Nature's Best Seats

The school year has started and a few weeks ago we had some great volunteers help out in adding some seating to the new River Place Elementary outdoor classroom.  The volunteers helped to lay out a border around the seating area and install mulch.  Through some very kind donations, we were able to pick up some stumps to add as seating for the outdoor classroom.  All of our Titan helpers got a chance to test out the new stumps and let us know if they were Titan-worthy.  

Thanks again to the Home Depot Foundation and our local Four Points Home Depot for helping with materials and delivery.  Mike Reichert, the manager over at Four Points HD, came out as he has done many times to help us get things done. 

Lisa Pizinger and her daughter Ana helped get those border stones lined up and dug in. 

Jodie Semelsberger and her sons helped get the mulch laid flat.

Ethan Semelsberger checks Bonnie Martin's border layout to make sure it is straight.

Seating area waiting for Titans to start school and come enjoy the garden! Thanks to all the volunteers who helped out.

Let the rain dance begin...

Meet Ben and John from Austin Green Water.  They came out  Monday to deliver and install our new rain barrels for the Titan Gardens.  And following closely behind, Austin Gutter King installed our gutter on the low side of the roof that will feed directly into these barrels. 

 

Want to know how much rain we can catch...yes, I know...ha, ha, if it ever rains?  But it WILL rain again.  And knowing our weather here, at some point it won't just be a sprinkle but a deluge.  OK, so let's figure it out together how much rain we can collect off of the NEW outdoor classroom roof.

First, calculate the square footage of the roof.  17 feet x 17 feet = 289 sq. ft.  Now, 1" of rainfall provides approximately 600 gallons of water for a 1,000 square foot catchment area.  That means that a 1" rainfall hitting our 289 sq. ft. of roof will catch approximately 173 gallons of water.  And Austin gets an average rainfall of 32" per year which means we could potentially catch over 5500 gallons of water per year. 

We are excited to have our new rain catchment system, excited to show it to all of you and excited to teach the kids about water conservation and renewable resources.  Thanks to Austin Green Water and Austin Gutter King for their donations of materials and labor and helping us continue to create a fantastic outdoor learning area for the River Place Titans and our community. Now, bring on the rain!