From Dirt to Food

This spring the kids and I started a Garden Club.  We wrote to the Harrison Neighborhood Association to apply for a plot at the community garden a short walk from Harrison Park.  We collected a small amount of money for seeds and went to go check out the piece of dirt which was now ours. 

We came back to the Park and developed a plan for what we wanted to grow and where we would put it.  Spring came pretty early to Minneapolis this year but we didn't want to plan too early.  We started by drawing and coloring signs to label our rows.  Unfortunately, our plastic sleeves didn't work as well as we had hoped and our beautiful signs need to be redone.  You can still make out the outline of the vegetable growing in a particular row.

A month ago this garden was only dirt, and last summer only weeds.

Can anyone guess what this is?  Who wants a salad?

Angela proud of her first harvest.

Radishes, better than Extra Spicy Cheetos

Sometimes good comes from bad things

Leading in to Memorial Day I planned to head up to Hayward, Wisconsin Thursday night to celebrate my friend Dennis' birthday and guest coach a workout with the Ski and Tea training group.  My plans changed when Minneapolis received over 5 inches of rain in a 24 hour period and our basement which has been dry all spring started leaking water.  I spent the day soaking up the water, making sure everything was off of the floor and trying to correct the issue with the gutters.  I had to push back my other errands and by the time I had everything set to go it was early evening.

With the water issue under control the doorbell rang and I opened it up to see some of the kids from the park Jerry, Quinn and Javari smiling back at me.  They said they had a favor to ask of me.  They were all performing in the middle school concert that evening and were wondering if I would come listen and help bring their mom to the concert.

Javarie with his percussion crew

 

Anne Watin Middle School Band

Jerry on the drums

 

Speaking with the kids mom as we waited for the show to start I learned that this was the first time she had been to their school since she had enrolled them.  She works full time at a restaurant and without a car making it to school is a challenge for her.  She cried during the concert.  We all drove home together with big smiles.

If the water hadn't come in to the basement, I wouldn't have been there to answer the door when the kids stopped by and their Mom may have never heard them perform.  Turns out I enjoyed a great concert, confirmed that the basement stayed dry for another night and had a smooth early morning trip to meet up with the Ski and Team women's training group.  Sometimes good things come from what might seem like a bad thing.