Live Power Community Farm
Covelo, CA
SFWS 3rd grade May 21-24, 2013

Last week the third grade spent four wonderful days in Round Valley, 60 minutes NE of Willits, CA. Every year the third grade visits Live Power Farm as a culmination of their four years in the garden and as part of their practical activities work. Live Power is a biodynamic farm run solely with horse, human and solar power. http://www.livepower.org

Gloria and Stephen Decater, the farmers and owners of Live Power, strive to ensure our students have days filled with important and meaningful farm work. The children participate in the morning and evening animal chores (feeding, moving, and milking) and during the day rotate through a series of farm tasks. These included harvesting dry corn, splitting wood, digging up fodder carrots, planting beans, weeding garlic, and washing burlap sacks.

In addition to these regular chores the children sheared a sheep, plowed behind the draft horses Pete and Laura, and frolicked in the near by river.

This trip is an important opportunity for the children to put their garden skills to work and sharpen their overall strength and stamina. On our last night the children performed parts of their Noah and the Flood play as a thank you to the apprentices and then we all enjoyed a bonfire and singing together.

looking for a wedge 

 making a wall so the animals run the right way into the pen

plowing a field for the first time in 40 years 

 discing in cover crop

Stephen explaining horse team work 

 the children pulling a sled as horses do 

 scenes from Noah and the Flood 

 how to herd animals

shearing 

 splitting wood

the river! 

 ready, set, go

working together as horses do

 the plow

Pete and Laura

Milking Bess

Splitting wood 

 on the sled

 the herding wall

how to split wood 

 milking

splitting wood 

shoveling manure for the compost pile

crank turn corn kernel remover

 running behind the sled

Gloria 

 collecting logs

feeding Gypsy

 plowing

taking off the kernels 

 gopher snake

Pete eats some cover crop

dinner time!

 mowing cover crop

corn 

plowing

Joy's calf

animal chores in the morning

getting ready to plow

 bringing in the animals

wood splitting 

Mother and Baby


A few months back we planted potatoes in the plot beneath the palm tree. The potatoes did terribly, barely growing any foliage at all, and then mainly dying.



The Assisi group from 2nd grade decided to figure out what happened. We dug down into the potato patch and were startled to discover huge masses of roots everywhere. The roots resemble the pesky agapanthus roots, but these under the palm are thinner and more dry. We surmise that they are small root hairs from the massive palm tree. They are everywhere in the plot, probably seduced by the compost we've been adding over the years.

Unfortunately, it prevents any root crop from taking hold. We'll have to relegate the area to shallow rooted vegetables like lettuces. When we dug up the potato plants, we found some barely-used mother potatoes. The mother is the one that you plant to begin the cycle. The plant uses the stored energy in the tuber to grow until it can support itself from sunlight and soil. When harvesting a healthy, productive potato crop, you'll find lots of new potatoes, and usually no mother at all since she was consumed in the growing process.

Here, however, you can see the mother above her one solitary offspring.

Multicolored Carrots



K3 and K2 harvested our carrots this week. We had grown a mixed color assortment in one row, and in the other "little finger" variety.

The purple and white carrots were lovely, although the purple ones were woody. The little fingers were squat and delicious.