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 big logs at the bottom, and sewing up the mesh with fishing line. We neatened the area in general, e.g. fixing up compost fence, removal of old hoses, etc. in order to prepare for the Universidad Catolica’s Casa Abierta (Open House) on Thursday. They also inaugurated the new meteorological station on this day—the mayor and Cristi Ruperti gave speeches. He always says hi to me and asks about the trees. We put up the placards on composting, bioregionalism, and revegetation, and gave talks and demonstrations to groups of students who passed by. We also led students up the hill and watered, to show them our revegetation site. The students ranged from elementary school to university age, and seemed to be quite interested in our work. I also gave a short interview for FB Radio.
In the greenhouse, we also transplanted 33 Cascol seedlings, and hulled Pela Caballo and Algarrobo seeds.
Did some fixing up of individual trees at Dairy Farm that weren’t looking so hot. Most of the ones left seem to be doing fine though. Cherry Tree continues to regenerate, and Endara is doing as well as ever, except that we found some cows had gotten in last time. I alerted Carlos Endara about this, who said he would investigate. In Jorge Lomas, the Fernando site was watered, and construction continues at the base of Las Casas. It looks like the trees further up the hill will be safe. The trees at Inter-americano looked healthy, which shows that the students have been watering since we haven’t been there in a few weeks. At El Bosque there were a few freshly chopped trees but nothing blocking the path this time. We lost one Cedro recently, but the other trees left from the June planting look fine. One of the volunteers found a dead Mot Mot bird on the path that had apparently been stabbed by a stick.
Some of the volunteers helped paint a mural in La Cruz this week as they are having their barrio fiestas this weekend. The fiestas of Bahia are next week, which will most likely be volunteer Stephanie’s last. She will be replaced by another Stefanie (from Germany) who arrives a week later.
I got the convenio signed by the property owner for a section of the land in Marianita Jesús (on the hill behind La Cruz). I talked to the municipio as well about the other part of the land, who said it was fine.
I got my eye looked at in Quito, since there are no opthamologists in Bahía and I was going there anyway for the weekend. Apparently when I got that dirt in it from the greenhouse, it caused a tear duct to get blocked. I have a new prescription which should work, but if not, surgery is an option to remove the hard ball under my top eyelid. It’s not serious though.
Hasta luego,
Heather
Reader Interactions