Fun at the Farm

Coleman & Manny with 8 week old chicks

Just prior to the devastating flood at the end of June, the farm hosted some memorable events - a father/son weekend as well as our first Adventure Camp outing with Pine Forest Camp.

As we move into the middle of July our solar powered pump which went under water during the flood, but had continued to work for two weeks after, is now no longer functioning. We will have to address this soon, as we need to provide regular water to all our plantings inside our high tunnel, as rain does not enter from above.

There are not a whole lot of new updates to make this time around.  Our three sheep that survived the flood are doing fine, as are our bees. We found some sections of wood from our sheep shelter, and spied the roof way downriver along a bank, but it appears it has been buckled in half.

Our raspberries took a beating the last night the sheep were in our orchard, as they must have jumped our 2 foot fence that keeps the poultry out, and helped themselves to a heavy browsing session on our berry bushes.   If they enjoyed this we are fine given what they went through a couple of weeks back.  Sadly they still seem to be looking for their fallen comrades.

Katherine hit a bump, but was a good sport about it!

Old School Farm also has two terrific apprentices this year as well and we wanted to share their bios along with a lot of photos of all the good times at the farm. We felt this was important to do as we continue to clean up and heal emotionally following our losses of five sheep and other structures and systems on the farm.

Katherine Agnew:  I'm Katherine, a rising fourth-year student at the University of Virginia with majors in history and French and a minor in global sustainability. I hail from the central region of the Old Dominion State, home to a burgeoning local food scene thanks to the area's fertile farmland. I became interested in the convergence of food, sustainability, and public health after watching Food, Inc. two summers ago, and since then, have followed my alimentary passion all the way to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. I'm excited to better understand how food is produced, enjoy the beautiful Pocono Mountains, and acquaint myself with the so-far wonderful agricultural community here in Wayne County. In my free time, I read, knit, and consume more peanut butter than the average person should.

Tyler Hess:   My given name is Tyler Hess and I am a homo sapien searching for purpose amidst a civilization in decline. In addressing the multiplicity of crises occurring throughout the world, I am attempting to center myself in an agrarian based ethic while simultaneously wondering how to slow the ongoing 6th massextinction. I mostly focus on food and energy production with a desire to re-connect with the land that has given birth to all that is life. This is my third summer attempting some type of small-scale agricultural apprenticeship. During the fall semester of this year, I finally finish an undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky and thus graduate with a minor in Sustainable Agriculture, in addition to a self-designed major that includes wide-ranging interests in Philosophy, Soil Science, Anthropology, Forestry, and Environmental Sociology. While I have molded my university track to actually be enjoyable, many other things take up my time too; like backpacking journeys, late-night campfires, mead-making, fermentation experiments, knitting, reading voraciously, wandering the woods, writing, painting, cooking, listening, and cycling where safe roads can be found.

For the remainder of this posting we will let all the photos from earlier this summer speak for themselves, and get everyone caught up with more progress at the farm next time around.

Your Friends at Old School Farm

Tim drives the Ferguson

Tim, JP, Sage, Coleman and Owen a the falls

Bird skull found down near the high tunnel

Blanched OSF spinach ready for freezing

Lots of spinach...

Newborn turkey polts within enclosure inside turkey pen

Jackie from WNEP visited the farm to do a piece on Al Benner's moss business -
http://wnep.com/2013/06/29/visit-a-moss-farm/

Spinach salad with free range eggs and bacon

Massive asparagus plants - perhaps we should plant a lot more?

Cousins - Coleman, Addison, and Owen

Cousins cookout - venison and OSF turkey sausage

Uncle Rob cooks farm pond sunfish filets

Cousin Ben pays a visit to the farm

Cooling feet in the spring house pond

Old Brick Al found in Dyberry - his wife's, dad's, and his initials (David Alan Benner)

Cousin Sophy and Uncle Rob

Dave and Dave clean and vac the barn floor prior to staining

Beautiful but poisonous Foxglove (Digitalis)

Poison Ivy prevention - Jewel weed.

...just crush the stems and smear the juice on soon after exposure

Dave explains to Ben the pizza oven

Cousins

Musclewood tree (Hop Hornbeam)

Frog eggs

Talking irrigation

Birds stay cool under stand of Elderberry

Carrots, greens and herbs on roof garden

Black Mint - great for tea

Coleman is a real fan

 Pat & Jim Sanders stop by to visit with the Benners

The Benners celebrate their 9th anniversary at "The Ledges" in Hawley

Elderberry Flower pancakes - delicious

Elderberry stand - spreading rapidly - great for pancakes, wine and for poultry feed

Owen finds out chickens love thinned green peaches

Peach crop came in heavy again and had to be thinned to every 6"

Tyler learns to drive the Ferguson

Katherine

Calm before the storm

The Dyberry provides much enjoyment, but is also a force to be reckoned with

Nice young bullfrog

Pine Forest Campers arrive

Farm Manager Dave Campeau stokes oven

7 year old artwork

Private farm tour

Pine Forest Camp Director Stacey Polsky gets her camper's attention

The Old School "Farm Challenge" gave campers a chance to test their knowledge about farm life

Everyone enjoyed picking...

...and eating snow peas

Milkweed plants pepper the pasture -
the only plant monarch butterfly caterpillars eat

Before the flood

Lamb's Quarers - a very tasty garden weed

pea picking and eating was a big hit

homemade dough rises

Pizza prep about to begin

the line forms

Andrew - one of many happy campers  

counselors finally get to make their pies

The maestro of the earthen oven

fresh spinach and egg pizza 

Add caption

Stacey with her homemade pie with OSF spinach picked by campers

loading up the wagon

Hayride 

Swimming in the Dyberry - it was hard to get the kids to leave

Pre-flood images of garden

calm before the storm

Successful fishing trip at neighbor Katlynne's farm pond

Swept Away

Counselors, Campers, and Staff from both Pine Forest Camp & Old School Farm - All photos this post: Katherine Agnew

On Wednesday, June 26th we hosted our first Adventure Camp outing for Pine Forest Camp from nearby Milford, PA.  It was a huge success, with the "Farm Challenge" scavenger hunt/farm quiz, pizza making in our oven, wagon ride, and swim in the Dyberry, thoroughly enjoyed by all the campers (and the staff we might add :)  Unfortunately 36 hours later things changed quickly...

Dave Campeau surveys damage in lower pasture the morning following the flash flood

Just as the farm was really hitting its’ stride with all elements on the property really beginning to sync, we were dealt a cruel blow by mother nature.  A freak, localized storm cell dumped five inches of rain in our valley during the wee hours of the morning while our staff was sleeping.  The resulting flash flood caused the Dyberry River to jump its’ banks and our sheep, their handmade hemlock shelter, and the portable fencing were swept away downstream.

Olive and Uncas Jr. now safe in the orchard

Exhaustive searching and tracking finally yielded our twin lambs who were found over a mile down river safely along the bank.  Olive and Uncas Junior are now up in the orchard and doing fine on grass as they are over two months old at this juncture.  Sadly, their mom, Elska has not been found.

Our dark colored ewe, Freya was the other survivor.  Dave miraculously somehow

Freya soon after being rescued from the river- gurney keeps her upright

spotted her black head amongst a pile of floating debris in the river.  She was hauled out using a makeshift gurney fabricated by our kindly neighbor, Jim Sanders.  It appears Freya survived being in the water for several hours.  She could not stand for a couple of days following the ordeal, but has been eating and continues to regain her strength, now moving about in limited fashion.  We are hopeful for a full recovery.  Update:  Freya is doing GREAT...now walking on her own in the orchard.

Our losses are substantial:  Two confirmed drownings – our sweet ram, Uncas and another unidentified ewe.  The three other sheep have not been located, but we still hold out hope that one or two may turn up alive down river, but as the days pass, the chances lessen. Our shelter was broken in pieces, our 750' of electric fencing are a loss. Our pump house and solar powered pump went under water, but thankfully seem to be fine.

The bees survived by inches, as the water line stayed just below the boxes due to the

New drip system was shifted by flood waters inside high tunnel

elevated stone foundations we had built them on for this very reason.  We lost one door from our new high tunnel.  Surprisingly most of our vegetable crops are for the most part undamaged even though in these photos they do not look good.

So what have we learned?   It is not prudent to keep sheep in the flood plain pasture area.  Even if we had known this flooding event was coming, Icelandic sheep are not easily re-located to higher ground on short notice.  

We will now be

Looking east from the garden back toward the house

focusing our grazing areas for the sheep on the newly developed upper pastures, and we will perhaps keep a couple of  milk goats on the less flood-prone pasture on the near side of the river bottom adjacent to the garden.  The large pasture adjacent to the river will continue to be developed for hay and feed grains for our livestock.

Here at Old School Farm we each dealt with this loss in various ways.  It was very emotional, particularly for the young Benner boys, as we had been nurturing our flock for over a year. We feel horrible for the animals and what they endured.  We have learned from the experience.  

Being undaunted farmers we will re-build our flock.  Uncas Jr. can breed with Freya this fall, and we will perhaps bring Olive to another farm to be bred this year or next.   We will also look into obtaining two more bred ewes from Knoll farm in VT to bring in later this fall. 

This flash flood has been a setback for sure, but there are many other good things going on at the farm, and we will be sending an update on those shortly, including  more photos of the great time at our first Adventure Camp outing with Pine Forest.

Inaugural Wagon Ride

Many thanks to our intern Katherine Agnew for all the photos for this posting.  Katherine really has a talent for sure!

Happy 4^th of July Everyone !

Your Friends at Old School Farm

A serene swim hole 36 hours before the flood

Looking on the bright side, these floods are what make our soil special and are what bring nutrients and minerals to our garden