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CANADIAN SMALL FARM INSTITUTE & THE HARRISON LEWIS COASTAL DISCOVERY CENTRE |
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| Harrison
Lewis Centre and Small Farm Institute
in Sandy Bay, East Port L'Hebert opens this spring with a variety
of lectures and workshops. For the past four years, Dirk Van
Loon and Anne Gray have been building the field research and
education centre and out-buildings. Natural history and small,
homestead-level farming have been lifelong interests of the couple.
Their goal is to to foster the two through research, workshops,
seminars, instruction, and a variety of presentations. Dirk is
executive editor and publisher of Rural Delivery and other country
living magazines, and Anne is the company's business manager.
(Photo by Dirk Van Loon) |
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Photos
by Dirk Van Loon |
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Harrison
Lewis Centre/Small Farm Institute July 17: "What are we doing here?" Stakeholder panel discussion with representatives from the Canadian Willdlife Service, Parks Canada, NS Department of Natural Resources, the Region of Queens Municipality, and the Nature Conservancy of Canada; 7 pm at the Harrison Lewis Centre. Sponsored by the Port Joli Basin Conservation Society. Details, phone 902-683-2763. July 18,19: Geology talk and walk with Dal. Geology Prof. Barrie Clarke (author of "Rocks Around Us" Nature Notes brochure). Harrison Lewis Centre. Gather for home-cooked dinner and illustrated talk Friday evening. Guided walk to Keji Park Saturday following hearty breakfast. Box lunch provided. Overnight accommodations (cabins, tenting) available. Fees apply. Space limited. Details, phone 902-683-2763. August 2: Women-only power saw workshop at Harrison Lewis Centre. Certified instructor. Sponsored by Small Farm Institute. Lunch and snacks provided. Fees apply. Details, phone 902-683-2763. (This course is FILLED; please contact us if you are interested in other dates.) August 9: Discovery Day - Get up close and personal with common mushrooms of the Port Joli Basin. Noon to 4 pm at TH Raddall Natural Environment Park. Sausage and hot dog barbecue followed by launch of the latest Nature Notes Brochure from the Port Joli Basin Conservation Society, written and compiled by Dr. Carolyn Bird. Guided walks to follow. Details, phone 902-683-2763. August 14: Rare Lichens field trip and walk with Ecologist Rob Cameron, Protected Areas Branch, NS Environment Dept. Harrison Lewis Centre. Field trip at 1 pm, talk at 4 pm. Sponsored by MTRI (Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute). Details, phone 902-682-2371. August 16: Two-day Power saw use and maintenance workshop at Harrison Lewis Centre. Sponsored by Small Farm Institute. Certified instructors. Directional felling, limbing and bucking. Saw sharpening and general maintenance. Plenty of hands-on opportunity to perfect skills in the woods. Space limited. Includes meals and accommodation. Fees apply. Details, phone 902-683-2763. August 23: Rural Delivery magazine's Maritime Hand Mowing Championships at the Ross Farm Museum, New Ross, N.S. Noon to late afternoon. Sponsored by the Small Farm Institute, Lee Valley Tools, Co-op Atlantic and others TBA. For details or to compete contact Rural Delivery at 902-354-5411, or email dvledit@eastlink.ca. August 23, 24: Nature notebook workshop with Sue Abbott of Bird Studies Canada. Gather at the Harrison Lewis Centre Saturday evening for a home-cooked dinner and readings from noted nature journals. Following breakfast Sunday morning participants will devote a morning to acquiring skills for keeping an organized nature notebook. Lunch will be followed up with a leisurely beach walk and opportunity to put new skills to work recording sights, sounds, smells, and the feel of natural surroundings. Fees apply. Details, phone 902-683-2763. September 6,7: Building with rough lumber - an introduction to basic carpentry. Over the weekend we will build a shelter from the ground up. Harrison Lewis Centre. Sponsored by Small Farm Institute. Fees apply. Space limited. Details, phone 902-683-2763. |
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| Summer
Employment For A Student The Harrison Lewis Coastal Discovery Centre, a registered non-profit society, has secured funding to hire a returning student for ten weeks this summer, $300 per week. This position is for a communications developer who will work with the board of directors to develop and implement a multi-faceted communication, promotion, and marketing strategy for the Centre. Our plans include creation and publication of a brochure, an Internet website presence, and other means of increasing the profile of this start-up natural history research, education, and appreciation centre. Other duties such as helping develop a schedule of programs including seminars, workshops, field trips, and other appropriate activities should be considered part of this work experience. We are located in Queens County adjacent to Thomas Raddall Provincial Park. It would be advantageous but not a requirement that the employee have his or her own means of transportation. We are half an hour's drive from Liverpool and Shelburne. We are able to supplement the salary with accommodation in one or another of the bunkhouses connected to the Centre, and with full use of the kitchen, bath, and laundry facilities that are part of our main building. Please contact: The Harrison Lewis Centre, RR 1 Port Joli, NS B0T 1S0. By email, HLC@eastlink.ca By fax, 902-354-5689. |
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| Email: Harrison Lewis Centre and Small Farm Institute hlc@eastlink.ca Mailing Address: Harrison Lewis Centre and Small Farm Institute RR 1 Port Joli Nova Scotia Canada B0T 1S0 |
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Success at Sandy Bay The first event was hosting an ornithology class from Dalhousie, the second, a weekend bandsaw mill workshop. Fourteen people, 12 students plus professor (Cindy Staicer) and an assistant spent most of a week at the Centre May 19-26 monitoring bird life in several habitats - shore, open fields and forest being the main ones. It was a hive of activity over those days as students divided into teams of two and three crawled over rocks and hills and through the shrubbery to conduct their surveys. The
weekend of June 7,8 the Small Farm Institute put on a workshop
for five owners or would-be owners of portable bandsaw mills,
with Lew Dingwall instructing on a small Wood-Mizer mill. Participants
left late afternoon Sunday well fed and saying that they'd got
their money's worth. One commented he'd picked up enough pointers
to make the cost of the course back in a couple of hours milling.
Lew was pleased to have been instructing people keen to learn
as much as they could in what turned out to be two very short
days, they went so fast. |
 Two Dalhousie ornithology students record the "dawn chorus" of resident and migrating spring birds from a pasture in Sandy Bay. |
 The Harrison Lewis Centre dining room served as classroom as well for Dalhousie University students during a week long ornithology field trip May 19-26. |
 Operating a small Wood-Mizer bandsaw mill became a well-oiled team effort during a two-day workshop with instructor Lew Dingwall put on by the Small Farm Institute in Sandy Bay June 7,8. |