<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div>There will be a further update later today as the weather develops.<br><br>As of this moment, only (1) Uhler & Cuyahoga and (2) Charles & Turner are completely ready for staking and planting.<br>(3) Newton & Ir<span style="text-decoration: underline;">o</span>quois has all of the compost delivered, but only 1/4 of it spread and tilled in before the rain hit yesterday.<br>(4) Lover's Lane & Inman has half of the compost delivered.<br>(5) Ira & Kenmore, and (6) Vernon Odom & Fern are next, and last, in line.<br><br>Our tiller is out of town for the day, but is hoping to get out tonight to finish up Newton & Iroquois if this afternoon's sun dries it up enough. I was just out there and it's pretty muddy.<br><br>Recognition goes to Karen O'Connor at #3 Newton & Iroquois
who was our first gardener to stake her plot and to start hoeing! But I cannot fail to mention Jessica Berry and Julie Minard who were also out there but decided to wait for one of the patches that hadn't been tilled yet. Nor Maggie Collins, Brian Harris, and Amy Freed who would have been there if there weren't working or out of town.<br><br>You know, I was thinking after I left the garden that we ponder, sometimes whimsically, about the pioneers who settled this country (and not to be confused with the indigenous peoples who were already living here), and I realized that there's still a lot of that same spirit still in us. Ok, it's not as rough, tough, and hard, but it's still a challenge and is a big change in life style to go out in the drizzle and into the mud to work the ground to be able to grow one's own food. And especially in today's "civilization" in which doing such things is sometimes look upon with incredulity.
But we are the new local food producers, the urban farmers, and we are the new pioneers.<br><br>It's good to know ya'll !!!<br><br>Respectfully,<br>Larry Parker<br>The Proud Program Administrator of The Akron Cooperative and Akron Grows<br></div></div><br>
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