On April 27 iFarm will be hosting a workshop for homeowners to learn about energy-saving renovations (that’s this Saturday, folks!) A working farm with lovingly restored buildings, iFarm combines 19th-century knowledge with 21st-century innovation to create a model for sustainability in agriculture. With the effects of manmade climate change now apparent, it is more important than…
Since 2009, the iFarm in Boxford, Massachusetts has been keeping crews from PTF busy. Christine Barensfeld, the owner of the farm, has collaborated with PTF to restore the farm which consistently operated from 1750 – 1932. Chris purchased the farm in 2009 a midst the threat of developers who would have purchased the property and…
Over the past year, part of our crew has been busy repairing a barn at I-Farm, a multi-building complex soon to become a working farm that teaches early farm technology and sustainable agricultural practices. Around the turn of the century, the barn that had been there previously, a hand-hewn English frame (eave entry) was converted…
There exists in wood a quality so satisfying that the proper use of it in the structural features of a house produces an effect of completeness which does away with the need of elaborate furnishings or decoration. – Gustav Stickley, The Craftsman, July 1905 Every now and then, I encounter a windbag who wants…
Arbor Day is everyday down at iFarm this spring. Brian and Shawn have been building an arbor that will support fruiting vines, like arctic kiwi, on this permaculture farm. Serpentine in layout, the arbor is constructed from black locust saplings with simple half-lap joinery on full-round material. Black locust is a choice species for use…
On Wednesday, the crew down at iFarm raised a new timber-framed kitchen ell. The modified English frame is based closely on joinery found in the late-18th century house. We based the size and location of the addition on evidence found in the house frame of an original, and now demolished, ell. Like the house frame,…
Many of our clients are stewards of their historic homes. Others just happen to inhabit an old house. Almost all are entrusting our crew with their most valuable and precious possession. PTF replaces sills and dismantles entire walls. We plane pine panelling by hand, and design reproduction fireplace surrounds. We install historically-sensitive energy upgrades and convert churches into…
Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an article about I-Farm and Chris Barensfeld’s efforts to restore it. Online, the story was accompanied by a video and slideshow. From the article: For years, Christine Barensfeld dreamed about fixing up and living in a property down the street from her home: a historic white barn, carriage…