WorkParty

Oh dear, now it’s been even longer since I posted. Hopefully I can get back on track now! This month has been hectic, trying to finish up the house, and we’ve been living with a friend across the street in the meanwhile. He’s been very accommodating, but living as  a renter in someone else’s spare room while remodeling is both time consuming and distracting. But he has a pretty view out his kitchen window (see above).

Ryan came over a few days ago to help me build the stairs to the house. This is one of those things we’ve been struggling without for over a year, staggering up a precarious stack of concrete blocks every time we weant to enter or leave. It’s long overdue.  Like many things in life, it was “important” but not “urgent” and got pushed to the back of the list as a result. Now that we are verging on getting a final inspection, that’s one of those things that needs to get done… along with the guardrail on the balcony, the handrails on the stairs, cover on outlets, a vent fan for the range… there is still quite a list.

We’ve also been thinking about the farming for the coming year… planting season is just around the corner. We’ve decided to scale back this summer and give ourselves a break, and focus on getting the farm stuff transferred over from the other property, opening new fields, getting settled into the new permanent house. In practical terms, that also means not vending at the farmers’ market. That was a hard decision to make, but the right one. A consolation is that we may still show up sporadically to sell excess vegetables; we are organizing a collective farmer stand that we’ll be sponsoring this season, in conjunction with a few other local small farmers in the area that we’re friends with. More on that in a later post.

But in the meantime… there is much to be done! This January we started a north county work party. There are six local farms participating, and we get together once a month for an entire day at one of the farms, and work like crazy, Amish-barn-raising-style, on any projects that farmer needs done. It’s a great way to tackle manpower-intensive projects, make good use of specialized tools your neighbors has access to (tractors, chainsaws, etc), and hang out with a bunch of people you really like. February was our turn, and man did we get a lot done! We cleared mountains of brush, removed the rest of the construction debris, opened up the garden space, and in the process also got several cords of firewood. The host also prepares a nice meal, a chance to show some hospitality while saying thank you. Emily made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and I made pasties for lunch. They were both a big hit.