Triform Farm News

Hello, this David Wallace and Mandy Conner and there are many things happening at the Farm. Today lets take a look at some of them. Over the weekend one of our sows gave birth to a litter of 9 of the cutest piglets that have ever been seen. The meat shop is going well. We have made a few changes. Some of the changes are we have made new posters and are distributing them to local businesses. Also we have stocked up with new meat like sausages, steaks, ground beef, pork chops and more. Soon to come are hams and bacon.
All-in-all things have been going well here, in fact, one of our apprentices Elijah Kent has gone to our sister community known as Copake for a trial visit. We hope that he enjoys it there and hope that he comes back to work here. Mandy has been working very hard to open the meat shop and her new assistant manager David Wallace has been giving her a hand at helping whenever he can. Sometimes his busy schedule
interferes with his responsibilities and he can’t help out but he tries as best he can.
Jesse Lopez, one of our coworkers, has been working very hard at building a chicken coop where we can store chickens when we get them. Sebastian has been working on building a round bale hay wagon with Elijah Kent. From what we can see it looks like they are working hard on it. Sarah our lieutenant works on many different projects at the Farm such as moving calves, fixing machinery, milking, and talking with people who want to purchase our animals. As you can plainly see, there are many things happening at the Farm which need to be done if you just open your eyes. So until next time this is David Wallace and Mandy Conner signing off for our blog.
-David Wallace and Mandy Connor

Elijah's Senior Year

Here are some photos that I took with my camera. This year I am a senior apprentice on the farm. Last year we wrote about Kim's Jeep Project and Billy's Meat Shop Project. This year I will also be making a project for graduation in June. Some ideas that I had were:
-Making a farm camp at Triform Farm
-Taking photographs with my camera
-Writing a book about the farm
-Fixing up the golf cart
I am still working on choosing a project or figuring out how to combine all of these ideas into one project. I really like working on the farm.
Also during my senior year I will be going for a trial visit at Camphill Community Copake. I will be working on their farm for a month. I can't wait to go to Copake and chose a project to do during my senior year.
-Elijah Kent

A New Year on the Farm

We are coming back to our blog after a busy summer! It was a rainy summer but we still managed to do a lot of haying. It was hot and sweaty work but we had fun anyways. Sarah and Martin were out working on the tractors. Ethan was our main stacker and Elijah, Magnus, Emily, Ceci, Fabian, Iona, Brendan, Andrew, Melanie, Louisa, Kim, Etienne, Beate, Alex, Sequoya, Kevin and even more were throwing bales down from the wagon and passing them into the loft. We had such a good crew!
Now we are beginning a new year on the farm. We have some new students. We also have some new coworkers and a new work master Our new students names are David, Ben, and Peter. Our new coworkers names are Sebastian and Jesse. Sarah is now our work master. Our apprentices that are still hare on our farm are Elijah, Louisa, and Mandy. Danny is our journeyman.
Elijah will be graduating at the end of this year.
We have an exciting year ahead of us. We have new calves in the barn. Elijah will be working on an apprentice project while also looking into future positions on other farms. The meat shop will be getting a new look and re-opening soon! Martin and David K will be working on restoring our new combine so that we can look forward to harvesting our own grain. Sarah will be looking into building a new equipment barn and Jesse will continue work on the chicken house. So as you can see, we are still busy with lots of projects. We think it will be another great year at Triform Farm. We look forward to seeing many of you at Parents and Friends weekend!
-Mandy, Elijah, David W, Sarah

Power-washing and Barn Cleaning

Quite a lot has been happening on the farm lately, so we haven't had much time for updating. The cows, steers, and calves are all out grazing in the fields now, and we've been working hard. Today we cleaned out the barn, and decided to share some photos with all of you. Tristin learned how to use the powerwasher for the first time, and Louisa got to put the powerwashing skills that she already had to good use, cleaning the mats from the dairy cows' stalls. These pictures are (from the top) Danny doing lime and woodchips in the barn that everyone helped to clean, Louisa powerwashing the tractor, Louisa powerwashing the mats, Tristin and Liva learning proper techniques from Martin, Tristin powerwashing on his own, Tristin learning to use the powerwasher, and Tristin getting help with his goggles.

-Liva Jostad-Laswell and Elijah Kent (photographers)

Final Edit of the Meat Shop Video

Here is the final version of the Meat Shop video. Copies of the DVD will be for sale this weekend (Sat. March 28th) at the Grand Opening of the Meat Shop at Triform Farm. There will be a presentation of the video at 1PM followed by a farm tour and open house. You can visit the animals and make your first purchase from our new Meat Shop! We hope to see you there!

-Sarah Bassett and Billy Spillman

Printing T-Shirts

Here is a short slideshow about our screen printed T-Shirts. Kim, Elijah and Sarah took these photos. Martin and Ames made them into a video. Look for our T-Shirts for sale at Triform Parents Weekend and in the soon to be opening Meat Shop at Triform Farm. Enjoy the video!
-Sarah Bassett

Kim's Apprentice Project: The Jeep