Newsletters

Photo by Ben Sklar Greetings Friends and Neighbors, I walk the lambing yard each morning upon waking, straining to attune my eyes and ears to the Life that unfolds and unfurls there on that flood-carved cobbly knoll. With 19 new lambs on the ground now – forming a formidable pack each evening at dusk and…

Greetings Friends and Neighbors, Lambing season has come in like a Lion this year here at the Farm. You don’t realize how much you’re not learning when things proceed smoothly, as they did for us and the flock for our first three years of lambing. But you learn a lot when things start to go…

Photo by Dick Mitchell Greetings Friends and Neighbors, To watch and smell and hear and feel – to be submersed in – the torrent of unfurling Life this week is perhaps also to realize that your senses have been under-exercised for some time now. Months of winter whereby a specific gray-scale quiets the visible and…

Photo by Sarah Detweiler Greetings Friends and Neighbors, Winds – North and South – once again take center stage this week as they enact their epic Springtime wrestling match. As these giants push and pull – and rattle and tear and tease – they negotiate the specific timing of the onset of the land’s greening…

Photo by John Hadden Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  Have you noticed the patterns of light and shadow cast this week as Sun pours through leaf-bare Maple and Birch and presses late-winter warmth onto undulating snow-covered ground? Have you noticed how this warmth presses on your skin as you move through your daily routines? Or had…

Photo by Ben Sklar Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  Under the influence of South Wind – or Greening Wind – much is set in motion this week. Sap rises in the veins of the forest trees and wets newly drilled tap-holes. Birds sing-in the day with rambunctious enthusiasm. And then, silently sneaking in during a break…

Photo by Ben Sklar Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  It is Sunday morning. Sky has cleared during the night and so first light bleeds across the sky early and with great strength. Liquid, golden Sun pours over the high Eastern Ridge and begins to fill the bowl made by the lower Western Wall of the narrow…

Photo by Ben Sklar Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  Last Saturday the hoophouse – graciously warmed by Sun from below zero to warm-enough – buzzed with life. Many of our neighbors stopped by for Soup and Bread, and a few bundled and masked words of greetings and thanks. We are so grateful to you all for…

Photo by John Hadden Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  Woodpecker calls out by beating his beak against the trunks of carefully chosen hardwood trees in the narrow band of woods along Brush Brook, the shallow, singing, cobbled stream that flows through the heart of the Farm. Brook lies mostly covered-over with Ice and Snow, and so…

Photo by Emily Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  Cold, achingly clear air enters the Valley from the Northwest, riding on a breeze that whispers a reminder of how thin the line can be between life and, well, the absence of life. Each in-breath nips at the soft lining of the throat. Each out-breath carries heat away…