Spring rains are upon us. Pastures greening, trees awakening. New life abounds and the humid warmth of the Ozarks is returning.

Each year there is plenty of work to be done around the farm as the cold season comes to an end.

Trees are pruned and seeds started. Swales dug and roads maintained. The greenhouse is now full with all the tomato, pepper, eggplant, squash, and other summer crop varieties that will be transplanted later in the year.

Four piglets and four sheep are the newest residents of the farm. The pigs will be raised until mid summer. Similar to how they were managed last season, they will be rotated in paddocks through forested areas adjacent to the road and supplemented with the ample food scraps of a seventy person community (and their small nut butter factory). The sheep were acquired in a work/trade deal with a local farmer outside of Springfield, MO and another six will be brought in the coming weeks. Sheep haven’t been on this land for over a decade! They are being kept in what was the goat barn and will be slaughtered and butchered throughout the spring.

The official visitor periods for 2018 have begun and new people are on the farm, plugging into various projects, such as the showerhouse. Beckie has been pushing steadily forward on this building project with help from a number of East Winders.

The showerhouse floor is now being prepped for finishing and a large tub was just delivered to our loading dock. Months of work lay ahead yet and anyone looking to learn and contribute to this important project just needs to show up!

The nut butters business has been booming and many meetings about infrastructure priorities have taken place recently. There are plenty of things going on, too many for me to document! 2018 is looking to be another transformative year. I’ll keep this short and leave off with a picture roll, Happy Spring everyone!

Post written by and pictures taken by Sumner