The community group working to conserve Thimble Farm as perpetual farmland was granted a reprieve this week when the owner of the land renewed a one-year lease with current tenant Whippoorwill Farm.
Land owner Eric Grubman said yesterday the deal with Whippoorwill Farm owner Andrew Woodruff was a placeholder to ensure the land stayed active while organizers behind the Vineyard Farm Project, the coalition of farmers and conservationists seeking to preserve the land, crafted a plan.
Welcome Kauâ
Marli Duarte and Anche Duarte of West Tisbury announce the birth of a son, Kauâ Luiz Batista Macena, born on Jan. 13 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Kaua weighed 8 pounds, 3.5 ounces at birth.
The gibbous moon dominates our evening sky this weekend. Every night it increases in brightness, as more and more of the moon is lit by the sun. Full moon is when the whole side of the moon facing us is lit.
The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources has awarded Island Grown Schools $12,000 in grant money. The grant is part of a larger $200,000 awards program doled out to seven “buy local” organizations across the commonwealth, and will be used to support Island Grown Schools’ efforts to bring more fresh, healthy and locally produced foods to school cafeterias.
The commercial oyster season is underway, and the early reports from the Tisbury Great Pond in West Tisbury and Chilmark are good. Oyster fishermen in those towns are getting their daily limit, although the off-Island market is soft.
The retail price on Island fluctuates; this week wild oysters were selling for 50 cents apiece.
After nearly an hour of contentious and sometimes emotional debate, West Tisbury selectmen voted Wednesday to banish two dogs from the Island that killed more than a dozen chickens and geese in the past several months.
The selectmen decided against euthanizing the Akitas and will instead craft an agreement that will keep the dogs permanently off the Vineyard. The vote was two to one with selectman and chairman of the board Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter 3rd casting the dissenting vote.
JUNE D. MANNING
508-645-2574
(lthslnks@gis.net)
Saint Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Chilmark Chocolates opened yesterday for the next three weekends and then will close until just before Easter. While in Chilmark, Lisa Bibko Vanderhoop has a variety of Valentine cards and her 2012 Seadogs Calendar at the Sovereign Bank at Beetlebung Corner from Feb. 6 to 14.
JANE N. SLATER
508-645-3378
(slaterjn@comcast.net)
Chilmark continues to enjoy the mild winter weather. There is some unusual activity in the natural world — geese are making lots of noise in the mornings, the songbirds are loudly making themselves heard, lots of spring flowers are well above ground already, and there is some restlessness noticeable in humankind as well! What does it all foretell?
JOHN S. ALLEY
508-693-2950
(alleys@vineyard.net)
We continue to have a mild winter with January finishing with above average temperatures most of the month. We have had one snowfall of about six inches, a few bitterly cold days, and that has been it so far. The ground is not frozen, so if we make it through this month it will be all downhill from there.
