So I'm back in good old Richmond, Indiana.  My mini vacation to Michigan was wonderful. I was able to see people I hadn't seen in a long time and spent much of my days out walking around in the woods and watching movies. Very relaxing. 

When I got back, the farm girls and I had some goals in place.  We created a list (ish) of things to do:  Placing fencing in the beans which would allow them to climb on something other than each other, removing the bathtub from the chicken coop, finishing the drip line in the back garden, and planning for August Wilderness Farm Day which is just over a week away. 

If you look slightly to your left at the lovely photo on this page, you can see that we successfully installed fencing for the beans!  Yay!  Wonderful day.  We have also begun planning the Farm Day for the August Wilderness Kids. That day will be so helpful for us!  We will have 50+ people here to help us with large projects that would be hard to tackle on our own.  

I leave on Tuesday the 19th to drive to Massachusetts with a good friend.  I'll spend two weeks there and drive back to finish up the last week and a half of my internship. I'm excited to get these projects done before I leave and I'm excited to see how many veggies we will have when I come back!

I hope everyone has a good day. Think of me when you're sitting in your air conditioned office, or house, or car, or whatever.  We're slaving away outside in the heat.  Hard work is the best work.  Swag. 

~ Ellen. 

Alright.  It's July 9th and time for me to post another blog.  I have been struggling with exactly what to write about.  It was so rainy for a week or so, and that made it hard to get outside and do work.  Now it's sunny and hot and I'm having the same problem.  I've been here since May 29th and I've worked at the farm nearly every day.  I've grown to really love this place and the people I get to work with, but I think I've been in a funk because of the non-stop work.  

I was hesitant to write about this struggle because I figured blogs should be fun and happy and make people want to do what I'm doing.  But the truth is we all just get tired sometimes and need to step back from our work.  I'm taking the weekend off to go visit some friends in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  I think the 3 day mini-vacation will be good for me and will help me be able to focus in on project details again.  

There is a list of things to do on the farm that I've written down in my notebook and I WILL get them done before the end of the summer.  These include things like: looking through the boxes (and boxes...) of documents at the farm and scanning them so that they can then be uploaded somewhere online so that future farmers have access to them, re-organizing the barn house and building a work station so that we can move tools in from the green house, and solar food dehydrator for the farm.  We also prioritized getting all of the goats a veterinary visit before the end of the summer.  Our vegetable gardens are filling up with food and I am so excited for market each week.  We have made some friends and enjoy seeing them and chatting with them every Saturday.
 
In addition to the work I have been doing at the farm, I have started to do some part time work for the Outdoor Education Center helping out with August Wilderness preparation.  August Wilderness is a program that I was lucky enough to get to participate in, and now helping them prep for the incoming freshman makes creating spice kits even more exciting!  We also have planned a day for the August Wilderness kids to come out and visit the farm after they return from Utah and Canada.  If you're interested in learning more about August Wilderness, here's a link to the page: 

So many exciting things are happening here, and campus is buissier than I would have ever expected it to be over the summer.  Explore-A-College kids came to visit the farm and were out and about on campus, and basketball, football, and volleyball camps fill the cafeteria and wellness center nearly every day.  

It's been great so far, to be here for the summer working on the farm and for the OEC.  I'll have a fun, relaxing time this weekend and come back refreshed and ready to work hard!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I'll try to remember to write again next week!

Ellen

P.S. - I have added a few photos and a video to the end of this blog post, just in case there was anyone else who needed a little help this week.  :)

This makes me laugh so hard. I had forgotten about it but a friend and I watched it a couple nights ago. Enjoy!