When we visited the school to meet with the Marsha Jones, the teacher who is responsible for the wool carpet reuse initiative, it was great to see first hand how our products were being recycled to benefit the flowers and plants. As you can see from previous posts on this blog, others have commented specifically about this in some detail.
What was really wonderful and more important was seeing Marsha’s eyes light up when we asked how her students responded to the whole gardening experience!
I commented that a significant number of these students would never have been exposed to gardening ever before and I asked about how their attitudes and interest changed over the course of the year?
“The students seemed to sort themselves into natural groups,” said Marsha;
The “diggers”, as she called them – they love to dig. The garden plots, ditches, holes, ponds, and channels – anything at all that needed digging.
The “cultivators” – they nurtured the seedlings and young plants until they were ready for planting.
The “planters” – they actually planted the plants and watched over them.
Marsha also commented that everything did not always go as smoothly as she would like but of course they are kids and that is very natural and in fact part of the whole learning process.
She was also extremely excited about how some children in particular flourished in the outdoor garden environment. While some of them were not necessarily the best students in terms of their book grades they were amazing in the garden and it may have helped them find a direction in their career path.
So what is more important?
Seeing kids being given this learning experience by a passionate and committed teacher!
There’s lots of interesting things about wool on this blog, I had read somewhere that wool is warm in cool climates and cool in warm climates – how can that be the case?
Thank you for your question regarding the insulation properties of wool fibre. A brief answer is presented by the following excerpts from http://www.wool.com which is owned by Australian wool growers. These excerpts specifically talk about Merino wool, which is generally used in apparel however these same attributes apply to all wool fibers, including those found in good quality wool carpets.
Merino is renowned for its warmth but what is less well known is that the Bedouin tribes of the Sinai have been wrapping themselves in wool for centuries. Merino keeps you warm when you’re cold, and cool when you’re hot.
Temperature control
Merino garments protect you from extremes of temperature because they offer superior insulation to most textiles.
Insulation due to trapped air
Since the conductivity of air is less than a tenth that of most textiles (Fig 1), the thermal insulation provided by a fabric is due not to the fibres themselves but the air trapped between the fibres. Merino is much finer than most other textiles, so, for a given weight, it contains more air spaces, and hence provides greater insulation.
Insulation proportional to thickness
Furthermore, since fabric insulation bears a direct relationship to its thickness (Fig 2), the ability to brush up the surface of Merino allows you to increase its effective thickness and hence its insulation without increasing its weight.
Protection from hot and cold
Merino’s insulation capacity has made it synonymous with warmth, yet the ability to insulate the wearer from extremes of cold also helps protect the individual from excessive heat. Like the Thermos™ that keeps hot beverages hot and cold beverages cold, Merino insulates you from the worst of the ambient temperature. This explains why Merino has been worn by both Shackleton on his Antarctic adventures and by the Bedouin of the Sinai.
Moisture transport
The climate above the skin becomes saturated with vapour, which will make the individual clammy unless their attire can absorb and release this moisture.
The ability to absorb moisture vapour expressed as a percentage of its dry weight is known as the fibre’s regain. For synthetics the regain can be as low as 1%, for cotton it’s 24%, while Merino has the highest regain with an ability to absorb 35% of its own dry weight in water. (Fig 4)
This higher regain means that Merino is better able to absorb the moisture vapour produced by the wearer and so lower the humidity in the micro-climate between the skin and the garment. (Fig 5)
Similarly, more information can be obtained from the following link; http://woolsnz.com/en-US/benefits/natural-comfort/sensory-comfort.aspx
Thanks Admin, it sounds from the above that a good wool carpet would be great at keeping the heating bills down in cold weather, but what are your thoughts about underflor heating?
Thank you for your comment and question.
Bellbridge Wool carpets are suitable for underfloor heating.
As you would guess the denser the carpet the more resistance it will provide for the transfer of heat.
But our carpets have often been used in such situations.
Whilst dense wool carpets may take longer for the heat to reach the surface they do hold their heat longer once the source heat has been switched off.
The the use of an pad/underlay also has an impact in this area.