neckdown

Dog Days of Summer

August 31, 2021

The long, hot, busy summer on the Rural Studio Farm is finally starting to wind down toward autumn.

A student uses an oscillating hoe to weed between rows of pinkeye purple hull peas

With several of our recent graduates once again spending their summers here in Hale County, we have been experimenting with the timing and varieties for multiple crop cycles of summer favorites: tomatoes, squash, eggplant, sweet corn, and cherry tomatoes. The Sun Gold cherry tomatoes have been the biggest hit of the summer!

A female student harvest ripe Asian eggplant

A view of green looseleaf lettuce growing in a greenhouse bed

We’ve been able to provide fresh produce for those students working over the summer (with extra to be preserved for the future) and still have some fresh for the students whose semester has just begun. We have also harvested mountains of pinkeye purple hull peas, garlic, onions, zucchini, peppers, melons, butternut squash, and many leafy brassicas.

Students arrange and process garlic heads

This summer we added sweet corn and sweet potatoes to the crop rotation (more on these in future posts). The fresh sweet corn was a big success with two crops of fresh juicy corn. The sweet potatoes have also proven to be a great choice because we have been growing them in the greenhouse where few other crops are able to thrive during the long hot summers. They have performed so well that there is no longer any room to walk!

A long shot of the sea of sweet potato vines that has blanketed the inside of the greenhouse in palmate leaves

A close-up of an orange African marigold flower

Tags: eggplants, garlic, neckdown, rsfarm, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, watermelon

Fall 2021 Neckdown Week

August 31, 2021

three young people stand together smiling wearing hard hats and harneses

This semester, Neckdown Week was as productive as ever, with the sun shining on us all week long. Neckdown is a studio tradition, during which all students and faculty work together to mend, clean up, or push forward our past and current projects. This time around we worked on student projects in Newbern and sent teams all the way out to Perry Lakes Park in Marion, AL.

At Perry Lakes Park, we cleaned up debris from a big storm that hit the park last year. We also worked on the plumbing for the bathrooms, which included a lot of digging. And we mean A LOT. Up on the Perry Lakes Birding Tower, we finally completed our objective of replacing all the rotten boards that we began removing during Neckdown last year! We hope all of you will be able to come visit the beautiful park as soon as it reopens in the very near future.

six young people stand in mud holding shovels — Students who helped dig to find the water line at Perry Lakes

a woman smiling in an orange shirt and a man wearing a blue face mask stand in a big muddle hole — Students who helped dig to find the water line at Perry Lakes

a man and a woman in protective harnesses and hard hats look at a hand railing — Installing the final new boards on the Birding Tower

a scene of a walkway ending at lake, with two people sitting down and looking at the lake — Installing the final new boards on the Birding Tower

Back in good ole Newbern, teams of helpers working a several maintenance projects at our headquarters at Morrisette House. A few teams also worked alongside Eric at the Rural Studio Farm constructing raised garden beds. These beds, made from concrete blocks, are very time consuming to build correctly, and our helpers worked hard in the sun to make them look good and function well! We’d also like to give a shoutout and a big thank you to all of the Auburn University Landscape Architecture students and faculty who came out to Hale County to help us nourish Rural Studio’s outdoor spaces. The AULA cohort not only helped out at the Farm and Morrisette property, but they also worked in our courtyards in downtown Newbern and at Lion’s Park in Greensboro. Our plants and ground surfaces would not be as happy as they have been lately without you all. Thank you!

looking down from above, a pair of feet in work boots next to an angle of concrete blocks — Close-up of the new garden beds construction

a big plot of dirt with four raised concrete block farm beds and some bright yellow strings framing the beds — Close-up of the new garden beds construction

Our recent graduates also took advantage of a few Neckdown helpers this week to make some progress finishing up their projects! With assistance from new 3rd and 5th-year’s capable hands, our three “leftover” teams accomplished a huge amount of work! The Thermal Mass & Buoyancy Ventilation Research Project team constructed two sets of stairs that lead down into their cooling porch. They also worked on installing battens on the exterior of their Research Pods!

The Myers’ Home team installed tongue-and-groove cypress boards on their interior core walls, and they worked with their helpers to nail their exterior flashing in place. Siding is coming up next for these folks. At Rev. Walker’s Home site, the team completed a massive amount of earth work in order to prep their site for its final grading. This process also included creating an outdoor gravel patio for their client to create a smooth transition from concrete slab to the adjacent ground surface.

Thank you to all the students, staff, and faculty that made all of this work possible this week!

a woman wearing jeans and a white shirt uses a long hand-tamping tool on gravel — Tamping stairs under TMBV Test Building

three stairs lead down from a grassy yard into a concrete and gravel outdoor patio — Tamping stairs under TMBV Test Building

a woman in a red shirt and shorts measures the length between two tall 2x4 studs — Measuring the length of tongue-and-groove panels for Myers’ Home

a female student on a ladder applies flashing — Measuring the length of tongue-and-groove panels for Myers’ Home

a man and a woman look at each other while holding construction tools in a wooden-framed ground surface — New “patio” construction at Rev. Walker’s Home

a view of a woman standing far away in a large gravel-filled length of yard — New “patio” construction at Rev. Walker’s Home

Tags: Auburn University Rural Studio, auburnlandscapearchitecture, auburnuniversity, morrisettehouse, myershome, neckdown, neckdownweek, perrylakespark, revwalkershome, ruralstudio, ruralstudiofarm, tmbv

Week 1: All Hands on Deck!

January 25, 2021

Group of students eats lunch — 3rd-Years enjoying lunch on the Great Hall!

Neck-Down Week

The 2021 Spring Semester 3rd-Year’s Rural Studio experience began with Neck-down Week. Neck-down Week is a tradition where Rural Studio students and faculty mend, clean, or maintain local parks, past and ongoing projects, and Morrisette Campus. Neck-Down is a week that requires less brain and more brawn. This week, the 3rd-year group painted, dug holes, completed farm work, laid bricks and much, much more. Neck-down is a great way to be introduced to the spirit of Rural Studio and the tradition of hard work ingrained in the Auburn University Creed.

Student paints ceiling — Drew Haley painting the ceiling of the pod bathrooms.

Student digging hole — Drew Haley painting the ceiling of the pod bathrooms.

Welcome to our Studio

Spencer House is where most of the 3rd-Year students live. It also serves as the 3rd-Year Studio, dining hall, and hangout space. Spencer is where all of the design magic happens. During this first week, the 3rd-years divided themselves into three design teams: The Interiors team, Enclosures Team, and “MEP” (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) Team. Each team has its own studio room in Spencer House. Here’s the team breakdown:

Interiors team – Drew Haley, Austin, and Sadie

Enclosures team – Logan, Juyeon, and Ashley

Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing team – Wendy, Kirby, and James