STAY IN THE KNOW

As we prepare for the unknown in the Valley, everyone has begun to get very excited. There is so much to do with setting up for base camp and our first projects. There have and will be many initial set ups, from putting up tents to toilets. After developing a comfortable living situation we decided the first big project would be composting. As we all felt it would be easy to set up, a necessity and that we would be able to move on quickly to the fun and not so smelly projects. Thanks to Anne Walker stumbling upon a man named Brian Barnes, at The Londoner Panama British Pub, we got some solid information. She set up a meeting with him so we could pick his brain. Four amazing directors (Anne, Mimi, Ashley and Brad), four sweaty interns in tropical attire, and John, my soon to be best friend (the chef) met Brian. He is a professor at the University of Louisville while also managing their food waste composting program. We all learned a ton from him. We discussed everything from our first steps to turning our little rubber maid trash can into compost for thousands. If we want to turn our trash into treasure we knew we needed supplies first. The list included such things as pallets, hardware cloth, 130 degrees, some food scrapes, worms and a willing laborer, check. There would be more research to do on things from where we will be able to set up our system, to the types of worms we have in the valley to potential Aquaponitcs. Let the fun begin for the 19 young adults beginning their journey.