Farm Meeting Wednesday April 5, 2006
Bulldozer Prep
Questions: Should we take out the roots of the multiflora rose? What kind of bulldozer is it? should we chainsaw the trees? Yes, we suspect we need to chainsaw trees. Bobby would rather cut them down with a bow saw. And we are going to cut down the three front trees that have been the subject of controversy.
Tractor Prep
Questions: How big the tractor is? What attachments does it have? Sascha and Ben volunteer to bottomline.
Deer Fence
Bobby’s been doing research. Called SkyView Fencing, asked about 8 foot stock fencing. Fencing in the largest area would cost $2800, smaller area would cost $2200. Courtney is going to go tomorrow to check out the double layer electric fencing that Hearty Roots used. Ashley volunteers to call Farmer Dan’s fencing company’s option.
Fowl Check-In
Our duck is dying. She can’t breathe very well – some kind of obstruction, whether she swallowed something or has a bad flu/cold. She’s not eating or drinking on her own, needs to be handfed soggy bread and hand-watered from the eye-dropper. Bobby volunteers to do this while Erica’s away at the farmer’s market.
The female turkey is brooding under the crappy old red truck. Erica’s been leaving her bread and water. We vote to keep a few turkeys to raise and eat for Thanksgiving, give the rest to Kevin.
The first chicks are due to hatch tomorrow!!! When they hatch, they have to be moved to the terrarium with a heat lamp on them, and they have to be hydrated via squirting a few times a day. Tonight we will work on setting up chick habitat. We should get some chick feed from Agway until we can get feed from Lightning Tree.
Banty roosters got adopted!
Guinea Hens? Some people want more. Sascha really doesn’t. They remind him of the old men from the muppet show. Ben thinks they would be a good thing to do about ticks. Ashley M. proposes chicken-tractoring the guinea hens. Courtney says they won’t chicken tractor cause they’re too nomadic. Get 8 of them? Have their home-base in with the banties.
Moscobi Ducks: Bobby wants to raise some moscobi ducks. A really tasty meat duck. You have to order them from somewhere. People would like to know a little more info about them. Do they overwinter?
Killing some ducks? Social dynamics are bad in the goose and duck pen. Erica proposes killing 2 particularly mean ducks. Tyler is into killing and butchering them. We’ll have them for seder?
Workparty Schedules
Last weekend of April, Bobby’s sister is coming.
April 22nd: Deer Fencing Workparty that involves venison barbecue and music in the barn? Venison barbecue is nixed, but the music idea is taken on. And we will celebrate birthdays then too! And Spring!
April 27th: Bobby’s sister is going to do a natural healing workshop. We will have some kind of small gathering around this.
May: Front field clearing/preparation. Making a farmstand. Sascha wants to organize it.
Deer Fence: Bobby will work on design. Courtney is going to research materials.
Hue and Cry: Submissions due May 1st
Sign for the Farm: bobby is willing to make stencils. Alicia is interested in working on this too.
Metal dumpster run needs to get scheduled. Junk runs in general.
Further Seeding
We need to seed more stuff both in the ground and in the greenhouse
Ben and Alicia made a log of everything that has already been seeded.
We need seed trays. Ashley M. volunteers to call Farmer Dan and ask where he gets his. Courtney will ask Hearty Roots where they get their seed trays. It might also be possible to get seed trays from Mike the greenhouse guy. We will also investigate the soil blocking possibilities.
Tools
We need tools!
There are good resources for ordering tools in the Elliott Coleman book.
Alicia did a tool inventory.
Courtney thinks we should get a grinding wheel for sharpening things.
Also – how do we divide up landscaping crew tools and farming tools? Maybe get different tools. Also, people who are going to go do a landscaping job should check in with that day’s farm shift to see if they need any tools to be left behind.
Tool Working Group: Ashleys, Sascha, Bobby
Goat Fence
We need to build. Will talk about with scheduling.
Website Skillshare
Sascha set up a simple website for us. Wants us to learn how to update it. Will write down log-ins, passwords, etc.
Getting more soil amendments
We have one load of manure, one load of potting soil, one load of finished compost
We need more finished compost, we need more manure, we need green sand and rock phosphate. Tomorrow Courtney will see the guy with the # for finished manure. The phone # for the manure place is right by the phone, Tempera Hill is the name of the farm.
Farm Truck
Ashley L. is wondering if she can take it to the Bob on Friday and bring it back on Monday. People say yes! It needs an oil change, and the door needs to get fixed. And make a copy of the key.
CSA/Marketing
Tortuga delayed their meeting by one week. They will be meeting on Monday. We need a deposit from them.
It seems like the bigger field area is going to get cleared, so we can maybe be a little more ambitious.
Ashley M. will print up another copy of the brochure so people can mark it up and we can make changes.
Graphics/Logo/Postcard
Will have a workshift for this this week.
Greenhouse #2
Someone right down the road would be willing to give us some space in his greenhouse.
Scheduling
Next house meeting: Mondays at noon
Next Farm meeting: Wednesday at 11:00 am
