2008
2008 was a year of much change at Longacre Farm. Louise Warner worked full-time along with Jon Jensen. In March, Brooks Miller, Anna Santini and 18-month-old Kaj moved into the Smith house, from their farm in Hershey. They brought their dog, Kesey, two nanny goats, Baby and Gracie, and four sheep. They also brought with them enthusiasm and fresh ideas about sustainable agriculture, implementing changes around the farm which greatly impacted our farming methods.
In June, Matt Smith* answered Susan's SOS call and arrived just in time for staff week to begin. Other returning staff included Rog Smith, Jon Jensen*, Cori Jensen*, Megan Gantt, Louise Warner, Dave Cordes, Nathan Shulman*, Charles Gill, Rachel John, Ana Maria Medina Rodriguez*, Colleen Fitz Fitzpatrick, and Zach Stock. New Big Kids that year were Cheyenne Christian, Ray Conner and Peter Dow, (Expeditions veterans), Brooks Miller, Anna Santini, Amber Bindas (caregiver), and for his first full-time gig, Jake Warner.
That summer, our visiting artist Amalia helped us create several outdoor sculptures. We built a large deck off of the Infirmary/Ridge Office building, brewed lots of biodiesel in the lab, laid the stone patio for the Art House, fashioned a high-sided hay wagon, constructed an outdoor bread oven, welded a shade structure for animals out on pasture, and built a rabbit hutch.
At the end of the summer we bid Jon, Cori, Lily, Tate, and Shirley (their pug) Jensen good-bye, and they moved to Philadelphia. Jon had worked at Longacre full-time for eight years. Brooks and Anna, with some assistance from others, put the finishing touches on the Art House building, acid-washing the concrete floor, and installing a well, appliances, hardwood floors, a woodstove, a patio and a garden space. They moved into the Art House in September.
At about this time, we received the very difficult news that Chris Mathna had been diagnosed with cancer and had to begin aggressive treatment. Anna Santini, Betsey Dorman, Carmen Bornstein, Jake Warner, Julie Schuler, Louise Warner, Matt Schuler, Matt Smith, Mel Bornstein, Merry Schuler, Peter Vandenberg & Susan Smith all trained in level one Reiki and gave treatments to Chris in pairs every single day.
Brooks worked half time for Longacre along with Susan and Louise. More animals were born and arrived. Grace, our first Milking Devon cow arrived in November.