The Spirited Educators: The Arctic Gardeners

So I have decided to undertake growing an indoor garden here. I love the idea of fresh herbs and veggies while it's cold and snowing outside. We have enough space in the kitchen to have a few bins around the edges to have our "garden". It has lots of natural light right now and as things get darker I will supplement with grow lights. My folks sent me up some starter soil and seeds which should get things started which is awesome. However the challenge comes when I need to re-pot the seedlings into larger bins as I need to find a large amount of soil to plant the seedlings into. Shipping up that much soil is not an option as it is very expensive so I have been scouting the area looking for the most fertile patches of grass outside. We went out today in the pouring rain (it's been doing that a lot lately) and found some soil, well, sort of. It was very wet and sandy, but it's the best they have up here. We brought it home and separated out the clumps of roots and soil and placed it near a window to start drying out. I am hoping to get a few more loads before the ground freezes. It snowed hard yesterday so winter is coming soon. I am working on buying some red wiggler worms to start worm composting to add good, high quality soil to the plants. It has been a challenge to locate someone near Ottawa or Montreal but I think I found someone ( wormgirl ) that may work. The idea is the worms eat paper and veggie food scraps and they turn that into good quality soil. So, I'll keep you posted.

We had our first dinner party last night and everyone had a good time. It was nice to be social again and Lily had a great time once she got over being shy. We all ended up playing "Just Dance" on the wii which allows up to 4 people to dance at one time. It was so much fun. Margot and I have been playing more as my ankle is improving. The problem is Margot is super good and kicks my butt most of the time!

I have included a picture of some of my students during our shorline cleanup the other day.

OH MY!!!!!! Moments ago while writing this I heard a noise outside. I turn on the porch light and look out as I hear footsteps charging up/down (?) the stairs, I open the door to see three bodies tearing through the darkness away from our house. I look down and see the bin that I keep our BBQ in is unlatched. A week or so ago we had three small propane tanks stolen and it looks like the thieves came back to see if we have more. I had no idea why they wanted it until I bought more at lunch last week and as the kids were coming into the classroom they saw me putting my groceries onto the counter in the class and I was approached by one of the kids. She asked me if I was going to smell the propane. I said "What?" And she explained that people inhale it to get high. I was and still am floored. I told her what I used it for and she had no idea what I was talking about. I don't think the locals BBQ much. So, after this I keep the tanks inside as they are a bit pricey at $12.00 each. Actually, I have to ask the manager at the store for them as they don't keep them on the floor of the store, I guess that's why. What a crazy place. (I have to add that after the original theft Margot said she figured it had been taken for that very reason but I didn't believe her because I had never heard of anyone inhaling propane to get high.)

We have a few kids who live in our building and the other day they built a tent out of sheets and such in the "field" across the street from us. They have played in it everyday since. It does not matter if it is raining, snowing or blowing they are out there. Oh, and in the one photo, you can see that one of the girls is wearing an amauti, pronounced AH-MAOW-TEE in which she carries her baby doll just like grown women carry their babies. So CUTE!! I love kids, it doesn't matter where you are, they just want to play and have fun.