Community Garden update

Below is a photo of the proposed area for the community garden. You can see the area outlined in pink of course. The area inside the sidewalks is 120' x 60'. I am told there is already water available there so that would make life a bit easier.
The location is nice. It is close to the center of the Belle Creek Community and being just off Hwy 85 (you can see on the right side of the photo) it is easily accessible. Parking isn't too bad because there are two large parking lots just one block away.

One of the concerns from the community board is the appearance. What will the garden look like when it is up and working? Of course they want it to be as eye-catching as possible. If anyone out there is into landscaping perhaps we can take some suggestions - how would you design this garden?

Hmmm, that's an idea! Perhaps we could have a competition to see who can design the best garden?

Bio-bag update

Follow-up from earlier blog regarding the use of biodegradable and compostable bags

Basically this is a great idea but it costs too much. I would be great to see these kind of items in wide use at the farmers markets especially considering how many are given out each year. If you have any ideas or suggestions let us know.

New videos coming online

We are having a blast creating the new videos on the Hippo website. The new videos I am referring to are those going on the business solution pages (insurance, merchant services, review, etc.) These videos explain the services or programs. We hope that these short vids will allow visitors to get an idea of what the program is about without having to sift through all the text on the pages. Try as I might to make the pages about insurance and merchant services exciting they are still a bit.....well, dry. I'm not saying that seeing a video with me will get any one's heart racing but I think it is a step in the right direction. Perhaps also, the vids will give the site more of that 'interactive' feel . We hope to have several more up soon.

So far we have videos up on the Blog Room, the Hippo Review, and the Insurance pages. It is still somewhat of a struggle to embed the videos so some of them are simply links to our youtube or google video sites. They work just fine that way so it is not a big issue. Besides, I am still mastering the editing process and they may change as I improve. I have to say that some of this techno stuff is a lot of fun.

Anyway, check out the vids and let me know what you think. And yes, I am trying to 'liven' them up a bit.

Going green with the Hippo

What to do about all those bag?

So again, we are talking about helping the farmers markets go Green by using biodegradable and /or compostable materials for their trash bags, shopping bags, plates, bowls, etc. We need some feedback on this and may have to act quickly. Please send this to your friends who may need some of the products next year. Thank you! VH

Going Green

So, I just met with a gentleman about "100% biodegradable and/or compostable consumable plastics" and possibly using them at farmers markets. In the past I have had market owners ask if we could provide them with a "green" solution to the plastic bags currently being used at the markets.

One solution is of course to provide them with canvas bags or something like that. One issue with that is the cost - the material bags are expensive and most markets expect to be reimbursed for thier cost by selling them to the customers that visit their markets. Unfortunately, that has not caught on and any large scale as of yet. People are going to use plastic bags; the vendors, the customers, etc. because they are still cheap and easy.

Perhaps useing the biodegradable and/or compostable materials are an alternative. A market could still go green by using these items. They would pay more than using regular plastic but considerably less than using canvas or other materials.

I will talk to some of the market owners and get a feel for what they want and see if they believe it would be worth there time and money. But folks, we have to face the facts, we can't afford to keep using the products we have grown accustomed to. We are going to have to change and stop ignoring the problems.

VH

Henderson Community Garden

Video shot at the corner of 104th Ave and Belle Creek Blvd in Henderson, CO.



If the community board decides they want to use this vacant lot as a community garden we need to start prepping the ground quickly before it freezes. Hopefully we could get to work before the end of November. We do need help and support however; everything from people willing to volunteer next year as far as local gardening experts, landscapers, and those who will be willing to use a shovel or a rake.

Click here to send an email to the Belle Creek Community Center. Drop them a line just to let them know you are interested in the project and would like to see it move forward.

Stay tuned to the Hippo for further developments.

Videos

A wise person once told me that to achieve your goals you must first look at what tools are available to you and then figure out how to reach your goal with those tools. In other words, you can't sit around and wait until you have exactly what you need or wait till the time is just right. Just do it!

So, I have been wanting to incorporate videos into the Hippo website. Using videos on the various pages to explain the business programs and services will help me connect better with our audience and also add a sense of interaction. The first one is at the top of the blog page for example.

Now my issue is that I am limited to a very old camcorder and a slightly outdated computer system which does not allow me to create high quality videos - at least not nearly what I had hoped for. But, as I said above, sometimes you just have to make do with what you have and stop waiting for the stars to align.

I will be creating videos for the different areas of the site as well as doing a video blog. Yes, the quality will be rather poor but perhaps in the future we can afford to buy some new stuff. I hope you enjoy them and please, if you have any suggestions or comments on them let me know.

Dan

Garden for 2009 going forward

We are moving forward with plans to start the community garden this week. It appears that if we are to be serious about this we must get started this year yet. According to some of the experts we are talking to we will have to break some ground no later than the end of November before the ground freezes.

It appears that our challenge right now is acquiring a water source. I will have to do some research but if anyone out there knows about this please let me know.

Gardening bloggers wanted

A great addition to the Hippo blog room would be a blog or 2 about community gardens; how to create them, how to use them, their benefits, costs, etc. If anyone out there is interested or knows of a good blog on the subject please let us know!

Hopefully, by the end of this week I will have met with the local community about the garden they want to start next year. I have already spoken to a couple of local experts and everyone seems very excited about the idea and ready to participate.

Community Garden Opportunity

We are very excited about something! I got a call yesterday from a local neighborhood interested in building a community garden next spring and they are perhaps looking for someone to take the lead. Vendor Hippo just happens to have a number of connections in this area. Our thinking is to perhaps include some local farmers as well as college students in the development of such a project. I can't wait to tell you more about it.

25 blog question

I mentioned in the last blog that we want to have 25 blogs on the Zone. What we want are folks who are interested in local food, farmers markets, etc. to post their blogs on our site. One of the reasons the Hippo was created in the first place was to provide a forum for market owners and vendors in our community to communicate freely. There are lots of issues that are discussed at the markets between individual vendors but those topics never seem to reach any sort of arena where they can be openly discussed...that is where the Hippo Zone comes in. We simply want an area on the site where people can open up and discuss matter that concern them.

The Zone!

So this week I started working on the Hippo blog area called the Zone. This is really my first introduction to creating blogs and even using them at all for that matter. I can see how people can get sucked into them. I have already met some great people online and made some business connections. One more of those things I suppose that once you use it you wonder how you could ever live without it.

While the Zone still needs more work I do have to move onto some of the other areas on the Hippo site. "Have to stick to the Plan!" So now that I have the Zone up and going at least I will keep up on it and continue to work toward having 25 individuals blogs up by the end of the year. I am still working on getting some of the little things working like the AdSense and such but hopefully people will start to recognize the usefulness of the Zone.

I am moving onto another chapter in the Go Google book and looking into Google Base. I have someone interested in placing up some unpublished material regarding business marketing and such.

Boulder Ignite

Some friends and I went to the Boulder Ignite meeting last night at CU. I had no idea what to expect - I half way expected a room full of stuffy business people talking about financial stuff. Boy was I in for a surprise! This group, probably 100 or so people, were young and funny as all get out. Granted, most of what they talked about went right over my head. I don't know how many times the entire group busted out laughing, including my friend Craig sitting next to me, and I would just sit there and have no idea what just happened.

One thing I can say is that this group was able to take a subject that for the most part makes my eyes fog over and make it fun and entertaining. I am very new to the language and everything surrounding the Internet but am learning. Perhaps next time I visit this group not so much of the humor will fly over my head.

Ignite Boulder Event

Vendor Hippo will be attending this event. For more info check out the site at http://igniteboulder-invitefriends.eventbrite.com/.

See you there!

No markets today

Well, I woke up today to a beautiful Colorado morning. Today the sun is shining, its warm, and I thought "hey, it would be a great day to go to a farmers market" but then discovered that most, if not all the markets in my area stopped at the end of September. Bummer! That's too bad not only for me, the consumer, but also for the vendors who could be out there pushing holiday stuff. Now, besides the weather which I agree can be questionable this time of year, why on earth wouldn't you keep your market open till at least the end of October? Hmmmm?