Part 1

(Transcript from video)

Courtney Brooke: Here we are in the greenhouse at Full Circle Farm. It’s raining and it’s cold; it’s early spring and here we are planting this brassica bed. Me and Jonathan.
Hey Jonathan!
We’re putting in cabbages and cauliflower and lettuce and broccoli. Jonathan, are you willing to tell us what the plan is here?

Jonathan: Well, this is precious space here that’s protected, and so the soil is a lot warmer. We’ve dug out the turmeric in the middle here and it’s a perfect time to plant these brassicas. They are not quite as hardy as kale so could have done it a little bit earlier but they’re just gonna hit the ground running because the soils all ready and warmed up for them. If you planted them outside they’d probably survive but they go a lot slower. They may get hit by a hard freeze and it stunt their growth.

Courtney Brooke: So we’re going to plant like 120 brassica plants in this space right?

Jonathan: Yeah, actually it might be a little less but, yeah. You can see already the ones that were planted …the kind of spacing… these are squeezed in a little bit more than maybe it’s optimal for a maximum size. But I have extra plants and so you might get smaller individual yields but hopefully the total yield will be great. They’re spaced 18 inches apart but the rows are a little tighter. I’m squeezing in seven, six, or five rows. They would grow a lot bigger…

Courtney Brooke: So the idea is that first the lettuce will come out …and then the cabbage and cauliflower will come out …and then the broccoli will be the last one standing.

Jonathan: Yes.

Part 2

Courtney Brooke: So here we are after it’s planted out. That was just bare soil this morning. We turned it with the forks and then got all these plants in the ground. May they grow.

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Transcription from the Chicken Wrangling

NikiAnne:

We’re out here at the horn of plenty field with nutter, the great pyrenees and a bunch of chicks.
Broiler chicks.
And some wranglers.
So that these chicks are protected from the hawks.
They obviously have a mind of their own and 
it’s a little chaotic.
But we’re getting…..

Jonathan:
Pretend like you’re a fence.
All right.
If all the kids kind of stand over here and like so they don’t go past this way.
Yeah and then andy’s creating a funnel.
So i’m just standing like a big line or actually all these people just stand in a big line so as the chickens come they’ll be scared to go in.

Okay  

NikiAnne:
Come on chicks. The point is to protect you.
There you go here you go here you go.
Well done team.

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Oakley Swiftcreek, a boy, was born to eli and Jonathan on March 15th at 2:02 pm.

Welcome Oakley!

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October 24th’s Council Meeting broke the record for number of new Full Members joining (jumping, as we call it) at once.

All had been Provisional Members for less than a year and were excited to share this special day with each other.

The big surprise was their decision to jump in their birthday suits – something that hasn’t happened at Earthaven in a long time!

Jonathan and eli swiftcreek, Kaitlin Hetzner and Karen Taylor (with son, Aura, sharing the spotlight) were then each lifted up to the familiar love song sung to all new members on their jumping day.

Says Jonathan: Earthaven works for me because “I enjoy connecting with intimates and strangers alike about community and ecovillage living.”

Old-timers here are thrilled to welcome these four young folks into the family. They bring a banquet of blessings!

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