Planet Drum meets up with Bioregionalistas for an interactive class in the greenhouse.

October 1-5, 2007

This week marked a turning point in volunteer presence. For the past two months we’ve been getting by with one, two or at most three steady volunteers, but that’s all changing as of now. For some reason August and September have been the slowest so far. But this week, four new volunteers showed up, and we’re scheduled to be more or less full (the house holds six volunteers) for the foreseeable future.

Over the weekend, the first of the new batch of volunteers, Cori, arrived. On Monday I had to take a trip to Manta to renew my visa. While away, the remaining crew headed to the greenhouse, where they finished transplanting a seed bed of baby Ceibo trees. They also did more work on the Algarobo trees, refilling the three-liter bottles with fresh soil.

Tuesday we hitched a ride with Ricardito to his farm. On the way, more Pechiche saplings were transplanted from a construction lot in El Astillero. The Bosque Encantado revegetation site was watered while at Ricardito’s farm and Samango seeds were collected from a large tree. The seeds pods were ready, brown with rattling seeds inside, and they were pulled directly from the lowest branches of the tree to minimize insect damage. From there we moved on to the greenhouse with the transplanted Pechiche’s to plant them into three-liter bottles.

On Wednesday the Maria Dolores and Don Pepe sites were watered. In the afternoon, Darline, from Belgium, arrived. Darline will be spending the next three or four months with us. That evening it drizzled a bit.

Thursday we headed to the Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas and La Cruz sites to water there. In the afternoon, cleanup around the house was done. That night Barbie and Lauren showed up for a one month volunteering stint.

Friday morning the El Toro revegetation site was watered. In the afternoon, the Planet Drum family went to the greenhouse where we met up with the Bioregionalistas for an interactive class. With their help all the compost was turned, the Samango seeds were removed from their pods, and some Guachepeli saplings were transplanted from seedbeds. Also a seed bed with a couple hundred Algarobo seeds got planted and all the plants were watered. It was a great afternoon with the students and everyone had a lot of fun. 

Hasta luego,

Clay