Seedling workshop

Start Your Own Plants from Seed is the latest program in the You Can series. It will be held Thursday, April 26th from 10:00 am- 12:00 pm at Charlotte White Center, 572 Bangor Road, Dover-Foxcroft. 

Cost is $5 and you can register through PVAEC by calling 564-6525 or online athttp://bit.ly/pyoucan. 

What’s the best way to start seeds? High seedling mortalities and leggy, unhealthy plants that never perform well when moved to the garden are some of the common problems that will be discussed. 

Learn the best gardening practices for starting plants in the home. You’ll bring home a newly planted seed that you started in class. Patricia Jones and Amanda Costello are graduates in the Master Gardeners program through UMaine Extension.

April Monthly Meeting

DRDC/Dexter Community Farm Project monthly meeting is going to be held an hour early this month. It is tomorrow, Tuesday, April 3rd, 6 PM at the Fossa General Store.

We want to share the work completed upstairs and also go over what our engineer has planned for the leaky wall, etc.

We will keep the meeting short, but dress accordingly! Remember there is no heat currently :)

Questions? Feel free to contact us at judy@DexterFarmProject.com or call.
See you tomorrow night!

Maine Senior FarmShare Program

Through the Maine Senior FarmShare Program, Maine farmers provide fresh, unprocessed, locally grown produce to low-income seniors. Food is distributed directly from farms to seniors. Each participating senior receives a share worth $50 of produce during the growing season.


Farms are prepaid in the spring for the produce they agree to provide later in the season. Only fresh, unprocessed vegetables, fruits and herbs from the farmer are acceptable FarmShare products.


To qualify, seniors must meet both age and income requirements. They must be age 60 or over (age 55 or over for Native Americans), and have a total income (including all pensions, social security and other payments) of no more than 185% of the poverty level. Participating seniors must sign an agreement with a specific farmer to provide their share.

The Maine Senior FarmShare Program is administered by the Maine Department of Agriculture (DOA) in partnership with other agencies and organizations, including the Office of Elder Services, the Maine Nutrition Network, Maine Cooperative Extension, and Maine's five Area Agencies on Aging. The Program is funded through the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP).

For more information on program guidelines and participating farmers call Area Agencies on Aging at 1-877-353-3771 or visit www.getrealmaine.com.

Quickbooks Class

I am a big Quickbooks fan and have used it for years in my own business but working on the books for a Non-Profit and creating a "complete picture" profile is another story.

Fred Donovan and I had a 3 hour Quickbooks lesson today from Cheryl Hajek who is an accountant and Quickbooks Certified teacher. 


I had all the entries in Quickbooks for past 3 years for 2 different bank accounts, but I didn't know what accounts to assign the proper accounts.
What I mean by that is tracking the 1st floor from the 2nd floor entries, tracking volunteer hours that can be used for grants matches, listing donated products & from whom, tracking the various CDBG & USDA Grants, etc.

But then there is the whole thing of the difference between a fixed asset and just an expense.
 Cheryl helped create and put everything in the proper account!
Wow... it was fun and I learned a lot!  Now we can see the whole picture of our physical and monetary value.


Everything is up to date and in good order! YEAH! 

Friday update

Well our last day with the Charleston crew for awhile. They are off to other nonprofits to help in other communities. 
They are a great bunch of guys and supervisor who I have gotten to know and like. It has been a great experience working with them. They have made it very clear that they are really appreciate being out of the facility during the day, but more that, they are giving back to the community! Some of our guys will have completed their time soon and they are anxious to come back (with their kids) when are open and show off their handiwork!
I applaud Charleston Correctional Facility for providing this service to our community and the inmates for wanting a change in their lives.
The floor is completely done on the 2nd floor and they were trying to finish up the wall around the office today. When I left about 1:30 today, they were about 2/3 done.
Once again I want to thank Rich Frank for bringing donuts & a homecooked meals everyday this week for the guys, Kay Gray for her whoppie pies, Sam Brown for all the flooring, Ernest Rollins for the hemlock boards for the wall, Darlene Bagley for all the coffee beans (they love their coffee in an unheated building). 
I also want to thank Roger Brawn who is President of DRDC. He opens the building every morning and closes at night, and lately he has made a bunch of trips to Sam's for more wood!!! He also listens to me bitch & complain, but lately just be excited that things are finally moving forward quickly! We work as a team...
"It takes a village..." Thanks everyone
Next week we will be having another cleaning bee... Wanna help?
Judy 

Newest newsletter update

Click here for latest updated newsletter

Wednesday update:

This has been a busy productive week!
Charleston Crew has been working all week on the floor upstairs and as of this afternoon it is almost done.  They ran out of flooring, so if we get some more it will be all done by Friday.  The new flooring has ALL been donated by Sam Brown and has been mixed in with the salvaged hardwood flooring that was original to the building.


I ordered wall studs from Dexter Lumber today and they delivered this morning.  I got a great price at Yoders too, but the delivery was worth it this time.  We are trying to buy all local and spread it around.  The local guys have been wonderful and supportive!!!


This wood is for putting up a wall around the office area and since we have the experienced free labor we must take advantage of it!
Ernest Rollins gave us 300 board feet of milled boards and delivered it for the walls today.  Thanks Ernest!!! Ernest runs Rollins Apple Farm in Garland.


I met with Keith & Andrew from Plymouth Engineering yesterday and they went all over our building, but focused on the "new wet" wall and how it is going to be fixed.  The good news is they don't think we will have to replace the whole wall, only 1/2.  The first part, where we are getting the splash back from the building next door, may be fixed by attaching metal to the outside of the wall.
The 2nd part of the wall, where the water is coming off the adjoining building's roof, into their wall and then into our wall, where it is joined, that is going to be moved in probably about a foot.  This will separate the 2 buildings for good.  Too bad that hadn't been done in the first place.  Live and learn....
A side note:  Keith Ewing went to school in Dexter as a kid!  Kinda kewl to have that local connection (a coincidence, but neat).


I want to also thank Rich Frank.  The past 2 days, Mr. Frank has met the crew in the morning with a box of donuts and then provided them with a hot lunch too!  Yesterday it was fried chicken and potato wedges and today he cooked a Beef Brisket and made sandwiches.  I think I need to be there at lunch time!!!!
Supervisor Neal Pinkerton said the guys are VERY happy!!!  Tomorrow Kay Gray is making them her famous Whoppie Pies... 


Thanks everyone who has been assisting and supporting our project!  
Next week I have a meeting with Quickbooks expert & teacher Cheryl Hajek.  She is going to go over my current Quickbooks entries and tweak it for me.  I (sorta) learned the difference between a Fixed Asset and an Expense the other day from her, now we need to apply it to Quickbooks.  She will be giving some classes, with the focus on agriculture, when we have our Conference Room done.  stay tuned...


That's it for now...  hear it is going to warm up next week and be in the 60's and maybe even hit 70!  Spring is coming!