Welcome. Uh this is Oh, here comes Dan. Uh this is the uh regular monthly meeting of the South Agricultural Commission. It's October 8th, 2025, 7 p.m. Um going to call the meeting to order.
We have myself, Zach Barnett, Dev Humphrey, Dan Cook, uh Jessica, um Parker, uh say them all. We got Dendro on Zoom and Sage Fury on
Zoom. We have few different guests with us today. Um so I think we'll start with them. Um Mastrianis
want to come on up take a seat block you again. Uh good evening. This I'm Chris Master. This is my wife Susan. Uh we're here to uh kind of introduce you to this project we've had going for a while at the 64
Canary Road. Uh we purchased this property last summer uh for the purpose of uh preventing it from being developed. And uh thank you for that. Yes. Thank everybody kind of find the next person.
Yeah. Uh so we we purchased it uh after a lot of discussions with the Southwick Land Trust uh because the the plan A was for us to purchase it short term and then for them to purchase it from us. Uh
it's since turned into a case of they're not going to be able to purchase it from us from quite a while just because of funding and all that stuff. So, we're looking we're exploring the alternative of uh applying
to the community preservation commission committee to uh purchase the property for the town. Either they purchase the conservation restriction or they purchase the the land. Okay. So, we're in the process of uh
submitting that application which has to be in by November 1st. And the sample application that I looked at has letters of recommendation or letter or endorsements from uh different boards in
town that have some relation to that. We were just downstairs with the park and rec commission asking them for a letter of recommendation. Well, I think the conservation will uh try to get involved. the uh Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. I've asked them for a letter
of recommend recommendation and I'm here to ask uh the Agricultural Commission if they would consider supporting that effort and and being part of the uh the application
process. So, it's uh it's 30 for anybody who doesn't know, it's 37 acres off Tannery Road. It used to be a part of a dairy farm going back to I don't know like the 1920s or something like that. Maybe not that. It's supposed to be
about 80 years old and it's 37 acres and 16 to 18 acres are still actively paid uh by a farmer up in Granville. I I spoke with him about a month ago and he's interested in continuing to do
that. Uh if he's unable to because he's 80 years old. Uh I've talked to Mike Sol at Solic Farm and he would be uh interested in continuing that. So all the all the pieces I think are in in
place that it's a it's a nice piece of property. We walked walked around it and you anyone's welcome to do that. It has access from the rail trail as well as well it's a foot path access from the rail trail as well as frontage on
Tannery Road. How do you get there from Tannery? Was it that path kind of goes Yeah, there's a there's a little bit little opening in the trees where there's a culvert over some wetlands. Okay. And you can get in there and then and we kind of I' I've marked I've
marked it with some pink tape. Okay. So there there is somewhat of a path. It's it's probably not the optimum path, but it'll it'll get you there. It's only about five or six hundred feet. Okay. I grew up right off of Tanner, so I know that area pretty well. It's close to that old tennis court area. Oh, it's up there.
Yeah. Okay. That's where you're talking about, right? Where the old tennis You might not know about a long time. No, so you're up on the near the hill on Canery or No, it's it's like right across the street from uh Converse Road, I think.
Oh. Um, Concord. Concord. Okay. No, that's not near. It's an open little hay field. Yeah, that's not near. Yeah. You'll see there's a a very large wooden sign that has been painted over. It was the for sale sign and it's been painted over and there's a small sold sticker on it. So, it's pretty much
right there and and you can you can walk in. You can see some tire marks from the farm equipment that go in into the woods. It is behind my house, but the they're having a problem with the bridge and road. They haven't really sold that land yet, right?
Yeah. We had an agreement in place to buy the there's an easement on the side of my house on on there's an easement on the property of number 72 and we had an agreement with them in place and they backed away from that agreement. So, it's still technically pending. it would
make access uh a lot easier, but that that is not finalized yet. Okay. But when when we purchased it, we didn't really plan on that being available, but it would it would make things a lot easier if if that finally comes to
fruition. There's some family drama on their part that that needs to be sorted out. Uh but that's that would be make it a lot easier for the farm equipment back there. Okay. I mean, yeah, this is something we've done before
from the rail trail. I don't know if you're familiar, but if you park at uh Shaker Farms and go go left, you'll you'll come to a kiosk. Yep. I know where that is. Our property ends almost directly on the other on the opposite side of the
railroad from that kiosk. And you'll if you're back to this kiosk and you look over there, you'll see the surveying pin with some orange tape on it. And then I put some tape to get you from there into the big field area.
So it's recently been surveyed. Uh it looks it must have been surveyed before we bought it. Okay. That was the only p still off. It's got to be fairly recent. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. that that was the only pin I've been able to find out of
like a picture of that. Um, okay. It's a good chunk. So, there is Yeah, there is wetlands there.
Kind of like a seasonal stream that goes goes through there at some time depending on how wet things. Yeah, I remember that. Well, Dan Dan's probably familiar. He's probably walked over camp directly behind my house all that long. Yeah, that that seems right. Yeah.
Out of curiosity, have you tried any other land trusts? Not yet. Uh I know Franklin is doesn't far south. I just heard of one the other day and I can't remember the name of it. They mostly my neighbor I live town and my
neighbor happens to be on that land trust and she was saying something. She has a test. That's it. There's a there's one that was revived in Westfield. I don't remember what the name of that one was that the one she's on though she said they have like it's a big lot of money.
They save a lot of land and I just didn't know if they worked in this area because it's not something I've ever looked into. So, um, but she's very involved in it and, um, I mean, well, yeah, I I guess the from what I've learned, the way that the system works
is the town can either buy the property and someone else owns the conservation restriction or the town buys the conservation restriction and then somebody else owns the property. They, the town cannot do both. So if the town, depending on what the appraisal is, if
the town says, "All right, we'll buy the property and then we'll have Kestrel or some other Southwood Land Trust, some other land trust own the conservation restriction." That's that's one possible scenario. The other scenario was for the
town to buy the conservation restriction and then resell the property to someone who knows that that conservation restrictions is in place and and never be developed. Right? That's so those are the there's a
third scenario that I'm not uh I think the town can be appointed as manager of the property as well as the conservation restrict. I just think that's going to be I mean going to I go to the town meetings all the time. Yeah. And that that may be hard to push. I
mean people they haven't been too happy after we purchased the North Pond. Uh yeah, they they just went through it for uh 74 College Highway though. I think that was just approved last year from behind the church there, right?
The historic thing and that's why it went because it's attached to the museum. Mhm. Um I think that's probably why it went is because they wanted to own the property around the museum and people were okay with it. So I mean it it might be a hard it might be a hard sell. We
did see you saw some uh how many houses did they have planned? He just wants us to vote on it and yeah give them approval. Right. Right. You want the letter to go to the CPC? Yes. So yeah to me the CPC is what's going to
Yeah. About a dozen years ago there was a a plan drawn up to put like 17 houses back. Oh, I remember. Yeah. Uh I don't think it ever got to the point of being considered officially, but I do have a copy of the plan that I got from uh
conservation commission. So if if somebody at that time thought that it was feasible, then then I assume someone else or we we've actually been approached by a solar company to uh buy or or lease the property, but that's that's not what we plan to do.
No, thank you. Yeah, that we should have them on buildings, not on our farmland. So, so that's, you know, that's what we're asking for. We appreciate if you consider that and and uh if you
see your way to do that, you can get it get it to me by by the deadline. Yeah. I mean, I just want to squeak in. I could probably write that up in the next day or two. Yeah, you wrote one. It was in September of 24 for the 74 College Highway. So basically just
copy it. Just copy that and change the address. Change the name of who it's going to. So um what was the deadline again? November 1st. I'll make a motion to write a letter recommendation uh to the CPC for 64
road. Second the motion. All in favor? Z. I Dan Cook. Hi. Hi. Jennifer I Sage. guy. All right. All right. Thank you very much.
Nice meeting you. I'm gonna have to go up there and see the Well, so nice meeting you. Yeah. Take care. Chris, good night. Yeah, you too. Thanks for Thanks for coming. Putting us in for fun. Sure.
All right. Norm, are you in a rush? No. No. Are you in a rush? No. Uh, yours might take longer cuz I mean it's you're opening up a whole new can of worms. So,
Norm, do you want to come up? Did you tell them we only have one eye at night? Hey, Laura. I Lauren Chver from master plan implementation committee. Maybe not. I don't think I've ever met you, Norm. I've heard your name. I've heard you at meetings.
Yeah. And I'm also chairman of the conservation commission. So, I was interested in the your first your first topic. It was tough. Have you guys talked about this, too? Not yet. No. Not yet. So, you're gonna hear it again?
That's okay. That's okay. Spoiler alert. It's doing a good thing. Yeah. Are you guys meeting before November 1st? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yep. Hopefully somebody will We are meeting on the 20th. It's our next meeting. Fortunately, I don't have copies for
those online. Um that's fine. I think actually you sent it in an email. Maybe I did put it in an email. Okay. That Okay. So what we're we're in the position at this point in time now that we've
prioritized all of the lead action items. We've put the modifications in place to to modify a uh an action item to transfer an item to cancel an item
um to create a new item. Okay. Now that we got that in place, we got the priorities in place. The next step is to okay, let's let's try to sign up for when we think we're going to make some completions. Okay. And the first sheet is what went out
uh within the last 10 days, I believe. And um I know you prior we've been working on a liaison approach. You had Jessica Taylor as your liaison. Yes. Mhm.
She unfortunately had to resign because her job changed dramatically and sad. She was very So we split hers up and you inherited me. Uh so on the second sheet
and the third sheet you actually have your prioritizations that took place. The economic development one for the taste of Southwick was transferred off to economic development. So that's no longer on your list.
Your first item had to do with organized regular free workshops for working on regenerative and innovative agricultural practices. Your second priority was organize an annual open forum to connect with and
educate land owners on the options for permanently protecting their land. The third one was modified I think with with I think Jessica handled the modification of that one. Yeah, I remember talking about it has to support local farms and help
in ensure sustainable methods of irrigation. The agriculture commission will research regional and federal resources to identify alternative irrigation methods, implementation processes and funding mechanisms.
And then on the last page, you inherited a new one. When we we the master plan implementation committee reviewed the entire master plan, we came up with a handful of items that we didn't think was properly covered in the original
master plan. And this is one here. It has to do with landbased uh invasive plants and the water-based ones are pretty much covered. uh through conservation and and lake management,
but this was one that we were looking for a homeowner and we debated it at a great length uh of who should own it. DPW was the leader for a while because they they're they're broadly across this the town. Uh
but then we decided with the experience of farmers working with pesticides that the proper home was probably with the agriculture commission. Okay. And this and as we
is that that is that was that how they thought it would be handled sites? Yes. But you it doesn't have any organic farmer isn't gonna want to that's to be discussed I guess. Well yeah obviously the solution is is
is is going to be different for each one of these pro perhaps. Okay. Uh, but I know we have uh we're having a recent problem with the Japanese knotweed and and actually DPW is helping spread that because they when they mow the edges of
the roads, they're spreads it they're mowing that and and it gets on their roller blades and off it goes. Interesting. Okay. So as it any new ones that get transferred in or or newly created, they
automatically go to the bottom of your priority list. So that's why it's number four. If you decide to change the priority, that's fine. Or if you if you decide that that you don't believe it's rightfully in your court, you can send a
request to transfer it. Um, and I brought a copy of the modifications. Give you one copy. Okay. It tells you the process for transferring, modifying, cancelling,
and so we were hoping to get this filled out for your four items before uh November 14th. We have a big presentation with the planning board and the select board on our annual
uh review and we'd like to have all the inputs by then. Now we can do it tonight. You can take it to your next meeting. It's your choice. Uh just the only rules that have is we need to
understand that year one all our years go with the calendar with the fiscal year of the town. There's only six seven months left for year one. Okay? Because June 1st or June 30th is the last day.
So, you need to factor that in. Uh number two, we're we're going to we're freezing the first two years. Okay? So, when you're signing up for if you sign up for a completion in year one, you're going to be on the hook for
year one. If you sign up for zero, you're not on the hook for zero. And it doesn't matter which one you complete, okay? But we'd like to know which ones you're working on. So, I'm I'm flexible on trying to do it
tonight. Or if you want to take us to your next meeting, that's fine with me, too. Well, I have a thought on this. Okay. Um, so we host an we already host an annual farmer's forum. Yep. Most we could probably hit all of these points at the farmers forum.
Okay, maybe not, you know, maybe we start with one first year. Yeah, really focus on that, but we could keep adding them to the farmer's forum. Farmer forum itself is one of them basically. It's um right organ right number two,
right? Your number two priority. Well, number two priority. Yeah, we already we already basically do. Okay. Yeah, kind of a short thing. Okay. So, but we can add, you know, potentially we could have like a turn it into a
workshop or Yeah. for number one or Well, my thing is I want to bring in like a guest speaker. Yeah. I think that would get more farmers involved. Um, you know, could possibly hit on some of the other things, you know, have them talk about
regenerative agricultural processes or we talked about having some or the invasive species invasive species or irrigation topics at once. Yeah, I think we could do a lot of this. I mean, I'd like to start with probably just focus on one,
you know, so we don't overwhelm ourselves. But Well, that that's what I recommend. Be cautious. Yeah. Because part of the process is there are some supportive groups that you got to spend some time. Yeah. After you decide what you want to do, send it to them and get their approval.
Or you may want to use them to help you develop the process. That's that's your Okay. So I mean I think number two I mean we we already do that but we can you know kind of focus it on educating land owners
permanently protecting their land. So since you already do number number two are you saying that you want to claim that one for year one? Well we talked about doing the doing bringing in someone to talk about a 61.
Yeah which would be fit that would fit that. So if that if we did that Yeah. it would it wouldn't be just for farmers. Jen and I were talking about that this morning. It would be for land owners. Y anyone who owns land because anybody I
believe over five acres would be to invite. So if we opened up the farm forum to land owners tackled the 61 issue with a with a guest speaker, we definitely would have nailed the second one.
Yeah. I think in subsequent years we did hit every other one. Oh, yeah. Okay. So, I think what I'm hearing is you you you'll sign up to do the open space 1.4 year one and then you're going to do
like one a year. Yeah. We can add on to it, I think. Okay. Give people reason to come to the farm. So, your second choice would be which one we want to put in year two then? Um The organication I think is going to
take a while for us to find. Yeah. Okay. People I think that's going to take a little bit longer because we're going to have to do a lot of research, find what's available for resources out there and funding and any of that. So I think number three is probably going to take a
lot more um research to figure out. Um which one is number three? Can you support local farmers about the irrigation? the irrigation one that they modified. Okay. Sustainable methods of irrigation. We
have to research state, federal, and state, regional, and federal resources to identify alternative irrigation methods, implementation processes, and funding mechanism. Thank you. That one we haven't we haven't even as a committee touched on any of that where
some of the other stuff we've already discussed other things. So to me, that would be one of the ones we'd have to do a little later on. Okay. I mean, I think even I think the invasive species one would be easy, too, because we could have someone from
uh preservation committee can then kind of join us. I would think though if we did the one on invasive species, if you're going to really target invasives, it's not just farmers, it's everybody. Every land owner. Oh, is that correct? Every land owner. I mean, that was a a massive thing. Um,
you know, I I we were just my husband and I were talking about multifloor. um not that the um oh purple loose strife which is an invasive and back when I was in college at Westfield State I'm getting a science degree um it was everywhere and then they worked really
hard and it's a long purple if you've never seen it in the middle of highways it's it was in bloom about a month ago and it's like a spire that comes out and it's called purple loose stripe and it it was so bad it was everywhere so it had purple berries No, just it
just a purple flower as far as I know. But it used to the medians and the highways were full of them and me bet this was back in the early 2000s. Massachusetts went nuts and we they had a huge uh action to reduce it because it
was taking over everything and just wiping out native species. And um I just noticed when we were out driving about a month ago on the highway, I'm like, "Oh my god, it's back." And it's coming back in cuz it it spreads seeds and it spreads
through roots and it you just I mean the littlest piece of it and it just grows. It grows. So that was I was surprised that wasn't in here because it was such a big campaign back in the early 2000s to get rid of that and it's it is back. I mean, I know on our own land, I'm
constantly fighting um the multifllora rose, the oriental bittersweet, you know, those things are um you know, everywhere. Yeah. And the the Russian olives, I think it's called the autumn olive. It must be because it's we call them Russian
olives, but they're it's not an olive, but it's it's a shrubby small tree looking shrubby thing. I like pepper any questions. I was going to say I I Yeah, I like burning bushes, too, but I don't have any. So, but I'm looking at
everybody's everybody's property. That would have to be a townwide thing for any property owners to even if just to educate them that these are invasive and they should be reducing them, not allowing them to grow um everywhere. And I and I do think one
of the things that might be included in that is finding alternative ways to eradicate them. I mean, goats are probably one of the best. They'll eat a they'll eat the multiffllora rose like it's nothing. They love it. Love it. They'll just wipe it out clean.
They just got a flock of goats and and walk them around town. I was going to say I mean sheep in the solar panels. Is it? Yeah. Well, I would think for the grass, but yeah, for anything brushy. I discovered one day. It's kind of cool.
It's certainly an alternative to, you know, I mean, I would never use a pesticide on land. I I'd prefer not to. No way. I just wouldn't. I We rip them up and we burn them. That's what we do. We have a pile and anything that's invasive like that, we
have a burn pile and we we burn them every year. Yeah. As a way to get rid of them. Perfect. I just have two thoughts. When you're when you're done. Yeah. I mean, that's that's what I was thinking on that. It should be townwide. So, it it would be a I think it would be a townwide event or Well, we could bring the town into it,
right? Right. Yeah. I think it would be one of those things where you offered up a workshop on it and maybe the next year's uh open forums. Yeah. Or we have another one. Yeah. Some something where we educate the people on that. I think that would wouldn't be too bad. I would say we
could probably do it within a year's time. figure out all the different methods of getting rid of it, finding experts to know. I mean, because it's it's mostly educating everybody what it looks like. Okay. Now, are these ongoing? Like, are we supposed to keep once we do one, do we keep doing it every year or is it one
and done? Well, it'll vary upon the need. Okay. Okay. We might get new ones later on, right? Okay. Yeah. So, are we are we hinting that the invasives would be year two? Two or three? I would think we'd want to
put it off to at least two so that we could I mean number one it says organize regular workshops which means ongoing which was something we talked about doing like during the winter and that's what I was going to say I think we're like we're talking about two different things but like the open the what we've
generally done with the farmers open forum in January whether or not we decide on that's going to be just farmers or we open it up Even if we have it for just farmers, we could still potentially put something on in the winter season like we talked about before an additional workshop of some
kind. Yeah. From spring to fall, you can't get a farmer to come down, right? I don't understand that, right? You know, we could potentially try to fit one of those in year two, maybe in like March or whatever the case may be. But that's
like what I was going to say whether or not or maybe we open it up to um possibly for land owners, you know, like for everyone like whether or not could keep the January one for just farmers or we decide to open it up the
additional ones would be it was never really closed off to any. Yeah, it really wasn't. Yeah, we you know, we just democratic. Yeah. Well, and I with the fact that we're trying to move more into education, right, in the town. That's
something when I came on that I was a teacher and so I I think educating and like Jen and I have been working uh when we went to the schools, we've made a connection now. Jen made it. It's great through the middle school and the hope was that we would um be able to run some
classes as educational because I know we have farmers in town that call themselves farmers, but anybody can be a farmer. Yeah. Anybody who wants to grow anything can be a farmer. And I mean, I'm a homesteader, so for us, I do grow
everything. I don't sell my stuff right now, but I do grow it. And I I I don't call myself a farmer because then people think you sell it. But if you're a homesteader, I farm every day. Uh so it's just that I'm not marketing it. And
I think that that's part of the thing I, you know, that I think we've all talked about is education to the community so that we start including more people. If we can't convince our kids in town that they are farmers,
well, then we've lost it. Yeah. We've Absolutely. That's right. We need to convince everybody that we need um your little one with her, you know, mama out there on the Yeah. Everybody needs to think that they are a farmer in Southwick if we're going to
preserve the land. We're going to make this state farming with open space and all that. You have to convince everybody. I think that would fit in number in our first one too, you know, because that that could potentially be like a workshop if you're meeting with right the schools,
right? So that and I had suggested at one of the other meetings that we do some workshops like I did at the library where I taught uh plan your garden. I volunteered at the library last spring and I did a series of workshops on how to plan your garden, how to grow seeds, you
know, do the planting. We we talked about organic pesticides, all kinds of things. So, that's the kind of stuff I think that we've all talked about wanting to So, I think we could just do that as a permission. Yeah, I think that one would fit easier
into like our next bucket. Oh, definitely. That one wouldn't be hard doing and then one they could be in conjunction with the library certainly. Lynn's been very open to Yeah. I would say number one is gonna be our
second thing. Okay. All right. And that would be an ongoing one anyway. It's got to be ongoing. Once we get that ramped up, then we'll Yeah, it says regular. So, right. I I think whatever regular means, right? Right.
Okay. And then the third year would be the invasive species one. That makes sense to me. Okay. Yeah. The aggriation. We're going to have to do some studying. I I think that's going to be the hardest especially to find funding. Yeah. Um or anything like that. I think that's
going to be the hardest to do. Yeah. We'll have to research grants, stuff like that. Right. So, it's okay, Norm, that our what we're saying we're going to do is out of order of what we Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Want to be in the naughty list.
We're going to work hard to keep everybody on the green list. Okay. You got 2143 then for 2143. Yep. Yep.
So, what I'll do is I'll fill this out and I'll send it to you, Zach. Okay. Cool. You're okay. Make sure you're happy with it. That's great. Cool. Thank you. This was easy. I thought I was going to be
All right. Well done everybody. Really got a we feel like we have some steam rolling now in the committee. You're a process. Yeah. Excellent. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Appreciate it. Y take a little longer if that's all right. Oh yeah, absolutely. All right. Our next guest is Melissa Barza. I think I said your name right. Yeah, you did.
Melissa Bar A R R A Z A Who are you? How are you? I shared an email that she sent us about chickens. I'm the chicken lady. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think a lot of us are chicken people. You have chickens? I have chickens.
Yeah. Yeah. So, we have a lot of questions. I have a lot of concerns. Um and I just want to tell you a story real quick. Oh, sure. So, um,
during the Corona virus pandemic, we were living with my elderly mother and my stepfather who was suffering from Louisbody dementia and declining rapidly. Um, I have two little boys who have a genetic rare autoimmune disorder that prevents them from attending public school. Um, they get week monthly
infusions, lots of trips to Boston, expenses. Um, so we decided during the shutdown that something we could do would be to get the old baby chicks as like a 4 age homeschool thing. And um, we have 10 hens now. They're older now.
Um, but they're pets to us, beloved pets. Not just eggs. I mean, most of them don't even lay anymore. And we've got one egg eater who probably should be in a soup pot, but we just adore her. She's the queen, right? She's the queen. So, we love her so much. And um my mom's
just uh getting told to have them at her house. We moved here um to get medical care for our children. I'm a nurse. My husband's a federal law enforcement officer. We're living in the apartments at Southwood Acres right now. My mom's been keeping them for us. We're just waiting to buy a house at Southwick.
We're waiting for the housing market to shift a little bit. Um but unfortunately, it's not happening fast enough. Um and my mom's not doing well. No problem. And so in a last stitch effort um versus trying to like rehome
them to anyone who would take the old hens, which is just awful cuz they're beloved. But um we reached out to see if there was anyone remotely in the area that had maybe a little parcel of land or homestead that they would lease like 20 square footage out to us to put a
temporary little coupe and run on so we could bring our chickens with us while we wait to buy a house and not lose them. But I know it's a stretch, but we're just I'm grateful for even you guys humoring me allowing me to be here. And I think this is something I read the I
read it. I own 13 acres of land. Yeah. Uh I have a homestead, a chicken. The biggest issue I had is I would feel terrible and this town is full of wildlife that want to eat your chicken.
Absolutely. And that is probably the biggest issue. We've had attacks on our coups. I now keep my coops like right next to the house, which I hate doing cuz I like right next to the house. And this is the bear two days ago. And then just
we have bears all the time. I've seen them come through apartments. Yeah, I've seen them come through behind the apartments and I haven't really thought about that too much because my mom's on the Waterford League in Connecticut. She's on the board there.
So, I'm familiar with, you know, conservation land trust things. We don't really have the bears in Waterford. No, I think there's like one or two sightings like every 5 years or something. Daily all you know, definitely. Um, that was my biggest concern is I mean,
so where do you live? On the end of Tannery Road. We're we're in the apartment complex right there. Yeah. At the end of He lives on Tannery. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that's the biggest thing I think that people would feel I mean I would absolutely if I can't control the wildlife would be no of
course not but I mean I've had them literally we keep ours in 10x10 chain link dog kennels and I have had them peel the chain link right off the kennels go in and destroy I got the bear on video he stands up on
his high length and just rips the side goo off yes I've had them I mean we we bear proof everything and It is the hardest thing. It's not possible to keep them out. It truly is. And that was my biggest concern is that move, you know, I wouldn't want that to happen
if you're not with them all the time or they're not up close to your dwelling. Yeah. We're all the time. But that makes no difference. I mean, I've had them walk the bears. Oh my gosh. Probably Well, right before your your husband ran into red tag.
You guys are making her feel real good. No, if I need to I would much rather, you know, have them go to like a refuge or something. He wanted to fight my husband, right? She She had one that went after the husband and it was in my yard two weeks earlier and I'm out there chasing
the thing off with my metal spoons and screaming at it, throwing rocks because it was standing. I've got a radio I've got a radio playing loudly right now just to keep it away. Yeah. So, that's that's an issue. so grateful that I think you will run into in Southwick. Absolutely.
They are everywhere. And this summer we actually even had up on the other end of town a mountain lion sighting. I'm from Key West, Florida. This is all new to me. Like we had we had some island hens down there
and just we don't really have alligators in the Keys. There's a couple like they're up north. Yeah, they're like in the Ever That's like three hours north of us. That's up north. That's the north. But no, it's there are a lot of things. We don't get the mountain lions all the time, but occasionally that's I I had
one in my on my property seven, eight years ago. I had a mountain lion on my property and um I scared our neighbor saw it and I mean it was right there in his face. Um so we do have these things and it's hard. Absolutely. When when the mountain lion
was here this uh summer when they had been spotted on the other side of town, their range is so huge. I mean, we had pigs and they weren't full grown yet and I was having to lock them up every single night in a kennel because I was I feared for them because a mountain lion
will jump electric fences. I mean, there's no way to keep them out and we don't have mountain lions. We don't have black bears in Waterford, Connecticut. They're not there. So, this is not something I've had to consider. Right. So that was my biggest meeting adjourned thing is I just felt bad. I would feel
bad and I think anybody would if your pets were absolutely I mean everyone in Salt Lake raises chicken not everyone. No, you got chicken razors and and I lost four this week four this week. Oh, did you? No, I haven't lost it. I mean we we really are like vigilant. I
have electric fence around stuff. Okay. Well, I know you mentioned Well, go ahead. Just to interject, don't forget we have aerial predators as well. I have like two hawks that circle my house. Oh, the hawk the hawk does fun at my
house. I have no trouble with I have hogs. Well, we have, you know, we have the hardware cloth run that they stay in. So, they're not, you know, where it's like dug in. But, uh, we don't have the bears. I mean, if if you're not if you don't have something anchored down, well, I don't get problem with the fox
digging under because my kennels are so close to my house, but we have fox and raccoons that'll dig right under. There's bobcats. Yeah, the bobsats will do it. Um, there's a lot of wildlife itself. So, you got a coupe and everything? That's it.
Oh, yeah. I mean, I was going to put like a coupe and like a little, you know, like one of those kits, but a bear would probably just bear rip the side right off of it. I know you mentioned for 4, but do you have have you reached out to anyone for do you have 4 contacts at all?
No, we're still fairly new here. We've been here for two years. We only moved here because Massachusetts passed legislation that mandated insurance cover our child's rare autoimmune disorder. So, we moved we left. My mom recently widowed, moved from the house. We've moved into a one-bedroom
apartment, all four of us, with the two kids. We have a nurse that comes and does their IV infusions every month. Like, it's been awful. We had to file bankruptcy, like all these things. But we have our hens that are just beloved. And even this morning, that micro burst that went through, uh, the pear tree
came down on the run. So, like it's the clock's ticking. My mom's almost 80. And I was just like trying to see. like is there anything that we can do to you know I know I do know a good amount of people in 4 and if we are saying like we don't probably think it's going to work out
for us specifically I was I mean we certainly reaching out to um but I was curious like what the plan what you had or what your plan was like you want you had a coupe and all of that and we have the one at my mom's house it's like a big one solid but it's you
know it's not movable so we were going to you know just kind of get a temporary one with like a chain link fence run that we would put hardware cloth just for the next year or so will we house hunt but I'm thinking um now after considering that it's so valid and I don't want that to happen to them
either especially it's not in my backyard where I can because we have a border collie that runs the you know the hawks and things like that off and she wouldn't be there it would be so okay yeah it's not really a question of if it's going to happen it's a matter of when it's going to happen
is it I mean I lose chickens every year from wildlife. Yeah. Until we moved them up next to the house. We do the kennels. We I mean I'm in the woods more like I'm up on the mountain. So, Right. Right. My my coop is against my house. Fisher cats. We've had fisher cats. Yeah. We have those that
we kind of go through the chain link fence so that they're I can't open them up too early in the morning or the fisher cats are out. And I mean it's it's a it's a constant battle and if you're not there to fight it all the time. Absolutely. It's more absolutely
u you know and I mean and if you can't if it's that I know your your kids like their certain chickens but part of life is they will adjust if they don't have them but maybe if you made connections with farms I mean I'd be happy to if you
wanted to come to my house and the kids wanted to see animals. Oh that's so sweet. Um, I too have autoimmune disorders which I got from CO. And so I I understand and I understand that thinking. So if you wanted if the kids needed a
place to like make a pretend farm or make it feel like they were that's something that I mean as a friend I could invite you up. That's very kind. You know if that might be enough to get the kids through because it's it's a I know it's hard. It's hard. Yep. you know, uh, but it's, you know,
it's part of it is maybe you have to find a, if you can't find an alternative plan, maybe that would fill the gap. Yeah. For them. Um, you still have the Can I just say um, one thing? I know um when I was working with Holly, Holly
does a lot with 4 at Klein View and I don't know if maybe um she can reach out to Holly at client view um because she does a lot of work with the uh the kids for and maybe there's something that something could
come from that. I'm not sure. Yeah. So I have a lot of masks for it. That's why I was saying if we say this isn't gonna you know we don't really know if you're comfortable with like passing the information. If you're comfortable with me passing the information on Absolutely.
I will certainly do that. See if there's anything there's different farms and you never know what what opportunities someone might there's also in Westfield there's a animal the city animal. Yes.
doing everything I could to not give them to someone else because we want them with us forever until they're, you know, we've driven out to Yukon to have them humanely euthanized when we know that they're sick and had, you know, I mean, they're our babies, you know, they're farmer. Yeah. Yeah. They're they're very much
pets. So, very much pets. So, thank you for Thank you for humoring me and allowing me to stand though. I mean, that's So, if you want to if you want to come down to my house and check out, I'll let you put a chicken coop down there if you want to. Oh my gosh.
And it's probably a mile from where you live. Are you serious? Awesome. That's awesome. But find some protection. There's my phone number. We'll get together this week maybe and come down and pick out a spot and you
can put them behind my house. That is so kind. That's awesome. Never know. Yeah, that is a really kind. Well, he's got a nice piece of land, too. So, it's great because it's so close. You're so close to her. You could you could ride bikes down
there. You wouldn't have to go very far. Thank you. Yep. Yeah. You're welcome. And if you need some help figuring out how to really make them bearproof, feel free to, you know, get a hold of bear resistant. There's no bear. Bear resistant. Yes.
So feel like you got him in there safe cuz some of the you get the red flag bear. He's not the red bear. Just we make ours out of 2x4s and plywood. Oh my goodness. Talk about this bear.
Oh, this bear is okay. Thank you. I'll talk to you soon. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Oh, thank you guys so much. Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I'll cry now. They're my babies. They're therapeutic chickens. Emotional support hens.
Yeah. Thank you. That's it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah. You take care. Have a good night, Melissa. So much. Wait till the end. I know you want to talk about bears for 15 minutes. Why don't you terrorize her? And I said,
"All right, I don't know. I'm gonna save the day. Take care." Melissa Barza. Melissa Baras. The B a R O A Z O no aa. Yeah.
Oh, I hit our A. I have her email address. R R A ZA. Actually, you you have it, too. I forwarded you the email. No, I got it. I I definitely got I forgot all about it. It's like, well, I had thought about it, but I'm thinking, gosh, I would feel so bad if
they I mean, we can hardly keep our own alive, let al it's been a rough week for me. She lives eight times. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Right. She is really close. So I mean I don't think I don't think she appeared. There's no other place as close to z as
anybody. All right. I mean I literally had to make my coupe Fort Knox just because of how many predators circle my property. Yeah. I don't really have predators back there. I mean I do but I don't have chickens. No chicken right here.
I've seen a bobcat and I've seen the coyotes. I've never seen a bear yet. Really? They're gonna sniff out the chickens. Barbage. Yes. It's all the time. My worst attackers are deer and my pumpkin. Well, we have we have deer, too. Little pumpkin. Bother chickens.
So, after the um bear destroyed my ce for the second time two days ago, right over my neighbor's house, ate his pumpkin right off his front porch. The bear did. Yeah. Yeah. That's I think the bears are getting too comfortable. Exactly. it pick. We had to pick a
watermelon the other day and roll it down a hill and smash it from the garden. We still have watermelon out there. It had to have been a bear because it was a goodiz watermelon. Oh, they wrote that. And uh I was behind a truck yesterday pulling a cart full of watermelons over to um
Calibies. I don't know what was wrong with the trailer, but he was going like this the whole way. He couldn't go over 20 miles an hour. I was stuck behind him all the way through center town. I was waiting for him to roll up truck. I kept my space in case something
happens. All right. Um, so that was our first item. We did through though. We got through everybody. Uh, let's see. Planning for farm parade on November 1st. Okay.
Are we hooking up at this? So, same spot trailer. Same thing. Um what's his name with the straw? I'll go Jack. Jack pick it up. He says we can have 10 to 12 bales or something. I'll go pick it up.
So you get as many as you can cuz I feel like we're a little light every year and let get load up your truck or I can come down two with you to get more. Yeah, we always 10 or 12. Yeah. Um and then I might have one or two in my shed that
I bought from that I haven't used them yet. Yeah, you'll get them back. We're just gonna sit on them. Just sit on them. I'm gonna buy one off of Jack. Tell them find out how much they are when you pick them up. I need more stroke. Um so I figured we we need to make like
signs and stuff. We talk about that. Yeah. I figured we should have a work session um in two weeks and just do work like not like just a work. Yeah. What do you mean? to come here and build
make signs or something. Okay. We have what? We have the banners that we used and then and we have this Jen made a few signs October 22nd that we used at the open house at Powder Mill and those could be used also sometime.
Do we even need a work session then? Well, we we should make a few more. I I plan on making some. I just I finally got Do you want to do it like at a work session? You have to. I can do it at home. I'm fine. We've never really had to do that before. We usually just show up at um the morning of the farm parade. You
know, we go there like 8 o'clock in the morning, get everything ready. We can do arts and crafts there if we have some stuff to put on. Long as it's a nice day. I mean, we can hang out there for a couple hours, right, at the DPW? I'm sure I'll have a couple pumpkins left over. Do you have any decorate?
I have um so the posters that I made, we put up on the walls. Um, I need to laminate them to make them waterproof or more sturdy for the trailer, but it's not a problem. And I was going to make one more. We have a a right to farm uh
poster and um agricultural poster, but I also was going to do a poster about what we do like in big letters. Um, and the letters that I found were they're waterproof, so it looks pretty cool. So, I could do one more um between now and
then. Um I was wondering, do we have What's that? You want to do it at a work session or just on your own time? I can do it on our my own. Yeah, it's not It was fairly easy. I mean, if you want a work session, I have no problem doing a work session, too. I'd rather not if we don't have to, but
I'm definitely open to Yeah, I'm I'm okay with not having one. If you if you you know, I'm I'm good either way. It depends on what you feel like. Who I mean, I was wondering like, do we have like hay bales? Do we have like the bigger stuff?
We're going to have a big bales of straw. I'll get some candy. I was going to say, you think about it. Grab a bag of candy, everybody. So, we got something to throw at the kids. I think Bert said he had some already in bags or corn bags. But we can do some more, too. Yeah.
Yep. Are we having Did we getting Are we getting the tractor again on I believe so. Do you want do you have another skeleton to put on? You know, he's still sitting in my basement with the costume from last year. So, he's ready to go. Perfect.
Want to have it work on him like falling? Yeah, we need like some zip ties or something. Okay. I got lots of zip ties. So, that means he can stand up a little bit. Remember, bring up that or pocket full of zip ties. Yeah, it's a good idea. Did you talk to or are we going to talk to Dwight? Because you know how Dwight
built that thing for the tobacco last year. Yeah. Do you want me to ask Dwight if have that again? That was cool. We will definitely have I mean I know we will have um plans if Dwight I'm sure Dwight will too. Little side story um at the Big E. They
were in the Connecticut tobaconist building. Yeah. They were selling cigars that supposedly had shade tobacco were made from shade tobacco from here which means it was Dwight's tobacco. Yeah, this point. Yeah, that's cool.
Yep, that is cool. Yeah, and I can ask Dwight about that. I think he made it specifically for that last year. So, I'm sure back to he came and picked it up. And then my plan this year was to put we got a
gator and I wanted to put the gator in the parade. So, I'm wondering if they'll let me like still be with you guys or if they're gonna make me You wanted to drive it? Yeah, but I want to like go with you guys. What the hell you bringing a gator for? I thought Taco
like a stuff or something to be in the parade. Yeah. No, it's cool. But I still wanted to be with email them and see if I can still be like with you. I think Joe Dei kind of runs all over it. So, I'm going to ask the question. We'll see what happens. I mean, I'm I'm all
for it. Um, just cuz I You could even hook a trailer up to that. It's just like it's another person to be in the parade. Another thing to be in the parade anyway. And we got a little banner that we're using for the moms. So, I was like, "Oh, I'll just put that on there." But I want to be like with
I want to be with, you know, I'm gonna ask my kids again, too. So, yeah. Okay. So, I just wanted to make sure if you had enough people. I got a gator. I was thinking it's not What are you doing? Are you going to be on the phone with us?
I'm going to bring those chickens. That's better behind my house and bring them. Well, that was another thing. I mean, rent. Didn't we have chickens last year? Yeah, I'll bring chicken. If I have any left, I'll bring them. Yeah, right. The bears, right? I have chickens. If not, and and
I mean, I'm sure they would travel fine. I'm only having the old the old ones bumped off this Saturday, not all of them. So, um, we eat them. Yeah, we're going to I if we're going to try it if if they're not if they're too tough then brine for two days, it'll be delicious. Well, that's what I was thinking. I just
got a smoker and we got I would I brine some stuff. What do you mean? Just put them in a bowl and like, you know, a nice bath and it softens it. Oh, softens about perfect. Yeah. with it like sugar and you use um I did I brined
a couple things in uh cranberry juice, orange juice, and a little bit of salt and and uh sugar and god. Yeah. I mean, it was the juiciest thing. And I thought, well, I could do that with We've eaten old chicken. They're fine. And I got a smoker. So, if you smoke
them slow after you brine them, I'm thinking they'll be okay because I'd rather not make dog food out of them. But if I have to, they get the dog or chicken. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, right. It'll go to something. Oh, somebody do with any food that Here, boy. I have a question.
Yes, J. Um, can we get shirts made for us someday? Thinking the same thing. It would be nice. Shirts or a sweatshirt? I don't know. Shirts are cheaper, but maybe have shirts made for events like that stuff
even for the go south wings, right? Yeah. What's fuzzy? Your honor. Like make a fun a fun shirt out of like put something, you know, on the front but something fun on the back. I don't know. Like a Yeah. Like a
They're all orange or something. Something that sticks out or Yeah. Something green and white. Green. I'm going to go with green. Green's good. I like green. Probably. Yeah. I would say green just because we'd actually be working in those shirts and you know it probably the most
blendable color. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that would be great if we could all get one, you know, just friendly neighborhood ad. Okay. Tell me sizes right now. We're gonna have to vote to spend the money. Yeah, probably.
I'll say I I spend money. Hang on. I think we have plenty of money. Um, he does. I was thinking of that though because when we go to events now, we've been to
a few, we wear our little, you know, names. Yeah. It' be nice if we had a shirt that get more professional when we go to events or run events. Our gift account has 26 almost $2,700. Okay. So,
let's grab it. I don't know how any it'll probably cost. So these these are for working at the community garden then. Yeah. Right. Which probably cost 120 bucks, maybe 200 bucks. Yeah. I'd like decent quality ones that
are going to last a couple years. I'm not 20 of them. So we got them or 15. Yeah. I think usually to order like a certain There's usually a minimum, isn't there? With be like 20. So probably two each then back up on just have a couple extra. Yeah.
Yeah. Get new people. Yes. Couple larges, couple XL's, something like that. Well, if you go bigger, you could fit anybody and they can always wear it over something. I'm a 2XL. I've been talking to Martin. I went there today, actually. I was going to do that with the farmhop update, but I went
there yesterday to submit my article so I can ask him if he'd like me to to ask him prices and things like that. I think Dan Danny, when can you use your weather? I'm gonna go tomorrow. Do you guys want to go together? Okay.
She said, "That's fine." No, that's fine. If you're going tomorrow, that's awesome. Go because it's good. You got to get it in because it doesn't it's not overnight. No, I know. It's gonna be a couple weeks. Three weeks, man. Right. And we're already Oh, we're trying to get it done for the the parade.
Sizes. I'll get a two. I'll get two extraes. I was going to say I usually size shirt. I have to wear I'm an XL. Can't get it over my butt. It's a large large. What? What do you want?
Large. Other large. What? Who else? Say we need one for Bert, right? Yep. You're right. He's an extra large. We'll put four. You have two 2XL on there. So, yep. I got three actually, but I'll get
five of each. And then I'll get five small because we got kids maybe. Yeah. Um, do we need we just allocate a certain amount of money up to
Okay. $200. I don't know. I don't I haven't bought I want to say 15ucks. We can say up to up to like 250. Okay. I make a motion to allocate up to $250 from our gift account for shirts
from uh Southwoods. I'll second it. Um all in favor? I I I have to go around or not. Unanimous for everyone that's here.
Yeah, it's unanimous. Okay. Okay. I talked to Buzzy for Synoma. Cool. Thank you. And I'm just gonna put Southwick Agricultural Committee. What about like our little barn logo we
use for Farm Day? Put that on the back or something. I'll see what he says. I think it's going to be a price. Oh, he does. He's got that. He does. He has all those. He has all that still. Yeah, cuz white with green with the white
lettering. Yeah, like basically what you're wearing right now. Yeah. And then we could put a uh Yeah, I want to go with like a forest dark. Yeah. Try to get like a a nicer quality shirt if possible. Oh, yeah. I'll tell him. Website on the back.
I don't know. He He made me a hundred shirts a couple years ago and it was 10 bucks a shirt. Decent deal. I mean, I think prices Oh, yeah. But I'm just saying we should be within the 250 should be
close. See what you can do for 250 because we can't we can't technically spend over that recorded it. If not 55 cents something whatever. I mean we can always if it's that close we can leave that. No problem.
Amend I think we can amend it. Yeah somehow. Yeah. Okay. So up to Thank you. Yeah, that's what we shirts. So we'll just meet in November 1st, 8
a.m. at and if it changes. Yeah. Sorry, where are we meeting? Breakfast sandwiches. DVW. Yeah, that's a good move. Move on there.
You got donuts, breakfast sandwiches, coffee. Oh, we could delegate. We could de I could bring something. That would be fine. Who's going to be on the float? How many people are going on the float? I was going to go away then.
You going on the float? Last year, right? But I want to drive or I don't know. TBD depending if there's too many people. I can hold the banner in the front and walk in front of the, you know, the um trailer's huge.
What about there's plenty of room? Trailer. I have a bunch of like I was thinking like gardening implements that make my Yeah. Yeah. cuz I've got like one of those Amish uh wheel harrow things that you put
and I think farmy looking. I have a a broad wheelbarrow. I have a broad for you which is kind of a new newer hand tool. It's not just old farming. It's new farming. So I thought, well, if we maybe brought some hand tools to put on there to make it look like Sure.
farming stuff. If you can stick it in the little things on the side of the trailer, too, be easier. We'll try to like prop it up, right? Okay. Basically, we just bring everything at 8 a.m. and then we figure and sort it out. Yeah, that's basically as long as we have all the things that are going to all the pieces of the puzzle.
I don't think we've ever spent much more than an hour, hour and a half getting it ready. Okay. Throwing a bail. Usually, it's quick. Yeah. Are you bringing your kids, Sage? Uh, yeah. That is the plan. All right, we're gonna have to arrange it so
there's seating for everyone. I have chairs. I have the black chairs, the folding chairs. I can bring those. I have five green. I mean, you can we can sit we can sit on the bales. We just have to arrange it properly. I think last year my kids were kind of
like hidden from the they were inside the bales. I think we need to put the bales in the middle. Yeah, that would make more sense. Yeah, we got a chain line up a little bit.
Put a calf harness on them and All right, so I think we're good for the farm parade. Um, Jen and Deb, you want to talk about the Powdermill School open house? Go ahead, Jen. Yeah. Um, so, um, I went to Calibri to
give her our thank you poster and she's like, "Come here. Come in back." And I was like, "Okay." I went into her office and she's like, "Here's this number. You were talking at the farm forum about reaching out to the children." That's this was last farm forum that she re remembered. So, she's like, "This is um
Chuck. Um, he's a vice principal of powder mill. um he was asking us to be a part of an event and this would be a good ide good opportunity for you to kind of get in there and talk with him about doing a program for the kids. So I
was like, "Oh, awesome." So I sent an email out to everybody. I don't know if my email's been crazy. So I I got too much I don't think it's working very well, but um I sent that information out to everybody. So what I did was I called him and he called me back during the
farm hop. So I was like, "Oh." Um, but we talked and he um he talked about his event and I thought that was a great event. Um, and I asked if we could be a part of that or be a support for him for that event and he's like, "Yeah,
absolutely." And then he talked about he invited us to be part of the open house and I was like, "Oh, that's even that's awesome. We usually don't have events in October, you know, so I don't didn't want to make anybody more busier than they are, you know, but um I thought it
was a great opportunity to get into the, you know, working with the children. So, um uh Bert was there and Deb was there. Um we put a table together. I put a little bit together quickly. Um
I put some posters together about the Rape to Farm. as Deb's idea, which was a great idea to talk about the right to farm in Southwick, you know, the bylaws and things like that. Um, but mostly they were running through and, you know, wanting the candy on the table and, you know, but the parents were interested.
So, which was great and um, that's also what we need, you know, um, they us being visible, I think, is going to be helpful. you know, us being out there more and people knowing that we care about the farms in town, you know, things like
that. But, um, so we I put together, um, it was Paul's idea to do like a, um, um, planting seeds. So, I got some seeds from Ocean State and we planted peas and I had all the setup for them. So, I showed them how to plant seeds and they
were able to take them with them. Um and then Bert was um actually got contacts from the Boy Scouts for us too for volunteer volunteering in the future. So he was kind of networking which was cool. And Deb, she was she was awesome.
She was just talking about what we do and everything and it was a great team effort. So that was on that was at the open house. Um and so um that was an awesome, you know, opportunity. this morning um was the uh thank yous to
farmers which was pretty awesome. That was the event that uh Chuck put on. A group of kids um giving thank yous to a group of farmers. Um rays were there. Um Calib was there. Uh Firefly
um uh Grand Vos scoop. Um Cowards and I'm missing one. Do you remember, Dad? Mulicious showed up. Uh, and then Nestroa Chapel Farm. And
was the other one um the two women with the matching shirts? I couldn't read from a distance, but that was another apple orchard up in Granville, I think. Yep. So they're incorporating regional because we're it's regional you know like we were talking about two two open
farms how um two open farm days before where you know reaching out to regional towns they're actually you know the school is already doing it. So um but that was it was a great event. The kids got opportunity to thank the farmers and the farmers you know kind of talked with
them and it was awesome. So it was a great way to get the fire and police last year, right? They pick a different group to thank and it's a special group. I think he said there was I didn't see 20 kids, but I think he had said there was a
group of kids that that did this particular it was a special thing that they were invited to a special group and they were doing the letters. That's cool. uh to so each farmer got a letter from a child and then they got their picture taken with the farm that
they had written to with it sounded like I didn't read any of the letters but it sounded like they had targeted that particular farm. What I liked about it cuz Moshe was talking with us from she represented Blossoming Acres and uh the little girl said some I
guess in the letter something about her favorite thing was the donuts and everyone's donuts. So um but that was it was kind of cool because Mo said well that she's the one who makes the donuts and make them. Yeah. Oh okay. Cuz she works at the farm and so she
does a lot of the baking uh at the farm. So, it was kind of fun that the little girl got to meet the one who made the donuts. Yeah, my kids are friends with her kids. So, yeah. So, they they made it was it was kind of, you know, it was nice that each of the kids got to actually meet the farmer or a representative of the farm. They weren't all farmers. Uh some of
them were just a rep like Mo represented Las Acres and at Nestrovich's I think that was Ray's wife that is hit the daughters his the wife's daughter that was there. I don't know her but I think that's who she was. Um, so some of them
were and then the from Ray's farm it was the woman who actually um wasn't either of Skippy or Yeah. I was wondering how they got anyone to show up from Ray. It was um the heck is her name? Sabrina. She was a young it sounds like a younger
woman. Yeah. Yeah. But she actually when I did the interview article, she's the one who kind of manages the stuff when they're not She's been there forever. Uh and she's kind of manages the stuff. She's been there over 20 years at at the farm.
So, she they sent her So, it was a great collaboration. It was It was a good way to get the egg commission. I mean, every time we're there, we're going to be listed in there when he does the Chuck was going to do this happened during school hours. Yeah.
Um and so he he's going to do a whole piece for their website with the pictures of the kids and what and then we got our we were in one of the pictures of the kids. So it just puts a commission out there. You know, the more people know that the ad commission
exists, maybe we can get more volunteers. Yeah, it'd be great. You know, more members. There was a few like Deb was you were talking to a few people that were actually kind of thinking about it, you know, like open house. I was I was
campaigning positions open. It was great. the more you get people that they know what we do, maybe we can get people interested. Um or support events that you know that was a big thing a lot of the people didn't know.
We gave out some of the old brochures from the um open farm day. We had those there and so people were taking them and I said now you need to remember look through it, see what the farms are doing and maybe next year when it's you'll know what's going on
uh for that. But um so with the open house, is that something we can do every year? I would think we could. Yeah, because it was a great event. There was a lot of different types of things there. Like there was the I think there was a 4, there was a boy scout. I think we could do that once a year and
we can actually probably do that with the younger. He has contacts with the other schools too. So might allow us in. Yeah. I mean high school be really good but I just think having us visible is
such a key thing. Yeah. So that people are then looking for events and they know you know they know what kind of basically brand recognition. Yes. They see us you know more and more they see us they're going to come to us. Yeah it was thanks to Donna for giving
me that number. I wasn't even thinking. It was awesome. It was great. So we also use this opportunity to get um dealers possibly too. Yeah. Yep. We need volunteers and we need commissioners, right? Yep. Absolutely.
So, well, luckily, I mean, for for Jen was available, which she isn't always, but Bert and I are usually I didn't even really realize it was happening until, right? Yeah. Bert and I are usually available during daytime. It's something we've got to zip over and do it. It's no big deal to go do it. Um, you know,
Thank you guys. You know, that was awesome. Yep. Bert was there too, by the way, this morning. So, he made it out as well. Okay, good. So, especially when we get the t-shirts, right?
Walk up their shelf t-shirts. All right. Um, farm hop. Farmhop. Did I update you since I went to the last farm hop yet? I don't remember. When was the last one? It was the 16th or 17th of No, it was after our last meeting. a good one with
a museum and that was amazing. Yes, I have to say it was awesome. And they dressed the part too. I was like that was awesome. But yeah, so um first we went to um we went to Grand Valley
Scoop because the the historical society wanted a little bit later in the day and Grand Valley Scoop was open arms. They were awesome. Ah Avala was um there with her dad. Um they opened up before
regular hours and um they gave us little um little cones full of feed to feed the animals and everything. And then when everybody went was out there and saw the animals, they came in and they did a historical, you know, talk about their farm and everything. And um yeah, and
they they they gave out free samples of ice cream and things like that. And they we just sat there and it was it was really cool. But we actually they actually stayed a little bit longer, you know. Um so then we um drove down to the historical society and that was amazing
in itself. They were ready. They were ready. So we had the garage was open and then the house was open. So they split our group up and they did their thing and it was absolutely amazing. Um, and then we went to um,
uh, uh, Congam because they have sandwiches there and it was right down the road and that was like um, Bert's um, suggestion, but it was a really good suggestion and people loved it there. So, it was a great day and everybody enjoyed it thoroughly and
um, so this may we could talk about it but maybe we could do this again next year. Um, even I talked to Teresa today. She was there from Cowards this morning. And she's like, "Maybe you guys can plan it in the fall when you you do the farm hop in the fall for us when we open back
up, you know, cuz they have all that stuff going on right now, you know." I was like, "Hey, that's a great idea." I was thinking that, too, because they have all, you know, the pumpkins and all that stuff. So, people are talking about it still. And um and so
um today with help from Bert and Cole at um uh Southwoods, I I got down the article a lot smaller because I wanted to incorporate all the pictures, right? Because I'm really I'm really proud of
the event. And so what my thought was instead of putting all the pictures, so we got the article was going out with a couple pictures and then um I was wondering if we can add pictures to the website because Martin's going to put
the QR code on the article so that people can scan it and say, "Oh, for more pictures, look at that." So, I don't know if I can put my pictures on the website somehow some way for one of our events. Is that possible,
Sage? Yep. Just send me what you have and I can put it up. Okay. They're large files, so I'm not sure. Um, maybe I can condense Google Drive or something. You could just show I could do that. Yeah, I can. I'm I'm
gonna practice. How's that? I'll practice putting on a Google Drive and I'll send them over. gotta learn how to do it sometime, right? But if I need help, I'll I'll reach out. But um maybe put up the pictures too, Jen, from this morning.
Yes, definitely. Pictures at the open house. I did not get a picture of the school setup table on open house. I was like mad at myself. I'm like, I did not get a picture of that. But I got some great pictures from this morning. So I'll we
could do like under the events column, I think. Maybe we can put that in there. But but he did put he was going to put a QR code, so I hoping to get that out there sooner than later, but I'll work on it. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, just give it to me as soon as you
can. I'll put it right up. The That's the last farm hop for the year. It was. Yeah, we had four. Um, it was very successful. The one when we went to Klein View was the most people. We had, I think, 15.
Um, so, um, but it was the same people. So, we had some new people here and there, but it was mostly the same people that took every But hopefully the word will get out. I want to actually print a bulletin for them so that they can have
it on their table. I'll work with Carara to maybe have something like um that they can see in the senior center instead of because I don't know if they have smartphones and you know, but I was actually going to print something out for them to look at on the tables while
they're like hanging out down in the senior center so that they can look at what it's all about. So, but yeah, it was awesome. It was it was very um it was it was definitely something,
you know, I'm not one to get out there and get myself out there, but it was easy to do because they're fun to be with, you know, so it was a good collaboration, I think. Cool. Yeah,
very successful. Appreciate all that you did for it. Oh, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was like one of those things where I'm like, you know what? I I didn't see a lot of seniors get to the open farm days. And even Cara too, she put up a
bulletin for open farm day. Hey, whoever wants to sign up for open farm day, we can actually get a volunteer for that day. She actually put that up in the senior center, but nobody signed up for it. So that kind of proved um you know
that it's it's easier for them to go out during the day rather than you know on a Sunday or whichever you know so but I thought that was cool that she did that. But none of them want to be become commissioners then.
Yeah. Maybe not. But no there that was great. Even the volunteer drivers were awesome. They're so much fun. So, but so yeah, that's the update. Um, basically, uh, articles going into hopefully it'll be
into the next Southwoods um and, um, with the QR code and then I'll work on getting the pictures hopefully out to you, Sage, and um, we'll go from there. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you.
All right. We already talked about the master plan action items. I don't know if we really need to talk about that anymore. What's the South Town Clerk? So, that was a misprint. Oh. Um Okay.
This forgot what it was. Yeah. This is actually the revised one. I think it was still have it. So I I don't know what happened. Um this is what I originally sent Cindy, but she
she said something like copied and pasted. She did it on her phone and all of a sudden got messed up. But okay. All right. So just disregard that. We can start saying got that. It looks like we hit most of the stuff. The only thing is I didn't see uh
usually we go over the agenda. Not the agenda, the minutes from the last meeting. I have the minutes. Did I give you a copy? Well, I got the one I have says July 9th and those are July 9th. It should be August for right. Um they might they might not be ready.
Usually a little behind. Yeah. Oh, okay. I think sometimes we get three months right in a row. Yeah. One because I'm like, you know, it was also a June 11th form. Did you get that? I have I think I have June 11. I have July 9th that the meeting I have
June 11. No, I don't have the minutes from the meeting wasn't because we didn't have a sign that that's it. Oh, that's it. Cuz we didn't have a form. That one just like you and me. Yeah. And then the other one that
recording actually got cut short. The other seven minutes that's there. Yeah, that was the recording that got cut short. Okay. Plus, I haven't. So, if you guys have to add to that, you can write it on there or say it in the
recording now. And I can like that one here. I have not added on to the bottom yet. Oh, great. Yeah. So, you just make your edits, leave them in my inbox, and then I'll fix it from there. Whatever you want.
Uh, were you on by June 11th? Uh, yeah. I went on in I think I went on in June, didn't I? I don't remember. I don't have that information in front of me. That's just the first time I noticed something like this still has Ron and Tom on it. I
think they were off before you got on, though. No, Tom didn't resign till after. Um, Cindy, can you verify when Deb was added?
Uh, Deb, I believe Deb was on because it was you and her sitting at the table that opened the meeting. Oh, right. She would be on it. So, she should be on it. Yeah. Which is editable. So, let's put Deb. Is it just Deb or you dab on
for here? I just go by Deb. Oh, Debbie. No, I mean officially my name is No one ever called you Debbie. Oh, all the time in high school. All the time. But now I go by Deb more than anything else
for that. Yeah. No one called me Danny. Are you a commissioner or an alter? You're a full commission. I'm a full commissioner. Yeah. Yeah. You just get the hu I it always H u M P H R E Y. That's what I am. which usually I'm I get it in there, but some of the stuff
didn't have the EI. That was one of my other questions. Do we update our titles on the website? How do we do that? Like we, you know, the chairman on the town website or our our like the Yeah. On the town website, like
the the chairman, vice chairman, all Jim Jim Middleton should be handling that. Oh, okay. Has it not been updated yet? I don't think so. Last time I checked, but but it was a week ago, so maybe it
is. I should look. I Yeah, not sure. Well, look at July. I think there was the July one. It's just miss I saw my my name was Miss Are we looking at July 9th? Yeah, Jen's name is misspelled. Her last
name is Miss Right. Uh, let's see. Oh, yeah. D I vowels in your last name and the P is capital, but the it should be an I after D. Oh, okay. Never get my name wrong.
Yours is I was gonna say simple. Sorry, it's stolen multiples. Right. I was going to say Jensen's and mine are consistent throughout, but See, I don't see anything else except those two things. Jen's name is my name and then I've not added on the bottom of
the self shouldn't have uh Oh, probably not. It's just Just right. Oh, it's spelled right there. At the bottom. Yeah. First spelled right at the bottom. But I'm not at the bottom at all. Oh, you're not here either.
Nope, I'm not there. Commissioner is way too long aboard. All right, I think it's good enough. Um, I make a motion to set the uh minute for June 11th um as revised.
Second. Um, roll call vote. Zack Bernett I. Deb Humphrey I. Dan Cook I. You mean I wasn't there. Do I need to abstain? No, you can still here now.
Okay. Jessica Barker I. Sage fury. No minutes like we just I have. All right. I make a motion to accept the um minutes for July 9th as amended or as
corrected. Um Zach Carnett. Oh, I'll second it. Zach Barnett I. De Humphrey. I Dan Cook I. Jess Parker I. Jennifer Devitro. I All righty. These are good.
Um, anything else we need to discuss tonight? Yankees Blue Jays are on right now. Oh, no, we don't to discuss that. If Yankees lose, they're gone. Are they really? Yeah.
This is the game. Yeah. Oh, it's two to one Blue Jays. And it last night the Blue Jays were winning six to one and they damn Yankees came back and beat. Wow. So it's good games.
If you go to Southwoods and you want anyone else to proof it, put it in the the to make sure that everything is like corelled correct and spelled correct and everything. Just before they print it, put it I was going to say send it in the text maybe and anybody.
Okay. But don't send it to more than three people. Not more than two people at once. Yeah. Because otherwise it violates open meeting law. Okay. So I'll send it to Zach. Send it to Zach. And it and you can proof it just to make sure that if I don't get back to you right away, send it to Deb. She's a teacher and we
can blame him. It's easy to But I just thought that way it makes so that we're sure it gets printed, you know. No, no. Right. I um Yeah. Um I do want to bring that up though. Um open meeting law we can discuss. We can
send out like scheduling things but we need to keep any discussion about like topics like any kind of I don't know we can't make any decisions in a group text or stuff like that. Um but if you want to like discuss something with someone like or two
people you can do smaller groups as long as it doesn't create a forum it's not an issue. Um, we just gota I don't it's never been an issue, but I just don't want to be the one to get in trouble. Well, um, but yeah, let's just keep, you know, group texting and group emails to
scheduling things, stuff like that, not actually decision making stuff, right? Right. Anyone can contact me at any time, you know. But can I get a hold of the whole group when like the Yankees get beat scheduling thing kind of like will they
be playing another game? No. But yeah, I just want to touch base on that. Um, and then I think that's about it. Anyone? anyone online? Nope. So, the next time we'll meet each
other is November 1st at 8 in the morning. Yes. And our next regular meeting. Yes. DB to 8 o'clock. Is that too early? We do eight. I think that does feel early, but want to do 9 o'clock. Yeah, let's do 9. Let's do 9. Okay. Second motion. Yeah.
9 o'clock. Okay. With you, Sage? Yep. Okay. Um All right. 9:00 at night with all with all our props and we'll pick up. Yeah, bring your arts and crafts, your scissors, your tapes, your zip ties. Bring your gator. We'll drive it around.
Maybe um I won't bring my chickens till later though. Yeah, they won't want to be in in chain that long. I have a pretty good size dog crate. That's what I use. Do you want to bring a couple? You got something to put them in because they put I had them in the middle last year. They're kind of hard
to see. So, if we had some on either side, it would probably be better. Closing. Okay. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Next regular monthly meeting will be November 12th at 700 p.m. Uh, no work session for
October 22nd. Okay. Oh, sorry. Can I um can I um ask to have the farm forum put on the agenda for the next meeting? Absolutely. Okay. I know we um it's we usually have a little lull with the holidays and
everything, but we should probably put that on there. Yeah, we can at least discuss what we're going to discuss. Yeah. Topics this year. Yeah, we're busy. But that's a cool thing now that we we
have something like we have Yeah. We have direction. Yeah. Before we're like what do we talk about? Yeah. Exactly. No, I think it's actually pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. And then if we do little, you know, workshops like Deb already has done. She's already an expert at it.
But it it's not it's not hard to do. Perfect. Yeah. I mean, I've gone to a bunch and I've never hosted one. We've done the farmers forum for what, three years now. little specialty things to be told too. And then, you know, we'll get to meet more people, too. We can invite them.
Oh, yeah. If they hear, oh, they're going to eradicate, you know. Yeah. Plants. I would love to get rid of some of the invasives at my house. Oh, really? In a natural fashion. Yeah. You know, when he said that pesticide, I'm like, you know,
fire is all natural. It is. That's how with fire. But I mean, I think part of it is just being able to to during a thing like that explain to people options they can use as a homeowner. The fact that we need to tell them you can't just throw it in a pile and leave
it there. It will still spread. You have to eradicate it completely either with a burn pile or I mean actually poison ivy stuff, they ask you to take it at the dump and bag it and don't want to burn poison ivy. No. in the hopper. Yeah. Because um
anything like you can't put pickers and like the multifllora rose you can't put in there. They won't chip it at the dump, but not everybody knows that. So you don't want to anyways because then it'll grow. Yeah. Spread everywhere. So we've got to find, you know, maybe come up. I'd like to find plants that where like
native plants that would overtake almost nothing does. Those invasives are invasive because they they don't have any natural predators in our climate. And maybe we need some GMOs. And some of that stuff though, I mean,
it is awful. The bittersweet is horrific. I'm always ripping that out. And you got to Yeah, I'm I'm always pulling vines off of everything. Yeah. But I mean, you got to rip every root up that with it or it will grow again. And I've tried killing poison ivy with pesticides. It doesn't work. Uh, right. Not
not well. It comes back. I I probably need to get a goat or two. We've actually thought about it a lot. A lot. Because we have a lot of poison ivy in one section. There's poison ivy all and I hate it. My uh my stepson ended up in the hospital a few years ago. I had him
chopping my brush down. Oh. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It was bad. I get it bad. So I don't do anything out in the poison ivy area until it's winter and I can cover myself completely. uh because of I get it so bad but I
think with the invasive species I mean that it's left it it's on us now I but I think that's something we can certainly do as teaching the entire community how to I want to learn so how to go at it uh let other people learn with us right with identification of the plants
and that kind of I think that's stuff that we could getting posters printed of like the invasive so people can recognize it I think oh definitely definitely but I mean that's something as a teacher that I to me that would not be difficult to teach people about it. Yeah.
You know, with how to how to detect it, how to know what it is. I mean, I know several of them what they look like anyways. And and then find alternative ways to eradicate them if people don't want to. I mean, because I really hate I hate going at it and saying, "Well,
geez, we should use like Roundup or something." Because we don't use it. I mean, it's not good. No, I don't like that stuff. It's not good. And it's not something I think we should I mean, if they come up with their own idea to do it, I guess you can't do anything. But I don't think it's something we should advocate for because it's not environmentally good to
get it into the water supply or anything. So, I mean, I'm sure there's already tons of it in there, but Yeah. Well, we don't need anymore. No, I mean, I know a lot of farmers used to use it. I don't know if they still do. I mean, they're still using whatever's
they do. You do h You do hay stuff, don't you? Or know people that do hay? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they used to use it. I mean, Roundup's still used big dump cell. That's terrible. That's tough. It's awful. It's awful. Um, kills everything except for the
soybeans, whatever's right. Modified. But I think we can certainly research it and find other ways that that could be eradicated. Yeah. Find out what people are doing and is successful. Yeah. Right. Right. And that's something I think we could get maybe the conservation some of the other
conservation groups involved. Sabrina knows quite a bit about it. I when we did cleaned up that pond, she was there. She was literally bagging up seeds from the invasives, right? Or she was trying to anyway, right? I mean, there was too many. But every if you do it in a on a regular
maintenance program, you will eventually beat them. Wrap them down. Well, labor is expensive. Volunteer stuff. I mean, that's stuff that I think that, you know, where we maybe connect with the schools, the scouts, other groups. Scouts would be a good one. I'm glad you
guys made contact with them. Yeah, Bert got the info, I guess, from that. Yeah, he sent it to me earlier today. But I do think that, you know, I think there's a lot of people that if you're if they know they have a mission, that this is what they're doing, you know, one might be able to get
um people interested in it. Sometimes you can get people from other communities who are really adamant about eradicating it because the lines are state must have some kind of program groups or something. I bet they do have groups that work on it also.
So get them to come in work on that. I'll start gathering my head over the winter. That's a good project. where I have downtime, I'll look up stuff and uh sometimes I sit at doctor's appointments with my mother and I'm like
I do. I think I'll look on my phone and look something up. All right, I'm going to make a motion to adjurnn. Second the motion. All in favor? I good night everyone. Good night.
home and see your your Jane