My birthday has come and gone. Another year! What will 23 be like? When I woke up last Friday morning there was this cake, a dart board and a day full of wonderful adventure waiting for me. Thank you to everyone who made it special! (side note - these flowers are a product of my first dumpster-diving escapade. Can't get much better than that!)

I got to meet Jimmy Carter. He attends/preaches at a church in Plains, GA which is only about 9 miles from the farm. He spoke a little about the involvement he still has in trying to maintain peace internationally which was really inspiring. It was cool to see how lively and involved someone can still be at that age.

This is a really awesome family that has been staying on the farm for the past few weeks. They live in the bus pictured below. They are on an educational tour of the United States; teaching everything from self defense, to justice and peace activism, to permaculture. They are really leaving a positive impression.

This is my work mentor, Brendan. (Those are pig ears right before they were thrown in a pot to be apart of homemade dog food)

The last of the dog food. Look close, you can see the cooked ears!

We picked up some tile that was donated by a friend of Koinonia. It was great. We not only filled up the flat-bed but also the back of another truck. Next step, sort and organize it back at the farm!

This guy was hanging out in the pile of tile we picked up. Mother Earth sure is creative.

We had a lovely afternoon of snow awhile back. Best snowball fight ever! Ida (the little one coming after me there in the front) was ruthless when it came to packing that snow. What a ton of laughter we all enjoyed!

Adam made snow-cream. I'd never heard of this. Basically it is fresh snow, sugar, and milk. So yummy! (And once it gets a little old it makes for a great make-shift root beer float)

Other things that have been going on include:

- Emily and I picked a wheelbarrow full of turnips. Half of them we diced and froze; the other half are being made into turnip sauerkraut.

- Have been pruning the grapevines like crazy! Got to get them done before it starts to really warm up.

- Continue to move the sheep/cows throughout the farm to trim the clover and grass.

- Am drinking a TON of coffee

- Started taking piano lessons. (Well, have had one.. and we'll see how the rest go)

- Have been playing a lot of Spades late at night. Good game for sure.

- Propagated fig trees.

- Best of all, am watching seeds I planted in the greenhouse awhile back start to sprout!

All in all, things are going great. Some days I'm pretty tired; both physically and emotionally. I'd have to say I'm learning a lot. Both about myself AND about farming. Can't ask for much more. Thanks for your support.

Would love to hear from you.

Hope all is well.

A few days ago I went to pick up a WWOOF'er from the Grey Hound station. (If you're unfamiliar with what a wwoofer is check it out here, http://www.wwoof.org/) Basically it's an individual who volunteers themselves on organic farms in return for various amenities thru an organization called World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.

The station was about 30-40 minutes away. I left about an hour early so I could have time to stop and take pictures along the way.

(It was extremely relaxing and a ton of fun)

This is what I got:

"The word "permaculture" was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison, an Australian ecologist, and one of his students, David Holmgren. It is a contraction of "permanent agriculture" or "permanent culture."

Permaculture is about designing ecological human habitats and food production systems. It is a land use and community building movement which strives for the harmonious integration of human dwellings, microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, and water into stable, productive communities. The focus is not on these elements themselves, but rather on the relationships created among them by the way we place them in the landscape. This synergy is further enhanced by mimicking patterns found in nature.

A central theme in permaculture is the design of ecological landscapes that produce food. Emphasis is placed on multi-use plants, cultural practices such as sheet mulching and trellising, and the integration of animals to recycle nutrients and graze weeds."

- quote taken from the National Sustainable Agriculture Information SErvices websitehttp://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/perma.html - check out the site for more great information!

This is what Koinonia is striving for. Currently there is a two week permaculture class being held here. They have partnered with Koinonia in order to have a place to not only come and learn but be able to do demonstrations. The above quote mentioned sheet mulching. This is one demonstration that was conducted a few days ago in front of the library.

Sheet mulching is a method used to create nutrient rich beds (in our case around a few fruit trees) that will naturally suppress grass and weed growth without using pesticides or fertilizers. The layers used in this case (in order) were nutrient rich soil that had been composting for some time along with food scraps, cardboard (to suppress weeds and grass) with holes for the vegetable and other desired plants we wanted, hay, and decaying pecan shells. Those fruit trees are going to be so happy and healthy!

The closest building is the library and the farther one is Jubilee where I live!

Trailer with all the cardboard we used.

Iris that were inserted around the base of the tree as extra protection against weeds.

One of the teachers inserting a blueberry bush.

A few days ago, while cleaning dishes after one of our community dinners a glass broke in my hands. This could have been avoided had I taken a previous warning more seriously... I suppose I just didn't expect them to be THAT fragile.

It has all turned out okay and is healing nicely.

The human body is such an incredibly impressive organism.

Here are just a few quick pictures that don't involve much explanation. Mostly just shots from around the farm..

(This is Adam and Emily loving on Mabel, the new puppy who is being trained to guard the sheep)

(yummy greens!)

(The post after this is also new, don't miss it!)

Love.

Hello!

Sorry it has been a few days since the last update. The end of orientation week was very busy! Lets see; where to begin?

I'll show a lot of what's been going on with pictures I've taken. It's easier that way. (And more fun!) Here are most of the really great highlights.

Here at Koinonia there are multiple pecan orchards. There are MANY processes that are involved in the harvesting of the nuts but one involves a large machine that grabs onto the tree and shakes the pecans loose. I got to operate this machine! I just happened to be sharing lunch with Bud and Norris, the two gentlemen who were doing maintenance on the machine when they asked if I would like to shake one of the trees. Of course I accepted the offer! It resulted in a lot of laughter and tons of pecans falling to the ground!

Another project I got to be apart of was the building of a house for the Fuller Center. This organization builds houses for low income families and was started by Millard and Linda Fuller. They were a couple who were apart of Koinonia in 1967. Koinonia teaches that every individual has their own journey and welcomes people to discover that direction while on the farm. Millard and Linda found there passion during their time spent at Koinonia and went on to accomplish incredible things. Millard was actually the individual who founded Habitat for Humanity in the mid-1970's. Due to differences of opinion between Millard and the current Board of Directors Millard separated himself from Habitat and started the Fuller Center. Explore this link for more information on the Fuller Center: http://www.fullercenter.org/

This past Wednesday was the one-year anniversary of Millards death. To pay respect, there was a day open to anyone who cared to honor Millard at the most recent building site of the Fuller Center.

(This is the duplex being built by the Fuller Center where we gathered for Millard.)

(This is Linda Fuller speaking on behalf of Millard, and David Snell - the new President of the Fuller Center now that Millard has passed away.)

(This is Nashua and Little Bear, his loyal companion. Little Bear travels around the farm all day with Nash. )

This past Friday the farm members held a Welcome Retreat for the interns. This included a special spiritual time in the morning, breakfast and games at Amanda's house, a wonderfully prepared lunch, a talent show, intern sharing time, and then a poetry reading. Besides the rain (which forced us to cancel the bonfire) the day was great.

(view outside Sunny Acres - where Amanda's house is)

(cooking breakfast and playing card games)

(the special lunch prepared for the special day)

Last but not least I'll mention that I got to learn how to lay tile a few days ago! It was pretty tough towards the end but a great learning experience. Phil is apart of the maintenance team, is from New York, and has a ton of experience laying floors. I really learned a lot.

(Phil)

(This is Rob; the guy who owns the house)

(According to Phil i helped him lay 1/3 of the room!)

Today was the first official day of work. I took a ton of great pictures which will probably be updated tomorrow.

Hope this helps catch you up.

Also hope all is well with everyone. Would love to hear how you're doing. Just leave a comment here on the blog. Thanks for keeping up with me.

Peace.

Hello Hello.

Today was my first official day. This week is just orientation so the structure will be a bit different than the remainder of my time here. Koinonia is a pretty spiritual place so there are constantly opportunities to explore in the direction. Almost every morning chapel starts at 7:30am and is open for anyone who would like to join. i woke up pretty early this morning and not only had time for a few cups of coffee and a quick read but had plenty of time to check out what Chapel was all about. The first 20-30 minutes is reserved for silent meditation and around 8:00am an elderly man, who has lived at Koinonia for quite awhile, shared a few words from his well worn bible and sang an incredible song that had a really authentic folk feel. I'm looking forward to talking to the people who live here on the farm and hearing their story and what they experience spiritually.

Then we went on a tour of the farm which was led by a woman named Sarah. She is really awesome and has just recently made a life-time commitment to the farm with her husband and two daughters. I saw so much; the pecan sorting and packing areas, the various barns, all the different animals (cows, a turkey, chickens, giant hogs - one of which just had 11 baby piglets!), the permaculture garden (which i will hopefully be learning a lot more about), the Peace Trail, one of the many pecan orchards, and so much more. It was all really exciting. I can't wait to get more experience with all of it!

From there we met with Amanda, who is the intern leader. We learned a more about the farm and each intern had a chance to share a bit about ourselves and why we are here. It was nice to hear from everyone.

Next was lunch which was AWESOME. The best part was the fresh salad that came from the garden. The leaves were so rich with flavor. Also, with every meal unpasteurized, fresh milk is served which is super tasty. I really can't wait to be more involved with both growing and eating fresh foods!

After this we joined Craig, the head maintenance guy here on the farm, in town on a job site for a house they are building. We all had different jobs. I got to work beside Craig installing windows. I really had a great time and feel like i learned so much. I let him know ahead of time that i was probably going to ask a lot of questions and from that he took on an awesome teaching role. Here are a few pictures before we all headed back to the farm.

Above from left to right: me, Nathan, Emily, and Tabitha

(one intern is missing due to a doctors appointment)

Once we left the building site we went to Amanda's for a sharing time. We got to hear the stories of two Koinonians; Kathleen who has been involved with the farm for many years and Sarah, the woman i mentioned earlier who gave us the tour.

Now we're all back at the house relaxing and deciding what to eat.

It was a full day, and has left me looking forward to the upcoming months.

Hope that wasn't to long, or confusing. If you ever have any questions or need clarification on something that is unclear, don't hesitate to ask!

Thanks for listening.

peace.

For those of you who have requested it; here is the address for the farm.

1324 Georgia Highway 49 South

Americus, GA 31719