blog for Lance Mallette's October activities a little late

Hello All,

This month has been full of activities. We had work days in many Rain Gardens around town, at the Rock Bridge Elementary School, West Boulevard Elementary School, Bethel-Cosmos Park and the Bluffs Retirement Home. I really like the idea of using Rain Gardens as a part of outdoors classrooms, and the Bluffs Retirement Home is neat because the residents are getting to participate in picking out plants.
As well as getting the Rain Gardens ready for winter we built Rain Barrels for the first time. This was a good time and good practice. We have set a goal to sell 500 Rain Barrels. Yes, 500. We met with the Stormwater Educator for the City of Columbia, Mike Heimos, and discussed various strategies to encourage Rain Barrel purchase and use. Some of the ideas include: a possible utilities rebate for Rain Barrel purchase, advertising in the city newsletter and various utilities company's newsletters. We could call this the RAIN BARREL 500. Anyway.

So, the real thing I want to blog about. So, part of our grant to build Rain Gardens on public/institutional properties includes an educational sign explaining what a Rain Garden is all about. No, problem. I can build wooden signs. Julia, Rebecca and I set out to look at as many Rain Garden signs as we could find. Oh, man, we found some good ones, the frame made of steel and the sign itself somehow printed on a street sign type of aluminum, steel and aluminum, in other words a long lasting good looking sign. Alas, I cannot build steel signs. After getting quotes from some steel and sign companies I realized this was way over our budget. Also, due to the state of the economy, and probably partially due to my inexperience in asking for donations, I wasn't able to drum up donations for the signs. So, in my dispair, my roommate, LJ, who is taking a welding class through the Columbia Area Career Center suggested that I ask her welding instructor if he would be willing to have his class build the sign frames. I contacted the instructor and he said, "sure." So, I priced the steel and discovered that we can afford the steel and with the help of the Career Center, we just might get steel signs yet. So, today at 1:00 Julia and I will be meeting with the instructor to discuss this possiblity, cross your fingers.
Oh yeah, we are also getting ready for the Rain Barrel Art Reveiw. This year we decided to prime the barrels for the artist. At the Habitat for Humanity's second hand store we found some high quality paint/primer on the cheep. A former employer of mine, Wayne Guarilia (sp), owner of Oakstone Construction, offered the use of the spray room in his cabinet shop. We will be working on this next week.
Well, I am sure that I am forgetting many things, so, stay tuned for more blogs. Thanks everyone for your good vibes. Take Care.
Your Blogger,
Lance Mallette