Leaders of the Friends of Ambler Farm are seeking $500,000 from the town to help restore the historic Raymond Ambler House that was occupied by the family for more than 160 years.
The nonprofit Ambler Farm's Board of Directors will request $250,000 from the town’s capital improvements fund for the fiscal year that begins July 1 and another $250,000 for the following year from money already earmarked for the project, said board president Neil Gluckin.
The group will officially make a request for the funding at Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall.
“This is a very good time in the property’s history to move forward with this project, and we will urge the selectmen to understand that the community places a very high value on completing this project and return to Wilton a long-term investment that will far exceed the amount the town will invest in it,” Gluckin said.
The $500,000 would go “a very long way” in helping to complete the overall $1.9 million project, Gluckin said. The project is designed to renovate and open the house to the public for historic tours, educational programs and community events.
Originally believed to have been built in 1799, the white farmhouse was constructed in 1830 and was occupied by members of the Ambler family until Betty Ambler’s death in 1998.
The house, located at 257 Hurlbutt Street, had deteriorated significantly over the last few decades. But when the town obtained the 22-acre property in 1999, the Friends of Ambler Farm was established to operate it as a working farm and to renovate the farmhouse and other buildings to present ongoing educational programs and fun events relating to life on the farm.
“The house will become the cornerstone for representing farm life over the last two centuries and is key to accomplishing the mission set out by the deed of sale to the town – to make this entire property a living example of farm life in Wilton from 1800 to 2000,” Gluckin said.
About $600,000 in renovations have already been done to stabilize the house’s foundation, he said, but there’s a lot more work to do. Exploration of the farmhouse has led to discovery of several old shoes and pieces of clothing under the attic's floorboards. In addition, there are signatures from various carpenters who worked on the house.
“We want to move ahead now so that by 2014 we can put some of the house’s furnishings like chairs, tables and kitchen cabinets back in and to create a hearth kitchen to help depict what life was like in the house and on the farm during the 18th and 19th centuries,” said Gluckin.
Extensive renovations were completed in 2006 at the red Carriage Barn, which was built in 1880 and is used for education programs. A kitchen addition also serves a range of activities and programs. Community organizations can rent the Barn.
2012年1月17日星期二
2012年1月10日星期二
Toronto is no place for chickens
I have a little fantasy to share with you. It involves feathers, clucking and yolks, much homespun flapping of aprons in the backyard, the warmth of a chicken held against your belly as it lays in your lap (can that be right? It sounds unsavory) and the happy clap clap of children as I serve them another dish made with orange yolks and milky whites from our own backyard chicken coop. “Thank you, Mama!” they cry.
Thank you, Toronto, for letting me indulge my lifelong dream of a henhouse to call my own. Except the city may not, and wisely so, since my chicken scheme is possibly quite stupid/very stupid indeed.
As early as February, the city, having halted prosecutions of the urban chicken movement, will study small no-roosters urban coops. My favourite city councillor, the sainted Mary-Margaret McMahon , is thrilled. “It’ll be people who are into urban agriculture and food security and growing vegetables in their yard.” She dismisses worries about smells and noise.
I do not. I have enough trouble with the smells and noise of humans without coping with their poultry.
Urban hen ownership is no joke. Consider predators, mass death, the astounding expense of building a coop with insulation, ventilation, an exercise yard and entrance for you and your fowl, the drooping and wilting that makes you send sewage samples to vets for advice, manky eggs, ammonia buildup, cecal droppings and disease (metabolic, infectious, parasitic and behavioural). I will mention only in passing the “blood-tinged nostril discharge” of avian flu.
I like chickens in paintings and photos. Art hens. I hate them in real life, “with their blank beady eyes and the silly way they keep shaking their scrawny little heads,” as the essayist Jean Kerr once wrote.
Eggs are best left to experts, the hot sexy Ontario farmers who populate the new 2012 Faces of Farming calendar, the month of May’s Darryl being my current favourite. Note: He raises hens not in Riverdale but in Hastings County, as God surely intended.
The poultry mania is part of what I call Portlandia Syndrome. Named after the coolest show on television, Portlandia resides on the Independent Film Channel, part of its coolness being the fact that you can’t see it. I bought it on DVD .
Portlandia is a satire of urban hipsters living in the Oregon city “where young people go to retire.” SNL’s Fred Armisen and rock-comedian Carrie Brownstein recreate the slacker ’90s in the new Seattle, where people grow beets in their driveway, entitled cyclists ride through stores (“I’m on a bike!”) and organic locavore diners interrogate the waitress about the provenance of their chicken.
Reassured that he was heritage-breed, woodland-raised and fed only sheep’s milk, soy and hazelnuts, they fret that the hazelnuts were trucked in. Eventually they leave the table to check, visiting “Colin’s” home farm and meeting his friends. After briefly joining a cult, they return and continue ordering.
I love Portlandia, a place so earnest and self-absorbed that it’s more of an ethic than a city. Any pillow or mug can be made cool if you “Put a bird on it!” You can build a business on the slogan “We can pickle that!” the trend born of brining, which can be usefully done to chickens (sorry, Colin) but not to lamps or mangled stilettos as they do in Portlandia.
Thank you, Toronto, for letting me indulge my lifelong dream of a henhouse to call my own. Except the city may not, and wisely so, since my chicken scheme is possibly quite stupid/very stupid indeed.
As early as February, the city, having halted prosecutions of the urban chicken movement, will study small no-roosters urban coops. My favourite city councillor, the sainted Mary-Margaret McMahon , is thrilled. “It’ll be people who are into urban agriculture and food security and growing vegetables in their yard.” She dismisses worries about smells and noise.
I do not. I have enough trouble with the smells and noise of humans without coping with their poultry.
Urban hen ownership is no joke. Consider predators, mass death, the astounding expense of building a coop with insulation, ventilation, an exercise yard and entrance for you and your fowl, the drooping and wilting that makes you send sewage samples to vets for advice, manky eggs, ammonia buildup, cecal droppings and disease (metabolic, infectious, parasitic and behavioural). I will mention only in passing the “blood-tinged nostril discharge” of avian flu.
I like chickens in paintings and photos. Art hens. I hate them in real life, “with their blank beady eyes and the silly way they keep shaking their scrawny little heads,” as the essayist Jean Kerr once wrote.
Eggs are best left to experts, the hot sexy Ontario farmers who populate the new 2012 Faces of Farming calendar, the month of May’s Darryl being my current favourite. Note: He raises hens not in Riverdale but in Hastings County, as God surely intended.
The poultry mania is part of what I call Portlandia Syndrome. Named after the coolest show on television, Portlandia resides on the Independent Film Channel, part of its coolness being the fact that you can’t see it. I bought it on DVD .
Portlandia is a satire of urban hipsters living in the Oregon city “where young people go to retire.” SNL’s Fred Armisen and rock-comedian Carrie Brownstein recreate the slacker ’90s in the new Seattle, where people grow beets in their driveway, entitled cyclists ride through stores (“I’m on a bike!”) and organic locavore diners interrogate the waitress about the provenance of their chicken.
Reassured that he was heritage-breed, woodland-raised and fed only sheep’s milk, soy and hazelnuts, they fret that the hazelnuts were trucked in. Eventually they leave the table to check, visiting “Colin’s” home farm and meeting his friends. After briefly joining a cult, they return and continue ordering.
I love Portlandia, a place so earnest and self-absorbed that it’s more of an ethic than a city. Any pillow or mug can be made cool if you “Put a bird on it!” You can build a business on the slogan “We can pickle that!” the trend born of brining, which can be usefully done to chickens (sorry, Colin) but not to lamps or mangled stilettos as they do in Portlandia.
2011年11月15日星期二
Cat scratch debate: leashed, licensed or lethally injected
Don’t be scaredy cats about licensing Hamilton felines, city councillors were told Tuesday.
More than 25 people spoke at a special planning committee meeting about the city’s proposed new animal control bylaw, which suggests eliminating pet limits and regulating “roaming” cats like dogs, with enforcement based solely on complaints.
But several impassioned presenters said the bylaw will fail to reduce the number of cats euthanized each year — 3,000 or so — because it doesn’t mandate licensing the animals.
The previous council voted to axe the controversial idea of cat licensing from the early development of the comprehensive bylaw, which is meant to reconcile a hodgepodge of sometimes contradictory preamalgamation rules about pets.
“You need to find the courage to license cats,” said city resident and vocal cat advocate Margaret Strecker. “We do have to recognize we have a cat crisis.”
Animal services manager Sue O’Dwyer told councillors the city has cut the number of cats euthanized this year by more than 840, compared to 2010.
That’s encouraging, said Strecker, but not enough.
“The bylaw is called the responsible animal ownership bylaw. This is something all responsible cat owners want.”
The licensing idea is “controversial,” admitted Keith Scott, president of the Hamilton-Burlington SPCA, but also necessary to combat the view of cats as “disposable strays.”
Councillor Lloyd Ferguson asked Scott how he would convince residents the licensing scheme is not a “money grab” by the city.
Scott suggested it’s a matter of fairness.
“Licensing is one tool to promote responsible pet ownership,” he said. “Dog owners should not be the only ones required to be responsible.”
Most feline fans applauded the bylaw proposal to end pet limits.
Local veterinarian Liz O’Brien said the move will make wary multiple-pet owners more likely to spay, neuter and microchip their cats.
But she also urged councillors not to consider licensing “a dirty word.”
“In the past, I might have opposed it, too,” she said. “But through education, I see the benefits. I would sell this (idea) to my clients, if you do it.”
No decisions were made at Tuesday’s meeting, but Councillor Terry Whitehead said it might be time to “take another shot” at the licensing debate.
More than 30 residents sent in written opinions on the bylaw.
Close to a dozen verbal and written submissions were made Tuesday by opponents of the urban chicken ban. Their efforts might end up earning fugitive fowl farmers a reprieve. Councillor Jason Farr asked for a comprehensive staff report on the idea of regulating, rather than banning, back yard chickens. It will be considered some time in the first three months of 2012.
More than 25 people spoke at a special planning committee meeting about the city’s proposed new animal control bylaw, which suggests eliminating pet limits and regulating “roaming” cats like dogs, with enforcement based solely on complaints.
But several impassioned presenters said the bylaw will fail to reduce the number of cats euthanized each year — 3,000 or so — because it doesn’t mandate licensing the animals.
The previous council voted to axe the controversial idea of cat licensing from the early development of the comprehensive bylaw, which is meant to reconcile a hodgepodge of sometimes contradictory preamalgamation rules about pets.
“You need to find the courage to license cats,” said city resident and vocal cat advocate Margaret Strecker. “We do have to recognize we have a cat crisis.”
Animal services manager Sue O’Dwyer told councillors the city has cut the number of cats euthanized this year by more than 840, compared to 2010.
That’s encouraging, said Strecker, but not enough.
“The bylaw is called the responsible animal ownership bylaw. This is something all responsible cat owners want.”
The licensing idea is “controversial,” admitted Keith Scott, president of the Hamilton-Burlington SPCA, but also necessary to combat the view of cats as “disposable strays.”
Councillor Lloyd Ferguson asked Scott how he would convince residents the licensing scheme is not a “money grab” by the city.
Scott suggested it’s a matter of fairness.
“Licensing is one tool to promote responsible pet ownership,” he said. “Dog owners should not be the only ones required to be responsible.”
Most feline fans applauded the bylaw proposal to end pet limits.
Local veterinarian Liz O’Brien said the move will make wary multiple-pet owners more likely to spay, neuter and microchip their cats.
But she also urged councillors not to consider licensing “a dirty word.”
“In the past, I might have opposed it, too,” she said. “But through education, I see the benefits. I would sell this (idea) to my clients, if you do it.”
No decisions were made at Tuesday’s meeting, but Councillor Terry Whitehead said it might be time to “take another shot” at the licensing debate.
More than 30 residents sent in written opinions on the bylaw.
Close to a dozen verbal and written submissions were made Tuesday by opponents of the urban chicken ban. Their efforts might end up earning fugitive fowl farmers a reprieve. Councillor Jason Farr asked for a comprehensive staff report on the idea of regulating, rather than banning, back yard chickens. It will be considered some time in the first three months of 2012.
2011年10月30日星期日
Guests nest in old coops
For a trip to visit my daughter at Angelo State University, I explored various hotels before landing at the Chicken Farm Art Center, a funky art colony on a former chicken farm.
The quick getaway turned into a fun adventure my husband and I look forward to repeating.
Back story: Until the 1950s, people bought packaged chicken at local farms, before corporate producers and refrigerated trucks put them out of business. In 1971, Roger Allen bought an abandoned 3-acre farm north of downtown San Angelo.
Gradually, he and two artist friends transformed the coops and other buildings into an eclectic enclave of artists' studios, galleries and apartments that's become a destination.
“Yeah, we've created an institution here, but it wasn't by design,” Allen says. In 1999, artists Jerry and Susan Warnell bought half the property and turned the farm's grain silo into a gourmet restaurant and upstairs guest room.
Artists in residence: Seventeen artists keep studios at the farm, working in mediums from clay to copper to digital film. Some, such as Allen and wife Pam Bladine and the Warnells, live there, too.
Allen is best known for his brightly colored StarKeeper stoneware pottery.
We visited with Jeremy Bundick, who collaborates with wife Millicent to create whimsical goblets, bowls and other dishware, along with ceramic sculptures. “We're just trying to do something different,” he said.
Cool digs: A curved staircase led to the Artist Loft upstairs in the Silo, where we slept in a round room without windows. “This feels like a castle,” my husband observed.
Sections of renovated chicken coops house two more rooms, the Santa Fe and the Country French. Overnight guests have access at any time to the breakfast nook, stocked with fruit, yogurt, juice, cereal and other breakfast fixings. Jerry Warnell leaves homemade muffins or scones at 8 a.m.
Farm events: First Saturdays are a tradition at the Chicken Farm. Local musicians — collectively called the Chicken Pickers — perform during the day, and dozens of artists set up booths with their work. On second Thursdays, visitors plunk down in lawn chairs and enjoy outdoor concerts from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
In November, thousands turn out for the farm's annual open house, held Friday through Sunday after Thanksgiving. Live music plays round the clock while folks shop wares of 60-plus artists.
Dining ops: The week's posted menu at the farm's Salt @ the Silo House restaurant sounded enticing: Smoked Sea Salt Rubbed Ribeye, Flounder en Cartocio or Braised Lamb Shank, with four-course dinners ranging from $46 to $52. Too bad we had other plans.
On our way out of town, we ate beef enchiladas at El Mejor Taco Bar and Patio Café.
Parting laugh: “I tell everyone that I'm gonna find me another chicken coop outside of town, and this time I won't tell anyone where it is,” said Roger Allen, Chicken Farm founder.
The quick getaway turned into a fun adventure my husband and I look forward to repeating.
Back story: Until the 1950s, people bought packaged chicken at local farms, before corporate producers and refrigerated trucks put them out of business. In 1971, Roger Allen bought an abandoned 3-acre farm north of downtown San Angelo.
Gradually, he and two artist friends transformed the coops and other buildings into an eclectic enclave of artists' studios, galleries and apartments that's become a destination.
“Yeah, we've created an institution here, but it wasn't by design,” Allen says. In 1999, artists Jerry and Susan Warnell bought half the property and turned the farm's grain silo into a gourmet restaurant and upstairs guest room.
Artists in residence: Seventeen artists keep studios at the farm, working in mediums from clay to copper to digital film. Some, such as Allen and wife Pam Bladine and the Warnells, live there, too.
Allen is best known for his brightly colored StarKeeper stoneware pottery.
We visited with Jeremy Bundick, who collaborates with wife Millicent to create whimsical goblets, bowls and other dishware, along with ceramic sculptures. “We're just trying to do something different,” he said.
Cool digs: A curved staircase led to the Artist Loft upstairs in the Silo, where we slept in a round room without windows. “This feels like a castle,” my husband observed.
Sections of renovated chicken coops house two more rooms, the Santa Fe and the Country French. Overnight guests have access at any time to the breakfast nook, stocked with fruit, yogurt, juice, cereal and other breakfast fixings. Jerry Warnell leaves homemade muffins or scones at 8 a.m.
Farm events: First Saturdays are a tradition at the Chicken Farm. Local musicians — collectively called the Chicken Pickers — perform during the day, and dozens of artists set up booths with their work. On second Thursdays, visitors plunk down in lawn chairs and enjoy outdoor concerts from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
In November, thousands turn out for the farm's annual open house, held Friday through Sunday after Thanksgiving. Live music plays round the clock while folks shop wares of 60-plus artists.
Dining ops: The week's posted menu at the farm's Salt @ the Silo House restaurant sounded enticing: Smoked Sea Salt Rubbed Ribeye, Flounder en Cartocio or Braised Lamb Shank, with four-course dinners ranging from $46 to $52. Too bad we had other plans.
On our way out of town, we ate beef enchiladas at El Mejor Taco Bar and Patio Café.
Parting laugh: “I tell everyone that I'm gonna find me another chicken coop outside of town, and this time I won't tell anyone where it is,” said Roger Allen, Chicken Farm founder.
2011年6月19日星期日
Normal council to discuss chicken coops, form-based code
The Normal City Council is expected to determine the fate of urban chicken coops and an optional form-based code for the town’s leg of the Main Street Corridor at its meeting Monday night.
Members also will consider offering a 1 percent rebate of the local share of the state’s sales tax to Normal residents or businesses purchasing a new electric vehicle through Dec. 31, 2013.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the council chambers of City Hall, 100 E. Phoenix Ave.
Town staff is supporting an ordinance allowing up to four hens in an urban chicken coop. The planning commission voted 3-2 to recommend the ordinance to the council.
Among the concerns voiced at the public hearing was the potential for the spread of histoplasmosis from the chicken droppings. Histoplasmosis is an infection of the lungs, liver, spleen or central nervous system caused by inhaling or ingesting a fungus.
In a report to the council, Town Planner Mercy Davison said a medical researcher and university professor who specializes in the disease said the histoplasmosis fungus is found in soil across much of the Ohio Valley, including Normal. A typical outbreak occurs when a significant amount of bird droppings, left undisturbed for many years, is disturbed.
The researcher said the risk of histoplasmosis from four backyard hens is quite low.
Town staff also is supporting the adoption of an optional form-based code for the Main Street Corridor. The planning commission recommended it 5-0.
If approved, developers of future projects along the Normal leg of the corridor would have the option of building under current code or the form-based code, which dictates design and use and envisions buildings close to the street with parking in the rear.
The council also will consider a 1 percent rebate for residents and businesses purchasing a new electric car. Assistant City Manager Geoff Fruin said assuming an average sales price of $30,000, the typical rebate would be $300. If 200 to 400 people applied for rebates over the next two years, it would total $60,000 to $120,000.
Normal is a partner in the Bloomington-Normal Electric Vehicle Task Force’s EVTown effort, which hopes to see 1,000 electric vehicles in the Twin Cities by 2014.
Members also will consider offering a 1 percent rebate of the local share of the state’s sales tax to Normal residents or businesses purchasing a new electric vehicle through Dec. 31, 2013.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the council chambers of City Hall, 100 E. Phoenix Ave.
Town staff is supporting an ordinance allowing up to four hens in an urban chicken coop. The planning commission voted 3-2 to recommend the ordinance to the council.
Among the concerns voiced at the public hearing was the potential for the spread of histoplasmosis from the chicken droppings. Histoplasmosis is an infection of the lungs, liver, spleen or central nervous system caused by inhaling or ingesting a fungus.
In a report to the council, Town Planner Mercy Davison said a medical researcher and university professor who specializes in the disease said the histoplasmosis fungus is found in soil across much of the Ohio Valley, including Normal. A typical outbreak occurs when a significant amount of bird droppings, left undisturbed for many years, is disturbed.
The researcher said the risk of histoplasmosis from four backyard hens is quite low.
Town staff also is supporting the adoption of an optional form-based code for the Main Street Corridor. The planning commission recommended it 5-0.
If approved, developers of future projects along the Normal leg of the corridor would have the option of building under current code or the form-based code, which dictates design and use and envisions buildings close to the street with parking in the rear.
The council also will consider a 1 percent rebate for residents and businesses purchasing a new electric car. Assistant City Manager Geoff Fruin said assuming an average sales price of $30,000, the typical rebate would be $300. If 200 to 400 people applied for rebates over the next two years, it would total $60,000 to $120,000.
Normal is a partner in the Bloomington-Normal Electric Vehicle Task Force’s EVTown effort, which hopes to see 1,000 electric vehicles in the Twin Cities by 2014.
2011年4月14日星期四
Fire destroys barn in Four Lakes community near Issaquah
Flames destroyed a barn in the Four Lakes community south of Issaquah early Thursday morning, but a pair of chickens roosting inside at the time escaped unharmed.
Firefighters extinguished the flames, although the structure collapsed in the blaze. The incident occurred at about 5:30 a.m. in the 24000 block of Southeast 167th Street.
Neighbors called 911 after seeing flames leaping from the wooden structure just after 5 a.m.
Units from Eastside Fire & Rescue and Maple Valley Fire & Life Safety responded to the fire as news helicopters thudded overhead.
No injuries occurred as a result of the fire. The chickens — a hen and a rooster — escaped from a coop inside the burning structure.
“We opened the door, but they didn’t want to run out,” EFR Capt. Michael Geppert said. “We had to carry one out and shoo the other out while he was squawking at us.”
Investigators later determined a heat lamp in the chicken coop sparked the blaze.
The fire claimed a classic Chevrolet pickup parked inside the barn. The booming sounds neighbors reported hearing amid the blaze probably resulted from the truck’s tires exploding, Geppert said.
“That will make quite a boom when those explode,” he added.
Firefighters extinguished the flames, although the structure collapsed in the blaze. The incident occurred at about 5:30 a.m. in the 24000 block of Southeast 167th Street.
Neighbors called 911 after seeing flames leaping from the wooden structure just after 5 a.m.
Units from Eastside Fire & Rescue and Maple Valley Fire & Life Safety responded to the fire as news helicopters thudded overhead.
No injuries occurred as a result of the fire. The chickens — a hen and a rooster — escaped from a coop inside the burning structure.
“We opened the door, but they didn’t want to run out,” EFR Capt. Michael Geppert said. “We had to carry one out and shoo the other out while he was squawking at us.”
Investigators later determined a heat lamp in the chicken coop sparked the blaze.
The fire claimed a classic Chevrolet pickup parked inside the barn. The booming sounds neighbors reported hearing amid the blaze probably resulted from the truck’s tires exploding, Geppert said.
“That will make quite a boom when those explode,” he added.
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