Winter Work Day on the Farm
The alarm went off at 6am on a Saturday, a fairly normal occurrence these days. I once took Saturdays off, but now they are the day of the week that volunteers come to work at Garfield Community Farm. That only really began in September as we began major work at the main farm site in Garfield. The site is getting closer to being ready for planting in the spring.
This morning was a bit different than other mornings on the farm, we started it with 20 volunteers, a 20 degree forecast and an inch of new snow on the ground. I have to admit that I was dreading it, I didn't know what all those people would do and I didn't know if we'd stay warm enough.
Once we got working we had a great time. The crew was from Public Allies, all in their early twenties. I put some to work on the fence, some to work gathering leaves and trash always magically accumulates in Garfield, a bunch to work splitting firewood, built compost stations out of pallets, and about another group went down the street to work on an Open Hand Ministries house.* We had felled a tree two weeks ago and had a large amount of wood that can be sold at the farmer's market next year. After a little work we built a nice little camp fire and had Katie go out and get us some marshmallows, always a good idea.
So the day turned out to be an amazing day, mostly because of the people, everyone had a great time, enjoying the outdoors, enjoying the physical work splitting wood, and just enjoying one another.
*Open Hand Ministries is a ministry of local churches that rehabilitates abandoned property in the Garfield neighborhood for low to moderate first time home owners. The house they worked on today is nearly finished, a service of dedication took place at noon, after the volunteers finished cleaning it up and getting it ready.
I have a bunch of pictures I'll post later.
This morning was a bit different than other mornings on the farm, we started it with 20 volunteers, a 20 degree forecast and an inch of new snow on the ground. I have to admit that I was dreading it, I didn't know what all those people would do and I didn't know if we'd stay warm enough.
Once we got working we had a great time. The crew was from Public Allies, all in their early twenties. I put some to work on the fence, some to work gathering leaves and trash always magically accumulates in Garfield, a bunch to work splitting firewood, built compost stations out of pallets, and about another group went down the street to work on an Open Hand Ministries house.* We had felled a tree two weeks ago and had a large amount of wood that can be sold at the farmer's market next year. After a little work we built a nice little camp fire and had Katie go out and get us some marshmallows, always a good idea.
So the day turned out to be an amazing day, mostly because of the people, everyone had a great time, enjoying the outdoors, enjoying the physical work splitting wood, and just enjoying one another.
*Open Hand Ministries is a ministry of local churches that rehabilitates abandoned property in the Garfield neighborhood for low to moderate first time home owners. The house they worked on today is nearly finished, a service of dedication took place at noon, after the volunteers finished cleaning it up and getting it ready.
I have a bunch of pictures I'll post later.
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