New Skills & Inspired Projects for June
Homesteader Series: MUD & the Moon-Randolph Homestead bring you skills for your own backyard.
June 9, 16, 23 / 10am-12pm / @ the MR Homestead
The Homesteader Workshop Series is a three-part series of agricultural-themed workshops hosted by MUD and the Moon-Randolph Homestead. Workshops are held on-site at the Moon-Randolph, a working, historic homestead. Workshops are hands-on and geared towards backyard farmers and gardeners wanting to build specific skills to enhance their small-scale operations. Workshop content is targeted towards adults or older youth, but families are welcome as there is plenty of room at the Homestead to play and explore.
Wildlife and the Small Farm: June 9, 10am-12pm
Focusing on methods to keep predators away from small livestock, such as chickens and pigs with local expert Bryce Andrews, from People & Carnivores. Claire Grisham, from the National Wildlife Federation, will discuss ways to incorporate wildlife friendly gardening into a backyard landscape. More details & reserve your spot here.
Soil Science for Gardeners: June 16, 10am-12pm
Join Sandy Perrin from Missoula County Extension for a soil science workshop for gardeners. This workshop will cover the basics of soil science, soil testing, soil test interpretation, and soil building techniques. Click for more info and to sign up.
Chicken Care for the Small Flock
Co-superintendents of the Western Montana Fair Poultry department Laura Denitto and Kristin Whisennand will teach participants about the key needs and considerations for the healthy backyard chicken flock. Find out more and get registered here.
Snapshots of MUD's May Workshops:
This May, MUD put tools in the hands of women and girls. Partnering with the YWCA Girls Representing in Trades (GRIT) program, MUD led high school girls in a Sustainable Energy Design & Build. The program brought youth to the MUD site to build a rainwater catchment system while they learned about alternative energy systems and designing for resource conservation. Coordinated by Lead Tool Librarian Heather Graham and YWCA's Margaret Hoyt, these girls met a number of other women-leaders in non-traditional career paths. Guest speakers included Housing Development Director Heather McMilin of Homeword and LEED Architect Meghan Hanson of Natural Dwellings, among others. A generous donation by Boyce Lumber helped make this project possible.
MUD's Woman-Led Carpentry series gave 17, women ranging in age from 12 to 70+, a DIY intro to carpentry tools. This 3-part series was over-filled for the second year in a row and had several women wait-listed to take part. Artist and educator Sally Rodriguez taught about tool-safety and introduced different tools to participants in the first workshop. Over the following 3 weeks, participants worked on their own projects with guidance. Home ReSource volunteer Bev McNamara gave a tour of the materials-reuse facility so that workshop participants could gather materials and inspiration. Emboldened by new skills, each week participants lingered well past the 3pm workshop end time. Sally Rodriguez described this focus and drive to work on projects as an indicator that the workshop was a big success. She went further to state, "What happens in these classes is people who don't even know how to use a saw are problem-solving on their projects and it is the most exquisite detail of empowerment, I hate to use 'empowerment' because it's so overused, but that's what this is."
Sustainable Missoula
 Check out the Sustainable Missoula Column in the Missoula Current on how Agriculture can bring our food stories to the table, and Congrees: "Growing up, my mom told me stories of working her way through college with three children, one full-time job, and one part-time waitressing job. It took her ten years, perseverance, luck, and a good helping of food insecurity to get there." Read more here. |
