Family Build Day- The Sequal

Working on the raised beds in the Veg. Garden

 There are no better group of parents than DeGolyer Parents! Another day of moving dirt, granite and taking back the vegetable garden.

In the vegetable garden we were able to  dig in the new dividers for the raised beds, uncover the rain barrels and designate a great location for compost as well as take back the supply corner from debris and make it a useful space again.

Veg Garden taking shape

Day Two of moving- adding more dirt & granite

Raised Beds taking shape

View at the end of day, Sunday

View at the end of the day, Sunday

We are poised for the next build weekend to install the benches, finish the raised butterfly garden beds, plant some more of our landscaping (including bulbs) among other things.

Our Gazebo structure will be installed in the spring along with the vegetables and finishing touches.




Thanks to all the great parents and kids who helped this weekend. This will be a project we can all be proud of.

Saturday's Family Build Day

What a great way to spend a Saturday and meet some more amazing parents! Yesterday was our First Family build Day at DeGolyer and everyone from the principal and teachers to the girl scouts, boy scouts and even a Lowe's Associate showed up to help. And we cannot forget all of our wonderful parents who lent a hand anywhere something needed doing. There were wheelbarrows to load, granite to rake, cinder blocks to lay, tilling, weed block fabric and just the cleaning alone- not to mention feeding hungry workers, watching kids and just all around being amazing.

We started out the morning trying to simply dig holes for the trees (Ramona the River birch, Charles the Chinese Pistachio & Filbert the Forest Pansy Red Bud) Well, the dirt proved even too much for the rented commercial auger that was brought. Thankfully there were some very kind and generous construction workers near by who just happened to have a back how and a soft place in their heart for elementary school volunteers.  The trees were planted, watered and staked in their new homes where they will watch over our kids for years to come.

The cleaning of the garden and the picking up of the debris from the concrete pour rounded out our morning.  We moved on to laying landscape fabric to help with weed control and filling those areas with decomposed granite and rubber mulch from a parade of wheelbarrows. The vegetable garden was cleared and ready for a new beginning. Our hardy girl scouts and dads braved the clay and planted some of our grasses before all was said and done we were starting to look like a real garden.

It seemed like every time I turned around there was someone else asking what they could do to help. We finished more yesterday than I thought we would get done in the whole weekend.

Just in case you were wondering about all that debris, the guys returned from dumping and it ended up being 2.7 TONS!!!! That’s a lot of moving!

Morning Auger

Trying to start the hole & moving debris

more raking

Bringing in the "big guns"

This is cool right?

I mean come on

Look at all our workers- Even Dr Cobb!

The girl scouts starting the granite

Many Dads make light work

Starting to look like a Garden!

Moving mulch

Add caption

End of Day One

Kids conquer the dirt

Vegetable Garden ready to go!

Teacher's are workers too!

Dirt Delivery

The dried concrete ready for work

cinder blocks & rubber mulch

Our tree Family

Teachers in the garden Re-hab

More Garden Re-hab

At the end of Friday

Friday a gaggle of teachers stayed late after school and got our build weekend off to a great start. They began the rehab of the veg garden, started to lay out the landscaping fabric and trim the roses.....
All the items we will be using this weekend were also delivered today... its getting exciting!
Thanks for all the amazing teachers who put in extra time for our kids!

CONCRETE!!!!

What a beautiful cool day to pour concrete. Starting about 9:30 the truck arrived and around 13 yards of concrete was poured into the forms. We are expecting beautiful dry weather for the next few days as we make our final prep for the coming family build days!

Wow Wow Wow... I guess I should be used to the fact that this is really happening now but I am still amazed that a bunch of volunteers at a public school can pull this off!

Our kids, our teachers, our community are worth it!

Bird's Eye View

Its taking shape! Hard to believe that just a week ago this was a dirt mess and hard to imagine what is will look like after our family build days this weekend! Concrete Pour Tomorrow!!!!

(bird's eye view courtesy of Todd Smith from the roof!)

ReBar

The forms are finished and the re-bar is going in today for a Wednesday pour! Concrete pour- not rain (Please let the rain hold off on Wednesday).

Planning pow-wow this afternoon to make sure that we are ready for this weekend's family build days.

Thanks to Kerrie Smith for the great picture and Todd Smith for heading up the concrete forms.

It's Really Happening

Yesterday the forms started to go in to prepare for the concrete pour next week.  Can you believe it?

More images from the site today while they put in the rebar and the rest of the forms. Thank you, Mother Nature,  for the beautiful weather!