Be sure to come to the Trust for Working Landscape’s Harvest Fair this Sunday at Johnson Farm!

Water access and rights inhabit more farming conversations than just about any other topic. This weekend and last the TWL installed a new irrigation system for the orchard, p-patches, horses and farms at Johnson Farm – the water is pumped from the pond and makes it way through underground pipes. Yesterday we finished laying the pipe and backfilled the majority of the trench.

The latest edition in the TWL work party series removed a number of alders growing on the Crawford property which, in full leaf, significantly shade the grapes on Day Road Farm – on the last farm walk I noticed while elsewhere on the farm the full sun had melted the morning frost this section of the farm still remained white late in the day.

Since the mochi festival I’ve been honing my animoto production skills. I like the service quite a bit though there are some improvements I’d love see – an API and a better image browser top the list.

I returned to the Day Road farms last Sunday for my first Farm Walk.

Throughout high school I worked for the city in the landscape crew fixing front lawns ruined by snow plows or sewer renovations. One of the primary, and more memorable, experiences from that job was walking the streets behind a chipper and loading all the residents’ brush through rotating drums ready to suck in your arm as easily as the maple branches ripping at your legs – it was stressful and exhausting.

We finally received our promised snow.

The amount of time spent volunteering has been one of the great changes in our lives since moving. For me, it’s usually either maintaining the forest trails or helping with farm work on behalf of the Trust for Working Landscapes.

A face-full of spider webs as I hunt for a carpet of mushrooms confirms fall’s arrival.

Under perfect blue skies and warm temperatures, I volunteered a couple of hours labor on Saturday to help the Trust for Working Landscapes and a local farmer deconstruct two large greenhouses for relocation on another farm.