WORK DAY 2024

Jenckes Farm, Marlboro Vermont, 05344

Work Crews

The Jenckes Foundation has added a tract of land from the Whitney family, and much of this year's work will center at a cellar hole on that land, where one Joseph Tucker once lived. There will also be a couple of trail maintenance crews and a trail construction crew. It's helpful if you arrive knowing what job you prefer. Maps will be provided when we gather at Jenckes Farm. Bring your water bottles. Many tools will be provided, but bring any you can, clearly marked with your name. Here are the job descriptions:

Trail maintenance, 2-6 volunteers, led by Shelley Ritchie: Walk in on Foundation trails, clipping back the brush and removing fallen branches. Report any fallen trees, flooded areas, or other heavier maintenance needed. Depending on numbers interested, two crews may take different routes.

Tools: gloves, clippers, hand saws

Trail maintenance, 2-3 volunteers, led by Roger Wilson: Rod will be taking the tractor through the woods to mow the "Swedes" clearing, stopping along the way to clear downed trees, so using a chainsaw at times. Depending on how all that goes, while he mows, his crew may walk on from the Swedes to clip trails to the lunch site.

Tools: ear protectors, gloves, clippers, hand saws

Trail construction, 2-6 volunteers, led by Dawes Wilson: A combination of heavy and medium work, cutting brush and trees, hauling them off the emerging trail, possibly moving stones. Dawes will be using a chainsaw at times.

Tools: ear protectors, gloves, clippers, hand saws, stump pullers, shovels, crowbars

Tucker cellar hole, 10-20 or more volunteers, led by Cathlin Walker: We'll divide into several smaller crews to unearth and haul out metal junk and rotted wood, unearth the cellar hole walls and other stone structures, cut away brush, clear access, and possibly rebuild fallen sections of wall.

Tools: gloves are important!, garden claw tools, trowels, crowbars, clippers, hand saws, garden weed buckets, contractor bags, potato hooks, shovels

Note: One smaller stone structure is a little out of the middle of things and we hope it will work well for young children to participate.

Access:  Volunteers will be able to drive to the end of the Sodom Road and park, then walk in by the woodland extension of Sodom Road, past the lunch site at the Harris cellar hole and on to the Tucker clearing.  It's about a mile and a half total (more exact distance to be updated in a subsequent email).   Anyone for whom the walk seems a bit daunting can be shuttled in by truck, so let us know. 

Bonus after-lunch job: If anyone who is comfortable with heights, sure-footed, and cautious wants an extra job, the center chimney foundation at the Harris cellar hole is overgrown with brush and weeds. One person on top could clear, while one or two below carried the cuttings into the woods.

We're excited to have stone wall expert Kevin Gardner to give a fascinating and entertaining presentation after lunch at the Harris cellar hole.

"Kevin Gardner, author of The Granite Kiss, explains how and why New England came to acquire its thousands of miles of stone walls, the ways that they and other dry stone structures were built, how their styles emerged and changed over time, and their significance to the famous New England landscape." New Hampshire Humanities website

Kevin begins by dumping a couple of buckets of small stones onto the table in front of him, then builds a miniature wall as he speaks.

We plan to have a simultaneous children's activity building their own miniature stone wall.