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The weekends seem to come round fast these days. Still, that means more fast improvements around the grounds with the weekend work hours. On Saturday the Prathom kids did a great job with a general sweep and tidy up of the yard.
Then on Sunday it was some more garden clearance and growing ground prep.
And a good job done with that too.
Thursday this week was a very full day. The morning started with some work in the garden after breakfast. With Brendans help we first dug out an extra sink pit for excess rain water, which when finished became the short entrance to the garden table area.
That done we then cleared the pile of rubble that has sat for far too long in the yard. Shoveling it all onto the truck we then took it up to our land.
Not surprisingly, after all the recent rain, the way down to our land was, once again, overgrown. So whilst Brendan and the boys shoveled rubble into our cart, I went ahead with the strimmer to clear a path down.
We hope to get down to start preparing our land for growing vegetables next week.
Once that job was completed it was back to the house to get ready for lunch before the next activity.
I am so proud of our children for all their hard work and effort with the Villa and Sport Project. The last few sessions have been spent creating flower beds around the outdoor concrete chess table.
There has been some great thought put into it and I can honestly report that the ideas are all the children’s creations.
This area is particularly May 2′s idea but once again Tai has been adding that extra touch adding wooden posts and bamboo strip fencing around the front flower beds.
I also love the curved flower beds behind the chess table which I’m sure will be beautiful once the planted flowers come through.
Keep this up kids and you could start your own Landscaping company when you get older. The leading four man team have now got into holdiing proper planning meetings in the evenings before project days; organising what work will be done and by who.
The Project budget of 5 thousand baht has been donated by Helen Williams, a good friend and Mother of one of the Autistic children I used to care for in the UK.
This weeks Saturday work-slot was a major spring clean in the garden, including washing walls again.
After a general tidy up all round the children then set to painting the borders of the outer wall panels, making the garden look far more “finished”.
After work was finished there was the reward of more Lamyai with a helping hand from “Ar” Boon.
Just as well the kids seem to enjoy the work in the garden. What with rising prices everywhere we need to grow as much as possible. We even took advantage of the need to prune down our Banana tree patch by saving the suitable centres from the trees for chopping and using in curry.
The photos are from the weekends, hour long, morning work slots.
Look out for the result of Tai working a bit too close to the house with the strimmer.
Another work hour this morning and everyone did there bit. The general philosophy here at Stratton ABC Foundation is to combine education, skills development, fun and character building work projects to give our children the best chance of leaving here as level headed, rounded, responsible and happy individuals.
One of the values we are trying to encourage is a care for the environment. We do our best to recycle as much as possible and compost our food and garden waste. The results of this composting is then used on our vegetable plots which are all cared for and planted by the children.
We are inbetween crops right now but look forward to the next gifts from our garden.
There was hard work to be done this morning after a damp weekend last week had seen none done. With all the rain the battle against weeds is constant . True to form the whole gang here did their bit today and all worked very hard this morning to tidy up around the vegetable plots. Even the dogs seemed to want to help out.
Once again Tai got busy with the strimmer attacking other areas of the garden to keep some semblance of order.
We are now seeing more results with much more Morning Glory starting as well as Egg plants sprouting along with some of the squash plants . Our last planted tomato’s have at last started to show themselves , although the percentage from the seeds planted is low. We may try adding some more shortly.
Once again kids, well done, just a bit more tomorrow and it should be tidy for the week…lol
Despite recent health concerns life goes on happily here in Stratton House. This weekend all the children pitched in yet again in our constant battle to keep the rapidly growing weeds at bay in the garden.
Whilst all the other children set to with hands and shears, Tai went at it with our newly acquired strimmer. Good job done by all, but no doubt it’ll all need doing again next weekend with all the rain lately:)
Leisure time was taken up by the usual cycling, badminton, and this weekend Jig-saws and figurine painting came into action.
Slightly shorter and easier work this morning with the majority of the children simply locating bamboo sticks by the latest sprouting bean and pea plants in the vegetable plots.
The two eldest girls, Jor and May, worked carefully with the garden knives to cut thin sticks for the others to go and place next to each sprout.
Meanwhile Gu and Tai assisted progress with the playground by sanding the rough off the climbing frame and Monkey bars.
This weekend it was time to refresh the vegetable plots a little and the children all helped out as usual.
Clearing weeds, turning soil and planting out new crops of beans, peas and tomatoes.
All tucked into well earned kanom and iced drinks when finished.
Good work yet again kids:)
