Winter Hike Slated Feb. 2
/
Summer at Better Farm: a Storify
/
By Mike Brown
Here's a short tour of what's going on around the property at Better Farm
Part of what we do here is repurpose old stuff. That toilet had gone to s**t, so to speak, and so we put it out to pasture:
New sink and toilet planters at the greenhouse: dig it - I love the design on this. It isn't done yet—I think Nicole wants to paint some Rosie the Riveter features on the old woman in the middle:
Cooperatively created by @betterfarmers american gothic with chicken sunflower deer w/heads cut out for peoples faces 
Second snakeskin I've seen today. Pretty big pic.twitter.com/8MRMiRS3
@mikedelic maybe you should be wearing shoes #SnakeBites
@Chewstroke lol no way im a medicine man and the snakes are my allies- every year i try again with this piano, repainting and replanting
Cherry tomatoes planted in painted piano grow slowly #drought pic.twitter.com/wzsg8Rtz
Wildflowers pic.twitter.com/Pllk7B9D
We have bands play off the back porch of the art barn to this natural amphitheater area pic.twitter.com/eJoogzBa - i like snakeskins and snakes and also like that other people fear them
Nother snakeskin up in the barn pic.twitter.com/hJCq6RJy
Wildflower of paint peels back from broken glass #art pic.twitter.com/0rec6s9n- very hippie here
Hood ornament on the spacebus dig it pic.twitter.com/X9rZit2c- i pulled that farmstand down off a flatbed truck with some other idiots and we all almost died lol
Another roadside attraction pic.twitter.com/NBoEodkd- love this turkey
The freaky turkey guards the garden gate pic.twitter.com/j5HTDKHf
Planting Black Walnut Trees
/
Black walnut trees-to-be. Photo/Nicole Caldwell
A mature, leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season
, and acts as a huge filter for the air around it. So when our friend Fred dropped off a huge bag of highly desirable
seeds for us, it wasn't just the beauty of a tree-lined Cottage Hill Road that we had in mind (although let's not kid ourselves, who doesn't want a beautiful, tree-lined street to look at every day?).
May, Erin, and I planted a bunch of seeds yesterday afternoon in the unbelievably balmy, 70-degree weather. We stood about six feet off the road so the eventually enormous trees wouldn't interfere with the roadway, and planted each tree about 10 big paces apart from the next. We did both sides of the road between the main house and the sawmill down the road. Here are Kaiser and Han Solo seeing what all the fuss was about:
... and inside the bag:
Here's the size of an individual seed, surrounded by the meaty fruit of the plant (the actual seed is deep inside that pulpy exterior, and will sprout in the spring):
We dug down three or four inches in the dirt, dropped the seed in, and covered it back up with dirt and a little hay:
We're going to plant the rest throughout the property (about 200 trees in all), wait 30 or 40 years, and invite about 2,000 of you over to breathe in our new,
-lined promenade leading to
.
Any local residents who would like free black walnut seeds can e-mail info@betterfarm.org to arrange a pick-up.
First Frost
/
Last night was our first real frost of the season, which we met head-on this morning with grass crunching underfoot and curious dogs bounding around in the crisp dew. As fog rolled off clothes left out on the line overnight, I grabbed my camera and took a few shots of the admittedly beautiful scene:
Click on images for a larger viewing size:
Former Artist-in-Residence Revisits the Better Farm Canvas
/
Noting that Lizzi Musoke's new rainwater catchment system abutted Erica's former beloved birdhouse bedroom, Erica set right to work giving the rain barrel a beautiful facelift:
The next day she caught me upstairs, where I was touching up some trim on doorways. Asking if she could help, I directed her downstairs to a blank patch of wall over the front entranceway...
Many thanks to Erica for donating her time and resources to beautifying Better Farm for all who visit here. To learn more about Erica Hauser's betterArts residency, click here. To commission a painting by Erica or see more of her portfolio, visit her website.
Sun-Dried
/
By Joetta Maue
I have so enjoyed my time here at Better Farm and am happy with the amount of work I've gotten done, though I would have loved to have gotten more done of course. But I finished a red work, a text work, got a new red work well on its way, and four new drawings done.
And... I swam, I rode in a boat I saw baby birds, heard coyotes, met amazing people, took time to be with my son, saw incredible scenery and one of my favorite things... dried my laundry in the sun.
The process and idea of drying laundry in the sun is simply wonderful. I feel like in a strange way it is much like embroidery, slow, quiet, contemplative, and connects to so many women and lives of the past.
I loved seeing my clothes drying with t's and it would have been a complete family portrait if C's clothes were up there with us. Seeing their colors and textures flutter in the wind. T at my feet as I slowly hung each item one at a time, breathing in the air. Then gathering them up in a pile warm and clean. Simple things like this are what I miss out on in NYC. Simple things like this can be so lovely.
I have so enjoyed my time here at Better Farm and am happy with the amount of work I've gotten done, though I would have loved to have gotten more done of course. But I finished a red work, a text work, got a new red work well on its way, and four new drawings done.
And... I swam, I rode in a boat I saw baby birds, heard coyotes, met amazing people, took time to be with my son, saw incredible scenery and one of my favorite things... dried my laundry in the sun.
The process and idea of drying laundry in the sun is simply wonderful. I feel like in a strange way it is much like embroidery, slow, quiet, contemplative, and connects to so many women and lives of the past.
I loved seeing my clothes drying with t's and it would have been a complete family portrait if C's clothes were up there with us. Seeing their colors and textures flutter in the wind. T at my feet as I slowly hung each item one at a time, breathing in the air. Then gathering them up in a pile warm and clean. Simple things like this are what I miss out on in NYC. Simple things like this can be so lovely.
Better Farm Welcomes the Plein Air Painters
/
We were lucky enough last week to have PAPA's Thousand Islands chapter visit us at Better Farm. Corinne had contacted them a while back, and made arrangements for the group's visit. They breezed in last Wednesday on a most perfect autumn day, set up easels, and got to work. Artist-in-residence Brian Purwin spent the afternoon serenading the group on violin, which was the cream cheese frosting on an already lovely day.
Intern Files: End of week six
/
Since my last post things have slowed down a bit, mainly due to what I think was a mild case of heat exhaustion and dehydration. I had no energy for about a day and a half. It was a warm week here, and I think I just lost track and didn't drink enough water.
I did manage to get out and help clean out the loose hay in the top of the barn. There was a yoga instructor who came up for the weekend to teach a workshop, and they needed the space. Turns out that with all that hay off the floor it could be a pretty functional room for larger gatherings in the future.
We tried to make use of the hay. Some was used for ground cover in the garden: It helps keep the weeds down between the rows, and provides a more solid surface to walk on after a rain.
The weather is nice again. After the rain on Friday, the temperature decreased. Today was a relaxing day, and I am feeling much better. I even went out for a long swim, which I feel good about now—but about half way through I was really thinking it was a bad idea.
There is something really great about the water here that I can’t really find the words to describe. My advice would be to just come here and experience it for yourself.
Originally posted on Joe's Blog.
Residency Files: Better Farm reflections
/
Just concluded my residency at Better Farm! Click here to see some of the work I created during my stay. The work I created was a reflection on my time at the farm.
I was greatly influenced by the tranquil landscape, the night sky, the trips out on the many lakes in the region, and the people I met along the way. It was an incredibly enriching experience.
Originally published at Colleen's blog, Artistically Inspired.
Intern Files: This week so far
/
It has been gray and cold, two things I can appreciate since escaping the excessive heat at home. When the rain stops it is nice to be outside. Yesterday I transplanted some tomatoes and peppers into raised beds made from old tires I found out in the open-air shed. I was lucky enough to get them planted just before the rain started in the afternoon.
Monday also consisted of more transplanting from the greenhouse to the garden; and conducting a nutrient test on the soil where we will be planting the majority of our produce.
On Tuesday I walked a steep three miles into town to help a local woman clean out a house she had just bought. The sun was shining, but walking to left side of the road created a nice shade cover and the breeze kept the bugs mostly away.
Tonight is movie night. We are having anyone who wants to come and watch a documentary called Dirt! The Movie.
Blog post originally published at Joe's Blog.
Monday also consisted of more transplanting from the greenhouse to the garden; and conducting a nutrient test on the soil where we will be planting the majority of our produce.
On Tuesday I walked a steep three miles into town to help a local woman clean out a house she had just bought. The sun was shining, but walking to left side of the road created a nice shade cover and the breeze kept the bugs mostly away.
Tonight is movie night. We are having anyone who wants to come and watch a documentary called Dirt! The Movie.
Blog post originally published at Joe's Blog.
View From the Top
/
I scrambled aboard a helicopter last week to take a little aerial tour of the Thousand Islands region. This place is so surreal—you never notice just how much water is here until you get up into the sky to behold it. The landscape around these parts is as good a reason as any to get up here during the warm-weather months and pay us a visit...
Special thanks to Tseko Vachev of Adirondack Helicopters for being such a great pilot, and to Harold "Bart" Simpson, my pal from the Redwood Tavern, who took me as his guest. Will do my best with labeling these shots!
Photos after the jump...
Alexandria Bay and the Thousand Islands
A creek along Route 26:
Downtown Redwood (Mud Lake at left):
Butterfield Lake (top), Millsite Lake (bottom). Cottage Hill Road running between the lakes:
Better Farm in center, Butterfield Lake and Black Creek in background:
Area Attraction: Time travel vortex in Watertown!
/
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:
