The Stratton ABC Foundation Childrens Home Chiang Mai » gravel

Fish Go Bai Tio Too

John — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:34:24 +0000

Our top student, tai, was busy at his homework as usual last night, using one of our old collection boxes as a makeshift fish tank for his latest school project. This meant filling the coin slot and also using silicone to fix a leak at one of the corners.

We had paid a visit to the fish shop on the way back from school to by 2 different sort of gravel.

This morning he was busy arranging the 2 tone gravel, and adding plant decoration and of course a few of our guppies.

I’m not sure what the project was and today Tai, May 2 and bong all went off to The Royal Flora for the day, with the school. Gu’s class had gone on their trip last week and today was a test day.

Unfortunately we had not got a spare camera available today so no photos of the royal flora I’m afraid.

On picking the kids up I inquired after the fish and Tai told me that his teacher had not “marked” the homework yet. Concerned for the fishes welfare over the weekend, I insisted that he brought them home and took them back Monday if needed.

The Garden Grows

John — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 05:42:28 +0000

Busy, busy, busy. We are still working hard here at Stratton House to increase efficiency and cut costs. One major way we can do this is to grow our own vegetables.
To this end we have been working hard on expanding our growing project. Every late afternoon this week the children have helped out with this expansion which is going very well.
However we desperately need help with funding the next expansion.
The plots you see featured in the photos cost around 2000 baht to produce, including all the bamboo and soil.
Can you help us expand further with a similar sized area?
We are also hoping to create dry leveled pathways in between the plots, using gravel, which comes at 1800 baht for a large lorry load.
At present we are not sure how far that will take us but would have a better idea if we can get that first load.
If you feel that you may be able to help fund these expansions , please contact us.
A healthy diet for our children is very important to us. If we can supply this using our own organically grown produce then more funds can be redirected towards continued development of our activities and services to help these and many more children.
Thank You for your consideration.

Garden Project Day 2

John — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 04:06:32 +0000

Sunday morning saw day 2 of our vegetable growing project.

There some more gravel to be spread first.

Its hard work in the heat of the morning, hats were a must.

But it was great to see everyone working with a smile on their face.

Then, after a well earned break, three volunteers set to scrubbing the garden walls clean, ready for painting.

The rest of the crew all took a paint brush and put first coats of paint on the concrete rings that will serve as the vegetable plots.

As usual veryone pitched in with lots of effort.

With two wall panels cleaned and first coats of paint on all the concrete rings we decided that everyone had worked enough for the day and broke for lunch before spending the afternoon at Huay Tung Taow.

For more videos please visit our youtube account here.

Garden Growing Project

John — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:53:08 +0000

This weekend, with no visitors, we decided to get a start on our planned vegetable growing project. The food bill is one of our biggest expenses, so the more we can grow ourselves, the better.
As with everything here at Stratton House the plan is for the children to do their bit.
So on Saturday morning we set to preparing the ground for the first stage of the project.

First job was to clear the weeds from the chosen growing area.

Once that was done everyone piled into spreading gravel as the base for the growing area.

Once this was done we placed concrete “pipe’ sections, which will serve as individual vegetable plots for each child.
We also utilised some old garden fence, hanging the sections along the wall ready for climbers such as broad beans.
Today(Sunday), we will spread the remaining gravel and then allocate the vegetable “plots”.

The children will then paint their pots and paint their names onto their individual plots.

We have so much space available that it is hoped to extend this project in the future.

Possibly offering the chance for other children in the community to take part, splitting their finished vegetables 50/50 between The Foundation and their own family.
The concrete sections cost just 100 baht each, the gravel was 2000 baht for a full load that was enough for a 15 metre stretch.

We will need soil and of course vegetable seed. So if you feel like helping out, please do:)

For more photos please visit our photobucket album here.

Blistering Work

John — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:16:18 +0000

I do believe I said that the Banana trees were done. Well they weren’t quite. Boon had chopped down the ones we wanted gone but still had to chop out the roots. This he mostly finished today. He really went at it too, refusing to wear the gloves I got him and getting a handful of blisters for his trouble.

Hopefully we have some help tomorrow, from one of the villagers.

Our target is to have most of the grounds clear by next weekend at which point we will order in soil, gravel, etc and start getting the initial layout done.

For all todays photos please visit our photobucket album here.