Rain Barrel Sale! Order by April 22 and pick it up on April 27th

A great way to help control and save storm water is by owning a rain barrel or a rain diverter.  Go to www.rainbarrel.ca/fhtreegen to order yours today.

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Spring is arriving soon!?

Spring is arriving.  We have hints of it a day or two at a time.  Who says spring has to be warm weather all at once.  Last year it got hot in March and stayed and then it didn’t rain much.  So enjoy the April showers and look forward to May flowers. Like in the old days!

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Fall colours come to Forest Hill

The trees are changing quite nicely.  I look at them and think back to when it was all bare and desolate looking.  Thanks to all who have helped in any way to make our school yard look nicer.  It did help having the school board put in new construction, replacement trees and some new asphalt. Thanks to the Waterloo District School board.

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A BIG thank you for all our volunteers who watered over the summer!

I would like to thank the following people who came out and watered during these hot spring and summer months.  All 28 trees that were newly planted since spring 2011 were watered twice a week, with only three good rain days to allow for a skipped watering day. The VonWeyhe Family,  The Blenkhorn Family,  The Bristow Family,  The Ikpotkin Family,  The Park Family,  The Watson Family,  and The Hunter Family. 

Some of the trees that were not in the best shape when planted by John’s Nursery look pretty sad but hopefully they will survive and bounce back in the spring.  If they die I hope that the nursery will have some sort of year warranty replacement for the school board.

We will continue to water through the fall hoping for rain to come.  Its funny but last fall I posted rain, rain go away now I pray for rain on a daily basis 🙂

 

With out these people who gave three hours of their time at least twice this summer

 

 

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Summer is here and we ask for a good rainy day once a week.

Watering has been happening twice a week so far for over a month. Some families have volunteered to help out and that is wonderful news! Thank you – Von Weyhe, Park, Watson, Bristow, Hunter and the Ikpotokin families!

See all the trees at the back of the school and imagine the shade that will be there in ten years.

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Meeting Minutes- March 27, 2012

March 27, 2012

Meeting Notes
Attendees:

Laurie Hunter, Melanie Bristow, Andrea VonWeyHe

Agenda:

Bank Balance: $4904.04

– $496.18 received via an HST Rebate that Sharon Watson submitted on our behalf

Planning:

What are our plans for 2012?

1)      How much is construction going to hamper what we can
do?-We may still have one year of construction so we are limited in what we can plan
for close to the school

-The bus turn around may change again so any plans along the side will have to wait.

-The board is planting 12 trees to replace 6 cut down last year.  These will be mainly by the basketball nets on the junior side.  We are thinkingabout putting in an outdoor class seating/ half circle near these trees to utilyze the small hill.

2)      Where can we plant this year?

We want to plan a couple of groves of trees on the far side of the soccer fields.  The sun comes from that direction so these trees will provide shade for resting players or people
watching.  Some seating rocks or benches would be great there too.

3)  Fundraising? Garage Sale?

-We have decided not to take part in the garage sale this year but next March we
will fully take advantage of the Victoria Hills community centre garage sale
event and will solicit donations from community members for sale items.  We raised over $800 in 2011.

-we will apply for some smaller grants this spring but plan to apply for bigger grants when we have no construction restraints and an official drawing done.

4)  Do we want to have a full plan drawn up?

-Although we want  a more professional type of drawing of our plans done by a college student, due to construction issues we are leary of spending the money to have a drawing done up.  We could spend that money on another tree instead.

-we are trying to get a volunteer to draw a more accurate picture

5) Volunteer Drive

-Laurie to write up a volunteer flyer to go home this month. Looking for volunteers for
helping to water in the spring and summer months as well as some people to come
out with a variety of skills.

6)Wood chips ok’d for around the climber area. This area gets very muddy in spring and
fall so we are putting school grade wood chips.  Also with the two new trees that are being
planted by the board at the corner of the climber and the asphalt we will fill this area with wood chips to help deal with the water that usually accumulates there.

7) Other ideas

– log trail,  pvc pipe pillars,  benches

8) Future endeavors

*possible Solar panels on the school roof? There are grants out there for this kind of project and Melanie’s husband Jarrett installs them at work so we can get free labour! Find out how the WRDSB feels about this.

Watering Plan

Laurie and Andrea have volunteered to water the trees weekly if insufficient rain and a summer schedule will be drawn up after we have sent out the flyer asking for volunteers.  We have buckets in place but will need 12 more for the newest trees.  We have purchased a 50 foot hose will fill buckets and walk them to the trees to water.  There are 3 outside faucets that work with a special key, one at the front of the school behind the bushes close to the junior end of the school and one on either side of the kindergarten wing.

5 trees in front, 8 trees from fall 2011, 12 trees from spring 2012

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What a wonderful early spring we are having!

Wow!  Shorts in March is a great feeling isn’t it? As I see the trees we planted start to bud, I look forward to more trees on our playground.  We are lucky to have 12 trees promised for our school yard to replace the trees that were cut down last year for drainage and construction purposes.  We will be having a meeting next week to discuss what we want to do along with those trees as well as our next set of trees and rocks or natural play ideas that we  wanted to do in the field.  Our committee has shrunk slightly so we are hoping for more people to come out to the meeting or to volunteer to help with implementation.  Look forward to seeing a more natural school yard as the year goes on.

Have a great spring!

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Happy New Year!

Well into the start of January and the weather is as confusing as ever with above zero temperatures.  Not much snow for the kids to climb on or make snowmen.  And frozen water or mud preventing children from going on the field.  I have been told that the children have been banned from the rocks because the kept playing king of the rock and trying to get others to push them off.  I’m not sure that banning the children from going on the rocks is smart.  How about teaching them right from wrong instead of ruining it for everyone.  Sometimes it seems that is how the world is going these days.

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Thank you TD and Metro!

Once again rain has prevented us from taking pictures by our new trees but some of the Gold Eco team and the TreeGeneration Kids come out to say thanks!

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Merry Christmas!

It seems like the weather is always against us whenever we plan an event for the Forest Hill’s TreeGeneration! It has been a long and drawn out process to get everything completed for the first project. We kept planning a celebration but kept getting rain on the days we planned. Finally we decided to at least get some kids and our families together to get a thank you photo done so we can get our recognition wall up for all to see. The signs were made and what happens, it pours! We did not cancel though and took the picture inside. We are still very grateful to TD-FEF and METRO for their support of our project and hope to convey that to them. We have had some issues because we were new at this and did not know every step and so are still trying to finalize the financial and tax receipt issues. I am posting the picture of our trees and rocks that have been taken since. With all the rain we have discovered a river flows through our sitting area so wood chips are a definate must for spring. and also we need to look at fixing some high spots that prevent the water from flowing to the storm drain.

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