This weekend we had a natural building workshop. My buddy the growing fire intern got to perform his personal project, in which he took control and led us on a interactive plastering demo. I loved it. Something about troweling plaster puts me in zen mode.
Early this week we had some young kids come to the ETC for KTC (kids to the country). This is a program here where kids from local areas and even bigger cities get to come to The Farm to experience what it is like here, and be able to grow a appreciation for nature. I love the idea of re-wilding our children to get them in touch with our roots. They got to play with Cobb and plaster. They came again the day after where one of the other interns got to do her personal project. She created this interactive game for the children to play. It was a delightful game where they learned the importance of bees and pollination. They made seed balls with biochar, clay, and seeds. All this was super valuable information for children their ages in my opinion.
The community here has expressed how much they appreciate me and all that I do. They have told me a couple times that they don’t want me to leave. That’s how I want my relationship with every community I go to. I want to leave a lasting positive impression and impact on everyone I come in contact with.
Later in the week I got to assist this farmy who had been here during the original days of the farm. He is a master carpenter with a awesome attitude. We got along great as I helped him prepare to frame some doorways in the Prancing Poet. After that I got a call from the sweet potato farmy. He needed some help unloading a trailer full of manure. Unfortunately a storm hit shortly after I got off the phone with him. So I waited for it to calm down then I rode my bike to his garden by the food forest.
The trailer was much bigger than I expected it to be. So I put on some music and began to tear up that cow poo. It took me two hours to empty the trailer and level the pile out. I was really worn out when I came back to the center. I took a shower then immediately passed out.
The next day was very eventful. I stained some more wood with the walnut Brew for tomorrow’s door framing, then I began to help the interns install a biofilter for a grey water system that was for one of the cabins. This was one of the interns personal projects, and she was in charge of the whole thing. She is doing a great job at being in control of this project.
We had lunch then we went back to work on the biofilter. We needed small river rocks for the wetland. So me and the team leader got on some bicycles and the others got on a golf cart with buckets to go down by the swimming hole to harvest some river stones. When we got there we decided to take a dip in the swimming hole before going to collect stones. This was the hottest day on record for the year. So you could imagine the pure bliss of the water. It was just what we needed to go and embark on the stone gathering mission. We got what we needed then we headed back. We applied the stones and called it a day. I got some food in my belly and a good book by my side. Everything is flowing smoothly for me, and that’s the way I will keep it.