Better Renovations: Sleeping Quarters, Part II

So...

I was outside scrubbing down some more bunk beds with a steel brush, and discovered stickers designating the beds' original stomping ground:




Somehow, this is perfectly fitting.

Better Kayaking: Millsite Lake

One of the nicest parts about the Thousand Islands region is, go figure, the water. With a kayak and paddle you have an almost infinite number of locations to choose from, including the St. Lawrence River itself.

Fred and I headed out a couple of days ago for my inaugural ride of the season. We decided to pay a visit to Millsite Lake, which is just two miles down the road from Better Farm. We hit the water around 9:30 a.m., just after I discovered a whole nest of pink, newborn baby mice in my kayak. Nice.

Take it in, folks:

Biker Rally: Alexandria Bay, June 26-28

Just when you thought the area surrounding Better Farm couldn't take any more excitement...

Alexandria Bay from June 26-28 held its annual River Run Motorcycle Rally, which was a lot of fun until some poor fool revved too hard and flew head-over-handles off his bike, knocking several other parked bikes over in the process and forcing some cops to throw on their patrol lights. But you know what they say: If you can fall off your horse without spilling your beer, you're alright.

Featuring a kick-off block dance, The Vertical Outlaws motorcycle stunt group, Mom and Pop custom bike show, ladies' and men's tattoo contests, dirtiest bike contest, a ton of live music, and a poker run, this event brought more people to the Bay than last year's Pirates' Week.

The rally featured amazing bikes, such as these:







River Run also had quite the crowd. See for yourself:




And the views of the St. Lawrence River! Gorgeous:



Just around dusk, one of the bikers decided to peel out all dramatic-like in front of the crowd reveling on Main Street:



At first, everyone was pumped:



Then, disaster struck as Dude peeled off, and revved a little too hard into some parked bikes on the side of the road. Cops sprang into action, the crowd gathered hard on the scene, and I got out of there—headed for greener pastures seven miles away, to continue painting the front hallway...





All in a day's work. Better be.

Owl Room, After

We've finished our first complete room, top to bottom. Talk about gratifying! What began as Jordan's bedroom has turned farmhouse chic under its newest incarnation as the Owl Room.

This room was in the worst structural shape to start, with a gaping hole in one wall, spackle along another, a beat-up door and frame, and lots of trinkets and dolls being stored in the space.

Here are a few shots of the room before:



Lana and Mike started the process by emptying the space. Then, Corinne and Butch got in there over Memorial Day Weekend to install new sheet rock, spackle, and paint. The tan color they used on the walls was "reclaimed" paint — that is, instead of being thrown out, we eked out the rest of it on the walls of this room. The sheet rock was scrap from another house project. After Corinne and Butch finished up, it was just a matter of a few final details:

• Installing the bunk beds we got from a nice man in LeRay, N.Y.
• Reappropriating some shelving from the library
• Hanging fresh curtains, courtesy of Laura Caldwell's basement (antique lace looks amazing in farmhouses, by the way)
• Sanding and painting the doorframe and door
• Bringing in an area rug we found downstairs
• Applying fresh linens to the bed (also taken from elsewhere in the house)
• Creating the theme: Moving the owl lamp from the lilac room and fitting it with an energy-efficient bulb, hanging a piece of art depicting an owl, and bringing in an owl bell

And, drum roll please:






Viva Better!

Thousand Islands Express Offers Hitchhikers a Plan B Between Better Farm, Syracuse

Breaking! A new shuttle between Better Farm and Syracuse began making daily trips June 1. Hitchhikers everywhere, relax! News 10 Now has reported Caz Limo & Tours and the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority have teamed up to provide Upstaters an easy shuttle service between the Thousand Islands, Watertown, and Syracuse. Your transportation situation to Better Farm just got a whole lot simpler. Now you can just cruise up to Alex Bay, and we'll pick you up at the bridge!

The shuttle, coined the Thousand Islands Express, comes fully equipped with food and wireless Internet access, and will connect to the Syracuse Airport. Check out the full schedule here, then let us know what time to grab you.

Inspiration Station: Solar One

A piece I wrote about a phenomenal nonprofit called Solar One, based out of New York City, is now live on Green Edge NYC's Web site.

Check it out—this organization's ideas about solar power are right in line with our plans here at Better Farm! (And be sure to note the Better Farm mention in my bio!)

Spotlight On...Not-For-Profit Organization Solar 1

By Nicole Caldwell

Stuyvesant Cove Park is a green space resting atop 1.9 acres of Manhattan waterfront that once held a concrete factory. The native plants and grasses stretching lazily along the East River at 23rd Street attract and sustain native bird species and butterflies; and offer a fitting backdrop to New York City’s most cutting-edge green space: Solar One.

The building—and park—is maintained by a nonprofit of the same name striving simply to “empower people of all ages with the vision, knowledge, and resources to attain a more environmentally sound and sustainable future.” It’s a microcosm for what Solar One’s next big project, Solar Two, could be for all of New York City when it’s constructed on the same space and becomes the first self-standing, carbon-neutral, net-zero energy structure in the five boroughs.

Read the rest of this story here

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Recap: Memorial Day Weekend at the Farm

Since I can't figure out the intricate workings of posting multiple images on blogger, a (late) pictorial recap of Memorial Day weekend at the Farm has been posted up at my wordpress blog, F that S. Check it out!

Better Farm: The Green Effect

Sun Chips and National Geographic have teamed up in a contest called The Green Effect, which asks us what we would to to green up our communities if given $20,000. From the contest Web site:

The objective of the SunChips® "Green Effect" Contest (the "Contest") is to provide an opportunity for contestants to share their Green Idea, which is an environmentally-friendly project that would help their local environment and community ("Green Idea"). Five (5) winners will each receive a cash prize to be used towards executing their respective Green Ideas. See below for details.

This seemed like a no-brainer for Better Farm to sign up for STAT. Here's our entry—please cheer us on by ranking our proposal on the site! Ten finalists will be posted on the site July 7...

Better Farm, Memorial Day 2009

Better Farm was a busy place this Memorial Day Weekend, with lots of renovations, reorganizations, a service for our founder, Steve Caldwell, and excellent quality time among old and new friends.

A bunch of original communards came out, as well as the new wave of Better proponents. The weather was perfect! One part work and many parts play, we enjoyed a big barbecue Sunday afternoon...

Special thanks to Fred Ciliberti for his culinary prowess and carpentry expertise, Mike Babcock for help in setting the whole thing up, Gary Ferina for offering wallpaper-stripping and bookshelf-building tutorials, our amazing work crew (Corinne, Butch, Nils, Cigir, Alec, Dev, Tyler, Mike, Lana, Josh, Ellen, et al), and everyone who came out to share their Better memories.

Better Renovations: Upstairs Hallway, After

Thanks to a generous donation from Corinne's office, Better Farm is the lucky recipient of a ton of Flor's heavy duty red carpet squares. The pieces are extremely durable and easy to clean—a major plus in a high-traffic farm house. We'll be using them on the staircase and in the loft, as well.

Corinne, Butch, and I ripped up the old carpeting first, which was half disintegrated and the source of a HUGE dust cloud during removal. Corinne followed up with a good sweep (39 years of dust is pretty intense), I went in next with some wet rags, and then Butch got to work patching holes and old stove pipe ducts before measuring the awkwardly shaped upstairs hallway and laying down the squares. Here are some before shots:




And... after:

Better Renovations: The Kitchen, After

One of our big tasks at Better Farm was to make the kitchen pristine. That meant doing away with the old, cracked, mismatched wallpaper, sanding down the walls, washing off the discovered boot print on the sheet rock underneath, taking down old musty bookshelves covering up gorgeous reclaimed barn wood, patching (a lot of) holes, and washing all the blinds (bathtubs work best for this—really). It's amazing to work on a house last renovated in 1970 by a bunch of 20-somethings (lots of newspaper stuffed into crevices and random, jerry-rigged solutions never meant to last 39 years).

We were finally ready to paint by the end of Day 1. To keep things basic, we went with plain white paint from Olympic's green line (only $15 at Lowe's—who said going green had to be expensive?), and hung fresh lace curtains reclaimed from storage. And, voila:

A Cautionary Tale: Book Organization

Note to self: Always push books flush against the wall in a library. Not doing so is the equivalent to an open invitation for mice to create a completely hidden empire, only to be discovered while laboring at book reorganization. Case in point, this gem—found while revamping the Better Farm Library (alphabetically by author, naturally):

Better Farm Holds First Fundraiser

Better Farm's first-ever fundraiser brought in more than $400—plenty to buy our much-needed bunkbeds and fresh, eco-friendly paint!

The event, coined as a "Drink Better" beer pong tournament, pitted more than half a dozen teams against each other in a winner-takes-trophies showdown. Congratulations to Julie and Josh's team for mopping the floor with their competition.

Special thanks to Kristen and Jeff for organizing and hosting—and for all of you who came out to support us! Stay tuned for more events throughout the summer and year...