Every communard at the FEC Assembly last December fell in love with Bam Bam–the deer living at our host community, Oran Mor. But no one could ever love Bam Bam more than the boy you’re about to meet:
Animals
Spring! (At East Wind)
The East Wind Building Maintenance Crew has been pushing our infrastructure forward. The project for this Spring is remodeling of the floor and windows of our main Food Processing space.
We are still bringing in over a hundred pounds of milk everyday and dairy processing has been moved to the former showerhouse. Good thing the BM Crew got the new showerhouse up and running this past Fall, they just keep setting themselves up for success!
The East Wind’s agricultural areas keep bringing in the goods. Produce, dairy, meat. Potatoes, beets, and carrots are in the ground. We are still harvesting kale, spinach, lettuce, and radish. There are two new additions to the milking cow herd: Betty Boop and Carmen.
The East Wind Nut Butters (EWNB) Crew is continuing to evolve. Members new to the management team are stepping up and taking on responsibility. Passing complex operations along in good, working order can be difficult in this income sharing context. Anna Youngs (Anna Young ran East Wind Nut Butters for most of the 2000s, thanks for holding it down) don’t come along but once a decade. Luckily, there are numerous young Annas here at the moment, all picking up a piece of the puzzle as they can. Effective training and effective leadership comes with time.
There was a relaxed Equinox, Easter, and Birthday combo party on the 21st (the actual Equinox was rainy). No pictures or comments from my end as I was in Dallas visiting my lovely Blood Fam, but I heard it was a good time. Happy Spring!
All in all, East Wind is moving along quite nicely in this most interesting year of 2019. As my co Sage told me today: “things tend to work out for the best.”
Oh yeah, here is the latest video: Utopian Rope Sandals
Post written by Razz with edits from Boone. Pictures by Beauxb, Pinetree, and Panda.
Photo roll!
Lunch on a Snowy Day
Maximus and Rejoice visit Cow and cook lunch at Acorn:
East Wind: A New Day
from the East Wind blog
Hello dear reader!
These past two months have felt like four. Lots of ups and downs through the winter time. The good news is that we are fast coming out of the cold season into the long Ozark warm season. The honeybees are out, searching for potential new nests. I saw one of their scouts fight a spider while I was relaxing at Sunnyside:
That honeybee just kept going up to the spider until a complete stalemate was reached. I took this as a sign that it was time to put up a couple swarm traps and try to capture some honeybees. There are more than a couple experienced people on the farm thinking on the honeybee hive situation for the year, which is super exciting!
Signs of Spring are plenty. One of the first crocus flowers of the year was spotted by Hedge, just behind Fanshen.
Each of these pictures has a story to tell. The above one’s story is pretty simple: our friend Pexter wanted some pictures taken for his profile. He keeps his soshmed (social media) on level. You can see where most of that pile of manure came from here (cow manure is a top notch soil amendment):
Some pictures don’t need much explanation, here is the final fall carrot harvest with PT and Richard:
Above you can see yours truly trying out our new Jang mechanical seeder to plant lettuce. Joseph, a most magical faerie, diligently and lovingly hand seeded one row to give a comparison. I don’t know why, but the legend of John Henry comes to mind. This is a precision machine and I’m happy with our initial results. The spring carrots will be the first real test, hopefully less thinning this year.
We have four new little pigs on the farm. Butchering season is ongoing with the larger pigs and cows. Farm bacon and farm eggs each morning is a mighty fine breakfast. The forestry crew has been down at The Yurt, helping out Richard get his new home established.
I am going to be directing less and less energy to this blog and the East Wind Community channel for sometime. Other things in my Life need more attention. I have really enjoyed writing this blog for the past two years or so. One of my initial goals with redoing East Wind’s website and restarting the community blog was to attract people to come check out East Wind. Well, that is happening and I live with so many wonderful, loving people right now. Seeing your intentions become reality by committing yourself to being something different is an incredible experience.
I truly hope you have enjoyed reading my blogs. No doubt, I will post more here, but I want to make it apparent that this blog will no longer be an obligation of mine (I set a goal to put something out each month, I average one every six weeks probably). This is where you pick up and I fade into the background. This is how a proper hand off begins, by making your intentions known. 2019 will be a great year. =)
P.S. If you don’t know already, I have put out a number of videos on the “East Wind Community” channel on YouTube. For the most self indulgent video, you can click here. And here are the rest of the most recent:
| Richard, the Ent |
| 2018 Dairy Overview |
| Milking Cows in a Community Scale Dairy |
| Cheesemaking with Liuda |
Post and pictures by Pinetree
Day of Goats — Rainforest Lab
Rainforest Lab takes their goats out for the day:
Animals at Acorn
All pictures from Rejoice
Louisa Communes in the Fall
