2 Pod Meetings, 2 Work Parties plus Blooming Neighborhoods! May 31st – June 6th
Long post! The last week of May through the first week of June has been chock full of activities both onsite and offsite for Green Acres! Without further ado…
May 31st saw us all gathered for a long overdue pod meeting, which lasted the better part of two hours and was continued on Sunday, June 2nd! Many ideas were brought to the table and discussed, especially the idea of community building and bonding over not just work, but activities we enjoy and can benefit from in intentional community. At the end of each meeting, we stood in a circle, holding hands with heads together. A cheer rose up naturally that ended loudly with enthusiasm before we took our leave: WhooooaaaaaHEYYYY! Like a football huddle for Team Green Acres, except we were speaking about the long game — a 2 year plan!
Saturday, June 1st saw Ann and myself at Blooming Neighborhoods Celebration at City Hall during Farm Market, seated in a half circle with a larger community of neighborhoods represented to meet and greet.
Monday, June 3rd Work Party, found us working on the new chicken run after a short new moon ceremony as we said goodbye and let go of the plum tree in the front yard, which had ‘canks’ and would likely not produce decent fruit. Read more about this on Ann’s blog!
Many of the branches were tossed on top of the hügelkultur beds behind my house at DeKist 2 [my roommates: T: Andreas and B: Justin hauling them above], and the rest of the larger branches and logs used for firewood. Dan, however, saved the two lovely pieces below for a creative project: making wooden spoons.
Rebecca [L] and Ann [R] hauling the last of the branches to the back garden. Below, Ann stops so I can snap the ‘canks’ Devin told us about that prompted the tree to come down!
Afterward, Justin and I worked a long while on the fencing for the new chicken run, and behind the coop where there is now a second exit for the chicks. Rebecca and Andreas worked on the opposite side of the neighbor’s fence so they could view the chickens, too!
It ain’t pretty but it works! The chicks were big enough to join the hens this past week.
Thursday morning, June 6th Work Party
I arrived from a pet sitting job to find everyone already busy and as always, a warm greeting from our Smiling Dan! He and I worked to cover the cabbage beds in this photo after sprinkling them with a healthy amount of diatomaceous earth. “DE” is an off white talc-like powder that is the fossilized remains of marine phytoplankton. It’s like kryptonite for bugs and moths who want to eat your cabbages.
L, Justin and R, Rebecca, weeding and working around the tomato cages. In the foreground are the Yukon Gold potatoes we planted back in April.
Where is Ann? Oh, there she is! Spotted in a jungle of jewel weed near the pond:
We tried to get a good photograph of the jewel weed she pulled, up close to capture it’s beautiful translucency. Unfortunately, it doesn’t show well here. I should have brought the good camera — maybe next time!
Back to work — the above Brussels sprouts and broccoli got a healthy dusting of DE, as well — after much weed pulling. We’ve had so much rain and warm weather that they are hard to keep up with. Below is more jewel weed in the back garden that’s waist high. A luscious green path to the back patio!
In closing — the hens love the new chicks and the new chicken run. The second gate has been removed since this was taken. Happy hens mean more eggs! [And quiche, yummm!]
Meanwhile, we’ve been wanting to construct a bamboo latticework fence for the front yard of the second DeKist house, to discourage deer from the pepper plants. (Deer once ate 1000 pepper plants at Rebecca’s farm overnight!). Meanwhile, have ordered some remay to cover the peppers until we can get that fence built.
then gave them to Nolan.
who carried them down the street,
and onto the pile with the others.
Meanwhile, here are the posts we put up to hold the stalks running horizontally and slanted up and down.
as did neighbor Mariella.
We gave away kale, cabbage and tomato starts to all who wanted them.
Big news in the Village this week. First of all, new housemate Evan, who works as an airline steward for United Airlines flying in and out of China, agreed to take the lead for Wednesday’s Community Dinner, and decided that the main dish would be “twice-cooked pork.” Here are some notes I found on the kitchen table, written partly in Chinese!
