Hamer Hall
Donation protected
Hamer Hall will be a multicultural cooking and communion space that will also serves as a community for artists, a classroom for homeschool groups and a safe space for nerds.
Hi, I'm Joseph Watts. I have a small goat farm outside of Rome, Georgia, and every time I sell a goat, it doesn't matter if the customer is from Nepal or Zimbabwe, Central America or Eastern Europe, the new friend always tells me that if I had a place where they could prepare, cook and eat with their friends and family, the hall would never be empty.
So now I am accepting the challenge and taking it a step further. Instead of just using it for goat barbecues, I also plan on hosting homeschool groups and providing them a foundation for a hands-on education in biology, ecology and husbandry. Instead of just being used once a month for ethnic feasts, I'll also host weekly nights of nerd-dom to connect the introverts of the area. Instead of building this just to help my family become more self-sufficient, we will also build a community of artists and hermits, helping them to achieve their own sustainability.
As for the funds we are trying to raise, they will all be going towards materials because our family is a family of carpenters and handymen. We constructed the farm's goat barn, chicken coup and green house. For this project, we secured a discount on material from Mathis Builders Hardware in Rome and expert electrician oversight from a retired family friend. We already live by making the most of little and this project will be no different.
As a thank you, everyone, everyone who contributes will be recognized in one way or another; we cant decide between carving the names into the columns or maybe the dining table. As for a tier level reward system, we don't have enough goats for everyone but if you make a large donation and want to visit, we'll plan a date for you to join us for a feast. If you live locally, you'll be at the top of the list for when friends want to use the hall for birthday parties and cook-outs.
More about our homestead: We have a small, 25 head, goat farm with laying hens and free range turkeys. Our herd in primarily Kiko/Nubian for milk and meat. We make cheese from time to time but right now, all the milk is being bottle-fed back to the babies. We have bees and make small batches of honey-wine that let us call this project a mead hall. We had* bees, 5 hives. Unfortunately, we lost them all over the last year but this was just an opportunity to clean and repaint our hives so we'll be ready for new swarms next spring. Our strawberry patch is growing, the muscadines are spreading and it turns out goats don't eat watermelon vines.
More about the Hall: Hamer Hall will be a one room dinning experience, with a single long table, a kitchen on a raised platform, and a den for sharing stories and staying out of the way. To mark this hall, the foundation will be set upon beautiful granite and quartz boulders I saved from the reconstruction of a local antebellum home. The grand dinning table will be a tree we already pulled from the local woods and hanging in the rafters will be a book of flags, representing the home of every cook to grace the kitchen. The dinning hall will be set against the 16 foot tall east wall, creating a cathedral ceiling over the feast but also providing the ideal wall for a projector and all those possibilities. The west wall, all of 6 feet tall, will created the coziness of the den and empty into the the courtyard, lit by an old lamppost stamped with "Rome, Ga 1874" and shaded by a Crimean cherry tree.
More about our future: The next step is pigs, then a bigger greenhouse, then hops for better chicken and goat digestion but also for brewing beer. Eventually we want a mini-cow for milk to make hard cheeses and then a smoke house, both hot and cold, to smoke those cheeses and all sorts of meats. However, what defines our future is the community of artist and hermits we want to build around the mead hall. Once we have the mead hall built we will begin hosting individuals, first in campers but eventually in tiny homes, teaching them sustainability and providing a space for them to practice their art. This community of hermits is what lends its name to our homestead, First Shell Farms.
Find us on Facebook @FirstShellFarms
Thank you.
And thank you again.
Hi, I'm Joseph Watts. I have a small goat farm outside of Rome, Georgia, and every time I sell a goat, it doesn't matter if the customer is from Nepal or Zimbabwe, Central America or Eastern Europe, the new friend always tells me that if I had a place where they could prepare, cook and eat with their friends and family, the hall would never be empty.
So now I am accepting the challenge and taking it a step further. Instead of just using it for goat barbecues, I also plan on hosting homeschool groups and providing them a foundation for a hands-on education in biology, ecology and husbandry. Instead of just being used once a month for ethnic feasts, I'll also host weekly nights of nerd-dom to connect the introverts of the area. Instead of building this just to help my family become more self-sufficient, we will also build a community of artists and hermits, helping them to achieve their own sustainability.
As for the funds we are trying to raise, they will all be going towards materials because our family is a family of carpenters and handymen. We constructed the farm's goat barn, chicken coup and green house. For this project, we secured a discount on material from Mathis Builders Hardware in Rome and expert electrician oversight from a retired family friend. We already live by making the most of little and this project will be no different.
As a thank you, everyone, everyone who contributes will be recognized in one way or another; we cant decide between carving the names into the columns or maybe the dining table. As for a tier level reward system, we don't have enough goats for everyone but if you make a large donation and want to visit, we'll plan a date for you to join us for a feast. If you live locally, you'll be at the top of the list for when friends want to use the hall for birthday parties and cook-outs.
More about our homestead: We have a small, 25 head, goat farm with laying hens and free range turkeys. Our herd in primarily Kiko/Nubian for milk and meat. We make cheese from time to time but right now, all the milk is being bottle-fed back to the babies. We have bees and make small batches of honey-wine that let us call this project a mead hall. We had* bees, 5 hives. Unfortunately, we lost them all over the last year but this was just an opportunity to clean and repaint our hives so we'll be ready for new swarms next spring. Our strawberry patch is growing, the muscadines are spreading and it turns out goats don't eat watermelon vines.
More about the Hall: Hamer Hall will be a one room dinning experience, with a single long table, a kitchen on a raised platform, and a den for sharing stories and staying out of the way. To mark this hall, the foundation will be set upon beautiful granite and quartz boulders I saved from the reconstruction of a local antebellum home. The grand dinning table will be a tree we already pulled from the local woods and hanging in the rafters will be a book of flags, representing the home of every cook to grace the kitchen. The dinning hall will be set against the 16 foot tall east wall, creating a cathedral ceiling over the feast but also providing the ideal wall for a projector and all those possibilities. The west wall, all of 6 feet tall, will created the coziness of the den and empty into the the courtyard, lit by an old lamppost stamped with "Rome, Ga 1874" and shaded by a Crimean cherry tree.
More about our future: The next step is pigs, then a bigger greenhouse, then hops for better chicken and goat digestion but also for brewing beer. Eventually we want a mini-cow for milk to make hard cheeses and then a smoke house, both hot and cold, to smoke those cheeses and all sorts of meats. However, what defines our future is the community of artist and hermits we want to build around the mead hall. Once we have the mead hall built we will begin hosting individuals, first in campers but eventually in tiny homes, teaching them sustainability and providing a space for them to practice their art. This community of hermits is what lends its name to our homestead, First Shell Farms.
Find us on Facebook @FirstShellFarms
Thank you.
And thank you again.
Organizer
Joseph Watts
Organizer
Rome, GA