Monday, July 25, 2016

July's Monday Melodies

by Laura

Monday Melodies
July 25, 2016

I will write to you on Mondays
to give to you a window 
for I want you to remember
the beauty of this place
a place for us to fall in love
a place where we are fed
a place who remembers all that we
have forgotten as our core.

I will show you so that I may see 
a depth of life to share
for I want you to remember
that this land holds you with care. 

She sings, this land, to your sweet children, 
daring children, eager children. 
She asks them questions with her leaves,
her fruit, her flowers, living stories.
 
Please join me here on Mondays
to receive the view I offer.
Take the news of each week's harvest 
to give us hands to which to give. 
As my words ask for your eyes to see
your heart to feel
your mind to light 
see past the window I have woven
to know this place as home. 

3 Sisters Garden: Scarlet Runner Beans, Guatemalan Blue Squash, and New Mexico Corn 7.25.2016

Monday, July 11, 2016

Junior High Apprenticeship; June 26 - 30, 2016

by Sage

The apprenticeship can be many things. It can be fun and satisfying.   It can be challenging and frustrating.  Over the week we all felt just that.  Waking up at 7 in the morning was not a highlight, neither was the exhaustion I felt growing in me as the hours passed.  What was fun was the satisfaction of weeding a field for several hours to see what you had accomplished. It was tiring and satisfying.  I struggled with an allergy attack during the clean of the chicken coup.  I would not count that as an highlight, neither cleaning out the llama pen.  It smelt like rotten eggs and I felt like I could barely breath.  But then later on we got to go to the lake and all was okay.  There were many other high and low lights, but over all those were the ones that stood out the most.   


by Grant

I think that this apprenticeship has really done a lot for me, I gained various skills and knowledge from this including an experience to remember for a while. I learned how to make a brick wall with mortar including how to make mortar, and clean the bricks with muriatic acid. It was very fun to make the brick wall around the chimney of the pizza oven; now we just have to paint flames on it. I also had the opportunity off helping make the deer fence, during which I learned a lot about building electrical fences and how they work. I was happy that I had the chance to make oat cakes. Overall the experience really helped me in many ways and I hope to come back next year.


by Grace

The apprenticeship has been an exciting whirlwind of events, and experiences. Everyday the alarm goes off at 7 o’clock in the morning. Usually we ignore it, and hope it will turn off. We then eat breakfast, and head off to another exhausting day of work. My favorite work day was when we got to clean out the chicken coop, and llama pen. It was an experience. An experience I hope I don’t have to do more than once. Most of the other days we planted, and weeded, which was very satisfying.  The evening activities were a blast: the first night we played telephone pictionary, which was hysterical considering nobody was great at drawing; the second night we watched Captain America, which was really good; the third night we had a bonfire, we roasted some marshmallows for s’mores, and played sardines. When I look back to see all the work I have accomplished, I feel very proud. I am proud I persevered through the heat, and proud that I did that amount of work. Overall, I had a wonderful time learning new things, and hanging out with friends.


by Clayton

I have really enjoyed the apprenticeship so far. It has been a lot of fun. I have enjoyed the hikes, building the chimney for the pizza oven, and gardening. On Wednesday we went to Clear Lake, which was also very fun. On some of the hikes we climbed trees; some of them were really difficult to get up in. The pizza oven is almost complete; we finished the chimney. We work for six hours a day, doing either gardening or utilities work. We have planted, weeded and picked a lot of different plants. I especially liked working with the beans and the corn. It was a lot of fun to see the Land School when it isn't during the school year. I had a lot of fun seeing the animals. I helped change the llama's and sheep's pen. It smelled really bad, but putting new hay down was rewarding. The work here feels slow but the days seem to go quickly. 


by Saxon

Apprenticeship is basically a small Farmstay with no academic work,  less people, only 4 days and a total of 24 hours of physical work. During my apprenticeship I was in Donna's group with Grant and sometimes Clayton. The main things we worked on were building parts for a deer fence going around the new orchard, and laying bricks for the chimney on the pizza oven. While we were working on the pizza oven we learned how to make mortar, butter bricks, and lay bricks (buttering bricks is the term used for putting mortar on the bricks). We started out by gathering all the tools which included: Masonry Trowels, Brick Jointers and levels. We made the mortar by making the mortar dust into a volcano structure then pouring water in the middle and covering the water up with the dust so that it soaks up the water turning it into a clay like substance. Once we mixed it we had to test to see if it stays on the trowel when flipped upside down, if it does we then apply it to the brick and place it where it needs to go.

Our mortar mixing and brick placement didn't go perfectly but it still looked pretty good in the end. In the future I really want to try doing it again and hopefully it will be at the Land School.


by Rio

Last year, I went on an Apprenticeship because my sister had gone on one the year before that. This year, I went on one because I had a great time last year. Apprenticeship is sort of like a smaller and shorter Farmstay except no academic work to keep up on. This year our group is all 7th graders going into 8th graders with three girls and three boys. There's Grace, Sage, Grant, Saxon, Clayton and myself. We split up into Stewardship groups, one that goes with Laura where we usually garden and one with Donna where we build things, such as the pizza oven. We work for the whole morning and take a break for lunch. Then we go back to work until we have free time. Then we have dinner and an evening activity. We are all very tired by the end of the day so we are very thankful to be going to bed. We wake up the next morning, have breakfast and repeat the whole process. I am very excited to do more Apprenticeships in the future because I have had a lot of fun on the other ones I have been on.