July 31st, 2009

*Today was a day where each of us VISTAs figured out what we would like to accomplish individually and collectively during our year of service here. The three of us had a nice brainstorming session. I mostly tried to get an idea of how group dynamics will work with all of us. So far, each person seems to feel a sense of freedom with each other and nobody tries to dominate conversation, unless im mistaken and I fullfill this role, I hope not. Im really excited to get going on some projects with these other motivated minds. *Some of the projects that I am very interested in are getting more produce from the garden into the Annex, further developing the garden and surrounding areas on the Cross-Lines campus, meeting other local farmers, help out with giving nutritional classes, and getting the community involved to provide a form of guidance for my work. *I wanted to get my hands dirty so I went out and attacked the compost now knowing what was in store. It was so terrible, there was lots of trash in it, shoes, and a pair of pants. Somebody through in a bunch of sticks which separated everything thrown on top of it (which was the majority of the pile) from the worms, so there was about 4 feet of rotting wet gross material I had to scoop out. Yuck city. Once I found worms, which was at the bottom of the pile, I collected leaves and other plant matter and just kept layering the leaves, plant matter, rotting nast, dirt, and repeating till everything was used. It was like making a septic lasagna. I would really like to add some red wiggler worms to speed up the process and make it more appealing, like sprinkled parmesaen on top of the meal.