This is an update from our Kickstarter campaign. Please visit our donation page to find out more. We are raising money to help us plant a food forest here on the ranch. The campaign runs until June 13th, 2011 and we need your help. Please check it out, contribute what you can, pass it on and encourage others to pledge their donations as well.
Well, we’ve been busy here but every time we check back in we are continually amazed. We have almost hit our goal in just two weeks! We now have 83 backers and over 500 views… wow! We’ve got 2 more weeks to go and we will continue to raise funds beyond our 4k-mark… we have many other projects that also need support. Please continue to spread the word and if you haven’t donated yet, please consider giving any amount that you can. Keep up the all the positive energy and feedback – you are our inspiration.
Once again, we want to fill you in with what’s been going on around the ranch and share our excitement about what we have planned for the coming months.
Since we last updated you… we’ve been doing tons of work in the garden, we’ve dug another, longer swale, we are nearing completion of the root cellar, we’ve buried the newest water pipeline, and we’ve been doing some spring cleaning around the ranch. We’ve also employed our fearless pig – who has made it quite clear that she does not care to stay in her pen – to help us clear weeds, till and fertilize the site for our food forest. She spent the last two days roaming the pasture with the horses, enjoying some open space and fresh green grass – until we found her napping in the outdoor kitchen! She is safe and happy in her new, pig-pen-tractor, which will rotate throughout the field as she helps us prepare the soil for planting. She’s happier out of the mud, we are happier doing less work; it’s a win-win… basic permaculture.
We’ve also been planning out our species list for the food forest, designing a number of companion planting guilds, and doing research about grafting fruit trees to grow with native species. We also have a number of ‘experimental’ selections we are hoping to grow here (we’ll fill you in later, but one of them is Goji Berry!).
We’ve been making more and more progress in the garden. The entire plot is laid out… every bed mulched and spread with manure, pathways cut, and tons of seeds and starts planted. We have a double corn spiral, three-sisters guild (corn-squash-beans). Herbs and greens are slowly filling in our medicine wheel bed. We’ve dug a hugelkultur bed (deep bed, filled with wood to improve drainage and start building soil) – planted with an asparagus-rhubarb-strawberry guild. We’ve started three potato-tires (stacking tires to create vertical beds). And, we planted a NO-water tomato plant! So many cool things happening and so many cool things growing!
We are gearing up for a spectacular summer – full of energy, life and beautiful things… wonderful people, free roaming animals, nourishing food and this beautiful land. We are all in good spirits and we are being blessed with many days of warm sunshine. Please continue to spread the word, support us, and come visit if you can.
Wapila Tanka.
Our Blessings from the ranch,
The Team at OLCERI
