Milton FL: CWG- Sad to Say Goodbye

After 4 weeks of staying at Coldwater Gardens, we're really sad to be leaving. We've met AMAZING people, learned a TON, ate awesomely, and are leaving inspired by it all!

Sitting on Ashley's living roof.

Since the last non-food post, we've done a lot (because when are we not doing lots of stuff right?)

We helped with a long leaf pine forest restoration project that involved going around the soon-to-be guest camping area and planting over 100 tiny, grass-looking trees that will shoot up 6ft in the next year!  The long leaf pines are a native tree that have been heavily harvested for timber.  The project we took part in was only the tip of the iceberg as Coldwater Gardens will be receiving a grant to plant several THOUSAND more pines on their property this year.  Good luck volunteers!

Cob oven rebuilt!

We rebuilt the infamous cob oven that so many of you talked about on FB last post.  Due to our excessive partying and formal attire the first time around we neglected to realize we were pushing the oven past its structural limits and the back wall ended up becoming too heavy and eventually split from the foundation.  Ooops!  We had to tear it down and rebuild it wearing normal clothes but it ended up being a good learning lesson and we reshaped the exterior to resemble a tree stump.  It's too bad we won't be able to enjoy any pizza out of this oven (still isn't dry due to weather)but if it holds up we can try it out when we come back!

Juan Posing for the photo shoot of "Fort Juan" for dwell magazine

Wading Pool

Our projects this past week (aside from normal garden harvesting, seed planting, and chores) have included creating a wading pool in the garden, taking some photos for Dwell magazine, and constructing a new worm composting area.  We also got an informative maintenance demo from Preston which detailed all the working and serviceable parts of a chainsaw.  Kim took such good notes that they are being turned into a print-out for future volunteers/workers! 

New Worm Bin Frame

 Juan taught everyone how to weave dreamcatchers (aka dreamweaving) and we ended up with a pretty awesome collaborative effort that we can now hang in our van (we'll get a picture soon).  Curt completed his dehydrator training by successfully making a batch of beef jerky.  He is now a dehydrator master.  We capped our week off by taking an adventure out to Ashley's house for Sushi Saturday!  Kim made another awesome no-bake chocolate cake and everyone tried their hand at rolling sushi.  We also got to check out Ashley and Greg's AWESOME cob house.  It was very inspiring and a great evening all around.

Preston's Chiansaw Workshop

We're all packed up and about to head out.  We've got our travel plans for the next week locked down and it's going to be a trip.  We're taking Nick with us to New Orleans where we'll be celebrating Fat Tuesday (aka Mardi Gras) and staying with our first of 4 couchsurfing hosts.  Wednesday we'll be outside of Houston, Thursday in Austin, and Friday in Lubbock before finally reaching our next landing spot in Santa Fe, NM.  We'll try to make a post everyday as we whiz across the country.  Talk to you soon!

Hanging out at Fort Juan

Kim standing on the green roof at Ashley's handmade cob house!!! check out all the drums and the awesome glass bottle windows!

Sushi Saturday!

GOOD-BYE FLORIDA!!! THANKS FOR KEEPING US WARM THIS WINTER