Treleven in April

Lambing Season began on Easter and finally ended a month later when the last ewe delivered her twins on pasture! (They are doing fine). We were immensely grateful for all the help from the Spirit of Change class, International Students, Weybridge House residents, family and friends. Many sets of triplets, many more sets of twins, and a few single births! The first lambs to find new homes went to Board Members Erin Ruble and Benj Putnam (and their children Cole and Eliza). We hope that this mutual benefit of people who are interested in lambing and those who are interested in sleeping during the night, will continue into the far future. The small barn office, that overlooks the flock, provides a cozy, but rather rustic, accommodation for the helpers.  Over the years, the little office was the site of many P/CC case management meetings, all night grant writing endeavors, and the composition of many of the songs on Hadestown.

We felt so lucky to host the year end retreat for the Vermont Campus Compact Leaders, whose photo you can see above. These amazing young people have chosen to devote a year or two or their lives to promoting civic engagement on campuses across Vermont. Projects range from Big Brother/Big Sister Mentoring, to Upward Bound, to community gardening that involves school children, to literacy promotion and much more. Campus Compact, which was initially sponsored in Vermont by President John McCardell of Middlebury and President Judith Ramaley of UVM, has had a huge impact on addressing poverty issues in our state. One of their important legacies was the development of VECEL (Vermont Early Childhood Education Licensure) which helped child care providers acquire their DOE teaching licenses while still on the job. It is one of the reasons Vermont is now considered the #1 state for the number of children receiving pre-school education.

Since becoming involved in removing invasive species as part of the habitat management project, we are all the more amazed at the proliferation of wild trillium in the woods. When you look at the photo, it is hard to imagine that it is considered an endangered species, yet pulling up the garlic mustard really has had an impact on increasing the numbers we are seeing (as well as the numbers of wild geraniums).