PictureI noticed today that we have PURPLE BASIL! How cool is that!?
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Well it's August 8th. I returned today from my two week vacation to Massachusetts and upstate New York where I spent some time in the Adirondacks. It's strange coming back for just one more week of work.  I was in such a good groove all summer.  Although it was exhausting, I had a good schedule I was keeping to.  Now I'm out of it and trying to get back into it.

It's strange to know that I only have one full week left here and then the job of caring for this place will be passed on to the people living here spring semester.  It's even harder to motivate myself to really care about the work I'm doing now that the end is so close.  And it really is the end. The purpose of this place will change once the summer ends. It's goals will change. It will remain a living and learning place but there will be no going to farmers market and the students primary focus will be on school (as it should be).  But even when I come and visit next semester, things will be different.  Anyway, back to the point, it's hard to focus and really care. 

Today Khal got stuck in the fence. He has this nasty habit of sticking his head through and because of his horns he can't get back out.  I couldn't wriggle his head out so I ended up having to cut the fence.  I thought for a moment about going to get my phone so that I could take a picture, but then I decided that he'd been out there stuck for too long already... so no picture. Sorry all. But trust me, it was pretty funny. 

We have apples on some of our trees so I think I'll make some apple crumble tonight! Wish me luck. Maybe I'll blog about how it went. Maybe. 

I hope you have a wonderful evening!
Ellen

Ps- If you like music, here's something I just rediscovered today. Enjoy: 

 
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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!
 
I can't believe it's almost July. We've been here for over a month working on the farm and it's hard to believe we are half way through with this summer internship. THERE IS STILL SO MUCH LEFT TO DO!!

Oh boy. I guess this would be a good place to write down some weekly goals. You probably came here to read about my experience and what I'm thinking about so here it goes!

First off, I would really like to finish up with the website by mid way through next week. A couple interns will be gone this weekend, but I would like for them to be part of the process, so hopefully by Wednesday we will be finished with this thing. Kind of related to the website, I would like to publicize more, to really promote Miller Farm and get the the Richmond and Earlham communities more involved. I was very surprised by the lack of Earlham faces at the farmers market's this summer.  We have seen a couple professors walk through with their kids, and we've seen a few EC grads coming in and supporting the locally grown community farmers, but nowhere near the amount of people I was expecting to see.  I don't know why this is. It could be because so many of our professors don't actually live in Richmond- maybe they've got their own farmers market's that they attend. Who knows? But I would like to get EC more involved somehow.

This past Saturday, Mark Brim came out to Miller Farm bright and early to film us while we prepared for the farmers market.  He made a great video with some beautiful shots. It's been posted to the Miller Farm facebook page and has been shared by many. Here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYqmhbBOAqo

Another goal would be to find Koshka a home very, very soon. The longer she is here, the harder it is to "try" and find her a new home. We have all fallen in love with her. She's an amazing dog and so sweet. Never aggressive, very playful, and so smart. There are a few people who have expressed interest, but nobody that's agreed to take her from us. I am very afraid that when the end of the summer comes, we will have no choice but to give her to HELP.  They are full at the moment, but I'm sure there will be space soon enough. If any of you are interested in a wonderful dog, please contact us. We would love to have you come out and meet her.

There is always work to do around the farm: watering, weeding, planting, finding a home for a furry friend, etc. We've got our work cut out for us, but I think we can get it all done.

Thanks for reading!
Ellen
 
Alright. Here it goes. Blog post #1... 

First thing you should know about me is that I am not good at things like this. Blogging, journaling, letter writing, and anything else similar to that I have never been successful.  The challenge for me is taking the time to actually sit down and write it all out. This is a first for me so be patient and I promise I'll work to get better at it. 

So I've been here for almost a month now working at Miller Farm.  I had previously little to no experience with farming of any kind and I had only been out to Miller Farm once or twice when I applied for the intern position.  Honestly though, that was probably the biggest reasy why I wanted to be an intern here. Miller Farm, historically, has been a huge part of people's lives at Earlham.  I know many students who participate in Farm Day every week and even know a lot of the people who have lived at Miller Farm, but I have never gotten involved.  I was curious to see what life was like at the farm, so I applied.

I have learned a lot being here.  I come at 7 am three days a week to work the morning chores.  These include taking the compost and chicken bin's out, letting out the goats and chickens, feeding all of the animals (chickens, goats, cats, and a dog), and watering all of the gardens (five in total).  After morning chores are over I start off my day with working in the gardens.  It's so much cooler and less buggy in the early morning so weeding, turning beds, laying compost, and planting is far more enjoyable.  The afternoons are saved for intern meetings, website work, visits to Orscheln's for animal feed, and brief (but wonderful)  naps.  When the evening rolls around and it starts to cool off, another intern will do evening chores (similar to morning chores) while myself and others work in the gardens again. When the sun goes down, it's time to go home and sleep. 

When I arrived here our two goats, Meesh Meesh and Goatrude, were pregnant.  A couple weeks after we started working, I showed up for morning chores and walked over to the goat pen to feed them, but when I tried to open their pen I couldn't. I looked over the small gate and there it was.  A baby goat laying there, all fuzzy and new.  I had so many emotions and thoughts running through my head that it took me a few seconds to register what that baby goat actually meant.  I sprinted up to the house to wake the other interns who quickly dressed and followed me back outside to see the goat baby. Goat Baby #1 has been named Indigo(at). A couple days later wile at the farmers market with Natalie and Mishel, we got a call telling us that Goatrude had a kid.  Happy day!  Less than 30 minutes later we got another call saying that Goatrude had gone into labor AGAIN and had another kid! We shared the good news with all of our customers and eagurly awaited noon so that we could go back and meet Goat Babies #2 and #3.  These two are now named Khal Drogoat (G.O.T. reference for anyone who watches) and Rhuby (short for Rhubarb). The goats and their kids are wonderful and one of my favorite parts about the farm. 

We have been to 3 markets so far and we are doing well!  Yesterday was the first day we participated in Thursday market near Main Street Diner.  It was wonderful to meet a different crowd and talk to some of the other vendors.  I also bought some delicious local honey and real maple syrup. 

I think that's all I have for you for now. I am excited to start to have more to take to farmers markets and want to help Miller Farm make some connections with other local farms. 

I hope you enjoyed this!
Until next time,
Ellen