Hands on Irrigation Opportunity!

Hey Everyone,
I wanted to let everyone know that the Interbay P-Patch is going to be doing some renovations to its drip irrigation system this year and there is the opportunity for people from our team to gain some hands on construction experience as well as provide valuable support to a great local organization. For the proposed work I have taken the lead on putting together designs, material list, and cost estimates, but I would be very grateful to have the help of some of our engineers with the actual construction work.

In two weeks we will be replacing one of the drip systems for a part of the P-Patch that grows vegetable solely to be donated to the local foodbank. The current irrigation system is a tangle of above ground lines that typically break during the freeze-thaw cycle of the winter and need constant repair and replacement. My proposal is to put the majority of this system underground, and install several above ground facets to connect to removable drip lines. The entire scope involves about 20 feet of 1” PVC pipe being put underground, the assembly of the facet risers, and the trenching and backfilling of the lines.

Although it’s a much smaller scale system than the El Eden improvements, the materials, and construction techniques will be very similar and this could be an invaluable experience for the members of the team who will be participating in the implementation portion of the trip as well as being involved in the design. I have arranged with the P-Patch to begin construction on Saturday May 9th, and if you can to help out or be involved in any way, please let me know.

I think an early start, would be good. Let’s plan on meeting at 9 am.

the P-Patch is located on 15th Ave W, just south of the Interbay Golf Course. The address is:2501 15th Ave West.

Here’s some nice background information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbay_P-Patch
http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/ppatch/locations/11.htm

See you all there!


Erich Ellis

Back from Assessment

Hello all!

We are back from our assessment trip in El Eden! Over all it was a really great experience, especially with the community members and the Agros team down in Nicaragua. It was very impressive how involved Agros is in the communities that they are helping to create. I am confident that they will be an exceptional partner! We are looking forward to sitting down with all of you and sharing all of the pictures, results, and experiences of our trip. We have a lot of new information and will likely be forming some new groups besides just our water and energy groups!

As I did not receive any comments about meeting change, I will probably just decide on a new day of the week to meet. We will try to keep the meeting time at 7 since that seems to work out for everyone. I am leaning toward either a Tuesday or Thursday night meeting. If you have any strong preferences, speak up and I will do what I can to weigh the decision.

I will post here sometime this week about our next meeting time. It will probably not be for another week or two so that we have time to go over our notes, collect our thoughts, and maybe even create a little slide show of our photos for your viewing pleasure!

Thanks!

Ashley

Assessment Trip Timeline

• Thursday April 16^th
• Kari and Ashley depart U.S. at 8:15 A.M.
• arrive in Managua at 8:05pm
• Shuttle from Managua Airport to hotel
• Spend night at Hostal San Agustin
• Friday April 17^th
• Meet with Agros personnel (8AM pickup at San Agustin) (Erin to meet at San Agustin in the morning)
• Meet with architecture and agronomy students from UCA (Catholic University)
• Shopping for on site materials (posterboard, tubing, etc)
• Stay in Managua for night at the Hostal San Agustin.
• Saturday April 18^th
• Rent Vehicle at Dollar Rent a Car
• Visit San Marcos (community south of Managua) with Agros staff.
• Travel to FEV/El Eden
• Stay at FEV just north of community.
• Sunday April 19^th
• EWB Team Meeting at FEV in the morning.
• Go to El Eden community in the afternoon.
• Meet with Community Board to discuss expectations, etc.
• Camp at El Eden.
• Monday April 20^th
• Presentation/meeting with full community
• Work on El Eden site (Soil tests, water quality tests, survey land, start flow/head tests).
• Camp at El Eden
• Tuesday April 21^st
• Work on El Eden site. (finish flow/head tests and land surveying)
• Camp at El Eden
• Wednesday April 22^nd
• Travel to Matagalpa.
• Spend day checking on supplies, materials, prices, etc.
• Stay in Matagalpa.
• Thursday April 23^rd –
• Travel back to El Eden.
• Work on El Eden site. (finish up any odds and ends)
• Travel to San Jose?
• Stay at FEV.
• Friday April 24^th –
• Visit community one last time to say thank you, tell them when they can expect to hear from us, etc.
• Visit San Jose?
• Travel back to Managua mid-day.
• Stay in Managua
• Saturday April 25^th –
• Fly out of Managua at 12:10pm
• Arrive in U.S. at 8pm

Assessment Launch

Hello All,
I know that it has been quiet on the blog for awhile now! Those of us on the travel team have been busy getting ready for our departure. I think we are all set now that I have picked up the GPS unit and pea shooter from the Bolivia team. We are going to try to get as concise GPS points as possible so that we can map out the area for everyone to get a better picture of where everything is on the property. Hopefully it will work out! Of course, we will also be taking lots of pictures so that you will all see what we did.

FYI - my annual softball season through my work starts when I return and the games are on Monday nights. I was thinking that we would change the meeting nights to either Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. If you have a second, post a comment letting me know which of those days works best or worst for you and I will try to accomodate as many people as possible! We will likely be furiously working away on the post assessment for a couple of weeks after the trip, but I will try to schedule a meeting around the second or third week of May so that we can all re-group. I am sure we will be posting on the blog before that though, so keep your eyes open!

I am waiting to hear from Laurie at Agros for a few last minute details, but when I have the finished rough schedule, I will post it before we leave so you can all have an idea what we will be doing in country if you haven't been to meetings lately.

Looking forward to getting down to the site and getting some concrete information so that we can move forward with our design! Also looking forward to working with all of you again when we return!

Adios!
Ashley

Pumping/Energy Assessment Checklist

If anyone wants to look over the checklist pumping/energy team developed, I just uploaded it to the EWB-PSP web site. It may not be pretty, but it should work.

I believe you can find it here once logged in:

http://www.ewb-pugetsound.org/?q=webfm#
hint: look in the Nicaragua folder

Also, does anyone out there have access to a 100ft tape measure that we could borrow? Bonus points if it also has meters on it. Double bonus points if you can deliver.

Thanks,
Erin

Item list for trip

We are trying to put together a list of items that we need for our trip and who is going to be bringing them. Let us know if you can contribute by commenting! I will check the comments and edit the post as necessary. Also, feel free to make suggestions as well.

Items in bold are the ones that are still needed.

Camping/health
Tent - Ashley
Sleeping bags (3) - Erin(1), Ashley(1), Kari(1)
Sleeping pads(3) - Erin(2), Kari(1)
headlamps (3) - Erin(1), Ashley(1), Kari(1)
small lantern-Ashley
cookstove-Erin possibly
Pot, utensils, cups, bowls-Erin
Water filter with Pump and UV-Erin(pump), Amelia(UV)
Iodine tablets-Kari
Water Bottles (3)-Erin(1), Ashley(1), Kari(1)
First Aid Kit - Caroline
Mosquito nets/tents for the hotels(3)-Ashley(1), Kari(1)

Water Quality Test Kit
Sample bottles - Paul Moore and MDE
Written note from lab/EWB -Kari?

Soil Test Kit
Jars- in country

Flow/Head Measurement Kit
Small Tape Measures(3) -Ashley(1)
String-Erin
Floats(rubber duckys, boats, etc)-purchase
Carpenter's level- Ashley possibly
100 FT Tape measure-
Timer- Erin
Surveyor's tape-
Slope/Angle Measurement tool-

Energy Kit
Voltage Meter-Ashley(compliments of McDonald Miller:)
Multi-headed screwdriver - Ashley
Good pair of Gloves(2 or 3)-Ashley(1)

Documenting supplies
Calculators (2)- Ashley(1), Erin(1)
Pencils-
Graph Paper- Erin, Paul
Sharpie Markers- Paul
Laser Pointer-
Cameras-Erin(1), Ashley(1)

Team Meeting Agenda for 3/30/09

Meeting will be at Erin's house again.

856 NW 60th St.
Seattle, 98107

Agenda:

Ashley
- updates to project
-check on action items from last week's meeting

Attendees to Sunday's field testing
- results, thoughts, etc.

Lolly
-water task and supply checklist - should be posted to EWB-PSP or the blog by Monday's meeting, but just give a quick overview

Erin
-pumping task and supply checklist- should be posted to EWB-PSP or the blog by Monday's meeting, but just give a quick overview

Working Group Discussion
We mainly need to have a discussion about how to present materials to the community, how to be thorough in our findings, etc. Erin has been asking for this as well and I think it is good to go in with some ideas so that we are not flustered and throwing things together.
-how to discuss our intentions/expectations with the community
-what to say
-how to make sure we are getting input from all parts of the community, not just a select few
-what we need to document as far as results, concerns, etc
-extra things to pay attention to...

Ashley
-talk about a possible meeting for next monday just to be sure we are ready to go