The yurt is up!

Sixteen people showed up throughout the afternoon yesterday to help with the set-up of the yurt.  A big thank you to all those who helped, and to Josh for coordinating the effort!

The platform and insulated deck took a week to build.  Thank you Kevin for your assistance with carpentry!

 

Next Garden Party
Wed. Sept 28
3:00-6:00pm

Juaquin is back from his travels and will be with us in the garden on Wed.
We have tons of lettuce so come get some.

Yurt Erection Sunday 9/25 - 2:00pm

The insulated platform for the yurt just got finished at 8:00pm today.  For those interested, we'll be erecting the yurt tomorrow Sunday at 2:00pm.

Carpenters, Teenagers and Yard Sale

I keep being fascinated by the feelings that I am having around the garden.  The kids and the plants are of course a bit part of the joy and healing that I experience there, but many other things contribute to this feeling that some of us call "community".  One of the most remarkable one is the resonance of joy, playfulness, grace, generosity and love that our hosts Dan and Giselle, their kids Amelie (above) and Coleman, and their wonder-love-dog Swahili hold.

Swahili at work

I mentioned recently that the garden is just an excuse to get together.  It offers a place to practice "being" in community.  Yesterday, the topic of how to get the teenagers motivated to participate in the garden activities came up.  When they are there, especially in group, they want to play, as in doing acrobatics on the trampoline, which is great.  However, there are many opportunities while at the ranch to learn life skills such as gardening, carpentry, animal husbandry and how to create structures from recycle material.  As our community grows, how do we organize ourselves to better serve the needs of our teenagers?

In the next couple weeks, our focus will be on building an insulated platform and a deck for the yurt.   After the yurt is up, we'll be installing a wood stove and building (rounded) furniture for the yurt. Next, we'll be building a tool shed, bicycle shed, composting toilet and outdoor shower.   

A truck load of old decking material was recently donated by Barker Property Management.  Thank you John!

Piper, a neighbor and friend, is currently repairing the windows on the yurt canvas.  Thank you Piper!

Today Monday and pretty much every afternoon this week, we'll be building the yurt platform and deck.  Feel free to stop by if you want to lend a hand, especially if you are a skilled carpenter.

Saturday 9/24 will be our big push to finish the platform as the yurt will be assembled on Sunday 9/25.

We are still looking for recycled plywood flooring, 2x4 and 2x6 if you have any laying around your backyard.

Amelie, Giselle and Michele taking measurements for the garden master plan

All the photos below courtesy of Coleman (13).

Next "Official" Garden Party
Wed. Sept.21
3:00-6:00pm

Community Yard Sale at Dandelion Ranch
Sat. Oct. 8
If you want to participate, call Giselle at: 505-660-3171

Harvest Moon, Yurt and Baby Chickens

All full moons rise around the time of sunset. In general the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day. As it moves in orbit around Earth, the Harvest Moon and Hunter's Moon are special because, around the time of these full moons, the time difference between moonrise on successive evenings is shorter than usual. This means that the moon rises approximately 30 minutes later from one night to the next, as seen from about 40 degrees N. or S. latitude. Thus, there is no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise around the time following these full moons. In times past this feature of these autumn moons was said to help farmers working to bring in their crops (or, in the case of the Hunter's Moon, hunters tracking their prey). They could continue being productive by moonlight even after the sun had set. Hence the name Harvest Moon.

The Dandelion Ranchers have been busy with yurt matters in the past two weeks.  The 12' yurt that was at the ranch was taken down and a used 16' yurt was purchased to replace it.  This new yurt will become a gardener's residence, part of the template we are concocting for our experimental urban farm model.  Our friend Josh (on top), who used to work for Pacific Yurt Co., was of tremendous help in showing us how to properly dismantle and pack a yurt.

The kids, as always, were super helpful.  They stacked some 250 bricks in the truck, part of the yurt woodstove hearth.

A mouse and her offsprings who were nesting in the stove pipe, were later discovered in the wood stove.

Last Saturday, after our garden party, with the help of three teenagers, we cleared some old wood piles, cut some young helm trees and removed a fence to make room for the new yurt.  This week, we'll start building a new insulated deck for the yurt.  If you are interested in being part of the carpenters' crew, please email: poki@nodilus.com.

 

 With all the rain and the full moon, the garden is getting pretty luscious. 

Robin and the kids harvesting green beans.

Our 30 baby chicks are happy and well.

Next Garden Party

Wed. Sept. 14

3:00-6:00pm