Weekends with Emma Rose & Building a School Garden

Last weekend and this one we've been having Emma Rose spend the weekend with us while our good friend Leslie goes to Honolulu to stay with Macario. It has been a blast, the girls both really like Emma Rose and they do all kine of fun stuff. For instance, last weekend we went to Subway for lunch...then we went swimming to coconut island (Syd is not in the pictures because she was sick last weekend), where Hana and ER just played and played and played.....This week Syd had her first performance with the Hilo Inter 8th grade band, so she thrilled us with her practicing of her Saxophone pretty much every night (she is getting goo at it!)....Then this weekend with Emma Rose again we had a super busy Saturday. Starting with a double header soccer schedule, early game for Hana (beautiful morning it was too! nice and sunny, you could see the summit of Mauna Kea from the fields)...Emma Rose was the mos fervent fan on the sidelines cheering for Hana and Sydney to the top of her lungs during both games.....

E.B. DeSilva's School Garden!
Soccer was followed by a mid morning game for Syd. From there we had to rush off the fields to E.B. DeSilva School (Hana's School) where we had organized a crew day with volunteer parents (and the Principal, Mr. O'Brien) to build the school's garden This is where Charlotte is going to teach her garden class.....We had to clear up an old concrete pad that had been half-eaten by the jungle......we had a wood working crew building the raised beds (7 of them, one for each grade). Here is Mr. O'Brien keeping a close eye on Matthias handling his nail gun.....you never know what these crazy firefighters may do with one of those....we also buried a water line for irrigation of the greenhouse and a sink, Of course the water line had to be tested and approved by the representatives of the Water Department Inspection Bureau....We built the frame for the greenhouse with 1" pipes. Here I am checking the structure to see if it will hold (two of the arches popped out when we first put them in).....We finally figured that we had to reinforce the unions with screws, and then IT HELD!!.... and put the plastic cover too! all in one day! it was a HOT HOT HOT day, but everyone worked hard and had fun, we had pizza and soda's throughout the work day. Here is what it looked like by the end of the day..Greenhouse on the left, and the raise beds straight ahead.
Next week the soil for the beds will be delivered and Charlotte will start teaching her class...Woooo Hooooo!!!!

A BIG MAHALO to the volunteers who made this happen and to Kimo from Hamakua Springs for donating the plastic liner for the Green House......