This past weekend we hosted our first official farm work party and it was a great success!  After a week of rain, the sun came out and gave us perfect weather and a great group of friends came out and gave us the manpower we needed to get this farm up and running.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined our work party!  Your support was a really big encouragement to us and made us realize how achievable our dreams for this place might be.  It was awesome to get the big kick start we needed with all of your help. 

Although we didn’t get everyone in the group photo above, we did capture everyone on film at some point in the day, so check out all the photos for a visual record of the work we did.  Thank you Cary & Tommi, Mike & Brie, Shirlea & Keith (mom & dad), Dan & Jeannette and their three lovely daughters, Zach, Melody, Matt C, Bob, and of course the farm crew members Jordan, Melanie, Matt & Chantalle and Chris & Julie.  We definitely couldn’t have done it without you!

And now for our list of work party accomplishments:

• built a gate into the fence that separates the backyard and raspberry patch from the field where we plan on building our deep bed gardens;
• insulated and installed the interior walls of the chicken coop;
• put a new door on the chicken coop;
• mowed down all the long grasses in the field where we plan to build the deep bed gardens;
• mowed down all the long grasses in the smaller plot area between the barn and the chicken coop;
• dug up and rototilled the plot between the barn and the chicken coop, prepping it for the garlic and other fall veggies we’ll plant there;
• cut down excess blackberry brambles in the field where we’ll put the deep beds;
• pruned trees alongside the ditch;
• cleaned and dug out the drainage ditches;
• weeded, thinned and transplanted the raspberries;
• completed the roof on the composting toilet building;
• sealed up the leaky windows on the motorhome;
• began burning wood from our big pile of ‘wood to be burned’ that’s been building up for the last few months;
• painted the house address numbers (that are nailed to our fence post at the start of the driveway) a fresh coat of bright white;

There was probably more that I’m forgetting at the moment, but all in all, a VERY successful work party at the farm.  I think the coolest thing about the whole day was the vibe.  It was really relaxed and fun and very productive at the same time.  For those of you who came out, we hope you had fun and we hope you’ll come out again!