Farm & Wilderness Dairy Barn
Brattleboro or Plymouth, Vermont
Farm & Wilderness is a Quaker-based organization that sponsors both summer camps and year-round programs for young people and adults, and has an extensive campus in Plymouth, Vermont. F&W programs “emphasize the building of community through the values of cooperation, simplicity, responsibility, empathy, spirituality and service,” according to their website at www.fandw.org.
F&W operates five residential camps for children ages nine through
seventeen, a day camp for ages three to eleven, a family camp in
late August, outdoor education experiences for children and adults
in the fall, winter and spring, and a seasonal work crew. The Farm
& Wilderness Foundation also manages more than 3,000 acres of land in
consultation with environmental organizations and local residents.
Farm & Wilderness needs a dairy barn to serve as the physical and
programmatic heart of their organic farm education program. From
it, campers will run a full dairy: they will care for and milk the
cows, pasteurize and bottle the milk, cut hay to fill the hayloft,
and eventually make butter, cheese, and yogurt. During the winter,
all the Farm & Wilderness cows will be housed at the dairy barn,
and children in the school-year education programs will be able to
engage fully in all aspects of the dairy.
The dairy barn will be a new three-story, timber frame
building. The foundation for the building has been poured, some
timbers from F&W's forest have been cut, and this summer the timber
frame will be constructed and raised by the Timber Framers Guild
and F&W summer campers and staff. This will allow summer campers
and staff to work side-by-side with skilled craftsmen and women to learn
a building style that has withstood the test of time and New
England winters for centuries.
The building footprint is 1,344
square feet and the total building area is 4,032 square feet. The
dairy barn will include these features: a commercial-grade, state- approved pasteurization facility; a milking parlor; stalls to
protect cows from Vermont winters; a hayloft; storage; a farm
office; and a four-season farm education space. The visual goal is
for the dairy barn to look like an old-style Vermont barn.
Project Components
The project envisioned has three basic components.
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Small deck project, June 27-July 4: The Guild will work with the campers, using hand tools to cut and install the main deck of the barn on the existing foundation.
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Professional Development Workshop, July 31-August 4: Participants will cut the major pieces for the Farm & Wilderness Cow Barn raising beginning on August 5.
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Barn cutting and raising, August 5-13: In rendezvous format,
Guild staff and volunteers will work with F&W campers to cut the simpler
pieces of the frame in Plymouth. This crew will then
raise the frame by hand. Raising weekend is also the
weekend of a major fair and homecoming on campus.
Background Authorization
Farm & Wilderness and the State of Vermont require everyone who
has regular contact with children in their care submit to a criminal
records check. Results will remain confidential. Completion and
return of the form below (via fax to 888-453-0879) is required by all Guild
participants in the Farm & Wilderness event.
Lodging
Lodging facilities will be at a state campground one mile
away. All meals will be provided in the dining hall at the
Farm and Wilderness camp, shared with kids. This is a
great rural spot with a good lake for swimming.
We hope that
you can participate in at least one session.
Please contact Joel McCarty at 603-835-2077 for questions.
Directions to Farm & Wilderness
Take Route 4 (east from Rutland or west from Woodstock) to RT 100 South. The campus is located a couple of miles down Route 100S on the left hand side.
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