Sunday, February 27, 2011

Summers Over, School's In & Projects Unvailed

I know it's been awhile but not much has really happened since getting back from Uruguay exept:

Having no internet and dealing with the internet company for a month before it was fixed
Teaching an English class to 5 interested students twice a week, went very well
Sitting around doing nothing
Watching Glee, 30 Rock, The Office and Gossip Girl
Doing a major very late spring cleaning of the house
Another trip to the waterfall close by
Hosting a sweet party and
Going to Buenos Aires.

Ok so that is a alot, but no internet + being busy + preparing for trips= no blogs

It was a pretty hot summer but much more raintastic than the last. I remember last summer never having to take my hammock inside because of rain, and this summer it spends more time inside than out. The past two weeks have been overcast, damp and rainy leading to a stinky, moldy, basement smelling house for me. Thank goodness I'm not allergic to mold or I probably wouldn't be able to live here. Today is the first sunny day in a bit so I took advantage and did some laundry, cleaned the patio and opened up the house to air it out.

So now that things are starting to dry out I can make my way over to Lauren's site to get some bamboo. Why? Because I have a new project in mind for this year that needs to get started now

My project idea: **drumroll**


An Urban Garden Project

Living here in the city may sometimes seem like I'm living in the country with all the roosters crowing, turkeys gobbling, pigs squealing and cows walking down the street..but it's still the city. And while it may sound like people are already doing some urban gardening (and some definitely are, my neighbor has cornstalks) there are still some stereotypes that need to be broken.
1. They think you need a lot of land for a garden and have to grow veggies in rows
2. Not enough composting going on! I've been told that burning leaves is like burning money, and we know what they think about leaves!

I'm sure there's more.

So what I would like to do is set up my house as an example of an 'urban garden' complete with compost, lumbricultura (worm composting) rabbit and container gardens. Everything will help everything else! The bunny will poo which the worms will love, the mango tree will produce leaves which I will start to compost and maybe add into the worms, the compost will go into the containers to grow the veggies. the veggies will be eaten and the restos (scraps) will go to the bunny or compost and the cycle continues.
Once I get it up and running I would like to start having workshops here to show interested families that veggies can be grown in many different things, you don't even need to have dirt in your yard (I have all bricks). Teach them that worm compost is the best compost and that burning leaves is burning $$$. That kitchen scraps can decompose and that keeping rabbits for food can be cleaner, healthier and easier than chickens (just no eggs).
*side note*
I will not be eating my rabbit nor doing the teaching part on rabbit farming, that is my fellow site mate Rebecca's project and while I see the benefits of rabbits they are just too cute so I will only use mine for eating weeds and leftovers and for his poo.

I talked to Eli my 'boss' about it and she was really excited for the idea as is Rebecca and I really hope it works out.

As for the school, I will continue to work there but only if the teachers are willing to participate more and for me to be more in the 'background'. Also the 5 students want to continue the English classes.
When I talked to the Directora the other day she said she wanted to paint a mural on the wall with a tree and animals in it, I'm all for murals with animals so I am looking forward to that and will push them to do it.
Should be a good year!