the stove pictures are from before the stovepipe was installed, so here we are using it as a counter for electrical appliances!

we are having a pot-luck this friday dec 17 at 6pm.
HOWEVER, it is NOT at the the previously posted location, nor planned topic. Carolyn will be out of town, and will instead be hosting the february pot-luck and leading with her global warming, community resilience, food growing topic at that time.

our house isn't done yet, but this is what it looks like now.
Sunday, september 26th, we're having a party.

Yes, there are other things happening that day, like the barnowl band concert, and maybe an art-fair in ames, but nonetheless, we hope you will also come see us.
1;30-3;30pm: digging
if you want to experience sweet potatoes in their entirety, you can help us finish our harvest. please bring a shovel or digging fork, and clothes that like to get dirty.
4pm : House blessing
4:30pm: pot-luck.

(some text/illustration by nicholas)

Is this global warming? We got 10-15 inches of rain in about a week, which seriously messed up our soils structure and water content, while also carrying part of our soil away (see more pictures below).

Here are some pictures from the Stephanie and Micah's last day on the farm (a few weeks ago now.)

We had some great events last week, and as usual very delicious food. We even got in the newspaper - so check it out below. This Friday, NIcholas and Alice will lead a discussion on Anarchism and Cooperation.

Here's a short article about Practical Farmers of Iowa, with a picture of Nicholas as a young leader of a really cool farm.

Does it have a roof yet?

No roof yet.

as you might have guessed, it's been very busy on the farm, between the vegetables, the guests, lively pot-lucks, and of course, building a house. I finally got the pictures from back when we worked on the foundation, so i thought I'd do a little educational illustration of how to build a foundation. If you really want to build one of your own, there are probably very good books with instructions, but this is what we did.

as nicholas mentioned previously, we dug a trench.

Hi, my name is Steph Plant and I’m new to the farm. (Alice asked me to write a blog entry, which I consider quite a treat, except I’m not quite sure what to say..)
I came to mustard seed community farm a week ago and I’m really glad I did.

Tomorrow night we'll have a potluck at the farm. Here's the info:

Catholic Worker Farm Philosophy
Next Friday, June 11th, with a potluck dinner at 6PM and a discussion at 7PM. Again, at the Mustard Seed Community Farm (366 W Ave, Ames, IA, 50014).
Alice will lead this discussion, focusing on the basic principles underlying Catholic Worker Farms in general, and our farm in particular.

We'll have other potlucks in the following Friday.

Nicholas

a stubborn robin built a nest in our tool-shed.

this is from Alice, posting an entry that nicholas wrote last week:

Hello, today I have an update on what's going on on the farm and some events you might want to attend at our farm.
Update: