End of Summer Harvest Celebration

August 15, 2021.

Today was a great day. Our internship came to an end and school began. Most interns were excited for the new school year as Adam is a senior in high school, Kayleena starts is a freshman in college at UNM, and Santiago is a freshman in college in Portales, NM. It was a Sunday afternoon, and the weather was perfect. Every summer we have a party for the interns who participated in the Garden Project. This year due to COVID-19, it was much smaller. Only people who really got to know the interns and the garden were invited. Overall there were 28 people who came to celebrate and enjoy the fruits of the interns labor. We had lots of food including, sandwiches, fresh green chili dip, veggie cups, fresh mint tea and fruit! Everything tasted amazing, especially the tea. When 3 O’clock came the party started. The interns’ family came one by one. I was so excited to see so much support from the families, staff and friends. The interns were able to show the garden to their families and it really made me smile watching them be so excited to share their experience. While some guests received a tour of the house, others connected and discussed topics about their work, family, and children. Each intern received a gift from the museum as a parting and thank you gift. The ladies received a bracelet while the boys got gift cards. I enjoyed connecting with their families and telling them how much I enjoyed having their children for the project this summer. Although many people were not able to be with us, we all had a great time. This experience made everything more intimate and personal.

Every intern was unique and amazing. I am glad I was able to connect with them and really get to know the person behind the name. Kayleena: So smart and very respectful. She was the chatter box of the group but she made sure everyone felt comfortable. Adam: Very funny and has many hopes and dreams. Strong willed. Santiago: Peaceful and always ready for the next adventure. Hard working and caring. Oliver: Motivated and passionate about engineering and art. Very talented and wise at such a young age. Josephine: Really broke through her shell and tried new things and made new friends. Loves reading and if she could she would do it all day. Shyanne: Eager, very knowledgeable and never second guesses her self. Nevaeh: Team player, never questions and very easy going.

This summer was to learn about O’Keeffe and gardening, but in the end we gained so much more. We gained friendships and memories that will last a lifetime. It saddens me to see them go but I know that they are all hard workers and great people to be around. I know because of this experience they have bettered their future and will continue to go after every opportunities. I am especially proud of them for finally coming out of their comfort zone and seeing the endless possibilities life has to offer.

Nothing could have been possible without the help from the O’Keeffe Museum Staff. A special THANK YOU to everyone who participated and made this summer possible.

-Rique Fernandez

An Early Farewell

Josephine Dominguez

Today I was running a little late and when I arrived I discovered we were weeding the berry patch; our biggest project yet. As we began weeding the berry patch we discovered that this was no walk in the park. It took a few hours and several giant piles of weeds before we could see the berry bushes. After throwing the weeds and apples that fell the following week, we moved on to weeding the bean plants. Tons of clovers had infested the bean plant rows. After that we took a break and did some team building exercises. We used some icebreakers that we played at the very beginning of the summer. Once our break had ended we realized there was still about two hours until lunch so we decided to weed the walkways a little. As lunch approached we began watering the top half of the garden. Today’s lunch was a little different than usual because we were saying goodbye to some of the interns for the summer. We decided to have a little barbeque with some harvested vegetables from the garden. It was a little going away gift that the members here at the Georgia O’Keeffe museum put together. It was really nice of them to do that for us. It’s kind of sad that today was our last day all together but it was so much fun being here and it was a wonderful experience. I’m so glad I took this job here. It was so fun meeting new people and forming new bonds. Thanks so much for a wonderful summer.

A Good Harvest

Cherry Tomatoes

Big Jim Chilies

Harvesting Blackberries

Santiago Chacon

As the morning started, we right away knew that we were going to be doing a lot today. Because I was worried about traffic delays, I ended up coming a bit earlier than expected and as a result, I started dragging the fallen and rotted apples into piles to pick up and throw later. Slowly, but surely, more of the interns started showing up. Once everyone had arrived, it was time to start working on the bulk of what needed to be done. We started by piling the apples while the other group was on bug patrol. When the others were getting bugs, they noticed that there was a lot more bugs and eggs than usual. After that, both groups worked on weeding all around the garden. Around this time, Kayleena and I volunteered to clean up the apricots that had fallen. After all of this, we took a small break. Then came time for cultivating. Everyone was working together at various parts of the garden and so we were able to cultivate everything rather quickly, leaving us with time to harvest some tomatoes, chilies, and blackberries. By the time we were ready for lunch, we were all impressed by the work we had already accomplished thus far. For the rest of the day, we worked on some more weeding, harvesting, and the usual watering of the garden. Since we are nearing the end of this summer season, it is nice to look at all the work we have done throughout the summer. Seeing that some of the plants that we planted as seeds already grown almost to the point of being ready for harvest always fills me with a sense of pride and joy. Even though we don’t have much left to do here, I am still looking forward to every single second of it.

Extremely Productive Morning

Olivia Gillette

Today was an interesting and productive day at the O’ Keeffe garden.  We began the morning by raking up all the apples that had fallen the previous week in to small piles, and pulling all the bugs off the zucchini plants for bug duty. This was actually my first on bug duty and I can say with full certainty that it is my least favorite job. Afterwards we set about doing the real work. We started off by weeding around the dying peas that we would, later in the day, be pulling out to replant. Next we weeded the chives, lettuce, corn, and ended at about 10am with the chilies’. I must say, we worked like a well oil gears today, I was very impressed with us. During all the morning weeding, the volunteer we were expecting today come in and got to work weeding the herbs almost immediately. During our break we all got the chance to talk to her. She told us how she had worked for Time magazine, where she was the head of VR experiences. She told us it was something she was interested in for a long time and was the reason she was given the position. She actually won an Emmy for a VR experience of the climb to the top of Mount Everest and was nominated for another one recently. She told us that she quit her job last September to travel around the country trying new things and volunteering at a lot of different places. She asked us about what we wanted to do and what we were scared of doing.  After our very interesting break we started on harvesting the apples, apricots and black berries. We wound up harvesting a whole lot of apricots and apples, but only a hand full or two of black berries. After that we went about cleaning all the rotten apples we had raked up and put them in a truck to be sent to the dump. We ended the eventful day by weeding the stone pathways and watering the whole garden. I think that overall it was a very productive day. By the end the whole garden looked clean and polished.

Teamwork on the Chile

Weeding the Ditch and Pathway

A Bear-y Eventful Day

Adam Archuleta

Today was a great day for me and my coworkers because we got a lot done. We started out by picking up all the rotting fruits that had fallen off the tree throughout the week. There had to have been over a hundred pound of apples on the ground. It took our entire group to get them all packed out in such little time. Then we began harvesting the fruits on the tree and with some visitors from east coast. After they had gone we picked up some more fruits for ourselves and the food banks. There were tons of apples ad apricots to collect this week. We looked for bugs on our plants, and did some weeding. Weeding was super difficult because it had rained a lot last night so it was super muddy today. After our weeding we took a small break to rehydrate and started back up with some replanting. This included more carrots, onions, lettuce, beets and radishes. It was also a good day because we got to see a bear. He was very quickly scared away by all the people and ran away. I figure it was because of all the fresh fruit in the garden. It was an interesting experience being able to see a bear up close like that.  It was definitely a learning experience where we learned what to do in case there is another situation like that. They aren’t as scary as people make them out to be. It turns out their more scared of you than you are of them. After it was gone we all talked about what had happened and our reactions. Turns out Shyanne got it on video! After we finished up the weeding we were already doing and got everything cleaned up. It was a very eventful day.

The Black bear

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A Hard Days Work

July 8th 2021

Rique Fernandez

               Today was a great day for myself and the interns. Early in the morning we were all tired and exhausted from the day before. Some of the interns were getting snarky. Shhh don’t tell them I said. I figured we better pair up and get started. I believe working in an outdoor environment is very therapeutic and relaxing. I paired up Kayleena, Santiago, and Shyanne my next team up was Adam, Nevaeh, and I. My team began to look for the pests of the garden while the other team picked up the fallen apples. Although there are still squash bugs and bean beetles, I am shocked to see that there are very few this summer. I am not too sure if this has to do with the rain we have been getting, the fact that we have gotten the main ones right away, or it is just too soon to tell. You would think after 4 years of working in the garden that I would be totally unfazed by these bugs. But even though, when that squash bug’s legs touched my fingers I shrieked and lost the bug I was supposed to be holding hostage.

After both teams finished their small tasks, I decided that we should all work together to put new garden soil and cultivate it back into the garden. As I mentioned above, we have been getting a tremendous amount of rain. The rain and cool weather have been amazing for our chile plants! But of course, there is always a downside. We are very cautious when it comes to working in the rain. As soon as it starts thundering and lightening, we call it quits for the day. We decided to put some extra fertilizer into our plants because the rain will typically wash all the nutrients away.

Because of our trip to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe last week, the garden was starting to be overrun by weeds. We quickly worked together to make the garden look good before the first tour of the day. We weeded the main areas of the garden such as the squash and the tomatoes. By 10 am the sun was quickly beating on us so we took a 15 minute break. After our break I was very excited because it was finally time to harvest the fruit. We donated 140 lbs of fruit to the Santa Fe Food Bank. It feels really good that all this fruit can be put to good use. Today we were treated for lunch and all had hamburgers from the Abiquiu Inn. Dale from the Museum came and discussed his work with us and gave us a little history lesson on the house! It was amazing to see the pictures and what they looked like back then.

Santiago, Josephine, Shyanne & Adam

A Trip to Santa Fe

Left to Right: Santiago, Adam, Rique, Oliver, Shyanne, Kayleena, Nevaeh

Start of the Tour

Enjoying the New Exhibit

Admiring the Art

Kayleena Archuleta

Yesterday we had a pretty exciting day. We went to the museum in Santa Fe to meet the staff and to show the others the art work that Georgia O’Keeffe used to do.  It was a way of branching out and learning more about the importance of the garden. Our day started at the house here in Abiquiu where all of us met. Then we started our drive to the museum together. When we all found parking we walked into the galleries. Since it was so early in the morning, we were the first group there. We had the whole place to ourselves. Our tour guide was Grace Almanza. She started the tour with some introductions and then she walked us through the exhibits. My favorite piece was the earliest painting in the building. It was an untitled watercolor that was captioned “flower in vase”. After the tour we met with the museum’s head of conservation, Dale Kronkright. He brought us down into his work area where he gave us a demonstration on his work in restoration and art conservation. There was a lot more science involved than I had originally thought. He was extremely thorough with his explanations and everything he did down there had a purpose.

After his demonstration we were taken into the library where we talked with Elisabeth Ehrnst the head of research collections, Tori Duggan the research collections and services associate, and Ashley Baranyk who is the archivist. They spoke to us about the research they do for both the general public and for the museum. We were able to see a few of the archived belongings that O’Keeffe had owned. After speaking with them we went outside to eat lunch with everyone we had met that day. This included Cody Hartley the museum director, Jennifer Foley the deputy director, and Sylvia LaRocque the HR director. We were able to enjoy each other’s company over pizza for the afternoon. At about one we said our goodbyes and took a quick stop at the gift shop. At one thirty we all went our separate ways and headed home.

Overall it was a great experience to be back at the museum. This was my second visit to the museum and I was surprised to see the new exhibits and some gone. I enjoyed going back and am glad the other interns had the experience of not only meeting important staff who makes the museum run but also the experience of art and literature. This was a great way for all of us to connect with each other. This field trip helped us to see Georgia O’Keeffe’s life and understand her art work a little more.

Rainy Day

Oliver and Santiago Harvesting Apricots

Shyanne and Nevaeh Harvesting Currents

Watering the Beans

Shyanne Garcia

As we arrived to Georgia O’Keeffe’s garden today we began with bringing out the snacks and the tools that we would use while working on the garden. When we finished setting up we got straight to weeding the chives and the berry patch. After completing this task, we took a short break to hydrate. We continued to weed but this time around the currents and the mint. This was difficult because there were many vines within these plants. Team #2 worked on cultivating the squash, corn, and beans. Not long after weeding the mint and finishing cultivating, we took our lunch break. Around this time we began to notice that it was getting cloudy and looked as if it was going to rain. We knew we needed to get to work before the rain caught us. We quickly harvested currents and apricots. As soon as we finished this task a thunder storm began so we quickly cleaned up for the day. We threw out the weeds we had piled up and put away the garden tools. Today was much better then past days because it was not too hot or too cold. I’m hoping next week we will have similar weather.

A Chill Day

Game Face

A friendly game of Hangman

Watering the Beans/ Corn

Early Morning Weeding

Santiago Chacon

As we started gathering what we needed in the morning, we could tell that it was going to be a hot day. After we got all the tools and snacks for the day, we got to work. My group was working on cultivating. Since we were cultivating with smaller mounds, we had to work in between the mounds instead of on top of them. We finished this task rather quickly, so we were able to help out the other group with weeding in and around the pathway. All together, we worked in taking out weeds in different places in the garden, but mostly sticking to the places that we normally walk through.

After a while, we took a small break and when we came back, we had found that it had gotten really hot under the sunlight. Because of this, we then found a place by one of the apple trees where we could weed under so that way we could work while also being in the shade.

As soon as lunch came around, we were ready to take a break. Luckily for us, we were treated to some cold ice cream. Then we went back and finished any other weeding that we needed to do. Once we were done with that, we took the afternoon easy with some sun tea to drink, hangman, and Pictionary to play. One of us would occasionally go to move the hose to bring water to the plants. This was a moment where we could all hang out together and was a nice way for us to get to know each other a bit more.

All in all, today was another day of hard work made easier by the fact that we were doing the work together. At this point, we are already getting the hang of tasks like weeding, so I can’t wait to continue this work while also trying out new things.

Team work

Creating mounds

Planting lettuce

Team work on spinach

June 10, 2021

Nevaeh Gallegos

Hi my name is Nevaeh Gallegos, I will be giving you an inside scoop on what we did today. In the morning we started off with an icebreaker. I got to partner up with Kayleena and learn about her and her interests. At around 8am we started to weed the chives and berries. As we were working a tour came to look at the house and take pictures of the garden. Then we took a small break to rehydrate and get a snack. We then continued to weed some more and started with the corn. After that we worked as a group to plant beans, radishes, lettuce, kale, carrots, and spinach. We were all alternating to build mounds, make holes, and plant the seeds. While doing this I learned more about my companions and how to build mounds. At 12pm we came together to have our lunch break and enjoy each other’s company. Afterwards we gathered all our weeds together into a big pile so we could load them up. We then watered the plants we planted along with a few that were transplanted. Our day finished by loading all the weeds into a truck and cleaning up the snack table. I really enjoyed my first day at the garden. I made new friends and learned more gardening techniques.