Tag Archives: volunteers

Apr30

Flood, Flooding, Floodish

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Last week a series of thunderstorms rolled through these parts of Arkansas and beyond.  Tornadoes touched down further south across several states, the hardest hit being Mississippi and Alabama.  Up here, it rained 10″ in 24 hours.  The next day more rain fell, causing flash floods in NWA.  On the farm, the rain washed down our footpath to our house, which is its natural draining pattern, and washed over my bed which was planted with carrots.  It washed over it so much, that eventually cut channels through the bed, washing the soil into the onion bed.  We tried to alleviate some of the damage by putting straw bales into the path of the water, but when thousands of gallons are running off of a large roof over a matter of hours, you just can’t compete.  We tried, but it did no good.  It was interesting talking to some of the farmer’s at the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market today, listening to their stories of what the rain washed away.  One farmer said it washed his topsoil away.  Another mentioned, how his topsoil didn’t leave his property, but that it had washed to the bottom of the hill.  That’s something to think about, right.  Your dirt.  And how important it is.  Treat it well.

Paul and I were standing at the windows watching the lightning

Lightning just struck and lit up the sky. You can kind of see how hard it's raining, or maybe it's just blurry

A result of the rain, 2"+ of water inside

This is the rain, day 1

The rain creating a little creek

Flooding the onions

Here is a link to the American Red Cross, to see ways you can help those who were affected by the tornadoes in the south this week.

Apr18

You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello

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Jason and Eric sailed off into the wild blue yonder today upon the wings of a graceful, black Skylark.  It was interesting dinning alone tonight.  We’ve had house guests since February, it’s lonesome, one gets used to having all that company.  The last set of WWOOF’ers, Courtney and Grace headed west, Eric and Jason be headed east.  Jason wants to see more “southern” farms.  Around the campfire last night he mentioned how he hasn’t heard a single southern accent since he started his trip.  He had been in St. Louis, Springfield, to Patrice’s farm and here.  I respect that he’s trying to find a black owned farm and get the stories of those who stayed opposed to those who escaped to the cities.  I hope you find what you’re looking for.  You were a good worker Jason and Paul’s a little misty you took off, but life goes on and you’re always welcome.

On one of their last days here, Jason and Eric stuccoed the inside of the greenhouse, and it’s almost complete!

Adios Gentlemen!

Apr15

Arkansas DIY

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Yesterday the gang was busy doing farm work and such, but broke for siesta to build a rain catch for the storm that was gong to hit in the evening.  Now it isn’t a permanent system, but with the amount of rain forecasted, it was hard to pass up throwing something together to harvest rainwater.

The scene in the yard.

Alex, from York Pennsylvania.

Johnathan and Eric talking logistics.

Working out kinks.

The problem was how to keep it from falling over in the high winds.

E-town surveying the situation.

This is Shannon, also from York PA.

A side note, here are Alex and Shannon together.  They left really early this morning.  It rained cats and dogs last night, and they stayed in a tent…Hope yous guys (some Penn. speak) stayed dry.  Happy trails, thanks for your help!

Today.  I was out taking pictures of the “Take” and Rose B. volunteer extraordinaire was sticking her tounge out at me, I missed that but caught her laughing smile.

The “Take”.  A little more than 200 gallons of rainwater!!!

A look at the finished project.  Cinder blocks helped with weight and stability.

Rose B. and Eric (E-Town) pouring out rainwater out of another barrel to water some seeds just planted.

This is some Arkansas DIY in action!

Apr14

It Gets Better

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I have been receiving an overwhelming response to the blog as of late, which is nice.  I’ve kept it for three years or so now and it has always done ok, but like I said, lately, WOW.  Thanks!  I just approved a comment this morning from a reader in India, complimenting me on my herbs and such.  This person also keeps a blog so I clicked on it.  If you want to see some stunning imagery, you should check out this link to Jugnoo farms.

In other news, we received two extra WWOOF’ers yesterday, Shannon and Alex from York Pennsylvania.  They are only staying through today and leaving tomorrow morning.  They arrived about 5pm yesterday, just enough time to take the tour and get ready for dinner.  We all shared a lovely meal of soup and salad under the moon.  The weather was just perfect for dinning outside.  Our WWOOF’er Jason, from Brooklyn, surprised us all by making a lovely salad dressing.  I was surprised because he doesn’t say much, so it was pleasant that he made it and like Santa Claus in the night this present was left on the dinner table.  Thank you Jason.

Apr11

Teen Leadership Corps

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Last weekend, we hosted the Teen Leadership Corps.  The Teen Leadership Corps (TLC) is an academic year certification program in non-profit management sponsored by the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology.  Their mission is to provide awareness of global issues while inspiring innovative solutions among youth leaders, connecting them to worldwide opportunities for service and career development.  Here are some shots of their service.

There are more from one of the students who took pics.  They are trapped on Facebook somewhere, but they are goodies, so I will track those down.

Sep19

It felt good

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Synergy, in general, may be defined as two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently.

We had an unbelievable day today.  Well, I cannot speak for Beth and Franchy, but to me it felt good.  We finished what we started yesterday.  We were widening a row by a few feet.  That’s how Franchy had his accident : )  We pitch-forked the Bremuda grass up and then shook the soil from the roots.  This morning we finished that chore.  Franchy continued to work up the grass the next row over and finished it.  Bet raked the first row to even it and we started planting more cilantro seed.  It felt great getting dirt jammed under my fingernails.  As Beth and I were scratching dirt over the holes we drilled with our fingers, Beth said “Scratching Mother Nature’s back”.  How apt.  It felt really good to have my hands massaging the warm soil.  You should try it sometime.  Then we watered in all the seeds.  Good work team!  We broke about 1:00pm for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a salad.  Never had a meal tasted so good.  I felt so exhausted and dehydrated.  I had to sit still for a while because I had too much sun.  I don’t know about the weather in your neck of the woods, but in my yard it’s in the high 80’s/low 90’s…it’s brutal out there come 12:30 pm.  We took the rest of the day off.  Still ore to do, but tomorrow is another day.

Sep19

As of this morning

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As I sit here, drinking my morning cup of coffee, letting my interns get their last ten minutes of sleep, I’m just realizing all of the work we still have to do before we can plant any seeds.  Trying to write it down on paper, to have some sort of game plan, so we’re more efficient out there.  Today, I think Franchy will wear shoes.  He learned a lesson yesterday and I didn’t have to talk to him like his mama…I can come off that way a lot, (right Monica).  But, I just thought I’d drop my readership a line to let you all know there is hard work to be done today, so please come over and show your face, pitch in if you wish!  TTFN.

Sep18

And so it begins

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Today Paul took Franchy to the farmer’s market to meet with Patrice Gros about the hoop house building that will be commencing here in November.  Patrice, a fellow Frenchman was excited to know about our new French help.  Pleasantries, pleasantries.  When Franchy and Paul arrived back on the farm, Beth and I were in the north rows weeding and attempting to make them larger.  Franchy stepped in and began pitch forking the ground, while Beth shook the soil from the grass roots.  I was a row over returning mulch to the row.  Franchy turns to me, and with his French-English says, “Uh, I need, how do you say, uh…” and he lifts his foot which is covered in blood and dirt.  “A Band-Aid” I say, “Yes!  A Band-Aid, yes.”  He replies.  “What did you do?” I ask him.  He motions that he stuck himself with the pitch fork.  “Okay, go back to my house and show your foot to Paul, and he’ll take care of it.” I tell him.  After he walked away Beth and I giggled.  His first day on the job and he stabs his foot.  I think it’s noble of Franchy to travel with the WWOOF program, however, bless his little French heart, I don’t think he has ever worked on a farm before.  I sat tonight down at the home with Mrs. Barbara, doing some care giving and told all of the old ladies at dinner about this episode.  They all had a good laugh.  Hopefully tomorrow will bring less injuries.

Sep17

Again…2010 Workshops

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Click on this to view our upcoming 2010 workshops!

The Farm will be hosting a series of workshops that are all coming up for the Fall season.  You don’t have to live here in Northwest Arkansas to attend.  Tell your friends!

OA workshop flyer

Sep17

WWOOF

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Paul signed our farm up with an organization called: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, or WWOOF.  I added the link on the side of the page so you can check out the details.  Today, Paul i going to pick up our first WWOOF volunteer, Franchy.  Should be interesting.  He will work 4-5 hours a day for us, which if it works out will be HUGE!  There is so much going on right now.  Even though we have had the most awesome volunteer base, there are still chores to be done.  With our shift in focus to planting fall crops, there is the issue of pulling out summer crops and prepping those spaces for planting.  It is such hard work, I thank my volunteers with my whole heart.  And I have a mess of chores for you come tomorrow.  Please check out the WWOOF link, it’s a really great organization.  I first read about it in Mother Earth News, then was told about it again by a young woman in the organic gardening club on campus.  Now, a bite, Franchy will be here today.  It’s exciting.