Twl on

Harvest Fair!

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

shed at Johnson Farm ready for Harvest Fair

Be sure to come to the Trust for Working Landscape’s Harvest Fair this Sunday at Johnson Farm!

Water, farming, dandelions.

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Water access and rights inhabit more farming conversations than just about any other topic. This weekend and last the TWL installed a new irrigation system for the orchard, p-patches, horses and farms at Johnson Farm – the water is pumped from the pond and makes it way through underground pipes. Yesterday we finished laying the pipe and backfilled the majority of the trench.

flowers in the trench

My daughter added her manpower: picking up rocks, backfilling with her very own rake and sprucing up the scar while it heals.

TWL, alders, timber!

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The latest edition in the TWL work party series removed a number of alders growing on the Crawford property which, in full leaf, significantly shade the grapes on Day Road Farm – on the last farm walk I noticed while elsewhere on the farm the full sun had melted the morning frost this section of the farm still remained white late in the day.

I had never participated in the felling of trees so tall so I watched and learned, fortunately most of the volunteers have years of experience. I think the combination of tree-felling and bring-your-own-chainsaw greatly increased the usual attendance – we had enough volunteers for two separate teams of ropers, pullers and fellers.

TWL, animoto, expo.

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Since the mochi festival I’ve been honing my animoto production skills. I like the service quite a bit though there are some improvements I’d love see – an API and a better image browser top the list.

The Trust for Working Landscapes has a booth at the Healthy Living Expo this weekend so I decided to work on a animotion we could loop. Behold!

I upgraded to the DVD version for the show to run the video full-screen but I’m disappointed the images are still a bit grainy. I added the images by using animoto’s fetch-from-smugmug feature so I’m not sure if it fetched the full-size images. I’m going to try again uploading the originals directly to see if there’s an improvement.

Farms, walk, snow.

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I returned to the Day Road farms last Sunday for my first Farm Walk.

The walk, 2.2 miles in total, covered a number of different properties under various stages of development, from actively being farmed to actively being reclaimed by the forest.

tower and vines

We started at the farm stand and made our first stop at the historic water tower recently moved from Winslow.

Invasives, chipper, farm work.

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Throughout high school I worked for the city in the landscape crew fixing front lawns ruined by snow plows or sewer renovations. One of the primary, and more memorable, experiences from that job was walking the streets behind a chipper and loading all the residents’ brush through rotating drums ready to suck in your arm as easily as the maple branches ripping at your legs – it was stressful and exhausting.

Snow, trees, sky.

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

We finally received our promised snow.

snow, trees, sky

It was a perfect day in my book: a roaring fire all day at home, snowmen in the yard with my daughter in the morning and a farm walk with TWL in the afternoon – more to come on an active TWL weekend.

TWL, Board, me.

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The amount of time spent volunteering has been one of the great changes in our lives since moving. For me, it’s usually either maintaining the forest trails or helping with farm work on behalf of the Trust for Working Landscapes.

For the TWL I’ve recently participated in a couple of different parties:

day road irrigation project

Day Road irrigation,

greenhouses

deconstructing the greenhouses

Spiders, mushrooms, Harvest Fair, fall.

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

A face-full of spider webs as I hunt for a carpet of mushrooms confirms fall’s arrival.

forest floor of mushrooms

This banded spider, weaving away on a rhododendron, was kind enough to pose for photos.

banded garden spider

running away

On Saturday I volunteered with the TWL in preparation for the Harvest Fair. Bart and I moved about five truck loads of brush from one side of the farm to another – Bart on the tractor, I loading with the pitchfork. In the process we unearthed at least half-a-dozen mice, a baby frog and a newt – the eyes of a newt must have been the influence for Gollum’s. I really found the eyes mesmerizing – it’s no wonder so many magic potions call for their inclusion, they are other-wordly.

Greenhouses, up and down.

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Under perfect blue skies and warm temperatures, I volunteered a couple of hours labor on Saturday to help the Trust for Working Landscapes and a local farmer deconstruct two large greenhouses for relocation on another farm.

start

When I arrived the crew was re-attaching the frame supports in order to give the structure enough stability to be taken apart.

full rib

The basic idea was to get on the tall ladders, detach the cross beams from rib-to-rib and then pull the sides apart. Working on a ladder 15+ feet high, my known incompetence with all things construction and the general limited knowledge of how to bring the structure down safely made the first couple of minutes a bit, um, nerve-wracking (at least for me).