January 16-22, 2006 This week we watered, put up some plant shading, and did a second planting at Maria Piedad’s. We’ve had a bit of rain but it hasn’t been heavy like it was when I arrived last rainy season. We also began planting at Ricardito’s site at the back of Fanca, hereafter referred to as “Bosque Encantado”. We found a patch of hill that […]

January 9-15, 2006 The holidays in Bahia are now over, till carnival. We finally took down our Nativity scene and the X-mas decorations (all products of Art Night). I also assisted the ceremony for removing the Baby Jesus from our neighbourhood’s nativity scene.  We had a good-bye bonfire for Steffi on the beach. Claudia from Germany arrives on Friday. We collected seeds with Marcelo Luque […]

January 2-8, 2006 Congratulations on finding a new projects manager!  The timing sounds good. Now I know I’ve got to get cracking on my future plans!  We haven’t had any more rain since those two days over a week ago. Nonetheless, we started with a small planting at Inter-Americano School where principal Dr. Sanchez suggested. I have heard that real rain isn’t expected till the […]

November 7 to 13, 2005 This week we did quite a bit of work in the greenhouse, as we sowed seeds (Algarrobo, Bototo, Barbasco and Pela Caballo), did maintenance to the greenhouse structure and outdoor seed beds, finished transplanting the Cascol saplings, moved over a compost pile for storage, and fixed up the other side of the compost hole to start using next time. Instead […]

Heather Crawford, Field Project Manager Planet Drum Foundation  Report August 1-7, 2005 Well, this week the house went from being full to empty as we had the three Canadians leave on one day. Now it’s just Jackie and me until David gets here next week, which is Jackie’s last. She has been sick with a stomach virus type thing and wasn’t able to work for a […]

October 31 to November 7, 2005   Everything is fine in the greenhouse, and the sites— all the regular ones got watered, including Inter-Americano, which still looks good. When I went to water El Bosque, an Ecuadorian friend and four kids from Maria Auxiliadora came to help. The fiestas in Bahia consisted of parades, street concerts and parties in the clubs at night. There was also […]

October 24-30, 2005 I have circulated the strategic plan you left, which some of the volunteers were interested in seeing. It is good for them to have a better understanding of what Planet Drum is all about. This was a greenhouse intense week, as we did a lot of maintenance to prevent further dog break-ins, such as putting up more stakes, lining the walls with […]

October 17 to 23, 2005 For the first time since the dry season started we had a reasonable rain in Bahia on Wednesday! The dogs have found new ways to break into the greenhouse so we have reinforced the walls again. What we thought were Zapote de Perro seeds coming up were actually weeds, but now the real seeds have started to come up, although […]

October 10-16, 2005 The greenhouse inventory below was taken on October 10th (bags and bottles only; not seedbeds). The numbers may not be exact, but they give us an idea nonetheless. Algarrobo                     9 Aguia                           3 Cascol                        10 Colorado                     83 Cedro                        223 Ceibo                        117 Ebano                          11 Guachapeli                 102 Jaboncillo                      5 Guayacan                    221 Samango                     103 Seca                              1 TOTAL                        888 We did some minor repairs to the greenhouse […]

October 3-9, 2005 I’m a bit sick—got some dirt in my eye in the greenhouse which caused an infection which I am treating now. I finally bought Blas’ surfboard (he wanted a new one) and so am practising more regularly. I also got attacked by a bees nest at Cherry Tree. It was one I had seen before but forgot was there, low to the ground […]