Better Renovations: The library, halfway

The library is one of the most daunting of rooms to revamp, on account of the sheer size of the space and the tedious chore of moving books to compensate for each adjustment so said books stay in alphabetical order. The last time we checked in with this space was in May. Here's where we started:

  

Here's what we did:

 

Tasks: Consolidation of books (all unused books were donated to individuals and libraries); the construction of additional shelving (utilizing reclaimed barn wood and reused nails); doing away with the dirty old carpet and decades-old couch unsuitable for human inhabitants; touching up the walls with spackle and eco-friendly paint; getting rid of the outdated TV and sound system (replaced with a large flatscreen, surround sound, and entertainment center with turntable); introducing some new houseplants transplanted from Brooklyn, and redecorating with already-owned items.

And here's where we are:

 Special thanks to worker bees Alec Gross, Mike Brown, Nils Horning, Tyler Howe, Dev Doobay, and Josh Babcock for reorganizing the intimidating array of books. Shout-outs to Tom and Beth Marturano for the floral couch; Mike and Lana Babcock for the armchair; Laura Caldwell for the lace curtains (Corinne Weiner for cutting and sewing them to fit); an assortment of wonderful people for the wall art and photographs; Alex Necochea for the Oriental rug; and Camp Tamarack for the "Scout is Reverent" sign.

St. Lawrence River Rustic Show: Applications now being accepted!

Hey all you artisans, carpenters, painters, sculptors, potters, jewelers, and metalworkers!

The

St. Lawrence River Rustic Show

is slated for Aug. 6-8, 2010, and showcases the work of artisans who create with natural materials; and fine artists who capture natural landscapes and scenes. All work presented at the event is original and one-of-a-kind! The event, sponsored by Redwood's own

Creations in Wood

, will be held at the

Bonnie Castle Recreation Center

in Alexandria Bay.

This year's theme is "From the Mountain and the River". All makers of rustic furniture, sculpture, skiffs/canoes, art, pottery, ceramics, jewelry, and home and cabin decor reflecting this theme are encouraged to book a space at the show.

 For this year's event, there is an additional "

Mermaid Challenge

" for rustic show participants. All creators attending the event are encouraged to create a 3-D piece inspired by mermaids. The winner gets a free space at next year's show! Get more information on that challenge

here

.

Sign-up forms for the rustic show are available

here

. Better Farm has accommodations available for attending artists—please contact us at info@betterfarm.org

.

Find Yourself

Whether establishing your first home, creating a farm, or

transforming a commune into a sustainability center

, it's all about location, location, location. So why not make yours known?

Over at Better Farm, we're in cahoots with a welder who may create a metal logo for over our front door. We're also looking into a "Better Farm" driveway arch. And with all the generous donations coming through, we're doing a lot of research into different styles of

commemorative plaque

so we can remind everyone entering this space how we did what we did; and who contributed to making the Little Commune that Could

just so

.

A good starting point is an

address plaque

so your dinner-party guests can find their way to your place before the first glass of wine is poured. You can also get plaques with the year your house was built, or your family name. On a shoestring budget? Try finding a few smooth, large rocks in your yard or on your next hike. Clean them off and paint a number on each one. Put them in a row on the ground next to your mailbox or on your front porch.

Lighted address plaques

take this idea a step further; and can be done on your own by buying a lighted "Exit" sign from a hardware store, taking the sign off the case, and replacing it with your address (cut your address out of thin plastic sheets or heavy foil with a razor).

With all the experimental projects coming through—including but not limited to compost toilets, bee houses, bird houses, chicken coops, lofts, solar showers and Permaculture—we're planning to utilize many of the above-mentioned ideas to create informative plaques; so the next time you're admiring the cool style of passive solar we're utilizing, you can learn a thing or two as well. So go ahead, join the trend, and make yourself easy to find.

Friends and Family Day: March 6

Redwood's Second Annual Friends and Family Day is coming up March 6. Be sure to stop in at the Better Farm table for information on our upcoming Earth Day cleanup and pot-luck dinner, and for our summer workshop schedule!

Lawn Seats

While helping last week to stack a ton of wood in a shed across the street, I came across an old see-saw I remember being in the yard when I was just a wee thing. It occured to me how great it would be to get that see-saw back on the lawn in time for

Better Farm's 40th Reunion Party in May

.

Thinking about that reminded me of just how many people we're expecting that weekend; and how we're going to have to organize some sort of seating on the property that extends beyond our picnic table and campfire folding chairs.

There are a million ways to offer seating; from

outdoor patio furniture

to floor chairs to hammocks to benches. And with a little ingenuity, you too can have a festival (or lawn party)-ready property in no time.

You can find very basic

DIY bench

and seat plans online (complicated ones, too, if you're partricularly handy). I've always been a huge fan of DIY floor chairs in which you literally take a chair with a back and saw the legs off (see photo at top of this post, circa 1970 at Better Farm). Voila!

Patio dining sets

are a little trickier to set up on your own, but the good news is that investing in a dependable one this year will guarantee you years of excellent outdoor wining and dining. If you're on a tight budget, consider scouring flea markets, thrift shops, and garage sales for mismatched wrought-iron pieces. Get a table, a a few chairs, and a can or two of black spray paint. Sand down your furniture, lay it outside on some newspaper, and spray it until all the pieces match. The differences in their design will only add to their appeal.

Lots of outdoor furniture stores are also selling what they call "

conversation sets

"—or, outdoor furniture designed to be comfortable enough for you to spend an afternoon holding high court in. From Adirondack chairs to cushioned seats for maxing poolside, this umbrella of outdoor furniture is set up for luxurious afternoons spent with good company. Count us in.  We'd also like to suggest that a conversation set should inspire conversation; as in, you explaining how you made it yourself, or having a story to go with the unusual design of the set you purchased.

In other words, make your outdoor seating arrangements sing with personality. Make your own weatherproof cushions; do your own spray painting to tie different pieces together; or come up with a lovely flower arrangement or centerpiece that will have your guests ooh-ing and aah-ing. Please share your ideas with us! And stay tuned to see our seating solutions for the May 30th bash; see-saw and all.

Internship Applications now Available!

Applications for Better Farm's summer internship program

are now available!

Internships run from June 1 through Sept. 1, 2010, with one-, two-, and three-month programs available. These unpaid internships are available to students interested in a myriad of sustainability issues; with each internship tailored to suit a specific individual's needs and personal goals.

Interns have the option of visiting us during normal business hours Monday through Friday (excepting those interested in participating in farmers' markets, held Saturday mornings), or living on-site in shared rooms for a nominal fee of $250/month.  That fee covers unlimited use of wireless Internet, access to laundry, all linens and towels, on-site parking, and a familial atmosphere complete with family-style, sit-down dinners seven days a week, field trips, and movie nights. Other personal costs—including transportation and all other meals—are the responsibility of the intern.

The deadline for internship applications is March 1. All applicants will be contacted in a decision letter by April 1.

Please visit Better Farm's summer internship page for more information and to download an application.

Guide: Getting started with compost

There are two amazing things you realize when you start composting.

One, you notice how little garbage you suddenly create. Buying fresh veggies and fruits, composting, and cutting down on packaged food or frozen meals means a full house of Better Farmers only produce one bag of trash every couple of weeks. Meanwhile, the compost pit outside (our homemade version of

garden composters

) and our little worm friends in the kitchen stay nice and robust.

And two, you become very aware of how much food you waste, what you use, and how the leftovers from said food can actually help to feed you in just a few short months. It's a front-seat view of the circle of life; and it's a foolproof way to cut down on waste.

Composting may seem like a time-consuming project; but the truth is that there are a plethora of composters out there that make turning your food scraps into healthy soil easy as can be. Whether you hate getting your hands dirty, hold down multiple jobs, or just feel grossed out by the thought of worms, we promise: There is a composter out there for you.

Click here

for a basic breakdown of how compost works. Then, follow this handy guide to begin sorting out what kind of composting will work best for you.

• Style Let's face it, most people think compost is sort of gross. They envision a fruit fly-infested pile of food scraps sitting next to a kitchen sink, stinking up the house. Not so! Before recently picking up a legitimate kitchen composter, we used a jumbo plastic container with lid for food scraps. We took it out once a week, scrubbed it down, and suffered no odor overload. The "worm bin", a large plastic storage container kept under a cabinet in the kitchen, has never created any odor at all; even as the worms gobble up dead houseplants, banana peels, and bagels. So while a composting toilet may not be your top-choice for your foray into turning waste into healthy soil, know that there is a composting system out there to suit every taste.

• Location Sixty-five acres mean lots of space for us to spread out. That land also affords us the opportunity to have a fenced-off, moveable "compost cage" of sorts that keeps porcupines—and puppy dogs—out of the compost while allowing the food scraps optimal access to the elements for top-notch decomposition. (This system is an off-shoot of the upcoming, experimental "mulch garden" we've been working on.) We can move the cage around every few months, with a large "rake-out" during planting season. It's not a great system if you've got a tiny fire escape for a yard, or if your small eighth of an acre abuts your neighbor's place. Consider what you've got, and then determine whether you want a small kitchen composter, or whether you'd like a larger bin outside.

• Time/Maintenance Commitment Our outdoor compost pit requires womanpower to turn it over every so often for aeration and to aid in decomposition. We also have to keep up with moving the enclosure itself so the most amount of ground beneath the compost gets nourished. If turning it over with a metal rake, having to move it every few months, and coming up with a design plan of your own doesn't appeal to you, you may want to simply pick up an earthmaker composter that's clean, odorless, and streamlined to do the work for you. You can put it in your backyard next to your garden, and only worry about dropping scraps in and taking fresh dirt out.

• Size And lastly, get a sense of what you're producing. For us, it makes sense to have a kitchen collection bin of scraps, a worm bin, and an outdoor compost pit. For you, a tiny kitchen compost bucket might do the trick.

We would love to see photos of your compost strategies! Please e-mail us at info@betterfarm.org.

Visiting Photographer: Erin Covey

One of the most important principles for us at Better Farm is to nurture the creativity and curiosity of everyone we come in contact with. So it was with great enthusiasm that we tracked down one Erin Covey, a lifestyle photographer, videographer, and owner of Covey Creative who was on the hunt for a fresh muse—or five.

Linking up with artists, thinkers, writers, and musicians is all in line with the burgeoning betterArt, a Better Farm subsidiary and eventual nonprofit dedicated solely to promoting the arts within our local and virtual community. To this end, we've recently posted a residency application online and have begun talks with artists on local, national, and international levels to figure out ways to cross-pollinate each other's skillsets.



Finding Ms. Covey was therefore completely serendipitous. Based out of Utica, N.Y., and Connecticut, she's been looking for some winter projects to keep herself sharp between the hustle and bustle of very busy spring, summer, and fall photography seasons. We were all too happy to offer ourselves up as amateur models against the rural backdrop of Redwood, N.Y. And, wouldn't you know it, her family used to have a camp just a town over in Alexandria Bay.

Small world!

After a little brainstorming and calendar organization, we've scheduled an afternoon photo shoot for Sunday, March 7. Erin will be photographing five or more humans, a dog or two, and this very special place.

Get ready for some pretty amazing family portraits!

Erin Covey is available for year-round events, portraiture, and multimedia projects. Learn more at http://covcouture.com/covcouture/Home.html.

Hang in There

If you live in a place like Better Farm, you likely find yourself saddled with a bunch of wonderful guests on very short notice who need places to lay their heads. Extra rooms and fold-out couches are sweet, but sometimes you have more bodies than beds and need a real quick fix.

That's where hammocks come in. They're multi-functional (lazing around outside on a beautiful spring or summer day, sleeping, cuddling, even sitting upright in hammock chairs

to read books); they fold up and can be stored extremely easily; and they're lightweight (so you can hang them outside, then bring them inside at night to sleep).

They also won't leave you broke:

  can be achieved quickly and for less than $10. If you're not planning to bring your hammock inside, then you can spring for outdoor hammocks; which are durable, weatherproof, and will last for years. (Just remember to bring them in at the end of the season!)

If you've got the time—and a lot of patience—you can weave your own spectacular rope hammock or net hammock. You can use thin or thick rope, come up with your own color pallette, and have a portable bed the next time you're camping in Florida, romping along South America's coastline, or stopping in for an impromptu overnight at Better Farm.

If you're planning to hang a hammock or two inside when your home is at full capacity, please please please be sure to locate studs in your wall against which to affix hooks for the hammock's ends. This will avoid nasty damage to your living space, and potentially catastrophic injuries if you're floating in the air above anything that might hurt you on impact should you suddenly drop earthward. The hooks can stay in the wall all the time to take out future guess work, and will hardly be noticeable if you place them in clever spots. Happy hanging!

betterArt Residency Applications Now Available

betterArt, a new art residency program at Better Farm starting this summer, is now accepting applications!

betterArt maintains facilities on Better Farm's property (from teepees to treehouses to shared, cabin-style housing) as residences for writers, visual artists of all media, bands, and composers.

betterArt's summer residency program is open from June 1 to Sept. 1, and can accommodate comfortably up to seven people at a time. Residencies are for one week, two weeks, or month-long periods of time. The standards for admission are talent, desire to live  and work specifically at Better Farm, and a willingness to have a go at the Better Theory; a belief that each moment presents us with the opportunity for exponential personal growth.

For more information and to apply, please download the below forms or visit our Web site for a downloadable application!

Tin Roof...Rusted

Or, Why Starting with an Existing House is Better:

A lot of attention is given to building with green/reclaimed materials - and shows like Building Green and HGTV's Red Hot & Green offer viewers tips and resources on starting from the (respected) ground up. Don't get me wrong, potential home builders should definitely do their research when it comes to the materials they choose, but existing houses are an automatically greener solutions...mainly because, well, they already exist.

Many people curse the urban sprawl of the cities and suburbs, and react by buying some secluded piece of (usually forested) acreage, razing it, and then "building responsibly" with materials bought off another perfectly good house that was demolished to make way for some other person's environmental guilt. Due to this lovely recession we've been in, there are a number of existing houses available. These houses sit on parcels of land that have already been developed, and are made out of materials that have already been used. Shouldn't we start from there?

The idea of building on the least amount of land as possible is not a new idea.

Ian McHarg "pioneered the idea of ecological planning" and his 1969 book,

Design with Nature

, addressed humans' need for living space, but suggested we start by recognizing Nature's space as well. He referred to Man as a "Planetary Disease" and suggested an "ecological sensibility that accepted the interwoven worlds of the human and the natural, and sought to more fully and intelligently design human environments in concert with the conditions of setting, climate and environment."

Not bad advice, and with the renovation of Better Farm we are trying our best to keep in line with the ecological system that we're in. Besides continuing to spatially reconstruct our lil' old farmhouse, eventually the existing barn across the street will be re-purposed while some additional living structures are built around the property - either on already developed land or respectfully within the surrounding forest (think: tree houses). Stay tuned!

"Before" photo of Old Kopp Farmhouse from

Trouble in River City

. A perfect example of starting with what's there. And to get yourself in the green remodeling mindset, check out some tips from

This Old House

.

Area Attraction: Time travel vortex in Watertown!

Jefferson County just gets more and more interesting. Corinne, Better Farm's director of programming and Permaculture,  recently tipped us off to this bit of local lore:

There is apparently a vortex of some sort nestled right in Watertown's Thompson Park, fewer than 30 miles from Better Farm. Coincidence?

The vortex is allegedly located near a certain stone somewhere in the park; with one account of a man vanishing in front of witnesses for a full 20 minutes before reappearing in a different location. Accounts of experiences around this strange stone include phrases like "a sudden feeling of uneasiness"; "hearing things"; and "flat out feel weird".

This is obviously going to require some on-site investigation. As you await updates with bated breath, check out this short news clip on the vortex. As an added bonus, here's an amateur ghost-hunter clip taken at Thompson Park:

Picnics, Come Rain or Come Shine

Picnic baskets conjure up images of wholesome family fun and romantic lunch dates set on a provincial countryside. But just as backpacks and luggage have been morphed and streamlined throughout the years, so too has the classic picnic basket. Manly men who like to pack food and drink on their outings, rejoice!

In the summer months, the Better Farm crowd rarely goes anywhere without packing a cooler. It's convenient, if not wholly practical or fashionable. Coolers can be cumbersome when you're packing a kayak; they can be awkward to carry on a hike; and they can be downright annoying when you're trying to tailgate or look cool at

Alex Bay's biker rally

or

blues fest

. So I was thrilled to discover the release of

picnic backpacks

, which leave your hands free as you get to your picnicking destination. You can go as basic or lavish as you like; whether you're packing some Busch beer for cliff-jumping or wine and cheese for a romantic getaway.

Our favorite picnic basket we found was the

picnic cooler

;

which dazzled us by coming with all the components of a gourmet picnic basket without the frills. We like that very much (this is sort of a no-frills kind of crowd). As we wait for the weather to warm up, don't be surprised if we report live from an indoor picnic held in none other than Better Farm's library. Actually, that's not such a bad idea. Check

eHow.com

for some tips on having your own indoor picnic, ants and all.

(Is it completely obvious that this strangely balmy January weather has us chomping at the bit for spring? Thought so.)

Please remember to pack your

biodegradable disposable place settings

, to respect your surroundings, and to carry out what you carry in. Happy picnicking!