Spring rains are upon us. Pastures greening, trees awakening. New life abounds and the humid warmth of the Ozarks is returning.
Ish and Nara welcome Sylvia (mother Jackie Brown in the background) on her first day out of the womb.
Each year there is plenty of work to be done around the farm as the cold season comes to an end.
Richard and Shari pruning an apple tree.
Trees are pruned and seeds started. Swales dug and roads maintained. The greenhouse is now full with all the tomato, pepper, eggplant, squash, and other summer crop varieties that will be transplanted later in the year.
Gardeners seeding summer crops on a pleasant Saturday morning.
Richard watering seedlings in the greenhouse.
Andrea and Melissa inspecting the sprouts.
Four piglets and four sheep are the newest residents of the farm. The pigs will be raised until mid summer. Similar to how they were managed last season, they will be rotated in paddocks through forested areas adjacent to the road and supplemented with the ample food scraps of a seventy person community (and their small nut butter factory). The sheep were acquired in a work/trade deal with a local farmer outside of Springfield, MO and another six will be brought in the coming weeks. Sheep haven’t been on this land for over a decade! They are being kept in what was the goat barn and will be slaughtered and butchered throughout the spring.
Piglets relaxing in the sun.
The official visitor periods for 2018 have begun and new people are on the farm, plugging into various projects, such as the showerhouse. Beckie has been pushing steadily forward on this building project with help from a number of East Winders.
Beckie directs the hanging of sheetrock, an arduous task that is now complete.
Boone and Airik share a laugh while working on the showerhouse.
The showerhouse floor is now being prepped for finishing and a large tub was just delivered to our loading dock. Months of work lay ahead yet and anyone looking to learn and contribute to this important project just needs to show up!
The nut butters business has been booming and many meetings about infrastructure priorities have taken place recently. There are plenty of things going on, too many for me to document! 2018 is looking to be another transformative year. I’ll keep this short and leave off with a picture roll, Happy Spring everyone!
Honeybees foraging among the bushcherry blooms.
Airik setting up paths in the lower herb garden.
Spinach harvesting.
Carrot row prepping. You can see the new garden cart in the foreground and the showerhouse in the background. The orange ratchet straps on the tree in the background are holding a swarm trap (for honeybees).
A picture of the inside of our hoophouse. Lettuce to the left and then a row of onions which were transplanted (see the following two pictures).
The onions are dug up with a digging fork, tops cut off, and placed into a bucket of water to be brought to the outside beds.
Onion transplanting out of a hoophouse.
Post written by and pictures taken by Sumner
So inviting.
I love these photo updates, Sumner! Awesome photography skills. I’m hoping to come out to see y’all in a month or so! Maybe we could have a nice early summer bar night…
Tobin?! What?! This news deserves a blog post all its own. =)
That sounds great, you should meet up with the big East Wind van going to Short Mountain for Beltane. Going to be a wonderful time.
Thanks for complimenting the photos, I’ll try to keep them coming. Bar night for sure!
My dream! I love everything about this! If i wanted to come visit and experience life/ living in a commune is this possible? Id love to connect with you guys, and meet some like minded individuals.
Hello, it certainly is possible! You can check out our Visit Us page.
I love seeing the pictures – – I haven’t been to the land in years and years [Haven’t seen the new barn – – that replaced where my main job was] NOR the new showerhouse – – though I heard all about it predecessor from Carlos.
Ivy [’82’-’89]
I would be interested in coming for a visit. Thinking of starting a community outside Lawrence KS. Thanks.
Would Love to Hug you all and “JUST BE” I can bring gifts of life (my Coconut-very fun, loving, emotional support, 11lbs Maltese/Pomeranian), cooking skills, my voice for singing, smiles with much laughter and 100% Love. 🙂
I watched your consensus and I thought this would help. Big Hugs
https://youtu.be/PmEDAzqswh8
I am a carpenter 60 year old male, lost my home in Naples Florida, have no assets only tools and my van and some personal effects. I love what I see in your community. Would I be welcome there
Hi Ralph,
I cannot make any claims for whether you are a good fit for membership or whether you would be accepted as a member. Age certainly is a factor, there are about seventy people living here and it is good to have a normal distribution of ages.
We are always looking for people with skills who want to put them to use as well as people with energy to learn! You can see our Visit Us page and start a correspondence with our Membership team about visiting.