Farm and Garden 2008 Season

Spring planting day

End of day from garden

Spring Activities 2008

Building new shower deck

Dismantling outhouse crew

April snow

Spring blossoms

Poles ready for building

Ready for mushrooms

Trail restoration to falls

Wood heated hot water

Whats cooking in the solar oven

This season started cool with April snow showers then a heat spell in May with not much spring rains which led into a dry summer. The fires started on the summer solstice with a spectacular lighting storm setting dry northern California a blaze. We had a month of very thick smoke blocking the sun and we think the garden was slow growing because of this. Then by mid August the garden put on growth with better sun and air and autumn was in full abundance with great garden goodies. We took the season off with dairy as we waited for our young doe Zetta to get of age as Tiny was dryed off by winter.

We had two school groups visit this spring. The first was the Scattergood Friends School from Iowa, which five adventurous students and two teachers spent a week at Stonelake Farm in early April. They learned the functions of a small farm and helped build a new outhouse from the wood of the old one, replaced the old shower deck at the octagon, sheared goats, and participated in forest clearing, burning, pole peeling, and fence repair. Thanks for their enthusiasm and help.

In mid April seven media students from the University of San Francisco came to Stonelake Farm for three nights to unplug and reflect on the rural landscape. They gathered fire wood to keep the octagon warm, helped dig some holes for planting in the garden and enjoyed the slowness of farm life. Here are some of their stories and photos at silverinsf.blog

We had a full spring of artists in residence at the octagon with writers from San Francisco and New England. We also had an architecture residency with a student from UC Berkeley spending a month at the farm working on a small hand built dwelling using the local materials that she designed for her masters project. After the month she realized and learned that what is on paper does not always easily transfer to the landscape. Location! Location! Location! We await the next residency to finish the project.

Mid summer we had a artist come to the farm to do a mushroom burial suit. More on this project www.jaerhimlee.com

It was a quiet fall season with the gathering of firewood, getting the vegetables harvested and put-up and apples picked, juiced, and sauced. Thanks Adra for all the great help with these activities. We headed into winter with the octagon getting some remodel work done with stove heated hot water, stairs to the cupola and new sleeping platforms.