Dunbar Memorial Garden

Our first work date at the Dunbar Memorial Garden was on 7/7/07. Several weeks later a few of the students decided it would be a great idea to start a blog" on our work. Due to a series of unfortunate events the blog was never "posted."

Information on the reason and purpose of the garden is available by visiting the Jesse Higginbotham Technology Trust website and clicking the "projects" button. Be certain to visit the photo slide shows to see just what we have accomplished since that first date of our labor of love.
Below is the first blog from 2007 which is more like a list of our hourly progress. I am keeping it in that format since the notes were recorded by our steadfast, incomparable, tried-and-true super power, James Richardson.
(P.S. We will attempt to do additional backpedaling along the way from now on)
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Blog for day 08/18/2007
We have an estimated thirty to thirty-five people here- about the regular turnout
09:15- James R
-Start work for sixth or seventh week
-Chelly returns! ….And disappears again for Ameri Corp
-Found an eighth picnic table…. Matt W. and Thomas D. (traitorous fool that went to Lafayette are repairing it and then it will be painted later on today
-What the heck… somebody brought a rototiller
-Yay. Two chain gangs today.
-Four people- hopefully more from Phase IV- where Jerome works- are coming to lay the pavers for our pathway
-Somebody keeps writing the extended version of an expletive on the purple hand-printed picnic table; this is second time, we’re gonna paint over it again
-Jim Embry is here!!!!!!!
-Moving pavers
-Aaron’s gift to Hannah
-Moving gravel
10:00
-Cycle of recycled pavers from the ground, to the truck, up the hill, unload into barrels, take to pathway, repeat; a few stragglers lol
-Pavers were being unloaded to the barely orderly piles, and also into a bunch of wheelbarrows, where we are carting them over to the pile beside the gravel path
-Wheelbarrows are being re-commandeered for gravel moving from Jerome’s truck
-Food- Rebecca makes good breakfast items
-Work on other table looks like its coming along good
-Multiple people from Bryan Station High School are here too

As mentioned earlier, today's main task was moving pavers from the bottom of the hill to the top of the hill; from there, the pavers were moved to the pathway. Our main method for transportation up the hill. The pictures show the disorganized piles of pavers meant for the garden's pathways. Gravel moved from Jerome's truck helped to level the pavers on the pathways.
10:15
-Some of us take water breaks
-Kids roll around on the dolly
-Repairs to the table; smoothing the pathway
-28+ people are working hard
-Amber H. back from somewhere and Steven B. are finally here, after having not been here since the very beginning of the summer!!!
-Pavers are very close to being laid... Six weeks of work, and we're finally laying them!
-Make it about... 30 or so people
-Josh's table moved into the grass
-Hannah's here- she's late, from what somebody said
-A soil "compactor" has been running on and off for the past few minutes, and it's actually becoming level.
-Hopefully the last load of needed gravel has been brought

-Sanding on the last table has begun, and is well on its way.
-PAVERS ARE BEING LAID!!!
-Nobody knew that Steven was a brick layer- he's doing well, on the leading edge
-That pathway is looking awesome, and approaching about a third done
-Five or six people are throwing art ideas around
-The little ones are hauling the pavers around.... and each other
-This laptop, being black, is becoming extra hot
-Creative juices are flowing through everybody, this place is truly looking like a place dedicated to people we loved and truly cared about
-Of course, the school's network is a pain, and we can't find the wireless network- we get to go elsewhere afterwards and upload this blog there, fun.
-Three of the four wheelbarrows, plus the dolly, are being used to haul pavers from the pile out to the pathway
-Steven: "I respect them. Any time I walk past a paved sidewalk, I will walk in the grass. I will admire the paved sidewalk, but I will not soil it! Gardeners throw down some water and mow; they don't have nothing on brick laying."

-The pavers on the main pathway are coming close to completion- they'll probably finish them by the end of the time here today. As always, we're running past our time
-Our pile of pavers from the first day of paver moving- chain gang day- is almost completely gone, maybe twenty to thirty left in it. Our second pile, of course, has a ton left on it- several more wheelbarrow loads
-The secondary pathways- off to the two plots to the side- are being set down in wood, and will probably be worked on next week- chances are, it won't be done this week
-Three thousand pavers are a lot to move, but, they aren't all dedicated to the path; there will be some to do borders around the three twenty five by twenty five foot plots
-We actually recycled the bottles today... Glad of it. Don't need to trash bottles that can be recycled
-People are beginning to drift out, the numbers have dropped to an estimated twenty or so
-All in all, lots dne today, and things are looking very good
-The areas that we leveled out, seeded, and hayed, are beginning to yield grass shoots- it's only been a week since we put it down!