Ranch Schedule for Sat. 7/16

Juaquin and Poki will not be working at the Ranch this weekend,  However, Dan and Giselle will be cleaning the arroyo and building a new fence for the chicken coop.  If you want to come help, a work party will take place  Saturday 2:00-6:00pm
 

Excitment on the Ranch!

Last night a coyote apparently almost caught Zelda, our Mama turkey who has a family of seven poults (baby turkeys) and is also sitting on eleven new eggs.

A friend upstairs (Coyote Sue) saw the coyote. She and Giselle chased him making noise and he bolted through the arroyo and over the fence.

We found large canine prints, tufts of fur on branches, feathers everywhere and eggs knocked out of the nest. Zelda and her teenagers were rattled, BUT no one was injured! They did however, go up to to their high-tree perches early tonight.

Dan ended up (with the kids' help) transferring her eggs into the nest Amelie made from straw up on the chicken coop roof!




















Dan didn't leave Zelda till after dark when she finally settled on her new nest!

Hopefully mama and eggs will all be safe up there!

Fairies, Horseshit and Reflection on Community

Amelie, our garden fairie, the hosts' daughter.

Getting horse manure at Arrowhead Ranch.  "Feeding" the raised beds has so far required 3 pickup truck loads of manure.

Four more 18'X4' raised beds were created using the double-digging technique.  Thank you Therese, Dan, Giselle, John, Michael, Juaquin and Roy for all your joyous effort! (double click on image and check Roy's (in black) special digging shoes and jumping style!).

Old wood frames were turned into hoop houses. A Remay-type cloth (white breathable material that cuts the light/heat down) will be installed over the PVC pipes and the hoop houses will be used to grow starters.

 

Coleman, the hosts' son, swinging the hammer.

Giselle (hostess), watch them fingers!

 

Our compost pile is starting to grow.  Here is a fresh delivery of vegetable scraps from the Montanita Coop.

We delivered our compost buckets to Body where we'll be getting kitchen scraps and vegetable juicer pulp.

 

The compost pile is already humming at a healthy 130 degrees

Dan and Coleman building a platform for one of the 100 gallon water catchment tanks.

Juaquin and Poki transplanting celery.

Michael and Therese stretching on their spades, loosening up these hamstrings.

A busy weekend at the ranch....

 and a lovely rainy Monday for finishing the raised beds and paths...

Several people have asked me if we had a "formula" of "ownership" for the community garden.  Right now, honestly, my answer is that we don't.  As much as there must be existing models of community gardens that have a formula for the distribution of the harvest, I am personally interested in listening to what this particular place, in these particular times, with that particular community of people, wants to be.  My interest is in developing vibrant models of urban farms (1/4 to 1 acre) that inspire people to grow food in their backyard.  Dandelion Ranch can be both a showcase and a learning environment.  Sure, people come here and sweat for a few hours digging, weeding, planting, etc., but what they will take home is far more than a few heads of lettuce or hand fulls of heirloom tomatoes.  It is a way of working in community, sharing knowledge, supporting one another in our quest to wean ourselves from corporate agro-business, restoring our local biosphere one garden at a time, and rekindling with the indigenous ways of feeding the Earth and the heart of the village.

We started this community garden 3 weeks ago.  22 people are already following this blog.  A dozen people have been attending work parties at the ranch. The Vision, Hosts, Teachers, Events (menu tabs) sections of this blog are still blank.  As much as I, or Juaquin, or the hosts have many ideas and definitely plenty of energy, we invite you all to reflect on what this new community garden could become.  What elements could be incorporated that would make it even more beautiful, joyous and fun? What type of children's activities could we create (4 kids live on the property)? How can we imbue this place with such spirit that it becomes not only a place that nourishes our bodies but also heal our soul, and the heart of our community.

NOTE: We are not sure if activities will take place next weekend as some of us may be out of town, but a work party is scheduled this Wednesday July 13, 2:00-6:00pm.

Organic Chard for Sale

Juaquin and I just harvested at Synergia Ranch this morning.  We have 50lbs of organic chard for sale at $3/bunch  (a healthy pound).  If interested, come get yours at Dandelion Ranch between 2-3 today Friday.
If we have extra after we unload some at the Farmers market tomorrow, we'll bring it to our work party (3-7pm)

Schedule for Saturday 7/9 and Sunday 7/10

Saturday   3:00-7:00pm
Sunday      3:00-7:00pm

ACTIVITIES

• Transplanting peppers, celery and tomatoes in newly created beds
• Planting different varieties of cucumbers from seeds
• Creating "donut" raised beds around trees
• Preparing more soil for next year using a chisel plow method and planting buckwheat and yellow clover (using these plants as cultivators)
• Eating mapple cookies from Trader Joe's

Kid-Powered Compost Station

Bo and Louis were the first ones to help unload the recycled lumber today.  These kids are awesome, willing, polite, funny, respectful and.. strong.  That board they are carrying here is 15 feet long and weights at least 45lbs!  Yesterday they were hauling buckets of rocks that we use to make a gopher barrier around the garden perimeter.

Here they are, unstoppable, pulling nails off the recycled lumber.

















The new compost station we built today.  Notice that the first compartment (left) has been dug 12 inches...

 

... to accommodate a 12 inch mattress of branches.  The mattress will compress with the weight of the pile but will allow air flow as well as drainage.

Next is a layer of dry leaves that we picked up in the neighborhood...

 

... followed by a 40lbs layer of green scraps picked up at the Montanita Food Coop.  From now on, we'll be getting our green waste from Body, the Restaurant and Spa a couple blocks from the garden. They have agreed to give us their vegetable waste, as well as their meat and fish waste, which we will be using to make a biodynamic brew in barrels.  That brew is excellent to activate compost piles.

The green waste gets covered by a layer of dry matter (in this case leaves and shredded cardboard), a few scoops of horse manure, and topped by a thin layer of straw.  The pile can now get watered.

The hens, rooster and turkeys had a good day today and got treated a juicy slice of organic watermelon from the Montanita food scraps.

Tomorrow Sunday, weather permitting (yes it rained today just as we were putting our tools away!), we'll be gathering again from 3:00pm-7:00pm to create more raised beds.

BONUS:  6 minute presentation about gathering food scraps from your neighborhood

Schedule for Saturday 7/2 and Sunday 7/3

Saturday July 2   3:00PM-7:00PM

Sunday July 3     3:00PM-7:00PM

• Creating more beds, using the double-digging French method
• Building compost bins
• Installing water catchment tanks

1212 1/2 Don Gaspar (at Cordova)

Down the driveway and around the back

Bring beverages and snacks to share