Shearing the Sheep

Skirting the Fleeces

The Fleeces

The Shearers

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Springtime at Gateway Farm this year means our fifth lambing season is upon us! It is that magical season when you can walk into the field at dawn and find a just-born lamb, tottering up onto its delicate legs, and with great determination, stumbling towards the teat.

Our sheep are Icelandic and, true to their hardy breed, they birth on their own in the pasture and often bear twins. Fifty-nine lambs have been born at Gateway since 2008, and this year we expect that our current flock of 30 (19 adult ewes, 10 yearling ewes, and 1 yearling ram) will double.

By May, the pasture should be full of frolicking new lambs, each one a marvel of tiny hooves, budding horns and soft, curly wool. For now, we eagerly await our first birth of the season.

Caroline Williford has been a shepherd since the sheep arrived at Gateway Farm in 2008. She came to the valley in 2004, and has worked with The Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference and Red Moon Herbs at Earthaven. She is an arts administrator, videographer, choreographer and dancer, and likes to experiment in many an art form.

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Farmer and NikkiAnne in front of the MicroHut (Farmer’s residence at Earthaven) at Gateway Neighborhood. Photo taken Summer 2010.

On Tuesday night, Nov. 16,^,

Earthaven member Chris Farmer (often called “Farmer”) threw a farewell dance party in the Council Hall and said goodbye to Earthaven . . . at least for now.

“I’m leaving for the indefinite future,” he told friends in the packed Council Hall.  “I may be back, and I’d like to come back, but I’m not making any specific plans about it.” He’ll be living in Santa Barbara, California, close to his sweetheart, an environmental activist and former Earthaven work exchanger. Farmer has been an Earthaven member for 13 years.

Chris Farmer (left) with Brian Love.

One of Earthaven’s earliest advocates for agriculture, Farmer is co-owner with Brian Love of Gateway Farm, as well as their business, ArtiSun Construction. He co-founded the Forestry Co-op (1998- 2004): felling trees, mastering timber-framing carpentry, and innovating the use of a geopolymer concrete substance as well as a wall-truss system with wood milled from thinner trees.  He built a timber-framed 12’ x 12’ x 12’ “micro-hut” with chip-slip walls in the Hut Hamlet, and later built a similar hut in Gateway neighborhood in the hybrid natural/conventional style he and Brian innovated.

Farmer has stimulated and entertained Earthaven members, friends, neighbors, and visitors with his “Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” “Clueless Honky,” and “Open-Source Mythology” raps. (See videos.)

Farmer in a large goodbye hug at his farewell party.

Farmer was Earthaven’s Firekeeper (president) in 2007, where he lead us in dealing with state officials re water quality and distribution standards. He has served on Land Use/Site Planning committee and on the ad hoc Council Document committee, and is one of Earthaven’s best facilitators.

We’ll miss you Farmer. We wish you all the best!

Earthaven member Diana Leafe Christian is an internationally known ecovillage activist, author of Creating a Life Together and Finding Community (New Society Publishers), and publisher of Ecovillages newsletter. Click here for her website.

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2010 was a year of delicious bounty.  Natural factors such as the intensity of last winter along with the mildness and wetness of the following spring gave us fruit galore. In personal orchards, on farms, and in the wild, we had our pick of tasty fruits from May until even now in late October. Strawberries, juneberries, Nanking cherries, blueberries, jostaberries, blackberries, wineberries, currants, gooseberries, figs, muscadines and scuppernongs, apples, persimmons!  Yummmmm!!!

Many folks supplemented their own garden produce with a share in Yellowroot Farm’s CSA.  The CSA provided 15 shares a week for 22 weeks.  Shares included beets, carrots, lettuce, escarole, turnips and cucumbers in the early season and later included tomatoes, okra, peppers, potatoes, garlic, more greens, and plenty of sauerkraut and kimchee (spicy, fermented, Asian sauerkraut).

Bee Happy Farm, run by Marjorie Vestal in the Bellavia neighborhood has been very busy establishing a large  thornless blackberry orchard which produced enough fruit this year for mead-making. In addition, Marjorie has been implementing a sizeable garden on her homesite including mushroom logs, herbs galore, more fruit, and a small pond.

Gateway Farm’s sheep flock produced 30 fleeces, 8 pelts, and 300-350 pounds of lamb. Unseen to customers, but another high value crop, Gateway also produced 1500, 50-pound bales of hay from an off-land lease nearby.  Fall is the annual stock-up-on-squash time. Gateway raised 2000 pounds of a variety of squash and 100 pounds of onions. We’re looking forward to fresh and as-local-as-it-gets turkeys for the holidays.

Many villagers got their pasture-raised and free-range eggs from Imani Farm this year. Pictured to the right are new chicks (came in the mail but being raised by a momma hen who adopted them upon arrival.) Imani also grazed their upper pasture with their second year steers. In the lower field Imani grew plenty of blueberries and about 1000 pounds of tomatoes (see our blog entry).

Jonathan Swiftcreek is an avid food producer, preserver and forager, always open to learning new forms of reverence towards food. He is a new member of Earthaven as well as the Village Terraces Cohousing Neighborhood and a participant in many of Earthaven’s farms. He and his partner, eli will be first-time parents in April.

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          In neighborhood news: The Main Street neighborhood changed its name to the Forest Garden neighborhood, the Village Terraces neighborhood held several work parties to load firewood into the two-story firewood shed they built over the summer, and Brian Love and Chris Farmer moved into their new homes in the Gateway neighborhood.

The post News Notes – early Spring 2010 appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Chris Farmer and Brian Love are the two main builders of Pokeberry Hill, a two story dwelling built using ecological principles.

Farmer started by noting that many innovative building techniques are used at Earthaven, including a house at Bella Via using cob, adobe brick, and plaster, and the  Medicine Wheel house that uses lots of recycled materials – plywood from pallets, metal beams from railroads, and recycled flooring.

Stud framing

“Brian and I are fans of stud framing. We used 2×6 low-quality poplar felled here at Earthaven for the framing. Studs are the basis of the cheapest, easiest walls and are especially efficient for a complex building with plumbing, electrics, closets, and cabinets. This is a complex building, but the studs went up in a week.”

Q. What about using recycled plastic for framing?

Farmer: Recycled plastic beats treated lumber, and it’s certainly rot resistant. But we have lots of timber at Earthaven. Here, we air dry the wood then treat it with Boracare, which is low toxicity, to make the wood resistant to termites, powder post beetle, and other boring insects.

Heat

For insulation, we spray cellulose (paper) into the walls – the thermal index of the ceilings is around R23 –to R25, and the walls, R50. The walls are finished with earthern plaster – clay and lime. We used natural finishes – plant waxes and oils.

We put in concrete countertops. We don’t like Portland because it takes so much energy to make it, but we wanted this second story room to have lots of mass to store heat from the sun.

The building design maximizes passive solar heat. The south facing windows get no direct sun in the summer due to the overhang. But in winter the sun is lower and floods through the windows. The heat from the sun is absorbed by the floor (a floating concrete slab) and the countertop.

On the north, there is wood flooring, and on the south, cement. Underneath the floor, there is the potential for radiant heat. Also, insulated pipes bring hot water to heat the floor. In the winter, on sunny days, it’s warm enough to warrant cracking the windows.

Q What about noise?

The building is not as noise proof as we hoped. We’ve been running band saws which does disturb the folks downstairs. Ah well, the music lovers will have to curb their taste for loud.

Q What are your power sources?

Earthaven is entirely off the grid, relying on a small hydro-electric plant and solar panels for current while maximizing passive solar for heat. Pokeberry shares solar panels with the Village Terraces building. Most appliances run on 24V DC, including the lights, the refrigerator, and ventilation. There is a huge battery back up, storing the power. There are also AC outlets, powered by DC current run through an inverter, but the inverter is susceptible to lightning.

Q. Would you build elsewhere?

We prefer to build in and around Earthaven, but if there is work further away, we can go there. We have a box truck with solar panels (name of truck) and a storage battery. There is also a 200 amp fire truck battery. The truck runs on bio diesel.

Our goal is to improve our cash flow to the point that we can retire to farming and raise turkeys, sheep, and vegetables. This year we are growing a lot of squash and melon, and raising Icelandic sheep and turkeys.

Q. How many rooms are there?

There is the big open room, including a kitchen alcove, that runs practically all the way across the southern exposure, a bedroom, two small offices, and a bathroom. It’s basically a 1,000 sq foot, three bedroom house.

Cost

Building on ecological principles, everything takes longer. And it is all hand done – all the wood panels are joined as is the carpentry. The building itself costs $125 per square foot. About half of cost is labor.

The downstairs tenant comments, “It’s beautiful, and it is so quiet here.” The notetaker responds, “At least when the band saws are off and the building is done.”

Chris Farmer is a full member at Earthaven, a builder, and a farmer at Gateway farm.

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The Seedlings Program is the early childhood part of the Forest Children Parents’ Cooperative. It is inspired by Waldorf education, a way of teaching and being with children devised by turn-of-the-last-century scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner (who is also the father of bio-dynamic agriculture among other things).

During the first stage of childhood, from birth until around the age of six or seven, children are learning and experiencing the world primarily through physical activity. The Seedlings Program, for children ages three and a half to six, provides plenty of opportunity for learning and meaningful engagement through exploration, creative play, and purposeful work.

Day to day

Each day in the Seedlings Program follows a gentle rhythm that the children look forward to and that provides them with a sense of security. The day begins with creative free play; an opportunity for children to exercise healthy fantasy. This is also the time for crafts, art, and cooking projects. This time is followed by circle time, during which the children sing and recite verses. Finger plays and rhymes inspire a love of language and develop children’s fine and gross motor skills. Midmorning brings the time for our snack and the children help set the table with beeswax candles and cloth napkins.

After our snack time the children take turns washing the dishes and sweeping the floor. Our work is accompanied by “working songs.” Next we go outside to explore and learn about nature. Sometimes we simply play at the new play ground, other times we go on “wild hunts” through the forest. We often go out to collect things, such as herbs for tea, leaves for crafts, wild greens for salads or hickory nuts for drying. This spring we started a small school vegetable garden and are looking forward to making a scarlet runner bean tipi for playing in (and eating!).

Soon it is time for our lunch and after that the morning draws to a close with me telling a story or fairy tale. This is a time for listening and quiet reflection. Stories are told from memory, and special attention is paid to the words chosen and pronunciation, in an effort to engage the children’s imaginations fully and allow them to develop their language skills. Every day of the week includes artistic activity such as water color painting, beeswax modeling, drawing with beeswax crayons or other crafts, and dance and movement. Here process is emphasized over product.

Throughout the morning, the children and I engage in purposeful work such as carding wool, shucking corn, doing dishes, creating useful or beautiful objects, and cleaning up. Practical work provides children with meaningful actions to imitate, and it is through imitation that a child learns.

Our toys are created from natural, simple materials, such as wood, colorful silks, shells and smooth stones so as to be open ended (they can be more than one thing) and beautiful.

Through out the year we focused on a different theme each month. We learned about farms by visiting Gateway farm and Yellowroot Farm as well as other farms in the area. We learned all about sheep and wool with our “Sheep to Shawl” theme. We visited the sheep and farmers at Gateway Farm. The children helped wash raw wool, then carded it (a coveted activity!) and helped spin it. While some of the older kids are learning to work with a drop spindle (fantastic for small motor skills that are needed for learning to write), I do most of the spinning. We are working with our wool in other ways as well, such as wet felting and weaving. Other themes we have explored include the Autumn Harvest, Winter Holidays, and finally Spring.

The children have now graduated to the Saplings Program for 5-10 year olds. Thank you all for your support and welcoming the Seedlings into your day-to-day lives.

Tanya Carwyn has been an exploring member at Earthaven for nearly a year and was the program coordinator of the Seedlings program.

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Bruce, Rudy, Alice, Eva, Julie, Johnny, and Mana have become full members!

Culture’s Edge hosted a wonderful Village Harvest Festival last fall and are looking forward to the second annual festival on October 12, 2009.

Arjuna’s beautiful Leela house is nearing completion and is getting its final coat of interior plaster this summer.

Ivy and Michael celebrated their wedding at Earthaven!

Useful Plants Nursery cleared an area in the old campground for a nursery expansion. The fruit trees have moved in, with many more plants to come.

The Forest Children took their spring play, Fantasia, on the road this spring, performing at the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF).

The Pokeberry building at Village Terraces is complete, with Bob, Debbie, and their two fuzzy house cats in residence. (see article)

Geoff and Debbie cleared a site for an orchard near the new campground and are busy planting apple trees and ground cover crops.

Imani farm has a new Jersey cow named LC (Large Cow), who produces most of the milk for Earthaven. Imani and Yellowroot farms are raising pigs, and three neighborhoods have new bee hives.

At Gateway farm, the five Shetland ewes had nine new lambs, and after completing the Pokeberry building, Brian and Farmer are building new homes for themselves in the Gateway neighborhood.

The post News notes – Spring 2009 appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Sorry to our subscribers for the long gap between this and our last newsletter.  Much has been going on at Earthaven despite our silence! Some of these are covered in this newsletter; another issue is planned for release in about six weeks. If you want to continue to be on our newsletter list, please click the radio button.

Five Icelandic Sheep have arrived at Brian and Farmer’s Gateway Farm. They are considered good breeds for milk, meat and wool. In April we expect a group lambing. Cute! Cute! Cute!

Michaeljon is rebounding wonderfully from bypass surgery, having only just come back from a trip to Machu Picchu, with Kiesa, when we were all surprised by his sudden illness.

Village Terraces neighborhood cleared another three-plus acres of land on the west side of the complex. And Martha and Finch moved into their downstairs flat next door at “Pokeberry Hill.”

Andy and Julie are expanding their biodynamic Yellowroot Farm by clearing close to an acre near the new campground. Their second CSA-season is just about sold out.

Chuck just returned from a permaculture teaching and design sojourn in Jamaica. Since he and Marjorie were married last Thanksgiving, life has gotten fuller than ever, as activities resume to move his Useful Plants Nursery to an officially leased ag site near the former campground. Chuck’s apprentice of the past year, Bruce Johnston, is about to become a new Full Member and a co-lessee on the site.

Folks from the Mediation Center in Asheville, through their federally funded Community Mediation Project, have twice (at our request!) sent a skilled mediator to help us communicate more effectively and prepare the ground to go deeper into some of our hotter issues. Some members have said they plan to take mediation training at the Center this season.

Jill graduated from Gaia University’s Masters program and intends to bring Gaia students to Earthaven for accredited learning experiences. Soon-to-be Provisional Member Mana McLeod has now enrolled in the Masters program as well.

The line to board the Membership Train continues its steady flow. There are currently still eight Provisional Members living on the land and another five Exploring Members, two of whom have already begun the Provisional application process.

Greg has gotten the Earthaven weather station up and running.  You can get very up-to- date information by going to www.earthaven.org and clicking on the weather link. More detail in the next newsletter.

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