“I first came to Windhorse Farm in the spring of 2008, having been hired as the Garden Manager for that season. I had just moved back to Canada after spending 2 years farming in Latin America and was looking for fulfilling work based on my skills and interests.
I loved the work I did at Windhorse that season because of the many, many (!) varied tasks: growing food for fresh consumption, canning and drying food for winter use, root cellaring, planting greens into cold frames for winter eating, beekeeping, seed saving, chicken chores, managing volunteers, giving farm tours…
I also really valued the meditative practice of that season. The community here sat together every day after work. It was often difficult to muster up the energy after a full day of work to go and sit and be still. But the benefit I gained within myself shows itself to me on a daily basis even still.
After that season, I went on to work at a farm in southern Ontario for 2 years. And continued dreaming of a farm of my own.
When I started thinking about settling down with my partner Bryan and starting our own farm business, I realized the dreams we held pointed us in the direction of the South Shore of Nova Scotia, to be close to the community I had fallen in love with: to Windhorse Farm, to Jim and Margaret Drescher, and to Wayne and Angie Bruhm (neighbours and staff members at Windhorse Farm). This was the community I wanted around me while starting a family and a livelihood.
This spring, Bryan and I came back to Windhorse Farm to lease land and start our own farm business called Broadfork Farm (www.broadforkfarm.com). I came back because, out of all the farms I’d seen and worked on, Windhorse Farm was the most similar to what I dreamed of for myself. The mixture of annual and perennial food crops grown here, the respect for nature’s beauty, the honour for the inherent wealth of the land and the forest, and the focus on sustainability are all so important to me and to my vision for an ideal future.”
This past weekend at Windhorse Farm there was a spontaneous celebration of Spring. Children ran through the gardens, climbed into the trees and played in the mud with the tadpoles and frogs. I was determined to interview them and ask them about what they loved about the Farm. That quickly became an absurd notion- as I watched them play it was clear that I could not pin them down, nor would I want to. Their joy was plain to see and contagious to be around
Leona, Michael and Rosabelle live in the forest with their parents. They are at WHF tending the gardens and helping their parents with the Sweetwater Native Plant Nursery.
Solaz and Luna vist our neighboring farm, Windy Hill, most weekends to see their grandparents. They often come and visit Windhorse to collect eggs from the chickens, pat the horses or play with the other children.
Gabriel and Esme, both born at WHF, visit their grands as often as they can.
I am looking forward to a warm season full of children playing, learning and exploring at the farm.
In order of appearance: Rosabelle, Leona, Michael, Gabriel, Solaz, Esme, Luna
As I wrote about last week, Windhorse Farm and the Shambhala School have had an ongoing relationship for the last 15 years. It has been a wonderful opportunity for urban and rural to meet and share vision, as well as a rich and challenging experience for students and teachers. After spending 2-3 days at the farm this past spring, students were asked to answer some questions about their time at the farm. They reflected on what their favorite aspects were, what they would like to do next time and how they felt this experience contributed to their education. Here are some of their favorite things.
“Probably my favorite part was the interaction between everyone. No one was quarrelling with another person. Everyone was friendly. We got to know each other better.”
“Getting out of school and learning in a new environment was great.”
“I particularly enjoyed the night walk because it was so interesting to be quite near everyone and yet it was easy to imagine yourself as being totally alone.”
“The best part of this trip was that we got to learn not only about farming, but also about ourselves during the time alone we had. I loved being alone and discovering the other part of me.”
“My favorite was probably the food we ate. All the meals were delicious. I also really enjoyed the night walk.”
“The most valuable moment was the night walk. It was very interesting to hear people thoughts after walking in the forest. Laying down in the field under the clear sky at night was one of the most breathtaking experiences I’ve had in a long time.”
“I loved being able to just relax and talk to people in the class I don’t hang out with outside of school. Windhorse was an opportunity to get to really know each other.”
“The best experience that I had waas the night walk. Just the sense of vulnerability that I felt while in the night was amazing.”
I have been so inspired by the experiences of the Windhorse community, but I am particularly thrilled to have such amazing young leaders and learners spending time at Windhorse. I hope to have many of them featured on this blog in the future.
This our sweet friend Aster. She was a Muscovy duck that lived at the farm with her sweet ducklings around 1994. Margaret loves ducks and we had many duck friends living in the lower ponds over the years. These days the Windhorse ducks are mostly wild mallards, waddling through the barnyard and quacking out behind the woodshop.
I have known Justin all my life. Our mothers were close friends and we grew up playing together. Later we attended the Shambhala School together, though Justin was a couple of grades ahead of me.
Justin was one of five students from the Shambhala School who attended Windhorse Farm in the early years as part of the curriculum. The 10th grade class went to the farm for week long visits, once in the fall, the winter and the spring. They lived in cabins in the forest and learned about all the things that were happening on the farm at the time. They cooked meals, fed chickens, collected eggs, mucked stalls, and worked in the forest and garden.
There are many funny stories from these trips that I am attempting to collect…
Like the time Ella and my Dad caught a rooster and put it in Sweetwater cabin, where Justin and Nye were sleeping, before dawn. They woke to a crowing bird flying around the tiny house!
Justin remembers listening to Neil Youngs “After the Gold Rush” non-stop.
He also recounts “We had a lot of fun with the horses and were amazed at watching the two old men, Sam and Earl, work with them in the woods . The would yell commands at them from a good distance as they were hauling a large tree out of the forest. There was one horse that was lazier and one that did most of the work…… can’t remember who.”
After the trips to the forest with the horse-logging team and Justin and Nye begged to be able to use the chainsaws… They had to settle for having their picture taken.
I hope to post more about the adventures of this class. It was an awesome time at the farm. There are new groups of Shambhala School students attending programs at the farm now and I hope to post their stories as well.
Kim came to the farm in 1995 I think… She came to attend the Ecoforestry School of the Maritimes, one of the many WHF experiments over the years. She was the first woman in the program and was affectionately referred to as the eco-girl. She lived with her grandmother on the Branch road and would often ride her horse, Wentzell, through the forest to the Farm. Kim was an inspiration to me in my teenage years, a hard worker, fantastic musician and kind friend. She taught me to play banjo, introduced me to Michelle Shocked and showed me how cool it could be to be girl on a farm full of eco-boys! Thank you Kim. xo
http://www.kimbarlow.ca/
After posting this last week I got a letter from Kim… Here is what she had to say-
“Last night I dreamt about Margaret and Marguerite, smiling, working in the dirt. Good to see you again! I planted my garden yesterday. I start one every spring, even though I’m usually away all summer touring with bands. For the last few years I’ve had a tag-team garden with a friend who’s away at university. I start the tomatoes and basil in February or March, then Sue comes back from school and takes over while I’m on the festival circuit.
My six month apprenticeship at Windhorse Farm: Deep, soft moss and huge trees and lush green; blackflies covering my face while my hands are too busy to brush them off; those big good-natured horse, lots and lots of wagonloads of sawdust that we shoveled onto the trails; and strong-willed farmers with a compelling vision.
I grew up a quick horse-back ride through the woods from Windhorse Farm, but when I started working there I saw Nova Scotia in a new way. My family moved to NS from Quebec when I was little, and I grew up awkwardly both local and “come from away”. Windhorse Farm is a dynamic experiment in meshing these two worlds. I loved working with the old-timers who taught us how to use a whipple tree and back up two horses and a wagon, who with bemused affection watched the newcomers fill in hayfields with nut trees and brush fences. There was tension and debate, and fun and good work happening all the time, and lots and lots of learning.
The Yukon is home now, but whenever I make it back to New Canada to visit, I walk down Wentzell’s Lake Road to marvel at Jim and Margaret’s dreams unfolding. When I have visitors with me, I bring them here for a taste of what Nova Scotia could be again, starting in this 160-hectare corner of old-growth forest and lush, food-filled gardens. Happy growing season. “
Gabriel McLellan was born at Windhorse Farm in the farmhouse in the Summer of 2006. My first born and decidedly wild child loves this place fully. His first days and weeks were spent naked on the dock by the lake, in a sling staring at the pine canopy on the forest trails and in the beautiful Juniper lodge where we lived.
Over the past five years Gabe has spent many afternoons playing in the waterways, eating dirt, climbing trees and and chasing chickens. He loves to ride the tractor and Ted the horse and eat waffles with Umpa and help Uma in the garden.
This Spring has been a particularly magical time for Gabe at the farm because he has gone to visit without his parents. He stays with Uma and Umpa and sleeps in his own room like the independent guy that he is.
It is also a special time at the farm because of the other children that are living there. How wonderful it is to walk through the forest and hear the laughing and calling from children mixed with the sound of sweetwater brook and squeaky squirrels.
“Because of the chaos of the family life I grew up in, I have been a person who always found sanity and safety in the out of doors. Coming to WHF just seems like the best experience of “coming home.” It’s the most natural thing in Nova Scotia, this gentleness and strength of the landscape. When a place (and beings) are accorded honor and respect, then the best comes forward in everyone, in everything. This is my experience and memory always of WHF — a place where who your parents are, (Jim and Margaret) and what they do, magnetizes the best people to make things happen in a good way.”
Leila shared these words with me after visiting Windhorse Farm for the Earth Gathering in April. She also shared a moon meditation practice that she encourages anyone to practice who is so inclined.
“The beauty and learning of this meditation practice over a minimum of 2 weeks (either waxing time or waning time), we get to realize deeper qualities of what we “see” all the time and kind of take for granted, — which is the phases of the moon. We get to track the changing position, light and shape of a heavenly body. This is what surely we could call “ordinary magic.” Until I started doing this mindfulness practice, I couldn’t explain to myself or anyone else the why and how of the moon’s appearing form and movement. So this practical, daily, outside practice, seems appropriate for all our programs — and certainly the ones I’ve done at WHF.”
Moon Meditation
This is a simple 2 week practice (so it requires discipline, Ha!)
Begin on the full moon.
Find a place to stand outside that has the biggest view of the horizon.
Go out early in the morning before sunrise while it is still dark.
Always stand in the same place at the same time each morning.
Relative to a tree branch, standing rock or other fixed reference point:
* notice where the moon is situated in the sky
* notice which direction the moon is moving thru the sky over the 2 weeks
* notice the daily shape of the moon
Immediately after observing each morning, go inside and draw the shape and movement of the moon on a sheet of paper, using arrows to indicate the drift.
Jim Tolstrup is another wonderful friend from Colorado. Like Dan he was visiting Windhorse Farm for the Earth Gathering in April. He sent a few beautiful photos that he took while at the farm. I was particularly struck by this one. Jim’s comment is also a great reminder for me in our wet gray spring!
“I also took a lot of pictures of rain which, coming from Colorado as I do, was very exciting to me.”
Hope you are all enjoying the rain as much as those seeds in the soft ground.
Dan Hessey is a wonderful friend of Windhorse Farm. He visits us from Boulder, Colorado and has been known to teach awesome programs at the Farm. He was last here a few weeks ago for a gathering of earth stewards. He shared this description and poem with me today.
“I wrote the first draft of this poem with frozen fingers as the sun rose, having spend the night under the full moon in a sleeping bag in the woods next to the stream at Windhorse Farm. I felt that the ink was mixed from my heart and the sky, and all my confusion, sadness and aspiration welled up to meet the paper. “
In Deep Woods
I rest against a moss-covered rock-bench before dawn.
It reminds me of a lime velour banquette in a cheap hotel.
Before me lies a dense lattice of untidy trunks and
Branches withered by striving, dark and dumb;
Above, the green canopy awaits the sun.
Hidden codes impel this arbor up,
No eye, no ear, not feeling. All
Elbow and jostle for a portion of bright sky; and as
Greenland’s icy mantle melts, our little brook prattles on.
But soon this forest shall be gone, gone, completely gone.
Star-swept sky, cure our knowing, for
Such sadness cannot be well-borne by us.
You, your head-pennants catching the rising sun, beaten
Silver helm and crystal mail shining, riding a snowy mare,
Wielding the pure spear, bearing the perfect sphere!
Unknowable heart of the senses, Earth’s secret soul:
Cleanse our despair, heal us, show our being whole.
“I first came to Windhorse Farm in the spring of 2008, having been hired as the Garden Manager for that season. I had just moved back to Canada after spending 2 years farming in Latin America and was looking for fulfilling work based on my skills and interests.
