Week 4, Fall ‘20
By Remi Welbel
It’s week four and our passion for regenerative agriculture is burning brighter than the flames in our biochar kiln.
On Monday, we took a collective pause from our work in observance of the holiday Yom Kippur. It was a reflective and meditative day. Those of us observing the fast refrained from eating or drinking for 25 hours, until we celebrated break-fast at 7:18pm. We all enjoyed a festive dinner together, complete with homemade bagels by Sophie. We also welcomed Max and Jason, two new sustainable ag-fanatics who will both be working with us on our projects.
On Tuesday, we began a new week of work on our projects and bid farewell to two of our beloved farmhouse mates, Charlotte and Sasha. Charlotte will continue to be a part of the team remotely and Sasha will be pursuing another adventure! After sending them both off, we went back to work. Gavi finalized her research plan and ordered the equipment we’ll need to collect her data. Outside, we finished building our tree nursery, creating nine raised soil mounds where our cuttings and seedlings will be lovingly planted. We also started construction on our second raised bed and inoculated the most recent batch of biochar.
For dinner, power duo Samm and Julia made rice, stew, and ginger cucumber salad. We ate together in the living room while yelling at the TV screen as we endured watching the presidential debate. *IF YOU ARE NOT REGISTERED TO VOTE, PLEASE GET YOURSELF A BALLOT* Here is the link to register for a mail-in ballot: https://www.eac.gov/voters/national-mail-voter-registration-form
On Wednesday, we continued working on building our second raised bed, hauling cement blocks and digging out the trench. We began construction on our Sukkah (four-walled hut for the holiday of Sukkot) and continued building our goat pen for our three foster goats that will be coming to the farm next week. Our friends at Janie’s Mill have a few too many goats on their hands right now and asked us if we wanted to foster these three for a while – we’re excited to bring these floppy-eared friends into our lives! After construction work outside and research and grant work inside, we trekked through the woods to give Max and Jason an introduction to our second home and continue our mapping project. Max’s Geographic Information System Mapping (GIS) prowess will be invaluable to furthering our mapping endeavor.
For dinner, Gavi and I made skillet cornbread and a miso vegetable stir fry.
On Thursday, we finished building our goat pen and are now ready for our foster goat friends! Then, we continued working on our tree nursery, determining how we will segment it for our research investigating the impact of biochar and basalt on soil fertility. In preparation for a Friday biochar burn, we collected and chopped wood from the forest. We also made more progress on our second raised bed. Inside the house, we continued working on grant applications and our agroforestry policy research. We’re excited to meet with Kate next week to reconvene on our policy research and learn more about our role in contributing to drafting the policy!
On Friday, we woke up and began loading up the kiln for a pre-Shabbat biochar burn. We took turns monitoring the kiln outside and finishing up our week’s work inside. While letting our biochar char, we met with one of our partners from the Delta Institute who gave us encouragement and useful questions to consider about our future! We finished Sukkah construction just in time for erev Sukkot (the evening that begins the holiday of Sukkot), and our Sukkah is absolutely stunning – four slim tree trunks with tarp walls and a corn-husk roof that allows us to peek up at the stars. We enjoyed eating Shabbat dinner in the Sukkah that night, surrounded by twinkly lights and a wrapped brisk fall breeze. We sang Kabbalat Shabbat songs, customarily shook the lulav and etrog (a lulav is a combination palm, myrtle, and willow branches and an etrog is a citron—a close relative of the lemon), and we ate a lovely dinner that Sophie and Jason cooked, complete with Challah. After dinner in the Sukkah, we returned to the house to empty our “fill” jars and play a very intense game of Anomia—Max was the clear winner, but we’ll try to not let that go to his head.
On Sunday, we took a long walk in the woods to the river and then came home to phone-banked for the Iowa Democratic Party to get Iowa voters to request and send-in their absentee ballots!