Hi, I’m Haley Fought and this is Across the Creek’s intern blog. I thought I’d start this off by introducing myself and the other interns currently working with Spence.

I recently graduated from Hendrix with a degree in accounting. I enjoy animal husbandry and especially love goats. I hope to one day open my own goat dairy and this internship is a great opportunity for me to learn about the great qualities and pitfalls of raising goats.

Steven is the youngest and handsomest intern in the program. He is great at coiling electric fence wire and enjoys working with power tools, carrying heavy loads, and working with his wife (me!). Enthusiastic about all jobs at hand, Steven is especially interested in egg-laying chickens, which provide a great lower-maintenance form of protein to supplement his vegetarian diet.

Nick is an Air Force veteran, but surprisingly enough, didn’t become a Trekkie until after his service. He’s been working with Spence the longest of all of us and is the lead intern. He is Across the Creek’s Fencing Master and has been showing Steven and me the ropes for the past two weeks, patiently watching me as I learn to use a hammer and drill at a painfully slow pace.

 Terrah works as a writer at the Fayetteville Free Weekly. Interviewing and writing take up most of her time, but when she has time, she comes up to help us all out.  She and Nick are married and hope to find a good plot of land to begin a homestead soon!

Ansel has worked at a lot of farms! He started out WWOOFing on the west coast all the way up to Canada. He also worked at Dripping Springs for several seasons, and has been working has as an intern here at Across the Creek for many months now. Ansel tends his own vegetable farm right across the road from where we raise our chickens during the warmer months of the year. Studying up on yurt-building techniques, he hopes to build one within the next few years.

 

I hear rumors that there is another intern named Baker, but I have never actually met him. He’s a pretty talented musician (see him play the banjo here). From the stories I’ve heard, he seems like he’s an awesome guy!

Next post, I will touch on some of the work we have been doing to ramp up for the summer production season. We have already been busy tending to new baby laying pullets and meat chicks, but soon we will be moving the birds out to pasture, which means we have to build a lot of pens, and quick!