The WELL Turns 25
In April 2010, The WELL turned 25 years old. As part of a series of celebrations, a group of San Francisco Bay Area WELL folks, friends and family gathered on April 3 at the Sebastopol farm of WELL member yesway and his wife Ali. Our goal was to plant four fruit trees as an affirmation of humanity's bond with nature and its cyclical bounty, to join together to share good food and friendship, and to appreciate the beauty of spring's renewal.
To see any of the following images full-size, click the thumbnail.
Welcome to the farm
By one of the barns on the property, a choice vintage Airstream is
undergoing its own renewal as the weary interior is replaced with
custom-built everything.
Gyro
Gyro, one of several goats on yesway's and Ali's farm, is partial to dried
loquat leaves.
First arrivals
ode and ronks flank yesway, who shows them to the patio
aronan and pk stand by the beverage table while friends of yesway's
talk about tree-planting techniques.
Jenny (Mrs. bbear) and her fabulous new haircut
During daytime hours, the chickens are free to roam throughout the farm's acreage.
East coast guest
Professional photographer marvy (left) endures a photo session with amateur picture-taker peoples.
Octo-goats!
Ali is an artist who creates installations for museums. Here, a test run of an octopus figure is a challenge to
a pair of resin-cast goats.
Good conversations
Jenny, pk, bbear, doctore, and Joan (Mrs. ronks) enjoy the afternoon sunshine
Time for tree-planting
A phalanx of WELL members looks on as ode fires up the backhoe
Driver's seat view
The backhoe, heading toward the designated tree-planting area
Backhoe fail
The hydrolics in the backhoe's shovel lock up. Efforts to unlock are unsuccessful; we revert to hand shovels.
Many hands
With multiple volunteers, we take turns digging. From left: yesway, marvy, aronan (back to camera), ode, Joan, oz
Setting stakes
yesway drives in a support stake for the newly planted Frost peach.
Adding strength
marvy adds organic fertilizer to the fig tree sapling
Gently, gently
ode jokingly hugs the peach tree while oz looks on
Time to eat
With all four trees safely planted, we turn our thoughts to filling our bellies.
The quinoa queen
wickett's homemade curried quinoa is an enormous hit
And the guests keep on comin'
yesway escorts late arrival annmargrit to where the group is gathered
Tegu time!
We meet one of the five tegu lizards on the farm
What's cooking
peoples and baker, who host the Cooking conference on
The WELL, have a post-prandial giggle.
Men (and women) who stroll with goats
After visiting with the tegus, we escort the goats on an afternoon cruise through the ancient apple orchard.
Mmmmm... apple blossoms
The goats don't get free range in the orchard because, given the chance, they'd strip the trees bare.
A meandering path
From left: oz, Ali, David, baker, aronan, David (Mr. wickett)
A command performance
Ali rewards a goat that has successfully completed its "walk the plank" routine.
Winding down
With goat tricks complete, we amble back to the house to collect our things.
Woof
Goodbye, thanks for visiting!