Tree Mural in the White Barn

After the white barn saw a brand new mudding job and a sky blue coat of paint, a beautiful mural of a tree shedding its autumn leaves was emblazoned on the far end of our girls' dorm.  Combined with some clouds on the ceiling, the mural has turned an old barn into a truly beautiful place to stay.  A special "Thank You!" to Jerika Hartley who helped paint the mural of the tree.

Gardens are Growing!

Since spring has come upon us so quickly many of those plants we start in the greenhouse are being transplanted into our gardens.  Jordan and Danny have been spending time studying to be Master Gardeners through the West Virginia University Extension Office and applying it by enhancing and maintaining our gardens.  Jess, her mom and others helped start a new herb garden behind our farm house.  Danny and Jordan recently planted different berry plants on our hillside.  Onions, carrots and rutabagas have been planted in the garden... the madness ensues!

Greenhouse Overhaul

Jordan and others have continued to enhance our gardening abilities by improving our greenhouse.  We now have electricity running throughout the greenhouse, two new windows, a new clear plastic roof, a furnace, and a new storage area so there is more room for growing our plants from seed.

Painting in the Staff House

For a long time the kitchen and living and dining rooms in the staff house were painted white.  With more snow days than we could have imagined on our hands we decided to spice up the lives of our staff members by repainting the living room a "lady in red" and "mapleleaf" color.

Mudding and Painting in the White Barn

We couldn't tell you how long it had been since the interior of the white barn had seen a paint job.  In fact, it had been so long that a lot of the drywall was cracking.  We went ahead and dedicated a few snow days to remudding, sanding, priming and repainting it so that our female volunteers can rest even more easily.  Soon we'll paint a large tree on the wall with the windows.

Bucket Shower Completion

After our last bucket showers fell into the creek because of erosion we spent a good deal of time scheming up a better way to construct our bucket showers to last longer.  This new design spans the creek so that each has two showers that are back to back (with a wall in between).  We also dedicated our new showers to David Ringenberg, a volunteer who came to the farm in August.

Dining Room Overhaul

After we renovated our kitchen we couldn't help but notice how great the need was in our dining room.  So instead of leaving our eating area feeling inadequate, we decided to give it some much needed attention.  We fixed up some of the seams in the drywall, repainted the cabinets and trim white, painted the walls a nice sunrise yellow, painted the door to match the kitchen, and painted the woodwork a chocolate brown.  The highlight is our new chalkboard wall as you enter the snack counter.  This all came a few months after we removed the sliding door and replaced it with a sweet window.

The chalkboard wall:

Kitchen Overhaul

There's pretty much one time each year that we have the opportunity to do a major staff project at the Farm.  This year was pretty much a complete overhaul of the kitchen - including re-tiling, painting, new trim work and redone cabinets.  We couldn't have done it without the help of past-staffer Nhoj Corcoran.

With some tiling:

Finishing up the tile and trim:

Finished Project: