Getting our hands in some dirt

Note to Coe students: residence life will not listen to you. Because you, as a student, are not important. Solution: create a team.

Finally we are able to get our hands in the dirt at the house. Saturday morning (10am august 8th) we will be breaking ground outside and will finally be able to plant some very sad plants who have been confined to terra cotta all summer. I personally am excited about my very hearty lemon balm plant which has many helpful qualities. The crushed leaves rubbed on the skin are a natural mosquito repellent. In tea it exhibits anti-bacterial/anti-viral properties. Of course it has a nice lemon scent. We will be having a picnic on Saturday to get work done. I've already whipped up a batch of lemon balm infused hummus snack and will be making a cold lemon balm/peppermint tea.

Work is getting done on the solar energy front. We are in the preliminary stages of grant proposals and hope to make it a demonstration the whole campus can enjoy.

I hear sodexo has some large water bottles to get rid of. We are working on securing these to make indoor terrariums for the winter time. Residence life has removed the bar that existed when the deltas lived there. Which is kind of sad because we could have used the counter space for more plants. But they don't seem to care what we think. But they are removing the awful mirror that covered the large window there which we will weather proof for the winter. We're thinking of a combination of emergency blanket and old screen based on a design found on the wonderful DIY instructables website.

Ayla