Tuesday, June 19, 2012

This Month in Photos


“Anina, have you watered the garden yet? Can we do it for you?” These are questions that I hear every day now, and fill me with joy! Summer has arrived to Lame Deer, which means it is hot out, and I’ve been dreading the tedious hauling of watering cans from the kitchen sink to the garden, over and over again. Now, however, the kids at the Boys & Girls Club have a personal interest in making sure that it is well-cared for. 

The last couple of weeks in the garden have been exciting, fun, and great for raising awareness about this project. Recently the Club was lucky enough to be visited by Tony West, the U.S. Associate Attorney General, who took a brief garden tour and recommended that I “send Michelle some pictures.” It was exciting and inspirational for us all to see the Club recognized for the amazing things that it does in the Lame Deer community, and has been doing for twenty years.

Last week, we planted a “pumpkin” patch. It is not strictly pumpkins, however. This garden includes watermelons, sunflowers, and seeds from a “mystery bag,” which was my sneaky way of getting them to plant zucchini. Everyone marked their plant with flags I made out of duct tape and coat-hangars, and every day since then the garden has been under close scrutiny. Our first watermelon sprouted yesterday. We have also lined one wall of the arts & crafts room with sunflowers which we hope will provide artistic inspiration.

This week we were lucky enough to have John Youngblood come and take some amazing photos of us working in the garden and of the first radish harvest!

The plants already growing in our beds are thriving. The first strawberry has started to turn pink, and others aren’t far behind, to the delight of all my little girls. The lettuce has fallen victim to daily snacking (which is great!!) and I need to get the trellis up ASAP for our rising peas and beans. I hardly need to even visit the garden any more, since throughout the day I receive daily reports from my fellow gardeners. “My plant needs water!” “Someone picked an onion!” "There's another strawberry growing!” "My pumpkin is going to be HUGE!"

Finally, I learned today that I got the FoodCorps position in North Powder, Oregon! Starting in August I will be working with the North Powder Charter School to expand many of the fantastic projects they already have going to promote healthy fool, and enjoying being back in my home state! I owe a great deal of thanks to everyone who helped me with this- from editing my application to acting as references to tolerating my constant FoodCorps-related conversation. Although I'm excited about this next step, I will be a little sad to leave all of my wonderful new friends and gardening-partners!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Getting in the Groove



Planting flowers
Ten months into my term of service and I’ve finally found my groove! It took me a while to find my place in the crush of kids that the Club receives every day, but once I made a couple of friends I’ve spent every day having all kinds of fun!

When kids are on the playground, I simply follow them outside and holler, “who wants to play in the garden?” and at least 7 or 8 come running. Our activities range from counting the flowers on our strawberry plants (we’re up to 8) to planting peas to a playground-wide hunt for bugs. We’ve examined the buds emerging on our newly-planted lilac bushes and learned about how the weather influences the growth of our plants. The first taste of lettuce was declared “scrumptious” by all. 

I consider these informal lessons ‘guerilla FoodCorps’ work- although I might have a general idea of what I want to teach, developing a lesson plan isn’t practical and I make it up on the spot. This is a challenge, but it has also been enormously fun. Not a day has gone by since I started working with the kids that a child has not come up to me and asked, “When can we go outside? I want to plant today!” At times I regret how small our garden is because it has little work to offer kids on a daily basis. But then I remember that we have to carry water from the kitchen to the garden, and the small size seems more practical. I’m doing a poor job of restraining my enthusiasm, however- a pumpkin patch has already expanded outside of our raised beds and the Club’s mentor program is putting in apple and pear trees. All of the kids have requested watermelons, so we’re going to give that a shot as well…

Working in the garden only takes up a portion of my time. The rest of my time I spend playing vampire robots, making games out of picking up garbage, and dodging basketballs to the head. 

Our thriving pallet garden
I’ve also been making enormous effort to get out of town on weekends and visit my fellow FoodCorps members. I’ve helped out at a garden work day and learned line-dancing at a fundraiser in Red Lodge, and ran my first 5k in support of Livingston’s Farm to School Program (and then spent the evening sitting next to John Mayer at the local bar! See the latest issue of People magazine for details, page 130-133! I’m not kidding!) My free weekends are spent in Wyoming, strolling through downtown Sheridan’s adorable boutiques, cafes and bookstores. 

As my end of term quickly approaches (July 21), I am spending an enormous amount of time thinking (and worrying about) what happens next year. I have interviewed for FoodCorps positions in both North Powder and Salem. Although North Powder was originally my first choice, my interview with the Salem-Keizer Education Foundation left me excited and eager to serve with them as well. I should be finding out in the next week or so, and I will gladly accept either position should it be offered.
 
All this activity leaves me exhausted with my head spinning every evening, but it is incredibly satisfying after having spent so much time sitting idle this year. I have work, lots of friends (who are all about three feet tall and wear ‘Dora the Explorer’ tee-shirts); all in this funny little community that has welcomed me with open arms.