Wearing everything from regular swim trunks to Smurfs costumes, nrealy 300 people took a brief out-of-season jump into the surf at Ocean Beach Park on Sunday for the New London Penguin Plunge.
The annual event raises money for Connecticut’s Special Olympics. Plungers had a relatively comfortable climate this year, as the warm winter continued and the day dawned sunny and clear. It wasn’t exactly balmy, though. Officials announced that the air temperature was 37 degrees; the water temperature was one degree warmer.
Jackie Turro, director of development for Special Olympics Connecticut Eastern Region, said people had pledged about $40,000 online prior to the event. The total, after donations brought in on the day of the plunge were included, was more than $65,000.
A new feature added this year was the “Chicken Coop.” People who were wary of the frigid water could still be part of a team and join fundraising efforts, but remained in the closed coop area when their team headed into the Sound.
“I think we’re going to see quite a few chickens,” said Turro. “Chicken costumes, at least.”
One team, The Vermonsters, was made up almost entirely of such costumes. Brenda Cooper had the honor of wearing the sole penguin outfit.
“They’re all chickens, and I’m the only plunger,” she explained.
Cooper said the team hails from Chittenden, VT, and that Turro’s mother is a member, so the group makes the trip to support the cause. This year, they raised about $600.
It was the first plunge for the Shoreline Roller Derby team, which was formed last year. Charlotte Gumpel-Jones, the team captain, said she has done the plunge before but that it was a first-time effort for other team members. She said the event was a good way to support the Special Olympics and also raise awareness of the roller derby team.
“I figured this year I might as well recruit a bunch of people to do it with me,” she said. “And they’re all as crazy as I am, so they said yes.”
Greg Smith, captain of New London County Rugby, also said the event helps raise awareness of the group while at the same time supporting a good cause. He said the team has also done charity events including a game to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project. The team had a goal last year of $3,000, and this year it surpassed it in online donations alone.
“We just ask people, friends and family,” said Smith. “That’s pretty much it.”
Byron Sullivan and Alex Snow were also experiencing the plunge for the first time with Team Sophie. Snow said the team is named for the a girl with Down syndrome who is the daughter of a doctor he works with.
“I know I’ve always looked at [plungers] and said, ‘Wow, there must be something wrong with them,’” said Snow.
Snow said he decided the event would be a good way to actively support the Special Olympics. Sullivan said it sounded like a fun event to attend.
2012年2月20日星期一
2012年2月19日星期日
Running afowl of city ordinance?
On Thursday, Ellen Anthony collected the eggs laid by six of her hens.
Anthony has kept hens - there are now 14 in all and no roosters - in her backyard in a 20-by-20-foot enclosure that includes a small wooden coop for the past 18 years. She's never had a complaint from a neighbor or the city. In fact, a neighbor two doors down keeps chickens as well.
But according to City Planner Harry Smith, keeping chickens is prohibited in New London.
"If it's not expressly provided for in the regulations, then it is prohibited," Smith said Thursday. "It's not provided for in the regulations."
On Thursday night, the Planning and Zoning Commission discussed a letter from Chelsea Ketner of Riverview Avenue, who expressed interest in keeping poultry but wants city approval before going forward.
She's not the only one. Christopher Droesch sent an email Tuesday to The Day to say he had begun collecting materials to keep chickens in the backyard of his New London home only to be rebuffed by someone in the city's Planning, Zoning and Wetlands Department. He attended Thursday's meeting.
Ketner did not attend the meeting, but commission Chairman Mark Christensen addressed her letter, which expressed confusion about the regulations and asked for a "definitive answer."
Christensen said the regulations prohibit the keeping of chickens in New London.
"If an individual is interested, they can apply for a regulation amendment and they can show why (the amendment) is consistent with other communities," he said. "We'll always look at an application and we have a right to say whether it meets the criteria."
Droesch said he had relied on section 4-3 of the city ordinance that states no person may keep chickens "in a manner to be injurious to health, create a menace, or offensive to the public."
When he went to get permits to build a coop, a zoning official directed him to section 410.4, subsection 6, of the zoning regulations: "Keeping of not more than three household pets over six months old; the commercial breeding or boarding of pets is prohibited."
Smith said at the meeting that "the commission determined previously that a chicken is not a household pet and therefore they are prohibited."
That's news to Anthony, who also cited the city's ordinance as her legal right to keep poultry.
On Thursday, Anthony's feathered friends didn't create a menace or appear to be offensive to the public. Quite the opposite: they clucked quietly as she approached. A neighbor, outside for some air, waved when she saw Anthony heading for the coop.
The chickens get a little skittish when Anthony enters the enclosure, but they lay white, brown and even green eggs - enough to provide for Anthony's family and some neighbors and friends.
"When it gets the right level of darkness, they put themselves to sleep," she said. "They don't need a heater in the winter; they just snuggle up close. The real hard part is getting a good house for them."
Her coop is rudimentary but includes laying boxes and rows of wooden dowels over 5-gallon plastic buckets. The chickens sit on the dowels at night and defecate into the buckets, she said, making cleaning easy.
Outside the coop, but within the fence, the ground is bare, picked over by the chickens. But Anthony stirs up the soil so the birds can eat worms and insects in addition to the 50 pounds of feed they eat every three weeks. She changes the water daily and comes out in the morning and at night to check on them, clean up and collect eggs.
Anthony tells of other neighbors who have brought scraps and created a "feeding frenzy" for the birds.
The chickens do have predators, she said, mostly raccoons, which she tries to keep out with the fenced-in enclosure that has a roof. Two or three years ago, she said, a raccoon got into the coop and "massacred" the chickens. One got away and ran into a neighbor's yard, where a Rottweiler roamed. Bird and 100-pound dog sized each other up, Anthony said, before they became friends of sorts. They kept watch of each other in the yard for about six months, she said, until one fateful day when the Rottweiler turned his back and a raccoon killed the chicken.
But the deaths haven't deterred Anthony, who said she's kept chickens for about 22 years. It's an easy way to have good, fresh food in a sustainable manner, she said.
"I like having homegrown eggs, and it makes me go outdoors every day," Anthony said. "I know the weather, the phase of the moon, and I have to take care of the chickens."
Anthony has kept hens - there are now 14 in all and no roosters - in her backyard in a 20-by-20-foot enclosure that includes a small wooden coop for the past 18 years. She's never had a complaint from a neighbor or the city. In fact, a neighbor two doors down keeps chickens as well.
But according to City Planner Harry Smith, keeping chickens is prohibited in New London.
"If it's not expressly provided for in the regulations, then it is prohibited," Smith said Thursday. "It's not provided for in the regulations."
On Thursday night, the Planning and Zoning Commission discussed a letter from Chelsea Ketner of Riverview Avenue, who expressed interest in keeping poultry but wants city approval before going forward.
She's not the only one. Christopher Droesch sent an email Tuesday to The Day to say he had begun collecting materials to keep chickens in the backyard of his New London home only to be rebuffed by someone in the city's Planning, Zoning and Wetlands Department. He attended Thursday's meeting.
Ketner did not attend the meeting, but commission Chairman Mark Christensen addressed her letter, which expressed confusion about the regulations and asked for a "definitive answer."
Christensen said the regulations prohibit the keeping of chickens in New London.
"If an individual is interested, they can apply for a regulation amendment and they can show why (the amendment) is consistent with other communities," he said. "We'll always look at an application and we have a right to say whether it meets the criteria."
Droesch said he had relied on section 4-3 of the city ordinance that states no person may keep chickens "in a manner to be injurious to health, create a menace, or offensive to the public."
When he went to get permits to build a coop, a zoning official directed him to section 410.4, subsection 6, of the zoning regulations: "Keeping of not more than three household pets over six months old; the commercial breeding or boarding of pets is prohibited."
Smith said at the meeting that "the commission determined previously that a chicken is not a household pet and therefore they are prohibited."
That's news to Anthony, who also cited the city's ordinance as her legal right to keep poultry.
On Thursday, Anthony's feathered friends didn't create a menace or appear to be offensive to the public. Quite the opposite: they clucked quietly as she approached. A neighbor, outside for some air, waved when she saw Anthony heading for the coop.
The chickens get a little skittish when Anthony enters the enclosure, but they lay white, brown and even green eggs - enough to provide for Anthony's family and some neighbors and friends.
"When it gets the right level of darkness, they put themselves to sleep," she said. "They don't need a heater in the winter; they just snuggle up close. The real hard part is getting a good house for them."
Her coop is rudimentary but includes laying boxes and rows of wooden dowels over 5-gallon plastic buckets. The chickens sit on the dowels at night and defecate into the buckets, she said, making cleaning easy.
Outside the coop, but within the fence, the ground is bare, picked over by the chickens. But Anthony stirs up the soil so the birds can eat worms and insects in addition to the 50 pounds of feed they eat every three weeks. She changes the water daily and comes out in the morning and at night to check on them, clean up and collect eggs.
Anthony tells of other neighbors who have brought scraps and created a "feeding frenzy" for the birds.
The chickens do have predators, she said, mostly raccoons, which she tries to keep out with the fenced-in enclosure that has a roof. Two or three years ago, she said, a raccoon got into the coop and "massacred" the chickens. One got away and ran into a neighbor's yard, where a Rottweiler roamed. Bird and 100-pound dog sized each other up, Anthony said, before they became friends of sorts. They kept watch of each other in the yard for about six months, she said, until one fateful day when the Rottweiler turned his back and a raccoon killed the chicken.
But the deaths haven't deterred Anthony, who said she's kept chickens for about 22 years. It's an easy way to have good, fresh food in a sustainable manner, she said.
"I like having homegrown eggs, and it makes me go outdoors every day," Anthony said. "I know the weather, the phase of the moon, and I have to take care of the chickens."
2012年2月16日星期四
Chicken coops the focus of forum
When resident Nellie Bhattarai appeared before supervisors Monday night, she showed off a yellow, foam carton of eggs in various sizes and shades.
The eggs came from a farm near Williamsport, and Bhattarai wanted township officials and gathered residents to notice that each egg was different.
“When we go to the grocery store, we don’t have eggs like this in our grocery store,” she said. “And so, again, it’s an opportunity to educate about what the possibilities are and
get away from the homogeneous food we’re served all of the time.”
The show and tell came as the board held a public hearing before a final vote on an ordinance allowing chicken hens on residential township lots. Supervisors passed it 3-2, with Denny Hameister, Cliff Warner and Nigel Wilson in favor, and Bud Graham and Paul Rittenhouse opposed.
The ordinance, discussed since last fall, allows residents on lots less than 10 acres to raise from two to eight hens, depending on lot size. Lots as small as 3,000 square feet may have two chickens.
Residents must apply for a permit to have a backyard, stationary chicken coop, which must be at least six feet from the property line. Permits will be available starting Tuesday.
Two property owners spoke Monday in opposition of chickens. Real estate appraiser Mark Bigatel told the story of his negative experience with chickens 10 years ago, when tenants of a farm he owns starting keeping the birds which, eventually, attracted rats, then coyotes.
“We had to evict our chickens,” he said, adding that the bad odor, rats and coyotes eventually went away afterward. He said he’s most concerned about property values in the village, where properties are close together. “I just wanted people to think of the unintended consequences.”
Kaywood neighborhood resident Barb Fiscus asked supervisors to consider returning to the 20-foot setback in the first version of the ordinance, concerned that six feet doesn’t provide enough separation.
Township Manager Amy Farkas said the change reflects the provision allowing residents to use existing structures, like a shed, as a coop. Those structures may sit closer than 20 feet to the property line.
Supervisors engaged in a short discussion, having talked at length about the ordinance during previous meetings.
Rittenhouse said his greatest concern was the emails in opposition of chickens, and how those residents can control enforcement of potential problems.
“The neighbor can call and complain,” Wilson said.
Zoning officer Todd Shea confirmed he has sent letters to residents for keeping the birds illegally. Now that the practice is legal, he said complaints will result in an investigation to determine if there is an ordinance violation.
Because of the illegal activity previously, Farkas anticipates a flock of residents applying for coop permits.
While Bhattarai said she won’t be in line next week, she said housing chickens is a priority for her family.
“I’m very excited that it was passed,” she said. “It was a respectful balance, and that’s important in our community.”
The eggs came from a farm near Williamsport, and Bhattarai wanted township officials and gathered residents to notice that each egg was different.
“When we go to the grocery store, we don’t have eggs like this in our grocery store,” she said. “And so, again, it’s an opportunity to educate about what the possibilities are and
get away from the homogeneous food we’re served all of the time.”
The show and tell came as the board held a public hearing before a final vote on an ordinance allowing chicken hens on residential township lots. Supervisors passed it 3-2, with Denny Hameister, Cliff Warner and Nigel Wilson in favor, and Bud Graham and Paul Rittenhouse opposed.
The ordinance, discussed since last fall, allows residents on lots less than 10 acres to raise from two to eight hens, depending on lot size. Lots as small as 3,000 square feet may have two chickens.
Residents must apply for a permit to have a backyard, stationary chicken coop, which must be at least six feet from the property line. Permits will be available starting Tuesday.
Two property owners spoke Monday in opposition of chickens. Real estate appraiser Mark Bigatel told the story of his negative experience with chickens 10 years ago, when tenants of a farm he owns starting keeping the birds which, eventually, attracted rats, then coyotes.
“We had to evict our chickens,” he said, adding that the bad odor, rats and coyotes eventually went away afterward. He said he’s most concerned about property values in the village, where properties are close together. “I just wanted people to think of the unintended consequences.”
Kaywood neighborhood resident Barb Fiscus asked supervisors to consider returning to the 20-foot setback in the first version of the ordinance, concerned that six feet doesn’t provide enough separation.
Township Manager Amy Farkas said the change reflects the provision allowing residents to use existing structures, like a shed, as a coop. Those structures may sit closer than 20 feet to the property line.
Supervisors engaged in a short discussion, having talked at length about the ordinance during previous meetings.
Rittenhouse said his greatest concern was the emails in opposition of chickens, and how those residents can control enforcement of potential problems.
“The neighbor can call and complain,” Wilson said.
Zoning officer Todd Shea confirmed he has sent letters to residents for keeping the birds illegally. Now that the practice is legal, he said complaints will result in an investigation to determine if there is an ordinance violation.
Because of the illegal activity previously, Farkas anticipates a flock of residents applying for coop permits.
While Bhattarai said she won’t be in line next week, she said housing chickens is a priority for her family.
“I’m very excited that it was passed,” she said. “It was a respectful balance, and that’s important in our community.”
2012年2月15日星期三
Dogs and chickens may not mix well
I was in Rural King the other day and there was a poster of chickens. Chickens of all varieties – sizes, colors, meat, eggs, etc., that seemed endless. Nashville has just passed a law allowing people to keep up to four hens – no roosters allowed. One half of every new trade magazine we received over the past six months has been taken up with poultry-related items, from coops to toys.
It reminded me that a few columns ago I mentioned that the Cavaliers were easy when compared to the "terrible trio" of poodles. And that made me realize that I had perhaps told a little white lie, and it's time to fess up.
Years ago we lived out in Shiloh. It was beautiful. The house sat back about one-half mile from the road and was surrounded by pasture where the owner kept a herd of cattle. It had a pond and a stream that eventually met up with Yellow Creek, and best of all, not a neighbor in sight. We got to know everyone around us, but couldn't see anyone. It was great and needless to say, the dogs loved it there. They thought they were in heaven.
Before the big tornado took away most of downtown, we bought our dog food at Ely Feed. Each spring they had chicks and ducks, so one Easter I got John three of each to complete the idyllic picture. Any idea yet where this is going?
The ducklings stayed in or near the pond, and the chicks around the house – usually. The first month went well enough. When they heard the dogs go out in the morning they all came running to the back door for the leftover dog food. Granted, it is not poultry food, but they had the most beautiful feathers you have ever seen!
Then one day, only two ducks came. Eventually they both stopped coming up for their meals and when they got big enough, flew off for parts unknown. Then one morning only two chickens came to breakfast. After looking around I saw a huge pile of white feathers near where the cattle were grazing. Those two stayed near the house from then on. One roosted on the bathroom windowsill (outside). John had named her Annie and I could hear them discussing their respective days through the door in the morning.
I'll have to call Annie the smart one. And now to my white lie. When I called the Cavaliers easy, I didn't say dumb, and they are true spaniels. They know how to climb chain-link fencing but like to just get to the top and stay there looking around as if on the top of the world.
John and Annie were having their little morning talks and when I went out back with the food, only Annie came. As I walked around the house I saw Abby, who this time went over the fence. She was the very first Cavalier we had ever bred, and there she stood with a mouth full of feathers and nothing left but a yellow beak and two matching feet.
The moral of the story is that if you have a dog, think long and hard before adding a chicken to the mix.
It reminded me that a few columns ago I mentioned that the Cavaliers were easy when compared to the "terrible trio" of poodles. And that made me realize that I had perhaps told a little white lie, and it's time to fess up.
Years ago we lived out in Shiloh. It was beautiful. The house sat back about one-half mile from the road and was surrounded by pasture where the owner kept a herd of cattle. It had a pond and a stream that eventually met up with Yellow Creek, and best of all, not a neighbor in sight. We got to know everyone around us, but couldn't see anyone. It was great and needless to say, the dogs loved it there. They thought they were in heaven.
Before the big tornado took away most of downtown, we bought our dog food at Ely Feed. Each spring they had chicks and ducks, so one Easter I got John three of each to complete the idyllic picture. Any idea yet where this is going?
The ducklings stayed in or near the pond, and the chicks around the house – usually. The first month went well enough. When they heard the dogs go out in the morning they all came running to the back door for the leftover dog food. Granted, it is not poultry food, but they had the most beautiful feathers you have ever seen!
Then one day, only two ducks came. Eventually they both stopped coming up for their meals and when they got big enough, flew off for parts unknown. Then one morning only two chickens came to breakfast. After looking around I saw a huge pile of white feathers near where the cattle were grazing. Those two stayed near the house from then on. One roosted on the bathroom windowsill (outside). John had named her Annie and I could hear them discussing their respective days through the door in the morning.
I'll have to call Annie the smart one. And now to my white lie. When I called the Cavaliers easy, I didn't say dumb, and they are true spaniels. They know how to climb chain-link fencing but like to just get to the top and stay there looking around as if on the top of the world.
John and Annie were having their little morning talks and when I went out back with the food, only Annie came. As I walked around the house I saw Abby, who this time went over the fence. She was the very first Cavalier we had ever bred, and there she stood with a mouth full of feathers and nothing left but a yellow beak and two matching feet.
The moral of the story is that if you have a dog, think long and hard before adding a chicken to the mix.
2012年2月14日星期二
What's Behind the Urban Chicken Backlash
At this point in the locavore narrative, urban chicken-keeping has vocal advocates and an adamant opposition. Some cities welcome backyard poultry with open arms, while others are more skeptical. As the practice grows, the two sides seem prepared for a long, drawn out war on the value and propriety of chicken-keeping within city limits.
Urban farmers generally view a backyard coop as a natural extension of their garden and a convenient, eco-friendly source of protein – though no academic study has examined the environmental impact of the practice. Some even see their charges as pets with benefits.
On this side, we have Martha Stewart, that doyenne of domestic perfection, and Susan Orlean, the sensitive, bestselling New Yorker writer played by Meryl Streep in Adaptation.
Their neighbors take a more jaundiced view. Protest groups in cities across the country have helped devise bills to ban or restrict the practice. These opponents argue that chickens are smelly and noisy and a potential health risk; that the coops are eyesores that potentially bring down property values; and that they attract rodents and predators, like coyotes, endangering chickens as well as children.
And then, of course, there is the potential slaughterhouse next door. "Botched slaughter is all too common," writes Ian Elwood, of Neighbors Opposed to Backyard Slaughter, an anti-urban animal outfit in Oakland. "But even slaughter that is performed 'correctly' is still no treat to witness or hear."
Due in part to such concerns, Boston, Detroit, D.C., and Toronto prohibit the keeping of livestock within city limits. Chicago, like New York City, views chickens as pets and has no limits on ownership, though slaughter is forbidden. But suburban Naperville and Northbrook are considering bans, while Evanston has set a limit of six hens per household.
Many cities in the West are going in the other direction. In 2010, Seattle raised its hen limit from three to eight per household. Some animal-friendly residents of Portland, where residents can keep up to three hens without a permit, have been running a tour of local chicken coops since 2003.
In Vancouver, Mayor Gregor Robertson sees chickens in every lot as part of the city's destiny as the world's greenest city -- and launched Operation Chicken to make it happen. In 2009, the Vancouver city council voted unanimously to allow backyard chickens. A year later, the city released detailed guidelines for keeping backyard hens, including what kinds of properties, proximity to property line, and type and number of chickens (four hens).
Perhaps no city is as divided over the chicken question as Oakland. City officials are considering allowing residents to raise and slaughter not just chickens, but goats, rabbits, ducks and other animals, in their backyards. Backers argue that it would help alleviate food deserts.
Oakland's anti-slaughter group sees the practice as a socio-economic problem. NOBS argues that the city's approval of the slaughter of chickens “would serve the needs of a small group of people interested in creating artisan animal products instead of serving the low-income communities.” They've posted flyers around the city, playing up fears of stray chickens wandering the city and children witnessing grisly scenes of animal killing.
Despite this opposition, some degree of urban chicken keeping is most likely here to stay, and compromise is probably inevitable in many municipalities. Attacks like that of NOBS appear more likely merely to inflame the process.
Urban farmers generally view a backyard coop as a natural extension of their garden and a convenient, eco-friendly source of protein – though no academic study has examined the environmental impact of the practice. Some even see their charges as pets with benefits.
On this side, we have Martha Stewart, that doyenne of domestic perfection, and Susan Orlean, the sensitive, bestselling New Yorker writer played by Meryl Streep in Adaptation.
Their neighbors take a more jaundiced view. Protest groups in cities across the country have helped devise bills to ban or restrict the practice. These opponents argue that chickens are smelly and noisy and a potential health risk; that the coops are eyesores that potentially bring down property values; and that they attract rodents and predators, like coyotes, endangering chickens as well as children.
And then, of course, there is the potential slaughterhouse next door. "Botched slaughter is all too common," writes Ian Elwood, of Neighbors Opposed to Backyard Slaughter, an anti-urban animal outfit in Oakland. "But even slaughter that is performed 'correctly' is still no treat to witness or hear."
Due in part to such concerns, Boston, Detroit, D.C., and Toronto prohibit the keeping of livestock within city limits. Chicago, like New York City, views chickens as pets and has no limits on ownership, though slaughter is forbidden. But suburban Naperville and Northbrook are considering bans, while Evanston has set a limit of six hens per household.
Many cities in the West are going in the other direction. In 2010, Seattle raised its hen limit from three to eight per household. Some animal-friendly residents of Portland, where residents can keep up to three hens without a permit, have been running a tour of local chicken coops since 2003.
In Vancouver, Mayor Gregor Robertson sees chickens in every lot as part of the city's destiny as the world's greenest city -- and launched Operation Chicken to make it happen. In 2009, the Vancouver city council voted unanimously to allow backyard chickens. A year later, the city released detailed guidelines for keeping backyard hens, including what kinds of properties, proximity to property line, and type and number of chickens (four hens).
Perhaps no city is as divided over the chicken question as Oakland. City officials are considering allowing residents to raise and slaughter not just chickens, but goats, rabbits, ducks and other animals, in their backyards. Backers argue that it would help alleviate food deserts.
Oakland's anti-slaughter group sees the practice as a socio-economic problem. NOBS argues that the city's approval of the slaughter of chickens “would serve the needs of a small group of people interested in creating artisan animal products instead of serving the low-income communities.” They've posted flyers around the city, playing up fears of stray chickens wandering the city and children witnessing grisly scenes of animal killing.
Despite this opposition, some degree of urban chicken keeping is most likely here to stay, and compromise is probably inevitable in many municipalities. Attacks like that of NOBS appear more likely merely to inflame the process.
2012年2月13日星期一
Blountville farmers market hopes to have permanent shed
Wendi Niebruegge returned to the family farm six years ago and is playing a key role in Sullivan County’s agriculture community and an effort to establish a more permanent farmers market here.
“I love being able to see my daughters play in the same trees that I played in when I was young,” she said.
Her farm, Indian Brook Farm, was founded nearly 100 years ago just outside Blountville. Named after a spring that runs through the property where Native Americans gathered water, the farm features rolling hills and pasture land.
Niebruegge’s father, Haynes Pendergrass, grew tobacco and corn on roughly 50 acres when she was young. The work was hard. Tobacco is labor intensive, but Pendergrass said he enjoyed working the land. He held down a regular job at Eastman Kodak during the day and tended to the farm in his free time.
His daughter loved growing up on the farm, Pendergrass remembers. Niebruegge, 41, was involved in 4-H and spent a lot of her free time riding tractors and tackling tasks around the farm. She wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.
After high school, Niebruegge moved way, got married and settled down with her husband, Craig, in South Carolina. Then one day her husband returned from a run during a visit to the farm and talked about moving to Tennessee, surprising Niebruegge.
“He said there was a house for sale in a subdivision next to the farm,” she said.
In the mid-1990s, Pendergrass had stopped growing tobacco and grazed cattle on the original 50 acres and 50 acres that were leased. He was getting older and could use the help.
Niebruegge and her husband talked about growing natural beef and free-range chickens at the farm. They wanted to take advantage of the budding local food movement and the return to more naturally grown food. The couple convinced Pendergrass to let them manage the farm.
“When we were on the mule [above the farm], before we moved, we would dream and think about who would buy the products,” Niebruegge said.
The family bought the house next to the farm and built a greenhouse and started a small garden plot. The pasture was converted to organic fertilizers. A chicken coop was constructed.
The farm started to sell the meat, produce and eggs directly to the public. The response was positive.
Two years ago, Niebruegge was contacted about a farmers market that was starting in Blountville. Sullivan County Extension was making the parking lot available at the Sullivan County offices and was looking for those who wanted to sell their produce.
When the market opened, Niebruegge sold meat and eggs. Before she knew it, she had been recruited and was named president of the newly formed Blountville Farmers Market board.
Dennis Houser, a Sullivan County commissioner from Blountville and a Blountville Farmers Market board member, said Niebruegge is a good fit for the position.
“Wendi is excellent at promotions and organization,” he said.
Around a dozen vendors sell products every Thursday during the growing season, and the market is an important part of life in Sullivan County.
“It became like a community gathering place, a social network,” Houser said.
Over the last two years, the market has become more organized. Bylaws are being drafted and the market is seeking formal non-profit status. At the same time, a new location is being sought as the parking lot is exposed to the elements, both rain and sun.
“You and your produce and your customers were wilting in the summer,” Niebruegge said.
The board decided to build a covered pavilion in Blountville. Sullivan County is a partner in the project. The structure could serve as a gathering place for Sullivan County residents and house the market each week, Houser said.
The structure will be built behind the old courthouse. The exact location has not been decided, but the Sullivan County Building Committee has given the project its blessing.
The county has also offered to donate the labor for the project and will make electricity available.
The challenge now is funding. Grants were sought, and Farm Credit Services and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture awarded the market a total of $4,000. The market board can contribute a couple more thousand dollars to the pavilion project but around $7,000 or $8,000 is still needed.
The market is soliciting donations from local businesses for the remaining funds.
Niebruegge wants agriculture to thrive in Sullivan County and knows the market can play an important role. She sees demand increasing for locally grown agriculture products and has watched her own business grow over the last two years.
She is amazed at how many people contact her and want to purchase products directly from the farm. She sends out weekly emails on what products are available. In the beginning, friends were the only buyers. Eventually, friends of friends inquired about buying meat or vegetables. Now, people contact the farm, although they have no connection to it or the family.
Many are embracing a healthier lifestyle, as evidenced by other local farmers markets, in Bristol and Abingdon, that have proven to be popular and successful.
“So many people buy our sweet corn because it is non-GMO [genetically modified],” Niebruegge said.
All of this has made Niebruegge excited about the future.
“We are so blessed that people like what we are doing,” she said.
To make things interesting around the farm, her husband is always experimenting. He created a new seed germination system in the greenhouse and a gate system in the pasture. Last year, he wanted to grow turkeys at the farm. Like the chickens, the turkeys roam freely.
“One day, I walk outside and the UPS guy is backing up across the driveway,” Niebruegge said. “He said, ‘What is that?’”
An adult turkey in the driveway scared the driver.
Niebruegge said the best part about returning to the farm has been family. Her dad still helps around the farm, and Pendergrass likes the farm’s direction.
“I love being able to see my daughters play in the same trees that I played in when I was young,” she said.
Her farm, Indian Brook Farm, was founded nearly 100 years ago just outside Blountville. Named after a spring that runs through the property where Native Americans gathered water, the farm features rolling hills and pasture land.
Niebruegge’s father, Haynes Pendergrass, grew tobacco and corn on roughly 50 acres when she was young. The work was hard. Tobacco is labor intensive, but Pendergrass said he enjoyed working the land. He held down a regular job at Eastman Kodak during the day and tended to the farm in his free time.
His daughter loved growing up on the farm, Pendergrass remembers. Niebruegge, 41, was involved in 4-H and spent a lot of her free time riding tractors and tackling tasks around the farm. She wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.
After high school, Niebruegge moved way, got married and settled down with her husband, Craig, in South Carolina. Then one day her husband returned from a run during a visit to the farm and talked about moving to Tennessee, surprising Niebruegge.
“He said there was a house for sale in a subdivision next to the farm,” she said.
In the mid-1990s, Pendergrass had stopped growing tobacco and grazed cattle on the original 50 acres and 50 acres that were leased. He was getting older and could use the help.
Niebruegge and her husband talked about growing natural beef and free-range chickens at the farm. They wanted to take advantage of the budding local food movement and the return to more naturally grown food. The couple convinced Pendergrass to let them manage the farm.
“When we were on the mule [above the farm], before we moved, we would dream and think about who would buy the products,” Niebruegge said.
The family bought the house next to the farm and built a greenhouse and started a small garden plot. The pasture was converted to organic fertilizers. A chicken coop was constructed.
The farm started to sell the meat, produce and eggs directly to the public. The response was positive.
Two years ago, Niebruegge was contacted about a farmers market that was starting in Blountville. Sullivan County Extension was making the parking lot available at the Sullivan County offices and was looking for those who wanted to sell their produce.
When the market opened, Niebruegge sold meat and eggs. Before she knew it, she had been recruited and was named president of the newly formed Blountville Farmers Market board.
Dennis Houser, a Sullivan County commissioner from Blountville and a Blountville Farmers Market board member, said Niebruegge is a good fit for the position.
“Wendi is excellent at promotions and organization,” he said.
Around a dozen vendors sell products every Thursday during the growing season, and the market is an important part of life in Sullivan County.
“It became like a community gathering place, a social network,” Houser said.
Over the last two years, the market has become more organized. Bylaws are being drafted and the market is seeking formal non-profit status. At the same time, a new location is being sought as the parking lot is exposed to the elements, both rain and sun.
“You and your produce and your customers were wilting in the summer,” Niebruegge said.
The board decided to build a covered pavilion in Blountville. Sullivan County is a partner in the project. The structure could serve as a gathering place for Sullivan County residents and house the market each week, Houser said.
The structure will be built behind the old courthouse. The exact location has not been decided, but the Sullivan County Building Committee has given the project its blessing.
The county has also offered to donate the labor for the project and will make electricity available.
The challenge now is funding. Grants were sought, and Farm Credit Services and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture awarded the market a total of $4,000. The market board can contribute a couple more thousand dollars to the pavilion project but around $7,000 or $8,000 is still needed.
The market is soliciting donations from local businesses for the remaining funds.
Niebruegge wants agriculture to thrive in Sullivan County and knows the market can play an important role. She sees demand increasing for locally grown agriculture products and has watched her own business grow over the last two years.
She is amazed at how many people contact her and want to purchase products directly from the farm. She sends out weekly emails on what products are available. In the beginning, friends were the only buyers. Eventually, friends of friends inquired about buying meat or vegetables. Now, people contact the farm, although they have no connection to it or the family.
Many are embracing a healthier lifestyle, as evidenced by other local farmers markets, in Bristol and Abingdon, that have proven to be popular and successful.
“So many people buy our sweet corn because it is non-GMO [genetically modified],” Niebruegge said.
All of this has made Niebruegge excited about the future.
“We are so blessed that people like what we are doing,” she said.
To make things interesting around the farm, her husband is always experimenting. He created a new seed germination system in the greenhouse and a gate system in the pasture. Last year, he wanted to grow turkeys at the farm. Like the chickens, the turkeys roam freely.
“One day, I walk outside and the UPS guy is backing up across the driveway,” Niebruegge said. “He said, ‘What is that?’”
An adult turkey in the driveway scared the driver.
Niebruegge said the best part about returning to the farm has been family. Her dad still helps around the farm, and Pendergrass likes the farm’s direction.
2012年2月12日星期日
Used materials are reborn into charming garden sheds
LIKE MUSHROOMS in damp autumn woods, Bob Bowling's sheds are popping up all over South Whidbey Island. Small enough to squeeze into a garden corner or side yard, yet large enough to house chickens, hold a yoga mat or tools, the sheds are drop-dead charming.
Is it the peaked roofs, the cupolas and aged windowpanes that lend a sense of history to each tidy little footprint of a building? Perhaps it's that Bowling has mastered the perfect proportions and garnishes to appeal to our fantasies of a sweet little destination shed. Gardeners seem to share a universal gene for outbuildings, and Bowling has tapped right into that.
After his success at the past few Northwest Flower & Garden Shows, where he won "Best of Show" in the exhibitor category, Bowling is busy building custom designs.
Don't be tricked by the cute window boxes and clever cupolas. These sheds are practical. The windows hinge wide open, the roofs are sturdy galvanized metal with overhangs, and the chicken coops come with nesting boxes and windows low enough to give the birds a view out into the garden.
How did Bowling hit on the formula for irresistible sheds? "I never draw them, they just evolve," he explains. Kind of like how he got into building sheds in the first place.
After working as a flooring contractor in Riverside, Calif., Bowling moved to Whidbey with a now ex-girlfriend, and started crafting birdhouses and benches. He moved on to sheds after discovering the abundant supply of recycled materials on the island.
Now Bowling starts his days poking around the woodpile at the local construction dump and visiting Island Recycling. "I mill around and some days I hit gold," he says. He stockpiles old doors and windows, and buys bits and pieces on eBay, like the $5 metal spheres he uses as finials.
So what are the specific elements that make these rustic sheds so covetable? First, they're a manageable size. Most Bowling buildings are 5 by 5 or 4 by 4 feet. Yet they're tall and transparent enough that they don't feel dark or cramped. "I'm 6 foot 4 and I need to be able to walk in without hitting my head," says Bowling.
Despite windows, doors and siding old enough to make the buildings look weathered in place, new underlying framework assures they're structurally sound. "Nothing is going to blow them over," he says.
Because Bowling builds with materials on at least their second lifetimes, each shed is unique. If wood or metal doesn't look sufficiently vintage, Bowling adds patina with a vinegar wash. Old saws, axes and trowels are put to use as door handles and brackets. He constructs cupolas out of metal chicken feeders, funnels, stove pipes or pot lids — whatever ends up stacking in an eye-pleasing and sturdy way.
Bowling's sense of proportion and detail comes into play from roof to doorknobs. The former is usually steep and galvanized, the latter a worn tool or beveled glass. Dutch doors, weathervanes and window boxes large enough to hold a few herbs or pansies add yet more charm.
While Bowling usually sticks with his square little footprint and tried-and-true proportions, he is sometimes asked to come up with new shapes and sizes. He built an octagonal building he describes as "Gothic" to fit into a hillside garden in Burien. "The largest shed I ever built was 10 by 12, and we dry-walled and insulated it for a studio," he says.
His sheds have been used as outhouses, chapels, outdoor showers, playhouses and simply as garden focal points. So if you can imagine it, Bowling can build it.
Is it the peaked roofs, the cupolas and aged windowpanes that lend a sense of history to each tidy little footprint of a building? Perhaps it's that Bowling has mastered the perfect proportions and garnishes to appeal to our fantasies of a sweet little destination shed. Gardeners seem to share a universal gene for outbuildings, and Bowling has tapped right into that.
After his success at the past few Northwest Flower & Garden Shows, where he won "Best of Show" in the exhibitor category, Bowling is busy building custom designs.
Don't be tricked by the cute window boxes and clever cupolas. These sheds are practical. The windows hinge wide open, the roofs are sturdy galvanized metal with overhangs, and the chicken coops come with nesting boxes and windows low enough to give the birds a view out into the garden.
How did Bowling hit on the formula for irresistible sheds? "I never draw them, they just evolve," he explains. Kind of like how he got into building sheds in the first place.
After working as a flooring contractor in Riverside, Calif., Bowling moved to Whidbey with a now ex-girlfriend, and started crafting birdhouses and benches. He moved on to sheds after discovering the abundant supply of recycled materials on the island.
Now Bowling starts his days poking around the woodpile at the local construction dump and visiting Island Recycling. "I mill around and some days I hit gold," he says. He stockpiles old doors and windows, and buys bits and pieces on eBay, like the $5 metal spheres he uses as finials.
So what are the specific elements that make these rustic sheds so covetable? First, they're a manageable size. Most Bowling buildings are 5 by 5 or 4 by 4 feet. Yet they're tall and transparent enough that they don't feel dark or cramped. "I'm 6 foot 4 and I need to be able to walk in without hitting my head," says Bowling.
Despite windows, doors and siding old enough to make the buildings look weathered in place, new underlying framework assures they're structurally sound. "Nothing is going to blow them over," he says.
Because Bowling builds with materials on at least their second lifetimes, each shed is unique. If wood or metal doesn't look sufficiently vintage, Bowling adds patina with a vinegar wash. Old saws, axes and trowels are put to use as door handles and brackets. He constructs cupolas out of metal chicken feeders, funnels, stove pipes or pot lids — whatever ends up stacking in an eye-pleasing and sturdy way.
Bowling's sense of proportion and detail comes into play from roof to doorknobs. The former is usually steep and galvanized, the latter a worn tool or beveled glass. Dutch doors, weathervanes and window boxes large enough to hold a few herbs or pansies add yet more charm.
While Bowling usually sticks with his square little footprint and tried-and-true proportions, he is sometimes asked to come up with new shapes and sizes. He built an octagonal building he describes as "Gothic" to fit into a hillside garden in Burien. "The largest shed I ever built was 10 by 12, and we dry-walled and insulated it for a studio," he says.
His sheds have been used as outhouses, chapels, outdoor showers, playhouses and simply as garden focal points. So if you can imagine it, Bowling can build it.
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