Christina McRae
Farm Critter Haven
Sustanibility Internship Log
Week 1 February 17-23 Logged hours: 5 Total hours: 5
This week marked my first visit to Farm Critter Haven since obtaining the internship. On the 19th, I
visited from 12:30-5:30 to have an initial site walk-through, and to discuss the vision that the farm
owners have for their community garden. The first two hours were spent being shown the different
areas of the farm; a building containing small animals, a fenced-in area with coops for different birds,
and the barn which is connected to a large pasture, and a few acres of unused land where they primarily
bring unwanted brush, hay that is inedible, and animal waste.
After this, we discussed plans for the community garden. The area that the garden will cover is currently
covered with brush, including sticker bushes, and grass. The director, Heather, would like to have a large
composting/manure area next to the plot for generating fertilizer on-site, as well as a “chicken moat”
around the garden itself. The idea of the moat is that it will contain chickens in a small area around the
plot where they can act as natural pest control. Bee hives will be placed in a back corner outside of the
garden area. A rough sketch I did to help visualize the plan is below. The green X marks where a large
pine tree that should be removed is, so one of my first orders of business will be looking into getting this
done.
I am a little overwhelmed by the amount of matter that must be removed from this land before it can be
worked. I am also a bit uncertain of the chicken moat idea, because it seems to me that the birds would
probably do a good job eating all the earthworms and may miss some of the more harmful insects, if
there are any.
Week 2 February 24- March 2 Logged hours:7 Total hours: 12
On the 26th, I was asked to clear up an oil spill when I arrived. A truck had gotten stuck in the mud while
delivering hay, and had leaked some sort of oil onto the ground, pictured below. At first I used paper
towels to absorb the water that oil was visible in. After this was done, I did my best to remove the top
layer of soil where it looked that oil had mixed in. After three hours, I no longer saw signs of oil.
After this was complete, I took note of the animals that the garden would potentially be feeding to see if
there were already plants on-site that could be utilized. The sanctuary is home to a bearded dragon, and
several rabbits. I proposed that since these animals shouldn’t be fed vegetables, we make a small plot of
dandelions where greens can be grown for the mentioned species. An area near the small animal
building was set aside for this.
On February 28th, Heather and I received price quotes from two sources regarding removal of the large
pine tree. Since it would cost at least $3,000 to remove, the farm has decided to leave it be.
I am pleased with this conclusion as I did not want a tree to be removed by instillation of the garden. We
will work around roots we unearth, and be mindful of the shade it casts when planting.
Week 3 March 3-9 Logged hours:7 Total hours: 19
On 3/5, I was on the farm from 11am to 6pm. We decided to move the car path through the property
about 10 feet to the right so that it is farther from where the garden will be, and slightly more uphill,
which will prevent future issues of cars getting stuck in the mud and spilling oil. It took all day to cut
back plants and remove debris from the new path area. After this, I rolled the logs which designate the
path to their new position.
Although I did not anticipate this being part of the internship, the property will look much better when
cars are no longer digging up mud, and it will help keep certain forms of pollution off the property.
Week 4 March 10-16 Logged hours:11 Total hours: 30
On 3/12, I spent six hours cutting sticker bushes, raking up the sticks and leaves from the area of the
future garden, and then hauling all of it behind the property to be left to decompose naturally. There
isn’t too much reflection to be done here. IT was hard works, and is far from being done.
3/14 five additional hours were put in clearing the land. In the next week or two, SAVE will send a
volunteer group to the farm, and they will hopefully complete this task.
Week 5 March 17-23 Logged hours:11 Total hours: 41
On 3/22, I began to work in the back of the cow and pony pasture. This area contains the most fertile
soil on the property because It was used as allocation to dump manure until about yen years ago. This
area also grows knotweed and pokeweed. Although the plants have no started to grow back for the
spring yet, their stems are easy to identify, and their roots were relatively easy to remove since the
ground was soft from a few days of rain. I spent 11 hours between the 22nd and 23rd removing what I
could find of these plants. Although pokeweed is not invasive like the knotweed, it is toxic to the large
mammals that live in the field, so I was asked to remove that as well.
I left roots that were dug up out so they could begin to dry and die off before being relocated. After my
internship is complete, it will be important for future volunteers to follow up with this area to make sure
the plants don’t repopulate it.
Week 6 March 24-30 Logged hours:16 Total hours: 57
On 3/24, SAVE came to do their volunteer work removing some of the brush from the future garden
area. While they did that, I resumed in the back with two more hours on pokeweed removal. After this, I
collected wheelbarrows of fertile soil from this area to be used as topsoil for the garden. When SAVE
was done for the day, Heather and I set the perimeter for the garden with rope on stakes so that I could
dig relatively straight edges. (6 hours)
On 3/26, I dug the perimeter of the garden. It took about five hours. Heather is going to look for her
tiller so that I can begin to work the land next time.
On 3/28, I spent five hours raking away more sticks and debris from the area, and pulling large rocks that
I saw out of the ground.
Week 7 March 31-April 6 Logged hours:23 Total hours: 80
On the 31st, I spent the day trying to get the Honda tiller to start. It was low on gasoline, so I got a gas
can and filled it accordingly. After this still didn’t cause it to start, I called over my friend who works for a
small landscaping company. He suggested that the oil in it needed replacing, so we drove to Lowes and
bought some oil for it. When this still didn’t help, I began to reach out for someone who may have a
tiller they would be willing to lend. I was advised not to rent one from Home Depot or Lowes (which was
out of my budget anyway) since it would become extremely expensive if the rental was damaged in any
way. I never found a tiller to use, and this day was largely unproductive and frustrating, especially since
I had purchased some supplies which didn’t make a difference (6 hours).
On April 2nd, I raked over the area one more time, and began to till the area by hand. My friend James
Warren (ENVL grad student) kindly joined me and helped with some of this labor. On April 4th, I returned
by myself and continued the process. On April 6th, I returned to remove large rocks that were unearthed,
and to place the salvageable patches that I had dug up over the spots where knotweed and pokeweed
were removed. Grass that could not easily be replanted was fed to the cows (17 hours).
Week 8 April 7-13 Logged hours: 34 Total hours: 114
Beginning this week, I started taxing off from my part-time job to make sure I had enough time to
complete the internship.
On April 7th, desperately needing a break from the digging, I spent 8 hours moving a majority of the
remaining pile of brush, pictured below. This was such a timely process due to the amount of branches
with thorns in the pile. (8 hours)
On April 9th, Heather and I began to discuss different bee hive options. Local beehive rescue groups can
provide unwanted bees, either honey or regular native. However, Heather has some concerns about
sanctuary visitors having allergies or being stung, so for now she is going to sleep on it.
Certain that the pokeweed and knotweed roots were sufficiently dry, I moved them to the front of the
property for municipal pick up.
I then spent the rest of the day beginning to collect animal waste from the pasture for the manure pile
(7 hours).
On April 11th, I spent another five hours collecting animal poop. (5 hours)
On April 12th, I surveyed the land for non-native plants. (3 hours). I wasn’t surprised to find that a
majority of the plants on the property were non-native, right down to the rose bushes and flowers that
the Farm wouldn’t want to remove (and I that I wouldn’t even make a dent in). After speaking with
Heather, we decided that I would cut back some of the non-native shrubs, and that she would keep up
with them after my internship was over, and replace them with native fruit trees when the farm has
enough donations. I ended up primarily pulling small invasive plants out Friday and Saturday, and then
scattering native wildflower seeds in some of these locations (14 hours).
Although I expected to be able to have more of an impact on the non-native plant presence on this plot,
I recognize that without the proper tools and funding, this is a difficult effort.
Week 9/10 April 14-31 Logged hours: 60.5 Total hours: 174.5
On April 14th, I spent three hours in the morning selecting vegetable seedlings at a garden center. I then
drove to the farm, and resumed the slow task of tilling the land manually (8 hours).
On April 15th-16th, I spent 8 more hours tilling the soil. At this point, the plot was large enough to contain
the ~100 plants that the farm had decided to start with in its first year of the garden. On the 16th,
Heather and I also discussed the pros and cons of including the chicken moat, and finally decided against
it. The farm may decide to implement one in the future, but for now, they will focus on the crops. (12
hours between these two days).
On April 17th, I began to move fertile soil from the very back or the property to the garden plot. It took
the full day to spread it properly on the ground. On the 18th, I mixed small amounts of older manure into
the soil, and watered the plot before leaving so that it would be better prepared for planting the next
day. (14 hours)
On April 19th, I raked the soil into rows, and put the plants into the ground, then I watered everything.
16 tomato plants (2 varieties)
4 cucumber plants
16 kale (2 varieties)
16 pepper (2 varieties)
8 spinach
20 lettuce (2 varieties)
8 eggplant
8 corn
(10 hours)
April 20th- 31st
90 minutes a day watering and making sure the plants are alright. There haven’t yet been any casualties,
tomato cages are ready for when the plants are large enough, and the farm has volunteers lined up to
continue care of the garden on a daily basis. They plan to expand it out row by row as the volume of
volunteers allows. (16.5 hours)
Final Reflection
Although this internship did not shape up the way that I thought it
would, and although I did not feel like I was accomplishing much as I went
along with it, I am satisfied with the impact that I believe my senior
internship will have on Farm Critter Haven. There was no funding provided
by the farm for supplies, tools, or plants, and I am relatively proud of how I
did given the resources that I had at my disposal.
The land that I was asked to work with was extremely difficult to sculpt,
and going forward, anyone who wishes to add to it will have a much easier
time with the brush and rocks out of the way, as well as the maturing pile
of manure that can be used.
If the internship was to be longer, I would ask Heather about installing a
roof and gutters over the block of bird pens. These would help with the
mud issue, and would allow rainwater to be collected for use in the
garden, making it that much more sustainable.
After putting so much time and effort into the community garden
(though it feels like a one-person garden at the moment), I fully
understand the research that I read which stated that participants
become very invested in the gardens they help tend.
I also feel very strongly that the vision of this sanctuary, which
promotes sustainability through self-sufficiency and by demonstrating
plant based lifestyles, is a powerful one, and that visitors will be moved
to understand the difference they can make if they take a moment to
see how simple it can be to reduce their impact.
I decided to fill this last page with pictures of my new cow friends,
all whom were discarded by the meat/dairy industry as they were too
sickly to be used for food. They are very sweet ambassadors of a more
gentle and sustainable lifestyle, and they have inspired me to reduce
my meat and dairy intake significantly. It is my hope that anyone who
visits this space will choose to make their own small steps towards a more sustainable lifestyle.
