We have our hands in a bit of everything – especially when we aren’t actively designing or teaching.
This Summer we took the time to do a few things:
- We are organizing a book drive for the Books for Women in Prison, a non-profit that helps women in prison with their rehabilitation.
- We spent a few weeks at Getaway Farms in rural Wisconsin. Cyndi is setting up a non-profit that helps troubled kids with responsibility through animal therapy – horses specifically.
- We spent some time researching horse training in Southern Indiana.
- We ended up baling about 1600 bales of hay.
So it was an eventful Summer! Here are some out-takes of the most fun we have had working in a long time:
You can bet Tchad is never this filthy at the workroom!
A view across the horse fields and pasture.
Part of the field restoration work at Tchad's farm in Southern Indiana.
Honestly, you can't name your son Bacchus and NOT have a picture of him picking grapes, now can you?
There were about 25 sunken railroad ties at Getaway that needed to be removed for both safety and æsthetic reasons.
Tchad Moving Railroad Ties. The most unforgiving, back-breaking work is prying up long, dense, wet railroad ties. We are surprised that Dante didn't include them in one of the rings!
Kids were amazed at the infrastructure of the farm - they had no idea how water was collected and used. This is looking into a large cistern.
Farm work is often a lesson in entropy - if you let up, then everything starts the process of falling apart and you have more work that you would have otherwise. It is a really good lesson for city kids to learn.