Bring on the heat!

Well this weather forecast is quite interesting considering the past few weeks of rain and mild temperatures I've grown accustom to...  We're now looking at high 80s, humid but little rain, and even the big 90 on Wednesday.  I just hope that the rain forecast for Thursday comes true; I really understand now why farmers always hope for some rain-- watering is time consuming!

In light of all this, Sean and I didn't let the hot weather keep us from being productive (Maybe because it's Monday and we aren't exhausted yet) and we both found ourselves doing some laborous jobs today.  I think that we've begun to realize that our time at the ESL is ---dare I say--- winding down in weeks and therefore it is time to actually carry out the jobs that we said were on our long-term list.


I worked on redoing the paths in between the raised beds, which required cutting spare cardboard to fit between the beds, kind of like fitting puzzle pieces.  Cardboard breaks down fairly easily and will kill off the grasses between the beds to lessen the threat of weeds infesting the beds and also give it a clean look.

This cardboard actually came from the boxes that delivered the raised beds!

Once I had finished, I put hay down to mulch the paths and, hopefully with time and rain, they will become smooth and grass free!

The finished paths.  With sun the hay will turn a yellow color!

On the other hand, Sean tackled the construction of a new door for the shed.  Although he has done various projects before, he's never made a door before, so I think he was excited about the new experience. 
Here's some snapshots of the process I got while taking a break from path-making!

cutting the wood

nailing the piece together

FINISHED PRODUCT!

In other news, I also harvested some berries for Campus Kitchens today, a student-run organization that we are in the works to build a formal partnership with.  They cook dinners on Monday's at the Methodist Church in Canton for community members to enjoy, and today they enjoyed some of our garden's blueberries and raspberries!

A bag of ESL blueberries, there are still many more that are ripening 

So the mantra for this week is definitely Get going on long-term projects, Drink lots of water, Don't let the sun make us go crazy as we work, and eat some berries when necessary :)

-Sheila