Does it have a roof yet?

No roof yet.

as you might have guessed, it's been very busy on the farm, between the vegetables, the guests, lively pot-lucks, and of course, building a house. I finally got the pictures from back when we worked on the foundation, so i thought I'd do a little educational illustration of how to build a foundation. If you really want to build one of your own, there are probably very good books with instructions, but this is what we did.

as nicholas mentioned previously, we dug a trench.

Hi, my name is Steph Plant and I’m new to the farm. (Alice asked me to write a blog entry, which I consider quite a treat, except I’m not quite sure what to say..)
I came to mustard seed community farm a week ago and I’m really glad I did.

Tomorrow night we'll have a potluck at the farm. Here's the info:

Catholic Worker Farm Philosophy
Next Friday, June 11th, with a potluck dinner at 6PM and a discussion at 7PM. Again, at the Mustard Seed Community Farm (366 W Ave, Ames, IA, 50014).
Alice will lead this discussion, focusing on the basic principles underlying Catholic Worker Farms in general, and our farm in particular.

We'll have other potlucks in the following Friday.

Nicholas

a stubborn robin built a nest in our tool-shed.

this is from Alice, posting an entry that nicholas wrote last week:

Hello, today I have an update on what's going on on the farm and some events you might want to attend at our farm.
Update:

This year the craft retreat was down in southern Iowa, at Strangers and Guests CAtholic Worker Farm in Maloy. It was super fun for me to learn some new skills - i especially loved the rag-rug weaving. It was renewing and inspiring to see many friends from other Catholic Worker farms and houses in the midwest. We also made baskets, candles, bread, cheese, and did folk dancing and knitting. Here are some photos of the amazingly complicated but elegant loom process.

Come to our pot-luck this friday Jan 22 at the Blaedel's house: 900 idaho ave, ames, iowa. topic: personalism.

6pm food, 7pm discussion. all in the town of ames.
upcoming pot-lucks:

Feb 19 at Donna's house, NE corner of 8th and douglas - big white house with cupola in front yard. Leader:Gary Guthrie, speaking on Fidelity and Fecundity - the fruits of our faithfulness.
March 26, at Jim and LInda's 5019 Keats ST. Led by Rhiannon Hanson.
April 23, at Jen and Steve's - 708 Brookridge. topic: hospitality, led by Shari Reilly.

2009 Farm season report:

If you don't read anything else, please note these 2 things: 1. we are not having any more pot-luck dinners this season (sorry for all confusion). 2. Our sweet potato party was quite nice (thanks everyone!)

Hello all!

This is Nate here sitting in for Alice, who's living largely under the email radar these days. So she says please CALL her if you need to be in touch. Like if you'd like to connect with some excellent fresh farm food, cause there's tons left out there. Give her a call @ 515 460 1467 to set something up.

This message also is relay news about important upcoming events you don't want to miss.