Yesterday was a gorgeous day. I was out to the Sustainable Urban Farm pretty early and decided to edge trim the grass in front of the auto repair shop. While I was working, I smelled a foul smell. It reminded me of the trash cans at a fair ground bandstand, overflowing with mostly empty beer cups. Half way down the block I could see three guys walking toward me. My whole life I had heard the expression "Drunk as a Skunk", but that moment was the first time I fully understood it.
They looked like they had a rough night and were still coming down. Right then, they noticed me working. The shortest one of the bunch came running over and took the sidewalk edger out of my hand. He tried to communicate that he'll work for me. I agreed to let him work, but I made it very clear that I was working for free so he will definitely not get paid. There was a long pause, but in order to save "face", he said not problem and began to work. The other two guys jumped in with a shovel of mine and proceeded to take turns.
Since I was doing nothing, I decided to stretch my back for a second and look around. The guys from the auto shop didn't see or hear the negotiation so they thought I had a crew with me and began to laugh. I waved and smiled, but felt like I needed to do something too. Well, my Ma and Pa raised me to work, and by this time I was till without a tool. The overly eager drunken gentlemen were busy edging the walkway, so I ran back to my workshop and pick up a rake and a broom. The playing field had been leveled, four guys with four tools. We worked for an hour and knocked that sidewalk OUT!
Manuel, Speedy, Marcos, & Me.
Today, I mowed the grass where we did the edge work and something very cool happened. One of the guys, Fred, from the auto repair shop started weeding. They see me out there almost every day taking pride in their shop and today, Fred decided to take a little pride himself!
Last week, I asked the gardeners at my building to cross the street and dump the grass clippings in the planter boxes. With that said, there was a ton of grass that needed to be mixed in with my kitchen scraps and soil. So, I turned the organic mixture over for fifteen minutes or so.
Another cool thing that I'm thinking about is community. My neighbors are starting to talk. They've seen what I've been doing and are interested. One lady told me that if I ever need help, to go ahead and ask. Which got me thinking about what I could use help with.
Soil. I'm still very low on dirt. How does a Sustainable Urban Farmer get quality earth to plant crops in these days? I know it's a longer process than paying a truck to deliver it, but I couldn't stop thinking about every body else's kitchen scraps. There are sixty-two people that live in my apartment building and my family of four generates about a bucket full of scraps a day! If I include the surrounding buildings/community and help build relationship through Sustainable Urban Gardening, wouldn't the world be a better place? I think so.
Living Off the Street is going to be bigger than just my family, I can feel it.
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LMAO!!!!!!!!!!
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