Agave drag!

Me and Jamie

Big day! We had to get the corner of 17th and Pennsylvania cleaned out and a lot of spiky plants put in as a deterrent to more homeless encampments at our volunteer day today, and the team comprised me, Matt, Chris, Jamie and Aditi. H'm, smallish team for such a big job, but "OK: we will see how far we get" I thought.

Luckily, we had help from some additional people, as you'll soon read...

Right away, Jamie, Aditi and I removed two huge Lavatera bushes from the corner, and several trash bags of garbage - the remains of a large encampment. I put n a 311 request for the trash, and Aditi put in a text to the SF AIDS Foundation for needle pickup.

Ready to drag!

Meanwhile, Matt and Chris set about trying to dig out a huge Agave franzosinii from up the street. After removing ht ebottom leaves and digging around the base a bunch, as well as removing a large pup for later use, they quickly determined that the Agave was not coming out due to the rock hard dirt.

After all that effort, they moved on to another Agave franzosinii and started preparing it to move too.

Cody

Having uprooted it at last, they managed to wrestle it onto a tarp. It was much to heavy (maybe 300#?) to drag down the street by hand though, so next they moved the truck in place to do the job, only to discover that the rope that lives in the back of the truck was missing.

I popped over to San Francisco Paint Source and asked if they could lend us a rope. Cody was happy to oblige! Back at the truck the Agave was lassoed and finally made it's way down the street... slowly...

Check out our Facebook page for a video of the Agave being dragged down the street!

Michael

Meanwhile Michael from the SF AIDS Foundation came by to pick up the needles: Thanks Michael!

After the Agave made it down the street, the guys discovered they'd need to get it from the curb into the bed. Not so easy... it was too heavy to drag, the tarp underneath it was pretty shredded by now, and it was all starting to seem a bit much.

Back to the paint shop I went and Cody this time supplied a very sturdy dolly. Thanks Cody!

Mike

As I was wheeling the dolly down the street I saw that a random passer-by, Mike, had been dragged into the fray to help move the plant.

Completely unfazed by the request, he leapt into action and helped manhandle the plant into place, getting pretty dirty in the process and no doubt acquiring a few scrapes as well.  Thanks Mike!

Finally in place!

Between the 4 of us we got the Agave planted, as well as a large Austrocylindropuntia subulata, a Yucca aloifolia and some other Opuntia pads.

Phew... what a day! Well done team :)