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At Sanborn Mills Farm, preserving the past and planning for the future go hand in hand!

Sanborn Mills Farm

 November 2016 eNews


We are ready for you to explore the 2017 workshops  . . .

The 2017 workshops begin in April and run through early November.
Visit our website at
www.sanbornmills.org to learn more.

Garry Kalajian will be offering 3-day workshops in Blacksmithing Basics throughout the season. We welcome beginners as well as those who have some experience and would like to build upon their skills.

Specialty options will include 2-day workshops in kitchen utensils, door hardware, and tool making. A one-day workshop in forge welding will help those of you wanting to work on this very important process.

In 2017, the draft animal workshops are once again focused on oxen. There are a few 2-day options on weekends to make it easier for people to attend. There is no prerequisite for the oxen workshops but every participant will be asked to fill out a questionnaire so that instructors can customize each workshop to individual interests and needs.

There are two fiber arts workshops, one in traditional floor cloths and one in basket making.


The floor cloth workshop has been expanded to two days to allow participants to make two floor cloths – one with a traditional diamond design and one with a stenciled design.

The basket making workshop will send everyone home with a sturdy basket, perfect for shopping at a local farmer’s market.

Even trees & shrubs need a coat in the winter . . .

We have some new shrubs at the farm and have a few strategies to protect them from the unpredictable weather and hungry animals this winter. Our gardener Michelle Smith has set up burlap barriers around our new Yew (taxus) shrubs to protect against wind & ice. Netting will keep the deer from browsing deep into the shrubs, which we hear they consider “winter candy.”

We’ve also set up wooden “teepees” over the new Boxwoods (buxus) to keep the ice and snow from splitting them apart.

A Poem for the Season . . .


Donald Hall of Wilmot, New Hampshire served as New Hampshire’s Poet Laureate and the fourteenth U.S. Poet Laureate.
We share with you one of his best known poems that both marks the season and celebrates our work at Sanborn Mills Farm.

 

Ox Cart Man by Donald Hall

In October of the year,
he counts potatoes dug from the brown field,
counting the seed, counting
the cellar’s portion out,
and bags the rest on the cart’s floor.

He packs wool sheared in April, honey
in combs, linen, leather
tanned from deerhide,
and vinegar in a barrel
hoped by hand at the forge’s fire.

He walks by his ox’s head, ten days
to Portsmouth Market, and sells potatoes,
and the bag that carried potatoes,
flaxseed, birch brooms, maple sugar, goose
feathers, yarn.

When the cart is empty he sells the cart.
When the cart is sold he sells the ox,
harness and yoke, and walks
home, his pockets heavy
with the year’s coin for salt and taxes,

and at home by fire’s light in November cold
stitches new harness
for next year’s ox in the barn,
and carves the yoke, and saws planks
building the cart again. 


We wish all our friends & family a joyful Thanksgiving.

Sanborn Mills Inc. | 603-435-7314 | 
info@sanbornmills.org |
www.sanbornmills.org

A traditional New Hampshire farm and nonprofit organization dedicated to sustainability, creativity, and preserving folklife skills and agricultural knowledge so that the best of the past can help shape our future.

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