Photo Gallery Archive
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
On Thursday, August 19, the day dawned bright, clear, and not too hot. Twenty six members of the Bainum-Goyne family, ranging in age from 7 to over 90, and ranging in place of origin from Boston to DC to California to Washington State, arrived at Smokey House at 9 am. The family had gathered in Manchester for their annual gathering, but this year decided that it would be fun for the entire family to spend one day of their time together volunteering at a local non-profit. One of the family members, Alex Froom, took on the task of finding an organization to put them to work. This extended family has a strong tradition of philanthropy and a particular interest in education of at-risk youth, so Smokey House was a perfect fit.
The day started with a gathering around the picnic tables where Kit, Tim and Sue introduced Smokey House staff, described projects, distributed used t-shirts, and outlined the day’s schedule. Two brave souls volunteered to go roof-top to help Youthworkers rip shingles off the sugarhouse roof. The family matriarch, Jane Bainum, and several others went with Ryan to the Conference Barn to start lunch preparations. Friday is CSA delivery day, so Thursday became CSA harvest and pack day. A group of youngsters to adults donned hats and sunscreen and headed to the gardens to savor nature’s bounty. The final big morning project was prepping the exterior of the locker room to get ready for a whole-family painting party in the afternoon, so 10 folks trooped across the lawn to tackle that job. Alex needed no ladder to reach the roof fascia boards, to the endless amusement of the others.
At mid-day Ryan and his helpers served a sumptuous Mexican-themed feast from our farm: soft tacos with SHC ground beef and tomatoes, salsa from fresh tomatoes, cilantro, red onions, and hot peppers, and a huge garden salad. Dessert was chocolate zucchini cake prepared by office manager Rennie Elliott and Barbara Bainum, and decorated in professional style by Catie and Bevin, two Youthworkers. (Word has since gotten back to us that it was the best meal the family enjoyed during their entire 4-day stay!)
During the afternoon almost everyone ganged up on the locker room, most of which was hit with at least one coat of paint. A few people worked on moving wood into the newly built woodshed at the sugarhouse. A large group gathered fallen apples and took garden scraps to feed the pigs, moved the chicken tractors, and later a group headed to the upper field to see the sheep. The day ended with a circle meeting, lots of hugs and thanks, a large body of work completed, and a greatly energized staff who had thoroughly enjoyed showcasing Smokey House, our work, and the youth we serve. We want to extend a big thank you to the Bainum-Goyne family for all of their hard work, and to Alex Froom for organizing it. We’d also like to encourage others to follow their lead! Where to next year?!
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
A summer full of work and learning
During the summer of 2010, the White Crew (also known as the Carpentry Crew) began construction on the sugar house woodshed attached to the original foundation. It seemed to be a huge project but we put together a great plan. We began by sighting the support beams for the sugar house woodshed and measuring the distance between each beam area. Once these areas were marked, the crew started digging 5 foot holes and it was dirty work! Two days later and the crew looked like prairie dogs – only their heads showing above ground. Nothing but digging through dirt, taking rocks out, and getting our clothes covered in dirt!
After the holes were finished, sono tubes were placed into the ground and buried to remain for the support beams like giant elephant’s feet underground. After the sono tubes were done, the crew had to use a water level to measure the depth from the floor of the woodshed to the ground. The ground had to be level for the cement to be placed properly and match the floor. Rebar was added to prevent cracks in the cement. The next step, of course, was adding cement to the foundation and filling the sono tubes to make the support beams. C-day, as it could have been called, had everyone nervous, but the crew worked fast and with some expert help from the best truck operator around the concrete flowed into place.
After a day or two of waiting for the cement to dry, the White Crew began building with wood. This is where the fun began. Wooden beams were built for the ceiling and the roof. Next, floor joists were added and a small wooden floor was built in the attic for the sap tank. Rafters were added to the floor joists and a wooden roof was built. Half of our crew spent time on the bottom measuring, cutting, and pulling nails out of wood. As the typical carpenter would say, “Measure twice, cut once.” The rest of the crew enjoyed being on the top hammering the rafters and the roof together. It’s funny to think that some carpenters are not afraid of heights at all, well maybe.
Sheathing came next followed by rows of shingles that nearly sprung into place the crew worked so fast, and the roof was completed. While the sugar house woodshed was being built, the White Crew constantly salvaged wood from the old Lewis Barn at Smokey House. This wood was recycled for building the structure, which is better than buying new wood in terms of thinking green. This was a valuable project for the White Crew because not only did we build a structure and use tools, but we used team work, leadership, mathematics, courage, and trust for each other as carpenters. Soon the woodshed will be completed for the Smokey House property and the spring time fires will burn even brighter thanks to the seasoned dry wood sitting protected by the White Crew’s skilled work.
-Nick
2010 Summer White Crew member
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Every week since late May the gardens have been harvested, produce cleaned and boxes packed for CSA delivery. During the summer youth program, the task of washing and packing produce has been rotated among the crews so everyone can see the end result of their hours of hard work in the gardens, planting, weeding and harvesting. As you can see in these photos, the hard work has paid off with beautiful produce. As the summer crew season winds down, we want to say thank you for all of the hard work done by the youth crews as well as thank you to our CSA shareholders who put their faith in us to supply them with quality vegetables every week.
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
Hollywood was on shaky ground last week as Smokey House Center became the star of the show for a day as the production crew of Danger Men Cooking arrived to cook and film for our Thursday Lunch. Head chef Gary Schmidt laid out the menu for an All American Cookout: hamburgers, bar-b-que chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, pasta salad and mint sun-tea. Who could resist a meal like that?
Before all the filming and action of the big day there was a good deal of preparation to do and the Field Studies crew, who would be the stars of the show the following day, spent Wednesday with work pants on learning about and harvesting the foods they would need. Carrots, kohlrabi, cabbage, potatoes, green beans, wax beans, broccoli, zuchini, summer squash, onions and herbs were all selected, collected and washed clean. To wrap up a good day of harvesting the crew spread out over Smokey House Center’s property searching for spearmint. Stream sides are the perfect place to find mint for tea and the best part is letting your eyes stay busy looking at goldenrod gals and watching orb spiders catch their lunch while your nose does all of the searching.
Thursday morning everyone scrubbed the harvest dirt out from under their fingernails and got down to cooking. There were 40 burgers to be made, chickens to be cut, veggies to be chopped and plenty of mixing and spicing as well. A table full of Field Studies Youth, their focus as sharp as the knife blades as they chopped away, others surrounding a big bowl of ground beef to be mixed chatting as old friends, still others dodging smoke rising from the freshly lit charcoal. The cooking was everywhere, and so was Chef Gary as he gave instructions and assistance, teaching students how to use knives, form a good burger, spice a salad, cook a potato.
The food was ready just in time for lunch and the compliments were not made out of kindness alone. The food was excellent and almost every scrap of it had come from our farm.
The Thursday lunch day always ends in the best way possible, everyone sits back, takes a deep breath – and eats!
With Thursday now behind us the film crew, almost invisible in the background all day, has their work to do editing and you can all look forward to seeing the action for yourselves on when Danger Men Cooking airs this fall on GNAT-TV. Check back again for video clips if you miss the episode on TV.
Friday, July 9th, 2010
The second week of the summer program dawned hot and humid! There was lots of work to do, however, and with water bottles in hand, the crews got busy and did what needed to be done.
It was a big week for working with the sheep flock, and the sky blue crew rose to the task. With the help of all of the crews, the flock got moved from pastures on one side of the property to another pasture about a mile away, which involved herding them down the road — always risky business, so many people were at hand to make sure it went well.
After the successful herding, the crew attended to the flock’s hoof care, trimming hooves and giving them a soak.
Check out the photo gallery of the day!
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
The calendar may say that the first day of summer has passed already, but at Smokey House Center summer started today, June 29th. Over thirty youth circled up on the lawn to kick-off eight weeks of summer work and learning. There wasn’t an idle hand to be found as a rainbow of t-shirt colors – sky blue, kelly green, tangerine, banana yellow, white and lime – were donned for the first time. The gardens and fields were lit up for a holiday as crews got down to business. The gardens saw a lot of attention under a clear sky morning, 74 degrees and breezy according to the Field Studies crew’s observations. Tomatoes were trellised, corn and onions got a good weeding, and shuffle hoes were rocking back and forth through the pepper plants. The soft chatter of crews weeding wasn’t the only morning sound as the carpentry crew put shovel to earth and broke ground for a new wood shed. Like all good sheds it started the day on paper but it wasn’t long before tape measures were being pulled tight from stake to stake and the outline of the new foundation became clearly visible. After a relaxing lunch on picnic tables provided by the hard working landscape crew, folks seemed ready to get back down to work. Up at the pole barn firewood was changing hands as it got stacked for the winter, giving the yellow crew a good lesson in planning ahead. Almost invisible in the grass the lime colored t-shirts of the Field Studies crew camouflaged them well as they hunted for insects in their new role as entomologists. The youth couldn’t have asked for a better start to their summer journey and it showed, as they boarded onto the bus for the evening. A crew leader passed on a message to a coworker “It’s going to be a great crew, so much got done already just today.”
Friday, January 29th, 2010
On Thursday, August 19, the day dawned bright, clear, and not too hot. Twenty six members of the Bainum-Goyne family, ranging in age from 7 to over 90, and ranging in place of origin from Boston to DC to California to Washington State, arrived at Smokey House at 9 am. The family had gathered in Manchester for their annual gathering, but this year decided that it would be fun for the entire family to spend one day of their time together volunteering at a local non-profit. One of the family members, Alex Froom, took on the task of finding an organization to put them to work. This extended family has a strong tradition of philanthropy and a particular interest in education of at-risk youth, so Smokey House was a perfect fit.
