Thursday, May 11, 2006
Our first party in one of the strawbale cabins; Jen's pouring the margaritas
Jo playing guitar
Blurry Spike curled up
Biker Paul on his way to Elora
Biker Jen preparing to do the same
Picnic by Belwood Lake
Ducklings and Duck in Elora
Some falls in the Elora Gorge
Horizontal in the violets and dandylions
Flowing cedar roots, rocks and grasses on the side of the gorge
Morning
Kelly and Megan (Everdale interns) and Ali (Whole Circle intern) in the field at Ignatius
Rachel and Jo (in focus)
CRAFT team effort: planting onions
Jen and Kelly walking to the van
2006 Everdale Interns: Kelly, Megan, Alex, Jen, Jo and you-know-who
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Hi boys and girls. It's been almost three weeks again. Sorry this keeps happening. I'm just so busy here, and having too much of a good time. The office is up on a hill, and scaling that hill just to post to my blog after a hard day's work just doesn't cut it for me. I'd much prefer to have a tasty, relaxing dinner and then have a beer with the gang by a bonfire. Surely you understand.
The weather here has been really nice. It was hot the first week, then it cooled down for a week or so, and gradually it's warmed up again. Today is our first day of real rain. Last night we worked extra late to cover some newly excavated slopes with straw and hay so that they didn't erode when it started to pour. We finished it by twilight. Gavin's very clued in with the weather. It did pour today, and the hay seems to have really preserved the shape of the slope.
Most of yesterday, however, was spent at the season's first CRAFT Day at Ignatius Farm, which is close to Guelph. (Everdale, Ignatius, Whole Circle, and a number of other regional farms are all members of CRAFT, a network of organic farms that have farming internships.) It was a nice change of scenery and fun to get to know the other CRAFT interns of 2006. Rachel was there (the Everdale intern from 2005, if you recall); she is an intern at Meeting Place farm this year. Conclusion of yesterday's field trip: The world of farming is huge and fascinating, and I have a lot to learn about it.
We interns have been very busy here, but enjoying virtually every minute of it. There has been a lot of greenhouse work this week: seeding, transplanting, mixing potting soil. On Monday I held a short talk about biointensive gardening for a group of high school students who've been spending time at Everdale. They were a great help. They fully weeded the gardens, harvested last year's parsnips and garlic, and raked them flat. They almost even double-dug them, but not really. We're going to have to do that ourselves properly before we sow our vegetables. We need the experience, anyway.
Last weekend Jen and I bicycled to Elora and camped in the Elora Gorge. It takes about 3 hours of riding on pretty flat terrain to get there, but we took breaks. Elora is a very pretty town, and the gorge is gorgeous (sorry, I couldn't resist). I'll post some pictures of our trip soon.
All the interns have been doing tractor work, just tilling the fields for now (using different disc-based and tine-based implements). We've also done lots of seed broadcasting (mostly clover and trefoil). We converted the Disaster Area to the Victory Flats (organized all the random junk that was lying around into neat piles, and threw out lots of stuff). We helped with Seedy Saturay a couple weeks ago, Everdale's first public event. Alex and I were the cooks (vegan chili & cornbread). And lots of other stuff has been happening, including building a livestock shelter, moving chickens around, leveling a porch, stacking wood, rock-picking, cooking lunches, and much more.
So that's about where I'm at. I'll post some pics now.
The weather here has been really nice. It was hot the first week, then it cooled down for a week or so, and gradually it's warmed up again. Today is our first day of real rain. Last night we worked extra late to cover some newly excavated slopes with straw and hay so that they didn't erode when it started to pour. We finished it by twilight. Gavin's very clued in with the weather. It did pour today, and the hay seems to have really preserved the shape of the slope.
Most of yesterday, however, was spent at the season's first CRAFT Day at Ignatius Farm, which is close to Guelph. (Everdale, Ignatius, Whole Circle, and a number of other regional farms are all members of CRAFT, a network of organic farms that have farming internships.) It was a nice change of scenery and fun to get to know the other CRAFT interns of 2006. Rachel was there (the Everdale intern from 2005, if you recall); she is an intern at Meeting Place farm this year. Conclusion of yesterday's field trip: The world of farming is huge and fascinating, and I have a lot to learn about it.
We interns have been very busy here, but enjoying virtually every minute of it. There has been a lot of greenhouse work this week: seeding, transplanting, mixing potting soil. On Monday I held a short talk about biointensive gardening for a group of high school students who've been spending time at Everdale. They were a great help. They fully weeded the gardens, harvested last year's parsnips and garlic, and raked them flat. They almost even double-dug them, but not really. We're going to have to do that ourselves properly before we sow our vegetables. We need the experience, anyway.
Last weekend Jen and I bicycled to Elora and camped in the Elora Gorge. It takes about 3 hours of riding on pretty flat terrain to get there, but we took breaks. Elora is a very pretty town, and the gorge is gorgeous (sorry, I couldn't resist). I'll post some pictures of our trip soon.
All the interns have been doing tractor work, just tilling the fields for now (using different disc-based and tine-based implements). We've also done lots of seed broadcasting (mostly clover and trefoil). We converted the Disaster Area to the Victory Flats (organized all the random junk that was lying around into neat piles, and threw out lots of stuff). We helped with Seedy Saturay a couple weeks ago, Everdale's first public event. Alex and I were the cooks (vegan chili & cornbread). And lots of other stuff has been happening, including building a livestock shelter, moving chickens around, leveling a porch, stacking wood, rock-picking, cooking lunches, and much more.
So that's about where I'm at. I'll post some pics now.
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