WEEK 10
Date: 3-14-07
I spent a lot more time working at the shady seasonal creek this week on pruning down the sword fern and finished taking out the coltsfoots that has infested practically the entire area. This took a lot of work, and by the end my back felt pretty sore from bedning over and pulling out the coltfoots. I also spent some more time with Anamaria working on our site presentation because we had difficulties showing it on a PC to the class on Saturday. I think we figured out the problem, but I guess we'll find out this Wednesday. I also spent one last day at the Longhouse garden taking more pictures of the entire garden, rather than just my own site. I am amazed at how beautiful everything is looking. It's great to see things starting to bloom now.
Total hours:
3- Saturday at the Longhouse 3/10/07
2- Working on site presentation 3/13/07
1- Taking pictures at the Longhouse 3/13/07
Week 9
Date: 3-7-07
I spent a lot of time working with Anamaria on our Longhouse presentation. We decided to do a powerpoint and have worked on what we want it to say and look like. We also drew a map and scanned it in. I also went to Roosevelt Elementary last Friday with Marja and some other classmates to help out with the children’s basket weaving project. This was a lot of fun and I enjoyed being around kids. I went for a walk in the woods with my roommate on Saturday and identified twigs to her. I did this because she was thinking about taking Healing Gardens next quarter and she wanted some help in a few areas where she was lacking. Anamaria and I met earlier today to work more at our garden site.
Total hours:
1- Roosevelt Elementary 3rd grade classroom 3/2/07
1- Walk in the woods with roommate to identify twigs 3/3/07
2- Work on Longhouse presentation with Anamaria 3/6/07
1- Took pictures and worked at the Longhouse 3/7/07
WEEK 8
Date: 2-28-07
I spent 2 hours working on my individual garden; doing some research as to what sort of vegetables will work best in the environment that my garden is in. I spent 2 hours working at the project site with Anamaria, contemplating what plants we want to put in to replace some of the salmonberry we pulled out last week, I spent 1 hour researching small bridges that we might want to put in the middle of the wetlands area at the garden.
Total Hours:
2 hours Sunday 2/25/07
2 hours Wednesday 2/28/07
1 hour Wednesday 2/28/07
Week 7
Date: 2-21-07
I spent two hours with Alina working on the garden site in my backyard. We mapped out what we think will work best in our area. I am going to make my section a vegetable garden, and Alina is going to make her section into a flower garden. I also spent another 2 hours with Anamaria at our project site. We began by cleaning up the area, and then went into pulling out some of the salmonberry that has overtaken the area. And I went back Saturday morning to finished pulling out some salmonberry for another hour.
Total hours:
2- Thursday 2/15/07
2- Friday 2/16/07
1- Saturday 2/17/07
WEEK 6
Date: 2-14-07
I spent a lot more of my time outside than I have any other week. The weather was so nice out, and it has me all excited for the spring. On Saturday I met with about half of the class at Roosevelt Elementary to sod and mulch the playground. That felt so great to get out and do some labor like that. I hope that we can go to another elementary school sometime in the spring quarter. I also spend an hour at the Longhouse garden on Sunday, working on removing some of the depris from the water area. And Anamaria and I got together to work on our plant study and Wetlands introduction for two hours together. I really enjoy working with Anamaria, I think we both have the same intentions for the site.
Total Hours:
1 hour spent Sunday at the Longhouse Garden
3 hours spent at Roosevelt Elementary on Saturday
2 hours spent on Tuesday with Anamaria on plant study for garden site
WEEK 5
Date: 2-6-07
I spent some time taking pictures of the plants that are in the wetlands on Friday, and then went home to identify some of the plants. I had some trouble with this because I couldn’t find plants that matched up with some of my pictures, and had to resort to guessing. I also made tea with lemon balm in it for my roommates on Sunday. One of my roommates has been having trouble sleeping and I thought this would be a good experiment to see how lemon balm affects her.
Time spent: 3 hours Friday (2-2-07), 1 hour Sunday (2-4-07)
WEEK 4
Date: 1-30-07
This week I spent some more time at the garden on Sunday working on my journal and identifying some of the plants in my area. Then on Monday Anamaria and I got together to begin cleaning up the wetland site. There were a lot of leaves covering the creek and causing the water to stay in the same area instead of flow, like a stream. We uncovered a little spring, which really helped the water flow. We contemplated putting in a bridge across the creek, but we are still hesitant because we don’t think there is enough water in the area for a bridge.
Time spent: 1 hour on Sunday, 3 hours on Monday
WEEK 3
Date: 1-27-07
We had class today and spent time learning about the Longhouse site and about the areas that we will be working in. I came back later to make a sketch of a map of the shady wetland area so my own reference. I also drew some pictures of a few of the plants that are surrounding the water. A few of them I could not identify, but I did know that there was salmonberry and salal in the area. On Monday I came to the garden site with Alina to take out some of the leaves in the water stream. The project was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be! I learned about mulching from Alina and why it is important to leave some of the leaves at the site.
Time spent: 2 hours on Saturday, 2 1/2 hours on Monday
WEEK 2
Date: 1-21-07
I spent some time at the Longhouse Garden to write in my journal and draw a picture of a willow that I found very fascinating. I sat out around 1:00pm and found that it was a good time to do so because the sun was out and shinning on many of the areas in the garden. It was a Sunday, so there weren't many people around either, and that was nice to have the place to myself.
Time spent: 1 hour
Date: 1-22-07
Anamaria and I met today at the Longhouse Garden and sat with our work site to figure out what we wanted to do with it. Our initial reaction was that the area was very swampy and looked bogged down with leaves. We decided that the first thing that needs to get done is clean up the area, move the leaves and the broken logs from the creek. We then went over to the computer lab to look up information about the previous students who worked at the same site last quarter and what their intentions were. We felt like we had similar intentions, although we are not sure a bridge over the creek is the most beneficial thing to place in the garden.
Time spent: 1 hour