Geography of the James (Earth Lodge)

Although it is only February I am ready for spring to have sprung. I was especially this past week when the weather was so ridiculously warm and sunny. I spent a few hours outside on Friday, cleaning up the outside of an old church building. Then on Saturday a few of us ventured off-campus to work on the farm with Matthew, one of the sweetest people I have ever met. Both times the weather was glorious. Both times my thoughts drifted back to my mother and how we prepare for spring in Old Greenwich, my home-town. As the seasons pass, Number 11, our old home, would require a lot of keeping up. Fall is all leaves and planting new bulbs. Winter is endless shoveling and de-icing of paths. But spring gets particularly crazy with planting, raking, brushing, and generally preparing for new life. My mother, who has remarkably green fingers, always appreciated assistance. As the earth warmed to the idea of spring, there was a general warmness and peace of toiling next to someone I loved. We didn’t speak, we often sang, but life was full and we were filled together. Working alongside Erin, Phoebe, Kelly, and Matthew was like working
with my mother at Number 11 again. I could feel the earth preparing for spring. I could feel that warmness between us all as we tore things up from the ground, making way for new ideas. We spent all morning there, but really the most memorable part of the time we worked at the farm was the feeling of freedom it evoked. I can’t think of anything more enjoyable than spending ones day in the garden. That might sound rather silly, but it’s true.

**We saw two Black Widow Spiders . They were really cool.

 We also saw a Wolf Spider. He was not as cool.                         He was just big, hairy, and frightening.**

*We also played with worms.*

Okay, I have a confession to make: I didn’t volunteer at any point within the last two weeks.  I certainly had every intention to, but chose to stay home and sleep the first weekend and ended up sick in bed the next.  Now that my pitiful excuse has been given, I’ll proceed forward on the grounds of a negligent truth rather than write this post pretending I spent the same sunny Saturday at the farm with my classmates.

But while I didn’t volunteer at the William Byrd Community House over the past two weekends, I did last spring.  To echo the previous posts about the farm the WBCH keeps running out back, it’s incredible that there’s an acre of organic produce and good will tucked away between the peeling-paint facades and cracked concrete sidewalks of inner-city Richmond.  The organization was founded in 1900 by a group of nurses aiming to address the social and health needs of the surrounding low-income area.  Today, the goals of the organization are largely the same, and the farm–officially called the William Byrd Farmlet–is a central element to their success because the produce that my classmates and I helped grow at the farm is harvested and then sold at discounted prices at the William Byrd Market, the farmer’s market project of the WBCH.  What’s more, the WBCH holds weekly educational sessions teaching the market’s customers about good nutrition, cooking with fresh produce, and doing it all on a budget.

The WBCH and its mission is just one of the many examples of why Richmond is such a fantastic and surprising city.  In the midst of train tracks, glass, stone, and the remnants of an industrial past there’s a vibrant and compassionate community engaged in keeping the local welfare and culture thriving.  There’s Ellwood Thompson’s, the independent grocer and cafe devoted to utilizing products created within a 100-mile radius or Rostov’s, the coffee and tea shop that’s been roasting their own coffee beans on-site daily with their antique behemoth of a roaster since 1979.  And then you’ve got RVA Magazine, the quarterly publication offering a forum for the promotion and discussion of the purely Richmondian creative elite (that’s right: hipsters) and Need Supply Co., the Richmond-based boutique that dresses them. 

So no matter which obscure corner of the River City you wander to, be it West Cary, East Main, or South Cherry, you’re sure to find proud and committed citizens, businesses, and organizations passionate about supporting this city and making it the best it can be.  As far as combining unique cultural values and aesthetics, historical awareness, local identity, and progressive community outreach goes, my city’s pretty tough to beat.

And, of course, here’s a song from one of the best bands to come out of Richmond in the past few years, Carbon Leaf.

I’ve always considered myself a builder. Not necessarily in the carpenter sense of the word (if I’m wielding a hammer, watch out), but more so that I’d rather see the construction of things rather than their destruction. I don’t think this view point is particularly disagreeable nor that uncommon, and it makes sense to me that given the option between helping to build a green house or tear up weeds at the William Byrd House Farmlet, I chose the former.

It felt good to volunteer my time and I think the combination between being off campus, hanging out with Lodgers, and actually doing something productive with my Saturday morning for once helped cultivate this feeling. In truth, it felt more than good. At the risk of sounding like an ideological 20 year old after completing only four hours of community service, it felt refreshing to be alive. In campus culture it is easy to lose yourself in events and questions that are too affecting of your own life—who I’m going to see today, what’s for dinner, where my friends are, when is my next meeting, how much homework I have.

Why?

This type of life style is unsustainable for the inquisitive mind. Focusing so much on the self and personal development will paradoxically end up stifling that very progress by confining your view of the world to the narrowest of lenses. I’m beginning to see that it is of utmost importance to keep an open mind and experience how the world actually functions, not just inside this little bubble.

Certainly a balance can be reached.

While Carolyn and I were prepping and cataloguing building materials for the green house, our friend Mathew dropped some knowledge on us that definitely widened my blinders and disillusioned me to the greater Richmond area. Although we were building this green house for the benefit of the greater community, we needed to be cautious of what windows (e.g. the expensive unique ones) we used on what parts of the green house because the threat of vandalism was very real.

It didn’t occur to me that some people might contravene with what we were trying to accomplish at the Farmlet. This is a community center, one that has been designed and run for the benefit of the surrounding neighborhoods and it didn’t make sense to me why this would be the target of vandalism. That said, I’m a builder—I don’t think I’m able to understand breaking something just because. Mathew’s point was very poignant and struck a chord with me; is our work appreciated and who is it for? How much can we enhance the community in a mere four hours of work if one stone can set it back more?

Bubble popping in our own back yard.

Two Saturdays ago, I was fortunate enough to take what I consider the most productive study break of my college career thus far—serving the William Byrd Community Farmlett.

The Farmlett serves local Richmond residents by providing gardens in which they can grow their own fresh vegetables and herbs in an urban farm setting. Urban farming is becoming increasingly significant in the modern world, as about half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and approximately a billion people are suffering from mal-nourishment (http://dp.biology.dal.ca/reports/simovic2st.html). Not only does planting yield food, it can also help filter the runoff that will eventually go into our waterways. This site provides for an essential need and gives residents the ability to take ownership of a plot of their own, all while cleaning our watershed.

The farmlett also works in conjunction with the William Byrd Community House program in which young children can learn about farming and growing their own food (such as making a pizza garden—growing tomatoes and basil). The farmlett has several current projects, including building a worm composting center and weeding the rows, which the Earth Lodgers and myself had fun working on for a few hours.

Mike and I chose to do the less popular activity of dismantling and categorizing windows that were donated to the Farmlett, and will be used to build their first greenhouse. We blasted 103.7 The River on the radio while we unscrewed latch after latch, and measured about 100 window dimensions. Once we were finished, every window was ready to be installed and was organized according to size.

Though we only had a few hours to give, Earth Lodge made a significant dent in the work that was given. I had a great time both dancing it out with Mike in the window room and seeing the fruits of our labor (pun intended :).

I was dreading waking up at 8:00 am on Saturday morning. Despite having a tame evening of reading and resting on Friday, I was still exhausted from another grueling week of practices, meetings, and work. After hitting the snooze button a few times, I dragged my sleepy self into the lounge to meet up with the rest of the crew heading to the William Byrd Farmlet. Trying to push back worries of how much work I had to do over the weekend, I got in the car and decided to make the most out of the day.

The minute I stepped foot in the William Byrd Community House in the Oregon Hill neighborhood, my mood was transformed. I could tell it was going to be a great morning. Observing the newly renovated, cheerful preschool classroom, the children’s art on the walls, and the room full of community members attending a workshop on raising chickens, it was apparent that the Community House was fulfilling its mission of “creating an environment of positivity, hope and safety” for the community. After a brief tour from Cheryl, the community relations and volunteer coordinator, we went outside to meet Matthew, a new member of the team at the Community Farmlet.

Matthew was working on building a greenhouse from used windows. We also had the option of working on building compost containers or weeding in the garden. I immediately volunteered to spend time in the garden- partially to feel the precious rays of January sun which I had missed so much, and partially to feel the moist soil in my hands. There’s something deeply satisfying about kneeling in the dirt working the ground in preparation for growing new things. I also discovered that I was working feet away from a cluster of beehives! The day couldn’t have gotten any better! (I am fostering a dear love for honeybees.) The time flew by and before I knew it, we were ready to pack up the shovels and bring the wheelbarrow back to the shed. I left with a great sense of accomplishment for the work we had done and a greater sense of excitement at the thought of returning. Each time I make a new connection with the community like this, I feel more and more like Richmond is my home. (Check out the earth worms that do the composting below!)

The William Byrd Farm is tucked in between the highway, Hollywood Cemetery, and the James. It was definitely not the first place I would think to put a farm. The William Byrd Farm was not a farm by any typical standards. There were no barns, chickens, overalls, roosters, pigs, tractors, or alien crop circles. The Farm is a community center that provides fresh food, markets, daycare, and classes for residents of downtown Richmond. Urbanites for the most part do not have access to fresh produce, as supermarkets are located far from the city center. Food is a necessity that those with fixed incomes struggle to meet their own nutritional demands. This is just a small place that tries to alleviate some of the disparity in the downtown area and where Earth Lodge volunteered on a Saturday.

The Earth Lodgers were split into three groups. One group sorted window panes based on height and width for the construction of a greenhouse. The other group built wooden containers for earthworms and dirt. My group had the task of removing grass from the growing beds. This was no ordinary lawn grass, but rather a C4 plant that had many rhizomes. C4 plants are very successful in hot dry environments as they reduce the amount of water lost during their photosynthesis. Therefore during the hot Richmond summers they would invade the crop beds. What made the plant even more difficult was that it overwinters very well because of its rhizomes, which stores sugars for growth the next year. The rhizomes that were attached to its roots were upwards of a foot long in some cases. Unfortunately, we could not just rip the plant out because if an inch of the rhizome were left in the ground, it would grow back next year.

Thus began the four hours of toiling in the dirt. Mark, Adrienne, Celeste, and I partnered up to tackle the plant infestation. We would loosen the soil and follow each individual rhizome to its end. Each plant had multiple rhizomes in every direction outward. It was if we were removing natural grass carpeting from the ground. We all definitely got dirty in this weeding adventure. The grasses were collected en masse and dumped out on the side of the farm where they could dry out in the sun. This experience weeding was like none of us have ever seen. It was amazing how difficult it can be trying to prepare the garden for Richmonders to grow their own food. It felt really good to get dirty and help the Richmond community in a very small way. I hope next time we all visit the Farm we can plant instead of weed though!

The sound of my alarm harassed me at 7:50am Saturday morning, and I was at best grumpy to be up that early. Nevertheless, we somehow managed to get ourselves fed and into cars to go over to the William Byrd Community House at 9am. We were still picking the sleep out of our eyes as Sheryl, one of the wonderful people who work there, explained to us the ins and outs of the organization. I was very impressed by what she had to say. WBCH addresses many of the common urban problems that plague the low-income sections of cities in America today. One of the most notable was their emphasis on making organic fruits and vegetables available to everyone in the community through farmer’s markets that accept food stamps as payment. The farmer’s markets not only encourage business and healthy eating, but also foster a greater sense of community and relationship in the neighborhoods surrounding WBCH. This is important because around WBCH occurs this urban phenomenon of a “food desert,” where access to fresh fruits and vegetables and a grocery store is severely limited to the neighborhood’s residents who don’t have cars or the money for bus passes.
That is part of what makes what WBCH so remarkable; they have seen needs and are addressing them strategically and in many cases effectively. They are not only providing a farmer’s market, but also child and adult education, nutritional education, after school care, community development, urban green space, and any other assistance someone might need.
We got to take part of a very, very small part of this big picture. Our task was such: weed. Adrienne and I got to literally tear the soil apart looking for this pesky, invasive species that takes over if you don’t kill it thoroughly. We didn’t even come close to tackling the problem in WBCH’s backyard, but it was a start ☺ Weed killing is surprisingly incredibly satisfying!

A couple of weekends ago, a group of my fellow Earth Lodger’s and I made our first visit to the William Byrd Community House (WBCH), located right off of Cary Street in Richmond. I had heard of the organization through an information meeting we went to last semester put on by the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement here at UR, but had no idea the scope of the organization’s impact in the community it serves. Directly serving tens, if not hundreds, of low-income families in the Richmond area, the house has programs ranging from a kindergarten class and an open library to food assistance. One of their programs that I found particularly interesting was a farmer’s market they hold every year where people from the surrounding area can come to buy organic food products from a variety of vendors. The part that I found intriguing was that community members on food stamps can use them at the market, and can even trade them in for tokens, the same ones given to community members paying with a credit card, so no one has to know who is or is not on food stamps.

Needless to say, we were eager to help. They presented us with a variety of projects that could use some work, including: organizing discarded windows for the construction of a green house, building compost using donated wood, and pulling weeds from the community house garden. Feeling less than confident about my construction skills, I decided to go with the weeding. But little did I know how complicated pulling weeds could be! A small group of about 6 of us took on what was to become our nemesis for the day, a weed known as Bermuda grass (see it here: http://westexasgardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/bermuda-wars-4.jpg?w=300). We learned from Matt, an intern at the (WBCH), that the job wasn’t as simple as just yanking the weeds out of the ground. The roots of the weed we were attempting to eradicate are high in starch and even if just the smallest piece is left in the ground, an entirely new plant will grow. So now knowing that just pulling off pieces of the weed was futile, we had to use garden rakes to get under the plants to remove each individual weed, being carefully not to break off small fragments. Another one of their options that I did not mention before was that community members can reserve a plot in the very garden I was helping rid of weeds. Never did I think I would learn so much about plants and the environment while helping the community!

This then got me thinking about the WBCH’s programs and its mission. With each of its programs the goal is to bring the people they help to self-sufficiency, but with options such as obtaining a garden plot and attending a farmer’s market, I realized that the WBCH is developing much more than just this. It is also helping develop an understanding of the environment and a sense of community and place in those that it serves. I think I can speak for everyone that went that we were very impressed with the entire organization, and definitely do not want to make this the last time we visit to lend a helping hand (or 32 hands!). If you want to learn more about the WBCH and its programs, visit their site here at: http://www.wbch.org/wp/?page_id=52. I encourage everyone to go out and see what their all about!

This past Saturday four current Earth Lodgers, including myself, woke up nice and early to do volunteer work at William Byrd farm in downtown Richmond.  I knew the day was going to be a great day….

I drove us downtown and almost immediately we were laughing and joking around, not because someone made a joke but because we had already gotten lost after five minutes of driving.   We ended up driving thru a random neighborhood, taking directions from a phone that was showing us we needed to be on the BIG road, not the SMALL road.  At the same time I we rummage around for change while I pull up to the wrong toll and have to go in reverse. At last the wild Pheeb’s came to the rescue and found 70 cents for the correct toll.  I couldn’t believe our adventure had started before getting to the farm.

It did not take much longer for us to figure out how to get to the farm.  Once there we were introduced to this young, friendly, country man.  This gentleman’s name was Matthew and he was going to show us what to do on the farm and spend the day with us.

Getting to see your progress as you work and what you have accomplished is wonderful.  I have spent years doing volunteer work and one thing I’ve learned is when you are with friends and working hard it is remarkable how good you will feel and how much you can get done.  Even though we were a smaller group than before, we got down to business and made Matthew pleased.

While we were working and enjoying being outdoors, we came across many bugs.  I saw two spiders I had never seen before, a black widow and wolf spider.  Of course, we Earth loving people didn’t get scared, except for maybe Kelly who is terrified of the mascot.  Instead we tried to save every bug we saw, even the worms, so they would not be hurt while we were working.

By the end of our time at the farm we had spent hours joking and telling stories.  We had made new friends with Matthew, who was quite the comedian; and Gaston and Delilah, the Black widow and wolf spider.  Yes, we named the spiders before we sent them free on the side of the road, probably not the best place now that I think about it.  We did all of this while being hard at work.

Matthew asked us if we were doing the volunteer work for enjoyment or to fulfill an obligation and we explained both.  When he asked if we would be coming back to join him with working on the magnificent farm once more we all said simultaneously, YES!

Dog shelters could quite possibly be the most saddening places one could visit. Some shelters are nicer than others, but all in all they usually consist of a whole lot of yelping dogs who have been abandoned, lost, or given away. When one walks down the aisle of kennels, either you see the pups jumping on the door to their cages craving any bit of your attention, or you see the dogs who merely stare up at you with their soulful puppy eyes just long enough to make your heart break into a million pieces. Regardless of what the dog is doing, they all have a common single hope: that you will be the one to take them for a walk.

This is what turns the dog shelter visit into a positive one: knowing that you can make a difference in that innocent soul’s day by merely taking them for a walk (or sprint) to any place but that noisy kennel. BARK shelter does a great job at giving all of the dogs a chance to be outside at least once a day in order to clean their cages, but it is up to the volunteers to give them all walks. More than half of the volunteer group that day comprised of Mark, CJ, Lauren Zelek, Sarah Friday, and me, and together we were able to walk all of the dogs in less than four hours. You all should come next time and we could be able to give all of the dogs two walks, because they deserve it.

Really though, getting to D-Hall lot by 10:30 on a Sunday morning was a small price to pay for the lovely feeling of having the company of a dog on a trail in the woods. I stand firmly by my point I made in book club: that a dog would be the best thing to bring on a trip into the backcountry besides the necessities to survive. A dogs company on a walk, especially that of a shelter dog, consists of pure, contagious joy. The excitement that the dogs exerted when they caught a glimpse of the open air instantly transferred over to me, even when it was my fifth time walking that same trail.

The purity of the dogs’ souls was most definitely what made the joy so contagious. The pups padding around the trail, sniffing at scents that I have no way of smelling and hearing acute noises that go completely over my head remind me of the things I overlook when I am outside. It brought to my attention the entertainment of merely being in the outdoors: the sounds I forget to listen to, the smells that I breathe in and out without paying attention to, and the feeling of the fresh breeze in my hair as I sprint out of control as I’m dragged by a leash on the woodsy trail. BARK’s expanse of land is impressive; it is a mix of open fields and natural-growth forest that me and my dogs would romp around in. Witnessing the dogs in action on this land brought me back once again to my “nature mindset”; where I am wholly content to just simply be outside, with a dog, romping around in the woods. Nothing else is on my mind.