Let's Ham it Up!

A few weeks ago, 8 little piglets arrived at A Rocha's Environmental Centre. The piglets will be a great way to use up the vast amount of food waste that we produce during A Rocha's busiest season. They will also be a key feature in the activities for the children's programs on-site, while also providing the centre and a few other sponsors with a substantial amount of meat for the coming year.

These little piglets won't be small for very long - they gain an average of 2 lbs per day! They spend their time enjoying their pen, welcoming the numerous visitors that come by to see them, and, of course, eating. Needless to say, they are in hog heaven!

Spring time at A Rocha

Here are just a few pics to help give you a better sense of where we live! Enjoy!

Our Backyard

Our neighbours are Taro, the llama, and his beloved sheep (you can only see one of them here)....


and about 25 cows (a local man is leasing a section of the property for a few weeks so that his cows have new fresh grass to eat). There is also a bull in there too, which has made things a little tricky with Lucy (our 5 month old puppy who is still able to get through fences and thinks that everything is something to be played with!).


Our little backyard Bantam Barred Rock Chickens. The cage is a temporary fixture until a proper coop is built.

It is pretty funny to wake up in the morning to the sounds of cows, sheep, and chickens and realize that they are not one of Abigail's toys, but the real thing!

The Garden

The Children's Garden is in full swing. The kids from the Fun on the Farm program planted a number of seeds and each time they visit, they get to check in on how their plants are doing and then, when the veggies are ready, they get to harvest the food and take it home.

More of the Children's Garden, with the beehives in the background.


Mason beehives right next to the garden.


Two of our summer interns: Audrey and Sarah, planting tomato seedlings.

More of the garden.


A New Trail!
In order for A Rocha to conduct its environmental education program, we had to build a trail by the river. We were very pleased to find that, underneath a massive amount of blackberry bushes, there was enough of a ledge to build a nice pathway down to the river. School groups have been enjoying this path for the past couple of months



BIRDS!

A number of Cliff Swallows have made a home under the roof of the barn - it is lovely to see them flying around during the day.

Our incubator: The Runner Ducks are hatching as I write this!

Baby chicks!

More of an update to follow soon!

A Rocha goes to Whistler!

Early Monday morning, six of our interns at A Rocha and the Humphreys headed up to Whistler for a couple of days. The trip up was not just to ski and enjoy the outdoors (although we did do a bit of that), the reason for our trek north was to connect with the Whistler School, a part time discipleship program that runs through the winter months in Whistler, BC. Our interns joined in on the classes and Matt led them through 3 lectures on creation care.

Since the class met in the afternoon, that meant that we had time in the morning to ski and tour around the town. For Phanet and Shai, who are from Cambodia and Singapore, it was their first time on skis and a very exciting experience for them. For myself (Roxy), it was a bit more of a humbling experience as I fell within minutes of being on skis and bruised my tailbone. Nevertheless, it was lovely to get the opportunity to spend some time outdoors.

For one of our evening meals, Kenton, an intern at A Rocha, made a whack load of pizza dough and a number of people from the Whistler School and the local church came came over and brought toppings. It was great to connect with the folks up there and we hope to continue to the relationship in the future.

Traditionally, the winter at the field study centre is a quieter time, since there is no planting/harvesting that needs to be done, field research is harder (and less enjoyable) to do in the winter, and not many school groups want to take their students on field trips in the cold.

This year, however, that has not been the case. After our move to the new location - the Brooksdale Environmental Centre - in October, everyone on site has been busy working to get the centre up and running. Upon reflection, it is amazing what has gotten accomplished in such a short period of time. Here is a list of all the projects that have been completed over these past few months:

• created of a parking lot
• transformed a woodshop into a program office
  
• moved the entire Environmental Education Program over the new site and set up the Environmental Education work space.
• fixed plumbing problems in two bathrooms of the Main House.
• set up and organized the wood shop (in its new location)
• repaired a broken water main (which was revealed after the pantry was flooded)
• completely redid the pantry (as a result of flooding)
• set up an office space for David (Centre Director) and Matt
• took apart the dog kennel (that's right, we won't be breeding dogs at A Rocha)
  
• mapped out phase 1 of planting for native plants on site.

Tired yet? Well, there's more! The largest project - and the source of most of Matt's time and energy these past few months - was the renovation of the kitchen in the Main house. The Main house is the largest building on site, built in 1928, and will the be hub of all activity on site. Since so much of what we do is centred around the table, it was really important we get the kitchen set up to be able to accommodate large volumes of people. This included the installation of new flooring, insulation of all exterior walls, new kitchen cabinets and cupboards, and professional level appliances (the new dishwasher makes cleaning up so much more enjoyable!). Furthermore, the project included the re-design of 3 rooms (located next to the Kitchen) to make 2 larger rooms. These two rooms (called the Community Room and the Library) will allow for large group eating space as well as a location to run various programs and activities. Additionally, a new entry into the house was created. This new entrance through the basement will allow for dirty boots to be taken off and hands washed before entering the eating space.

While all of these projects have been going on, we have continued to open the property up for various events. We have continued to run the Fun on the Farm program (geared towards connected low income families to food and community) twice a month, we have had a Christmas open house, along with our monthly volunteer days. As well, we ran a two day conference for 40 people called "The Plot Thickens", a conference geared towards helping people set up community gardens in their communities or churches.

So that is what has been happening on the A Rocha Front of our daily lives. While it has been at times overwhelmingly busy, it is also extremely satisfying to see the usefulness of each project. It was a real source of joy, for instance, to see the kitchen being used for the first time after the renovation was completed.

On the home front, we have also been busy. We love watching Abigail grow up - it continually brings us a lot of joy. I (Roxy) have enjoyed getting outside and going running. There is a great park just down the road from us that I have enjoyed running in with a few friends and Abigail in the stroller. Matt got the opportunity last month to take a week away and go to Santa Barbara, California. He spent a few days with the folks who run the A Rocha Santa Barbara Centre and then attended an EcoJustice conference called Watershed Discipleship. He was greatly inspired from his time there.

One other piece of news is that the Humphrey family has an addition - a new puppy! We welcomed Lucy, a 7 week old chocolate lab, into our home last week. Abigail and Lucy have been having a blast getting to know each other.

That basically summarizes our lives right now. We are hoping to use this blog as a way to keep you posted on the details of our lives - so please check in often! And, of course, we'd love to hear from you too!

Above: 1. A few of our interns and Susan (A Rocha Canada's Administrator) are eating the first meal after the kitchen renovation.
2. John, A Rocha's beekeeper, washes up in the newly renovated kitchen!





















Above: 1. Ute, A Rocha's hospitality coordinator, serves up one of her AMAZING soups in the community room.
2. Abigail, Lucy and I - just moments after Lucy arrived to her new home.