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market-farming - Re: market-farming Apprentice Update

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  • From: "Dori Green" <dorigreen00 AT hotmail.com>
  • To: market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: market-farming Apprentice Update
  • Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 07:56:11 -0400


Sure enough, Boaz decided not to come and couldn't be bothered to make a phone call. I finally gave up and called his father long-distance trying to locate the kid. After some creative interviewing on my part, Dad finally admitted that he had convinced Boaz to stay home. At least I got the satisfaction of telling this toad that some honesty and a phone call would have been nice. Obviously these people have some serious communication and courtesy issues and I'm better off not being associated with them in any way.

This has happened with at least 50% of the apprentice applicants. I'm announcing here and now that from now on while I still offer free apprenticeships, I now require a $100 "nuisance factor" and damage security deposit with the application. If somebody bails after I've put the preparation time into a curriculum etc., the deposit if forfeit. If they arrive and complete their stay without causing damage, they can have the deposit back.

Yes, I am indeed hanging out with a better crowd these days. I used to rent rooms in the farmhouse for $200 and some help around the house including utilities, no security deposit required. After thousands of dollars of unpaid rent and thousands in property damage by people who have no clue about treating other people's belongings with anything approaching respect, nobody comes in these days without double the old amount and $1200 up front -- first and last month plus one month's security. All of those applicants who don't have any money but are really hard workers get told to work really hard and contact me again when they have the up-front money.

Yesterday morning I went out and spent two hours fixing the goat fence. Last autumn's tenant from hell claimed a month's rent in value for putting up 300' of woven wire. He burned out my riding mower's motor and pulled over the corner post using the mower to stretch the fence. As soon as things greened up last week, the goats started running straight through the fence and I went out to investigate.

I had already known that the dimwit put the wire on the wrong side of the posts so that it could be pushed out. I hadn't realized that he only put one staple every third post, on the top line. Once it was _properly_ stapled (not with a staple gun, using big fence staples and a hammer oh my tendonitis), the 16" steel tent spikes were just an added precaution.

BTW, it had taken me three hours to put up the first 330 feet of wire fencing, working alone and hand-tightened and properly secured. He had a helper. $200 worth of work indeed. He was one of those "no money but really hard worker" people.

The equipment repair guy next door managed to restore the mower engine, and he also fixed the three flat tires resulting from the winter tenant using it to go four-wheeling across the rosa rugosa fields in January. I'm keeping the ignition key in my pocket from now on.

I am alone because nobody has been willing to put that up-front money up. Too bad. Solitude is just fine, and a lot cheaper!

And the sad awful truth is that no matter how nice a little bit of help would be here and there, I _can_ do everything alone. Especially when I don't have to be cleaning and fixing up behind some idiot.

Everybody stayed inside the wire yesterday, grumping all the way. I'll take them down to the berry patch today as a consolation prize; the pregnant pygmies will do well with a dose of raspberry leaf.

The Juneberries are in blossom all along the hedgerow. My farm is suddenly gorgeous!

Dori Green
Ash Grove Community Farm & Center for Sustainable Living
Corning, NY

http://www.ic.org/agrove
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