hi friends,

there's a lot in this email:
1. natural building class poster attached
2. list of many things we are looking for: natural building supplies, fencing needs, building repair supplies and skills
3. Work Day this saturday, 9-12, lunch, 1-5. please rsvp 515-460-1467. for at least one hour (3-4pm probably), we need a bunch of people here at the same time to help us move our greenhouse, to make space for the new kitchen we're building. please consider coming for this.

At our last potluck roundtable, we discussed property. I found this topic particularly interesting since my partner Craig and I are currently packing up all our belongings to move in to the RV on Mustard Seed for the summer.

This task turned out to be much more complicated than it sounds. First of all, we had to find a place to store much of our marginally useful stuff (or, slightly less guilt-inducing, the things we won't need on the farm simply because we can use what the farm already has, like dishes). We also labeled several boxes "Goodwill" and filled them with things we really could not justify owning. Then, we spent some time offering furniture to friends in hopes that they would help us transport not only that furniture, but also the pieces we want to keep in storage.

at 704 duff Ave, Ames, IA, 50010
at 6 pm

we'll be talking about property

you and anyone else can come

A couple weeks ago, we planted our potatoes, along with some other things. Here's a picture.

We're having a cool spring this year and have delayed a lot of our planting to wait for the soil to warm up. So far, we've only planted a few trees, but in the next 12 days we're hoping to get a lot planted. If the weather cooperates and we have enough helpers, we'll be planting potatoes, onions, kale, peas, spinach, lettuce, rhubarb, and about 40 trees and shrubs!
We really need some help getting this work done. The next few days will be cold, rainy, and even snowy, and so we will need to wait for things to dry out a bit again, but then we can really get cracking.

So the goose, or some other goose, is nesting again in the hollow of a tree in our grassland. We'll see if it's successful this year (last year we think an owl or something killed the young).

Farm Update
The farm is warmer, and I think we had our last really cold night last night, and we should be able to start planting things like peas and radishes outside without worrying about a really killing frost. Also, in our grassland, we've started to see the first shoots of cool-season grass coming up, which, as soon as it gets a little bigger, we'll burn in order to weaken those grasses, to give more space for the prairie species that hopefully have survived from when we planted them last year. We've also started planting some more fruit trees, have started some seedlings of individual prairie plants and flowers for pollinators along with some vegetable seedlings, and are working on cover crop plans and orders.

Potlucks
We have two more potlucks this winter, and then we'll be moving to the farm for our potlucks. We'll probably have a tentative schedule for the summer.

April 5 Oscar Romero: at 2923 Woodland St, Unit 1, Ames, IA, 50014
We'll watch some film clips from a movie and have a discussion about Oscar Romero, a bishop and human rights activist in El Salvador: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero

May 3 Property: at 704 Duff Ave, Ames, IA 50010
As we're buying a farm, it seemed a good time to have a discussion about the nature of property and things associated with it, like theft, resources, work, money, economies, and the government!

Workdays
We've got a lot of work to do to get ready for the spring, so if you want to come help us, that'd be great! Here's some of our upcoming workdays.

Saturday, April 6th, from 1 to 4 PM
We'll be pruning our raspberries, removing cages from our trees, and planting some cool-season vegetables, and starting some warm-season seeds.

Saturday, April 13th, all day
9am-noon, a break for lunch, the 1pm-4pm, followed by a farm meeting.
We'll be planting cool-season crops: potatoes, onions, brassicas, peas, spinach
and many trees! Please come - we really need some help this day!

Saturday, May 18th, 9-noon, lunch break, then 1 to 5 PM
We'll be planting out tomatoes and most of the rest of our warm-season vegetables

Though its quite snowy, we're starting work on the farm. If you want to come help, we've posted some workdays on our farm calender: http://mustardseedfarm.org/?q=node/26

We'll be having another fundraiser, this one sponsored by Worldly Goods, a cool store selling various crafts from around the world at 223 Main Street, in Ames Iowa : http://www.worldlygoods.org/
It will be March 14, 5-9 PM. Come buy some cool stuff, and a portion of the purchase price will go to us! Also I think there will be treats made by our farm team there.