What’s Happening: February 2013

Natural Building in the Mulberry Garden

Some East Winders are hoping to inspire others to try their hands at natural building by starting a few projects of our own this spring, including a cob table, benches, and maybe a birdbath in our beautiful Mulberry Garden.  This February, we built a gazebo made of cedar poles harvested from our woods, using a combination of timber framing and conventional building techniques.  The gazebo will provide shade and shelter for a stone and cob table, made completely with material from our own land (including clay, sand, straw, stone, and water). 

We’ve been saving broken ceramic and glass from our kitchen for over a year now, which we will use to make a beautiful mosaic celestial table top and four benches themed for the four seasons.  The gazebo will be complete this March, and we intend to start building with cob after danger of the last frost has passed at the end of April. This new outdoor communal spot will bring shade and leisure to our hard-working gardeners this summer, and will overlook our orchards, herb garden, vegetable gardens, berry vines and bushes, ranch and dairy pastures, and the wooded hills beyond.  We hope this will inspire future natural building projects at East Wind and elsewhere.

Mild Winter

It’s been another mild winter in the Ozarks.  Though we’ve seen snow a few times and an ice storm recently, most days have been sunny and warm.  Daffodils, flowering quince, lily in the valley, and asters have already begun to bloom, and we expect another early spring this year.

Starts in the Greenhouse

We’ve begun this year’s garden in our greenhouse this February.  Our greenhouse is warm and full of life already, with onion sprouts galore.  We’ve also started many herbs in the greenhouse this February, including echinacea, calendula, hollyhock, marsh mallow, dill, fennel, rosemary, oregano, marjoram, horehound, and more.

Emergency Medical Care Workshops

This February, we conducted another two emergency medical care workshops.  The first workshop this month included information on symptoms and treatment for a wide range of life-threatening emergencies including choking, diabetic emergencies, anaphylaxis, seizures, asthma attacks, heat stroke, appendicitis, etc.  The second workshop this month focused on wilderness first aid, including snakebite, spider bite, animal attacks, poisonous plants and mushrooms, lightning, burns and cuts, and herbs for first aid.  The next workshop will focus on traumatic injuries.

Baby Goats

It’s that time of year again, and all of our dairy goats have successfully given birth to adorable baby goats.  There are now six baby girl and six baby boy goats running around in our goat barn, growing bigger and stronger every day.  Our dairy program has come a long way in the last few years, and it continues to grow still.

Validation Day

East Winders celebrated Validation Day on February 14^th, a tradition we share with some of our fellow FEC communities.  East Winders took the time to validate each other by decorating and writing messages in cards for each and every member of community.  Members gave each other the warm fuzzies by writing and sharing what they like and appreciate about their fellow communitarians.  We celebrated with a party and open mic, where music and fun was enjoyed by all.  Many East Winders partied and enjoyed each other’s company late into the night.

Budget Cuts

The economic climate combined with a poor crop of organic peanuts last year due to droughts has taken its toll on our nutbutter business.  As a result of decreased profits in our business, we have had to make cuts to many of our domestic budgets at our half-year financial review.  Budgets we are considering trimming include our medical expenses, recreational expenses, discretionary funds, and civic support, among other budgets.