hours it was beautiful to feel the drops on our heads and see water in our tanks. The water outage continues in the city, at the same time street protests were held last week. City […]

April 17-23, 2006 Great week down here, 30 degrees and sunny! We spent a few days making some new maps for our sites and gathered up wood for the Planet Drum signs that we will be putting up at each of our planting sites. Work has begun on the handrails and stairs up at Bosque […]

 April 10-16, 2006 All is well here in Bahia de Caraquez, and we have working hard to get the greenhouse in order while we have a little spare time. Just as you are all thinking about tulips, daffodils and lilies up North, we have next year’s forest sprouting in the greenhouse! It’s been a battle […]

April 3-9, 2006 In my first official week as Field Projects Manager I can honestly say we had a little of everything on my first day… drought, lack of running water and a temporary invasion of both bats and cats. The most important thing accomplished was that after four days without water we found a delivery […]

April 4, 2006 Greetings from the land almost down under.  In these parts, the heat is having some interesting effects on our operation. This week we have been unable to plant trees as the ground is hard as a rock. As such we have been keeping busy in the greenhouse, maintaining sites that are becoming […]

March 20-26, 2006 It’s been hectic down here this week in Bahia. Even as we were driving Dan and Valentina to the bus station on Monday night, Mark and Heather arrived to volunteer until May. This weekend we also welcomed Sarah and Catherine into the Planet Drum family. We’re pretty full right now, but are […]

March 6-12, 2006 Greetings from Ecuador, I hope my first attempt at these weekly reports lives up to those that Heather has set the bar with. Planet Drum visited El Bosque Encantado not once, but twice this week. We carried out a lot of trail cutting and planting in several heavily eroded gullies. About fifty […]