November 6 - Beginning and Ending

We have finally accepted that our outdoor growing season has officially ended, especially with the layer of snow currently covering our garden.  We still have a couple beds we need to put to rest, though.  That work will continue this week.  Raking is also a job that can still be done in the garden.

But, as some things come to an end, others begin!  This week we filled the terrariums in the Grow Room with soil in preparation for the indoor growing season.  We also have a few hardy plants surviving in our greenhouse, even though it does not yet have a door!  It's great to know that growing can continue year-round here at All Peoples.

Other groups busied themselves with the traditional indoor cleaning jobs, and did a great job!  It won't be long before we have to clean out the box corral again.    

And we were able to cook one last recipe with the produce from the garden!  We saved a whole bunch of green tomatoes from the garden just before the first frost.  They were put to good use in a salsa that had quite a kick to it!    

October 30 - Dia de los Muertos

This week was extra crazy as we experimented with stations for the first time!  Rather than having one task for each group, we had 5 tasks for each group and rotated them.  This week we had two special projects and we wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to help out.  The first project was making art for the greenhouse door.  The door is specially designed to be able to display paintings and drawings, and we want to be ready for when it is completed.  Stop by sometime soon to take a look!

The second special project was decorating the sanctuary for Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.  This holiday, which originated in Mexico, commemorates friends and family members who have passed away.  Relatives gather on this day to honor the deceased by building ofrendas, or private altars, and decorating them with pictures, flowers, candy skulls, and food.  We decorated the church with these things and more. 

The other stations included work like putting stamps and addresses on the soon-to-be-mailed newsletter, recycling our abundance of cardboard, setting up for Wednesday Night Alive, cleaning the nursery, and several other important tasks.