On Tuesday, March 18th, an almost miraculous convergence of good weather, good spirits and volunteer labor led to one of the most productive and enjoyable work days in recent memory. In addition to getting ALL of the paths in the butterfly garden defined, we:
- Saw first hand how human strength and cooperation can often be superior to power driven machines
- Extended our reach just a bit further into our community
- Inspired yet another potential Farm Team member for next year.
The success of the day was welcomed, as many of our recent projects (including our first "official" Third Saturday Work Day) have been scuttled by bad weather. In fact, the day's activity was not exactly planned. The cancellation of our work day by rain left a major project hanging and in need of some reevaluation. The decision to turn our attention to the butterfly garden was only arrived at late on Monday afternoon. The team fully expected at least two days of HARD labor. With more rain threatening for mid week, we were anxious to get as much accomplished on Tuesday as possible.
I arrived at work to find a few of our regular volunteers ready for a long day of work. After a bit of coffee talk we loaded up the barrows with shovels and rakes and headed into the field. The first task was to define paths, which we did with a pointed hoe and spray paint.
While some of us worked on defining paths, others began to pull aside the top soil with rakes and shovels in preparation for the tamper.
A short while later Ben showed up with the tamper. The tool itself is about the size of a walk behind lawn mower. It weighs maybe 150 pounds, most of which is the steel plate which is supposed to compress the earth. The idea is that, once stripped of top soil, the bare red clay would be compressed into a hard, smooth surface suitable for eventual mulching. These measures, it is hoped, should frustrate the encroachment of weeds and growing things into the walking paths. The machine was both a disappointment and an inspiration.
Above we see Ben shaking out an apparent cramp in his hand. The machine is set in place by dragging it to the place you would like to begin. This is a difficult task even when the machine is off. Once started, you let it sit for a minute or so until the area beneath the plate is smooth and hard. To move the machine you have to "walk" it, pulling one side forward, then the other. When you pull, the weight of the machine digs into your fingers and the vibration spreads through your body until your eyeballs literally vibrate making everything in your visual field jitter in a somewhat alarming fashion. After nearly an hour of this, the group as a whole decided that the machine was more trouble than it was worth and that it should be returned before the rental fees mounted any higher.Meanwhile, the rest of the crew was accomplishing great things with shovels and muscle:
The procedure was simple. After most of the top soil was raked from the path, we would take shovels and scrape the remaining layer down to bare clay. We threw, or sometimes wheel barrowed this soil atop the areas we intend to plant. This gives us an even deeper layer of top soil in which to plant the shrubs and flowers that will eventually populate this garden. Once the paths were clear we simply ran and stomped through them. This was nearly as effective and considerably more fun than the tamper.There was much talk among the crew as we worked about how often we end up serving our machines more than they serve us. It is easy to forget just how much a number of well motivated people, working together, can accomplish. The rest of the day was spent in convivial shared labor.
In about six hours we went from this:
to this:
We would like to thank these people for all their hard work and good spirits. A few of those who helped are not in this picture but they appear above.
One more thing worth mentioning. After we finished cleaning up tools and most of the volunteers left, Ben told me about a conversation he had with one of our neighbors. Apparently a gentleman from the Ridgebrook Homes (which is right behind the farm) stopped to ask what we were up to. Ben told him about the butterfly garden and the overall efforts at park beautification. He got very excited about the potential benefit to the community and asked about volunteering on future projects. One of our biggest challenges has been getting the neighboring community involved. I think our expansion into the park is going to present more opportunities to make organic connections with our neighbors.
And now, here is a little video of some of the crew after a long day of work.
Peace
Frank
