Author: Nancy Sopher

This author has written 44 articles

Kicking the Can Down the Road

Kicking the Can Down the Road The easiest thing to do when faced with a difficult decision is to kick the can down the road.  You know, put off that big decision until later.  Postpone it.  Avoid it, and hope it will somehow go away—until the day comes when the cans in the road are piled so high that you can’t get around them. The large horse barn is in need of repairs “to make them safer for animals and people,” according to Farmcolony Vice President Becky Lorenzo.  VP Lorenzo along with her husband, Gene, has built or remodeled three commercial equine facilities and is familiar with the needs of horses and the requirements for safe boarding.  The Farmcolony Board of Directors kicked the can down the road when it…

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RIP Zeke, You Old Goat

RIP Zeke, You Old Goat  Farmcolony lost a cherished member of the community with the recent passing of Zeke, the old farm goat.  Those of us who knew Zeke will remember his energy and the pep in his step, how he sought out pats and rubs to his neck from passersby, and how much he appreciated any kind offer of a special treat. Yeah.  OK.  Some will say Zeke was a pushy old goat, bless his heart.  If you stepped into his yard, he rushed over to block your path forward.  If you tried to go around him, he would step in your way.  There was no getting around him, until someone discovered that he would back off if you twisted his ear.  Zeke hated it when you twisted his…

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My Tall Stately Oak Tree is in Decline

My Tall Stately Oak Tree is in Decline A tall, stately oak tree grows outside of my kitchen window that I enjoy watching through the seasons.  I watch as buds burst open in the spring, grow into a lush, green canopy under the summer sun and change from green to brilliant red in the fall. I see from my window squirrels racing along its trunk, birds perching on its limbs with a song, woodpeckers pecking, and acorns ripening and falling to the ground with a thud, a world unto itself.  But this year I noticed a change in my stately oak tree.  This year my oak tree is missing leaves along its fringe and the tips of her branches are bare.  This is a sign of stress.  This is…

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In Remembrance

Michael Compton Collins October 16, 1960 - July 29, 2025 It is with sadness that we note the passing of our friend and neighbor Mike Collins who was killed in an accident on July 29 while assisting a stranded motorist.Many knew Mike as the Co-founder and Executive Director of American Climate Partners (ACP), a charitable organization working since 2006 "to design, create, and manage projects, programs, and businesses which help rural America become more resilient in the face of climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution, and disease,”  according to its website.Mike was an idea man known for his energy, vision and commitment to the environmental causes he championed. He was also on the ground doing the day-to-day hard work of cleaning rivers, improving soil health, and restoring habitats throughout…

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Happy Anniversary to Us!

Celebrating 50 years of memories and milestones. To real estate developer Gilbert Edwards, farm life offered a wonderful way of life, but impractical for him to try to manage on his own.  He gave up on his yearning to live on a farm, but couldn’t stop thinking about others who, like him, desired a country life without the sole responsibility of managing a large working farm.  Out of that thinking came the concept of Farmcolony, a master-planned housing community with a working farm as its focus rather than the traditional amenities typically found in residential developments like a golf course or swimming pool or tennis courts.Edwards was ahead of his time in real estate development. With the steady decline in the number of acres being used for farming each…

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Should the Horse Boarding Amenity Go or Remain

Should the horse boarding amenity go or remain? That is the question. The horse boarding facilities at Farmcolony “are not safe for horses or humans,” according to Farmcolony Vice President Becky Lorenzo who raised her concerns over the safety of our horse boarding facilities in a January Board meeting.  She is speaking from experience with 30+ years owning and managing boarding facilities. In response, the Board of Directors formed an ad hoc committee to review current conditions in our animal boarding facilities and to make recommendations to the Board on any necessary improvements. Will Farmcolony continue to offer a horse boarding amenity or will that long-held amenity be removed?  If the horse boarding amenity is to remain, how do we ensure minimum safety standards in the horse boarding facilities? …

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How to Get Along in an HOA

A Guide to Peaceful Living Homeowners’ Associations are notorious breeding grounds for hostility and disagreement.  Comedians make jokes about it.  Advice columnists offer tips on how to manage it.  Lawyers make big bucks trying to resolve it.  Why are HOAs so ripe for conflict and adversity?  Simply put, HOAs are made up of people and people sometimes have a hard time getting along, and the larger the group or the more diverse the worldviews, the harder it can be.  As community consultant Diana Leafe Christian reports in her book on communities, Creating a Life Together, 90 percent of intentional communities fail—in large part because of conflict.  An intentional community is a group of people, like us, who have chosen to share resources, in our case, a farm.  As a community…

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Eenie, Meany and Mighty

Three New Chickens Join the Coop Meet Eenie, Meanie and Mighty Three new chickens have joined the Farmcolony Chicken Coop.  Meet Eenie, Meanie and Mighty, Mighty because she is mighty hard headed.  You’ve heard of the strong-willed child.  Well, Mighty is the strong-willed chicken.  When the time would come to put the hens into the chicken truck to roost for the night, Eenie and Meany happily complied by walking up the ramp and into the chicken truck to settle in for the night.  Not Mighty!  Committee members would have to chase Mighty around the truck a few times until they could pen her, grab her and push her through the door of the truck.  We all love our strong-willed children.Eenie, Meanie and Mighty are known as Red Stars, a…

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It’s Time to Treat Stiltgrass

Stiltgrass A pernicious, non-native, invasive plant that is spreading like wildfire across our landscape. It’s time to treat stiltgrass, a pernicious, non-native, invasive plant that is spreading like wildfire across our landscape.  Vigorous patches of this invasive plant have been spotted growing along our roadsides, particularly along Farmview Road, creeping into our yards and lawns where it displaces desirable lawn grasses, and spreading into surrounding forests where it overwhelms and destroys biodiversity and natural habitat for animals, birds, and insects.Non-native plants become invasive when they put out huge amounts of seeds or send out large root networks and are hard to contain, usually because there are no natural controls like insects or disease.  Non-native plant species, like stiltgrass, are a leading cause of declines in native plant and animal…

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Farewell to Pickles!

Farewell, Pickles Live Long and Prosper! https://youtu.be/cpQgYpbNf3Y Farmcolony bids farewell to Pickles, a most delightful duck that members of the chicken committee came to know and love as they cared for her in the chicken coop.  Why is there a duck living in the chicken coop, you might wonder?  Two ducks came to live in the chicken coop several years ago with a group of chickens given to the farm through a private donation.  These two ducks had always lived with chickens and the chicken committee continued to care for the ducks as well as they could by building them a swimming pool and providing sleeping accommodations for them inside the coop.  The ducks in turn rewarded the chicken committee members with their utter cuteness as they waddled through…

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